For more than a decade, we’ve been getting somber Pentagon emails telling us the name, hometown and age of every U.S. troop …
Weapons
“Ages in which the dominant weapon is expensive or difficult to make will tend to be ages of despotism, whereas when the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people have a chance. Thus, for example, tanks, battleships and bombing planes are inherently tyrannical weapons, while rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon--so long as there is no answer to it--gives claws to the weak.”
— George Orwell, 1945
Coming Up Empty-Handed from Davy Jones’ Locker
Last month we noted the efforts of the Navy to come to the Air Force’s aid by diving 18,558 feet deep into the Pacific, off the Japanese coast, for bits of wreckage from a doomed F-16 (the pilot parachuted to safety).
Alas, …
The Loren Ranger
Loren B. Thompson of the Lexington Institute didn’t much care for our F-35 story last week. On his Early Warning blog, he calls it a “misleading” and “sloppy” story that left out all the positive news about the $396 …
Kinder, Gentler War
In the Pentagon’s continuing quest to destroy without hurting, Boeing announced this week that its CHAMP microwave-burst weapon successfully rendered electronic targets useless without wounding anyone.
“We turned science …
Night Time on the Flight Line
Sky King
Retired Air Force lieutenant colonel Dan Hampton flew nearly 4,000 hours – including 726 in combat – in an F-16 during his 20 years in the Air Force. (Battleland has flown about, um, one, including none in combat. Final brave …
War Birds
A Marine UH-1 Venom utility helicopter and an AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter fly over Helmand province on Oct. 17.
Empire of the Sunset
Return Fire on the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship
Last week on Time’s Battleland blog there was a piece by Mr. John Sayen entitled The Navy’s New Class of Warships: Big Bucks, Little Bang.
Obviously, Mr. Sayen is not a fan of the Littoral Combat Ship. And that’s OK. We …
“The results of an American or Israeli military strike on Iran could, in my view, prove catastrophic, haunting us for generations in that part of the world.”
Half-a-Billion On the Wing
Carrier Wars
U.S. aircraft carriers are a big roll of the dice. The U.S. Navy has begun building the Ford class of carriers, which are going to end up costing $15 billion each once they’re outfitted with the warplanes that are the reason …
