BattlelandNational Security
It was only two weeks ago that the Obama Administration scrapped a plan to build a “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexican border to keep illegal immigrants out. The program — under development by Boeing and slated to cost $7 billion — was designed to harness video cameras and other sensors to deter border crossings. The Department of …
BattlelandNational Security
We keep hearing about how “green” the U.S. military is getting — solar panels, bio-fuels, all that tree-hugger stuff — but the latest news is something even 1960s’ peaceniks could love: the Air Force is sending tons of practice bombs through a car-crushing machine at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, shredding them into valuable scrap …
BattlelandNational Security
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh0HKS0deFo&w=460]
The Wall Street Journal‘s front page today features a pair of black-bordered snapshots of China’s J-20 fighter, under a headline warning of “A Chinese Stealth Challenge?” For those of us who have read the Journal for years, respecting its balanced and judicious approach on …
BattlelandNational Security
So, you think we’re going to start withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan this summer? Here’s something that might give you pause: you’ve just spent $130 million building a better gas station for aircraft at the huge U.S. military base at Bagram Airfield, just north of Kabul. Bagram is the central pit stop for the U.S. war effort, and …
BattlelandNational Security
You’ll recall the Air Force claims its F-22 fighter is the world’s best. Heck, at $350 million a pop, it should be. Too bad they didn’t invest in RustOleum when they were building it.
The Government Accountability Office reports:
Corrosion of the aluminum skin panels on the F-22 was first observed in spring 2005, less than 6 months
…
BattlelandNational Security
In military terms, “fire for effect” means putting iron on target. That’s what makes the Air Force’s decision to ban its personnel from websites posting Wikileaks’ classified documents so strange: all it does is highlight Air Force impotence, because curious airmen can scroll through the documents on their home computers, just like …
BattlelandNational Security
Air Force helicopter rescue units in Afghanistan have begun carrying blood on their missions again because so many U.S. troops are now being wounded there.
BattlelandNational Security
Back in September, I posted about this crash of a B-52 bomber after a pair of Navy choppers did some illicit dipping into Lake Tahoe. The B-52 crashed in 1994, during practice for an upcoming air show, killing all four on board. The Air Force has just released its probe into the July 28 crash of a C-17 cargo plane in Alaska…during …
BattlelandNational Security
The Air Force used to be all Stratofortresses and nuclear bombs. But just as it warplanes have become more precise at delivering ever-smaller weapons, its guards have become kinder and gentler at handling troublemakers. For several years, Air Force security personnel have been carrying Taser stun guns, as well as those that fire bullets. …
BattlelandNational Security
The Pentagon has just launched a supercomputer assembled from 1,760 Sony PlayStation 3 processors. But military scientists who brought the computer online yesterday probably won’t be playing PS3 games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, God of War, or Killzone 3. The Air Force Research Laboratory Information Directorate at Rome, N.Y., bolted …
BattlelandNational Security
The Air Force sure knows where to plot its future. Later this week, the Air Force Association, the service’s independent lobbying arm, is conducting a so-called Global Warfare Symposium to delve into the challenges of “the nuclear enterprise, cyberspace, expeditionary forces and space.”
(Military types have begun referring to the …
BattlelandNational Security
Pentagon spending has been shielded from cuts ever since 9/11. Amid a public numbed by economic woes and fed up with the war in Afghanistan and the non-war in Iraq, get ready for the first defense-spending showdown of the 21st Century. Such a battle royale requires arsenals, and each side is busy rolling out its weapons:
— If you …
BattlelandNational Security
You know how when your jalopy out in the driveway starts getting old and the transmission goes? Before deciding to spend a coupla grand to fix it, you and your significant other sit around the kitchen table and ask: hey, is it really worth pouring all that money into the old heap?
The U.S. Air Force just sat around its kitchen table …
