“I don't want to leave anybody with the impression that we're somehow zorching two carriers over there because we're concerned about what happened today in Iran.”
BattlelandNuclear Weapons
Killed in Iran: Part of a Nuclear Trifecta
It has been a busy day or so on the nuclear front:
— An Iran nuclear scientist was assassinated Wednesday morning in Tehran.
— The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved its Doomsday Clock warning of nuclear war to 11:56 …
BattlelandMilitary
Just the Facts…
This came across the Reuters wire Monday:
…when President Obama crossed the Potomac last Friday, he was on a mission to reclaim enemy territory. In an unusual move, he made the budget announcement from within the Pentagon itself.
That’s reporter Michael Hastings blogging about President Obama’s visit to the Pentagon last week to …
BattlelandTaliban
Happy 10th Birthday, Guantanamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay remains the persistent headache that pretty much all Americans would like to go away. Wednesday marks its 10th birthday as home to alleged terrorists scooped up by the U.S. following the 9/11 terror …
BattlelandKorea
Girth of a Nation
North Korean television has released a 50-minute video honoring the Sunday birthday of Kim Jong Un, the country’s new leader. U.S. intelligence analysts are poring over it, looking for clues into what new direction, if any, the …
BattlelandWeapons
Chart Attack
The number of drones is skyrocketing in the U.S. military, yet they account for less than a dime of every dollar spent on military aircraft, according to these two charts in a new Congressional Research Service report. Kind of makes a taxpayer wonder if the $380 billion the nation is investing in the fledgling manned F-35 fighter …
“Thanks to our brave men and women in uniform, al Qaeda is weaker than it’s ever been, and Osama bin Laden will never again walk the face of this Earth. That’s what change is.”
BattlelandIraq
“Prime Minister Maliki, May I?”
For nearly a decade, the U.S. Air Force flew anywhere over Iraq, whenever it pleased. For the decade before that – as it patrolled the northern and southern no-fly zones, over the top and bottom third of Saddam Hussein’s
…
BattlelandWeapons
The Heritage Foundation, Then and Now
By Thomas Christie, Pierre Sprey, Chuck Spinney and Winslow Wheeler
Almost 30 years ago, in 1983, the Heritage Foundation stepped forward as a thoughtful, independent thinking participant in the then-raging debate over Ronald …
BattlelandIran
Are Iran’s “Red Lines” Equally Red?
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was so busy talking about “red lines” over the weekend, you could be forgiven for thinking he was a hockey player — or a racecar driver. Of course, the defense chief’s red lines dealt with Iran – and it’s worth noting, for those of you keeping score at home – that one red line is far more …
BattlelandMilitary Health
Amputations (cont.)
We have reported before how the number of amputations among U.S. troops in Afghanistan continues to climb, even as the number of American troops killed there fell between 2010 and 2011. Here’s the latest, just-released data from the Pentagon medical community (click on it to enlarge). It shows just how grimly effective a weapon the …
BattlelandMarines
Vertically Challenged: Marine F-35 Engines’ Long Lead, Much Higher Cost
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7psXvZp9xI]
You may recall a couple of weeks ago when we reported, based on our own crude analysis of a Pentagon contract announcement, that the latest batch of engines for the Marine’s F-35 fighter would cost $129 million apiece, five times the $25 million sticker on the Air Force F-35 …
A National Guard Keepsake…
Of course, some folks disagree.
