BattlelandNavy
The U.S.S. Enterprise has left the oceans. She is survived by 10 flat-topped behemoths. Services will be private.
Last month, the Big E, also known as CVN-65, left active-duty Navy service in a formal deactivation ceremony at …
BattlelandSnafus
It appears the Navy’s nomination of a one-time F-14 pilot who deliberately shot down a U.S. Air Force plane 25 years ago won’t make admiral, as the Navy had recommended. The peacetime downing of an Air Force F-4 over the …
BattlelandMilitary History
The adjacent post deals with the West Point of tomorrow. But our comrades at LIFE have posted a wonderful photo essay on what being a cadet there was like in 1936.
It was the second cover story in the magazine’s history, …
BattlelandVeterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs can’t decide on the right yardstick to ensure its 7,000 doctors are pulling their weight. The agency has been squabbling about it for more than 30 years. Thursday, the VA inspector general …
BattlelandProcurement
Thursday’s roster of Pentagon contract announcements contains this gem:
MIT, Cambridge, Mass., was awarded a $32,000,000 cost-sharing contract. The award will provide for the study, development and creation of equipment and material. Work will be performed in Cambridge, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2017. One bid was
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BattlelandIntelligence
Defending the nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic, is a tough business. That’s why the U.S. government has Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, where the nation’s secrets can be freely discussed by …
BattlelandNuclear Weapons
The Air Force has opened a $4.2 million Nuclear Security Tactics Training Center in Guernsey, Wyo., so that the service’s 620th Ground Combat Training Squadron can train more airmen to protect the nation’s nuclear-tipped ICBM …
BattlelandAuthor Q&A
Fred Kaplan’s new book, The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War, dissects the past decade of American-waged battle to see how it has worked out. It assays the U.S. military‘s successes and …
BattlelandWar Story
Some of the most memorable moments in the kaleidoscope of combat happen when unrelated events occur near one another, in place, or time, or both.
Army Major Robert Bowers recalls, in this 2006 interview with the Combat Studies …
BattlelandNational Security
Welcome back!
Spent the downtime trying to figure out what the military slice of national security is supposed to look like. It’s pretty simple, actually: ensuring there are enough troops, transport and tanks to defend the …
BattlelandMilitary Spending
January 2 – that’s today – was supposed to be the day Congress and President Obama either got their act together to come up with $1.2 trillion in spending cuts – including half from Pentagon accounts – or it would happen …
BattlelandPeople
For those who came of age during World War II, or post-9/11, the death Thursday of retired Army general H. Norman Schwarzkopf may not be of great moment. But for those of us who came of age during Vietnam, when that war veered …
BattlelandMilitary
Like most of you, Battleland is headed off to Santa’s SCIF (sensitive compartmented information facility, pronounced “skiff”) for a bit. Absent breaking news, we don’t plan on returning until Wednesday, January 2, which just …
