The military-industrial-congressional complex (MICC, to its friends and foes), is a political economy that places the interest of the domestic factions benefitting from huge defense budgets ahead of the interests of soldiers, …
Air Force
North Korea’s “Peculiar Means”?
The South Koreans believe their friendly neighbors to the north have jammed the Global Positioning Systems on hundreds of airliners flying in and out of South Korea’s major airports in recent days. It could be a typical North Korean tactic: come up with a low-cost way to cause trouble, especially one that’s difficult to trace. Luckily, …
“If you give us force structure back, give us the money, too. Because the quickest way I know to a hollow force is to give us structure without money. Simple as that.”
Drone Pilots: We Don’t Get No Respect
At least that’s the word from Air Force Major Dave Blair – himself an MQ-1 Predator instructor pilot – in the latest issue of Air & Space Power Journal. As technology changes warfare, he argues, the military needs to …
Not Afghanistan
SIOP’s Sire Dies
The Single Integrated Operational Plan — SIOP, for short — was the non-descript label the U.S. military assigned to its doomsday plan to wage nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Born in 1961, the many-layered targeting list died in 2003, after the end of the Cold War. A key developer, Air Force Lieut. General Glenn A. Kent, died …
F-22s: Waiting in the Wings. Again.
Coming Soon to Your Town: Sequestration Road Tour
Americans will celebrate Memorial Day next month, and honor those who’ve died while serving to protect the rest of us. But some concerned members of Congress are going to skip their hometown barbeques so they can hit the road: …
First C-17 Flies to Retirement Home
Why To Cancel A Pentagon Procurement Program
There are basically three reasons to cancel an acquisition program. In no particular order, the reasons are:
We can’t afford it.
We don’t need it.
It doesn’t work.
This means Defense Department leaders have to continually ask three important questions throughout the development of a new military system:
Joint Op
“…For Changes to the Configuration…”
These are the first two contracts in the Pentagon’s Tuesday list (click on them to enlarge). They’re for changes to be made to the F-35 fighter’s design. Even though the planes already are coming off Lockheed’s Fort Worth assembly line (the machinists’ strike launched Sunday nonwithstanding), changes in the $400 billion program’s …
iPod, You Pod, He, She, It Pods
So the Air Force announces this contract Friday afternoon. The only description of what’s being bought and/or upgraded are “pods.” C’mon Air Force: Aim High, and tell us taxpayers what you’re buying for $53 million.
Northrop Grumman Technical Services, Herndon, Va., is being awarded a $52,848,888 fixed-price-incentive-firm,
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