…a repeat of the embarrassing B-2 bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during NATO’s 1999 war on Serbia. The Pentagon awarded this “experimental serious games” contract (for $9-million-plus, it had better be serious) Thursday (click on it to enlarge). Just in time, too. Wouldn’t want to blow the Chinese Embassy in Tehran …
Air Force
They Better Be 100% Silk
Five of the first six contract awards announced Tuesday were for parachutes costing nearly $1 billion. All five contracts were for “low-cost, low velocity parachutes.” Alas, as is becoming increasingly common, the contract …
Lasers: Tomorrow Never Comes
Laser, née L.A.S.E.R. – for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation – might as well stand for Late And So Extraordinarily Recondite (adj., meaning mysterious, esoteric) at the Pentagon. Defense officials talk …
“We were initially briefed there would be 10 to 15 possible insurgents in the area…And what we found out after the fact -- once we got back -- after analyzing the intelligence, that there was over a hundred that had moved into the area during the fight.”
“They'll go dead about the time that we wake up.”
Japan Eyes Return To Atomic Bomb Base
TOKYO – It’s not clear if anyone appreciates the irony, but Japan wants to help pay for a new U.S. military base on Tinian island, a former Imperial Army stronghold from which the atomic bombings of Japan were launched in …
“Fix It Now”
The perpetual problem of sexual assault in the ranks sometimes seems akin to white noise – a force of nature that tends to blend into the background because, you believe, it has always been there (this report from the Government Accountability Office released Tuesday only reinforces that feeling). Then you stumble across a letter …
The Drones Are Coming! Oops – They’re Already Overhead…
Military Services’ `Wish Lists’ Get the Heave Ho
For years, the military services had an unnerving tendency to declare to their funders on Capitol Hill just what their old mean defense secretary wouldn’t let them have. It has always struck Battleland as a little too close to kids crying over what Santa failed to bring them. We noted three years ago that then-defense secretary Robert …
Honoring Courage and Cool-Headedness
“Hey Mr. President…
…you sure you want Air Force One pilot training going to the lowest bidder?” (h/t astronaut Alan Shepard)
Apparently, the F-35 Isn’t Everyone’s Cup of Airpower
…including Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who terms the tri-service, $400 billion fighter program “the biggest example of corporate welfare in history” (although, as a member of the House’s education and natural-resources committees, he’s not going to be able to do much about it…but he does have a doctorate in physics from NYU, …
The Air Force’s Magic Carpet Ride
The Air Force Academy has just opened its new glider landing strip. It’s an area the size of 23 football fields carpeted in 1.3 million square feet of what the service calls “aviation turf.” The Air Force unveiled the …