Danny Klaidman of the now all-digital Newsweek says that’s what it is. The Marine four-star general, after getting good marks for his stewardship in Afghanistan, finds himself wounded by an I-Email-D just as he is slated to …
National
Common Sense from the Top, Sequester or Not
A memo recently went out to the military’s technology and contracting community, encouraging them to “request requirements relief” in situations where the cost of satisfying a requirement exceeds the benefit. This guidance …
F-35: Good Cop, Bad Cop
Air Force Lieut. General Christopher Bogdan, the F-35 program manager, certainly raised eyebrows the other day with his comments in Australia about the $400 billion program he is running:
“What I see [F-35 builder] Lockheed …
The High Ground (Except for Those Damn Mountains)
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Robert Wolfe provides rooftop security during a meeting in Farah City, Feb. 25.
A Year in Opium Country
The tailor returned with clothes in brown paper wrapping. I took the package and dressed in my room. The voluminous pants were forest green, perhaps a yard wide, but it could be tied with a stout piece of cord through the pants …
A Female Rebel Speaks Out
ABU DUHOOR, Syria — Em Joseph doesn’t really look like many of the women in this socially conservative stretch of Syria‘s Idlib province, and she certainly doesn’t act like them. Instead of the traditional hijab, or …
The Sequester Hath Cometh…
Well, two predicted disasters in one week, and neither has yet to materialize.
New Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has been in office since Wednesday, and the nation’s military remains in business, contrary to the twaddle some …
“F-35 flight operations have been cleared to resume.”
— F-35 program spokeswoman Kyra Hawn late Thursday, giving a green light to the resumption of flights following a week-long grounding of the fledgling tri-service fighter due to a crack in an engine turbine blade.
It Was 30 Years Ago Today…
….that Battleland contributor Franklin C. “Chuck” Spinney’s penetrating countenance gazed out from Time’s red-bordered cover asking U.S. Defense Spending: Are Billions Being Wasted?
The cover story (we’ve put it …
Thank You, Mr. and Mrs. Watanabe
TOKYO – Huge cuts in American defense spending will go into effect on Friday, but don’t expect major changes in the readiness or “re-balancing” of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region. That’s thanks in large part to …
$950 Million
— The ceiling cost of a Pentagon contract awarded Wednesday to provide the fledgling Afghan air force with 20 Light Air Support Aircraft. The initial $427 million award to Sierra Nevada Corp. of Sparks, Nev., and its Brazilian partner, Embraer SA, will buy the planes and “one computer based trainer, one basic aviation training device, one flight training device, six mission planning stations, six mission debrief systems, long lead spares for interim contractor support, outside the continental United States base activation, site surveys, flight certification to U.S. Air Force military type certification standards, and data.” The turbo-prop aircraft are part of the Pentagon’s plan to leave Afghanistan with sufficient force to battle the Taliban after U.S. combat troops pull out by the end of 2014. Beechcraft was the losing bidder.
Golf War Won
Old Salt
Jimmy Carter, 88, former Navy man and president, checks out new gear aboard USS Carl Vinson Feb. 22 in California.