Monday is Budget Day. This is not a drill: head for a soundproof, locked, windowless, Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility to avoid the howls and screams as the Pentagon releases its proposed 2013 spending plan. Here’s the hardware slice already giving some Crystal City defense-contractor types the vapors.
But we already …
I just found out that President Obama has nominated Air Force Lieut. General Janet Wolfenbarger for her fourth star, making her the first woman in the Air Force to earn that rank, and only the second woman in the history of the …
Daniel Houten is in basic training to become an infantryman in the U.S. Army at Fort Benning, Ga. Nothing unusual about another 11 Bravo – except that he recently finished an 18-month tour with the Israeli Defence Forces. The heck with generals and colonels weighing each army’s pluses and minuses – let’s talk to someone who …
Battleland pal Jeff Stein offers a noirish, first-person look into the world of military intelligence, and what makes spies tick:
I remember [the instructor] saying something like: “This is the only thing in the Army that you can volunteer for and then get out of if you change your mind.” That’s because we had signed up for …
The other day I was sitting in my office when my 3-year-old daughter came running in. She was sobbing, unable to catch her breath or tell me what was wrong. Her face flush, with red circles emanating from her swollen eyes, she was inconsolable. In tow came my wife, somber-faced and also on the verge of tears. “What’s wrong?” …
So what happens to a military officer who speaks out against the grain? It’s an apt question, given Army Lieut. Colonel Daniel Davis’ recent treatise (or was it a screed?) in Armed Forces Journal on what he perceives as the …
The Pentagon made official what already has been happening by default: women in uniform are moving closer to the front lines. “Women are contributing in unprecedented ways to the military’s mission,” Defense Secretary Leon …
One problem with insurgent wars – like that we waged in Iraq, and are currently fighting in Afghanistan – is that there are no front lines. Without sharply-defined FEBAs – Forward Edge of the Battle Area – or FLOTs – Front Line of Own Troops — how do you keep women out of combat?
Bottom line: you can’t. That’s why the …
The Pentagon inspector general is investigating the Air Force’s official probe into a fatal F-22 crash that concluded the pilot was to blame. “The assessment will focus on the adherence of the AIB [Accident Investigation Board] …
The Pentagon is determined to hunt down and kill explosive devices – including crude roadside bombs – that account for about 50% of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. Here’s its latest effort, in a contract solicitation posted Wednesday: it wants 15-pound Engineering Squad Robots to hunt those killers down and destroy them, …
“[The Taliban] didn't reach the tempo they had the year before. It was down about 9% overall in a year...their complex attacks are down about 36% compared to last year. Their offensive activities are down…between 13 and about 25% here as we went out of the summer into the fall.”
The Conservative Political Action Conference is rolling into Washington on Thursday, and you can feel a change in the air on military matters.
Sure, Battleland’s own Mackenzie Eaglen will be on a panel arguing for more:
…but retired Army office Doug MacGregor will be a one-man band (hey, you gotta start somewhere) arguing …
This dispatch comes from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot about an amphibious assault “launched” by Marines during this week’s Bold Alligator exercise along the North Carolina-Virginia coast:
Operating on information gathered
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