The Pentagon has long had troubles developing an IFF system — a sophisticated electronics box aboard an aircraft that tells the pilot if the blip on her heads-up display represents a friend or foe many miles away (IFF stands for identification friend or foe). Now it seems to be having the same challenge in the wars it’s …
Weapons
Droning Onward and Upward
When charts like the one above surface inside the Pentagon, they’re generally some action officer’s guesstimate about how much her program’s top-line budget is going to grow in the out years (also known as the FYDP [pronounced fidd-IP], for future years defense program) Or, as we call it: the future.
But this chart is different. …
Oh No! China Has Our Super-Secret Osama-Getting Helicopter!
That’s bad news. We always knew we couldn’t trust our Pakistani allies to keep valuable technology like the heavily-modified MH-60 Black Hawks, used to ferry Navy SEALs to Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani lair, from the reverse-engineering whizzes of the Middle Kingdom. You may recall reports that the commandos had to abandon one of the …
The F-22 Rapture
Sure…we know it’s officially known as the F-22 Raptor. But Harold Camping’s prediction that the Rapture is coming Saturday at 6 p.m. — no matter where you are — has lots of folks in a tizzy. Some of them, no doubt, are looking for clues to the future online by typing “Rapture” into Google and other search engines. If the end of …
Still BUFF at 50!
The B-52H — the last series of the Stratofortress still flying — turns 50 this month. More than 70 of the behemoth bombers continue to fly. “Half a century ago, no one would think this aircraft would be where it is today,” said Maj. Chris Otis, 20th Bomb Squadron assistant operations director at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. “It …
Painful Chopper Rides: Maintaining Your “Optimal Buttocks Reference Point” Can Kill Your Back — Failure to Do So Can Kill You
A decade of war certainly takes its toll on the brains and minds of those waging it. We’ve seen that in the numbers of troops returning with traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder. Pentagon leaders refer to them as the “signature wounds” of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because of their prevalence due to …
Wild Blue Squander
There is not another nation on Earth that comes close to packing the aerial wallop of the U.S. Air Force. Or the U.S. Navy. Or even the U.S. Marine Corps, for that matter. So why are those three services so hell-bent on spending $382 billion for 2,457 new Joint Strike Fighter F-35 warplanes? It’s not like we’re on the verge of being …
Them’s Fightin’ Words
Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday, explaining how the Pentagon plans to help cut $400 billion in spending over the coming 12 years by curtailing dubious missions:
“They represent missions that the department carries out today that, while of value, are not central to our core mission or are of lower …
Why the Predator Drone Is Now Dead
The self-licking ice cream cone continues: over at Small Wars Journal, Robert Haddick explains why the days are numbered for the mainstay of the U.S. drone fleet.
Area 51, Revisited
Why does people’s skepticism go out the window when it comes to military matters — especially any that are secret? Granted, the recent dispatch of Osama bin Laden does make the U.S. military look all-but-omnipotent. But it’s important to note that grand success was striking…because it was so rare.
Annie Jacobson’s new book — …
Afghan Air Strikes Up 5,800% Since 2004
The real surge in Afghanistan isn’t the 30,000 additional troops President Obama sent there last year, but the 400% hike in close-air support missions from 2004 to 2010. Over that same time span, the number of weapons deployed on those missions ballooned from 86 to 5,101 — a 5,800% increase. You can track the trend in the chart …
“Top Gun” at 25 — Best Military Movie Ever?
Time colleagues Kayla Webley and Gilbert Cruz spell out the 10 reasons why Top Gun is still awesome.
Joint Strike Fighter’s $100 Billion 30-Year Engine Contract Up For Grabs
The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program is “the largest defense acquisition program in U.S. history” and it’s engine “represents over 10% of the overall program price, or about $100 billion,” according to the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Representative Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA).
For the past five years, all four …