U.S. soldiers load a U.S. OH-58 helicopter onto a Russian Antonov AN-124 cargo plane at Bagram Airfield, Feb. 8.
BattlelandProcurement
“Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity”
Trayvon Martin, One Year Later: Where We Are Now
A year after the fatal shooting of a Florida teenager made national headlines, a look at the major players in the ongoing case against his killer.
BattlelandPolitics
Stat! Bloodied Defense Secretary Incoming!
The U.S. Senate confirmed former senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary Tuesday after a long, drawn-out confirmation battle.
Early Tuesday afternoon, he cleared the most critical hurdle when the Senate voted 71-27 to cut …
$6.8 Billion
— The money spent by the Pentagon between 2008 and 2012 on translators, interpreters and other foreign-language support efforts, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday. One reported proposal on how to deal with sequestration’s looming budget cuts: invade only nations where the natives speak English.
“The defense industry is in the fight of its life, but many of its longtime champions on Capitol Hill are retired, dead or in jail.”
— From an article in Monday’s Politico newspaper on the the military-industrial complex's dwindling clout in Congress.
BattlelandMilitary Spending
Pentagon Sequestysteria
Ever since the Cold War ended, the Pentagon has been pushing to become more “flexible” and “agile,” to use two words frequently heard at Defense Department briefings and found burrowed into innumerable Pentagon …
A Sequester No One Wants
The bickering over the provenance of the sequester belies the fact that very few people in Washington truly know how it will unfold.
The Unfairness of the Feres Doctrine
If the Academy Awards can be said to register the cultural pulse of the nation, America clearly retains its uneasy fascination with the politics and psychology of war.
From the Paris Uprising and the U.S. Civil War, to the …
BattlelandProcurement
F-35: Blade Bummer
The news that the Pentagon’s fleet of 51 F-35 fighters has been grounded because of a half-inch crack in one of its engine’s turbine blade is one of those problems that can truly be called a teething issue: it’s something that …
Leatherneck Lunch
Marine 1st Sgt. Joshua Clayton eats a live scorpion Feb. 17 as part of training during Operation Cobra Gold in Thailand.
Will High Marijuana Taxes Encourage Black Markets?
The cannabis industry is an easy target for legislatures to saddle with heavy taxes.
BattlelandMilitary Training
Marines Contracting Out Training for Force Recon
The Marines deem themselves to be elite, and their Force Recon units – special-ops-capable Marines who specialize in going deep into enemy territory to scout out the bad guys — are among the most elite of the …