Archive for May, 2010

Field artillery assets in Afghanistan are not being properly managed

Since the spring of 2002, the soldiers of the field artillery branch have been asked to be jacks of all trades, required …

To the Obama administration for the ambiguous declaratory policy in its Nuclear Posture Review. If there’s one thing a nuclear-armed superpower should be clear on, it’s the circumstances in which it may …

Optimizing the Army for irregular and conventional wars

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that “the defining principle of the Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy is balance” — between winning today’s wars …

To Defense Secretary Robert Gates for his swift action on the recommendations of the interim report on the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting. Gates directed the Pentagon to immediately implement 26 recommendations from …

Retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales’ article “A vehicle for modern times” [December-January] highlighted a number of issues regarding combat vehicle design relevant to today’s insurgency wars. Several of his comments are directly …

To the Army for pushing into production systems it knows don’t work. After the Future Combat Systems’ program was canceled last year, the Army worked to salvage some high-tech spinouts from the …

Managing the strategic consequences of persistent surveillance

The tactical use of a new set of intelligence collection systems known as persistent surveillance (PS) is well-known. Sometimes colloquially referred to an “unblinking eye,” …

I must take issue with a few of Lt. Col Paul L. Yingling’s points regarding military funding and manpower. On these two points his arguments are not germane to his central thesis, …

Joint basing is model for other projects

Ever since the Goldwater-Nichols Act became law in 1986, the Defense Department has placed increasing emphasis on jointness: joint training, joint procurement, joint organizations, even …

Tanker bid would support EADS’ widening ambitions for U.S. market

The Air Force’s KC-X program should instead be called the KC-360, for all the twists, turns and about-faces bringing parties full circle …