Archive for February, 2012

The impact of the Budget Control Act of 2011 on national defense

The U.S. narrowly averted a debt crisis with the passage in August of the Budget Control Act of 2011. The …

TO THE NAVY for revisiting Sea Swap for cruisers and destroyers.

The last time the surface fleet’s leaders tried rotating crews on its marquee warships, they botched it up, largely because they …

TO DoD LEADERSHIP for rolling out the new military strategy a month before the 2013 budget proposal.

Certainly, the publication date had slipped several times since President Obama ordered up a review …

TO THE MARINES CAUGHT ON VIDEO while urinating on the corpses of three Afghan fighters. In dealing a self-inflicted wound to the war effort, the incident once again showed the downside to …

Why Congress, DoD and industry must share plans openly

“You should be giving us a single, coordinated input.” The senior staffer on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee showed his frustration …

Why our countermeasures fail to keep up with the growing threat

Will the weapon of choice of today’s insurgents also be the weapon of tomorrow? That is the question posed by new …

How military leaders have let us down

By Daniel L. Davis

I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s …

How to inject the enemy’s view into the planning process

The past decade has seen the concept of the red team gain acceptance as a commander’s tool to anticipate actions by nonblue …

Europe’s biggest military deficit is a lack of citizen-soldiers

Like the active components of many European militaries, the size and capabilities of reserve forces have plummeted in the past two decades. Many …

‘Understanding’ must take its rightful place atop the pantheon

Reflecting revered assumptions and long-standing paradigms, The Principles of War are a list of tenets enshrined since 1949 in the Army’s Field Manual …