Archive for December, 2013

Unmanned naval warfare: Retrospect & prospect

A QH-50 DASH anti-submarine drone on board the destroyer USS Allen M. Sumner (DD-692) during a 1967 deployment to Vietnam. (USN)

By Lt. Cmdr. Benjamin Armstrong

As dawn rose on the warring fleets, the Chinese admiral who commanded the smaller force prepared his unmanned systems for combat. His enemy’s fleet was enormous, the …

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Cut, stretch, and protect: Building the future armed forces

USAF Capt. Brad Matherne conducts preflight checks inside an F-35A Lightning II before a training mission April 4 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. (USAF)

By Joseph J. Collins

Despite recent relief, a trillion dollars of defense budget cuts in the next decade will demand “new” or at least different ways to accomplish old tasks. A recent …

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Moral principles for taking a volunteer force to war

Moral principles for taking a volunteer force to war

Maj. Damon T. Armeni

There is no shortage of ideas on how the United States should shape and use its military, or what the proper civil-military relationship should be. Relatively few, however, …

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Luck in war: Two Cold War cases

Luck in war: Two Cold War cases

By Lt. Joseph Hatfield

In the end, we avoided war [during the Cuban Missile Crisis]…because we lucked out, absolutely lucked out, on both sides. — Robert McNamara

The Cold War wasn’t won …

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From fuzzy to focus: Questions to ask about strategic land power

From fuzzy to focus: Questions to ask about strategic land power

By Peter W. Singer

In recent months, various parties have looked at America’s ground forces and their potential roles, utility, and — perhaps most importantly — narrative in the “post-Iraq” and soon …

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Learn cyber conflict history, or doom yourself to repeat it

By Jason Healey

There have been at least seven major “wake-up calls” in cyber conflict, attacks or other events that shocked and surprised defenders and decisionmakers, then were promptly forgotten until a …

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Senkakus = Berlin? | The Army’s weak arguments | “Invisible” Hagel

Posted by Bradley Peniston

Interesting parallels: “The Senkaku Islands as Cold War Berlin” by Zachary Keck (The Diplomat)

“The Army is fighting a budget battle by pretending it’s fighting a strategy battle,” …

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Judge raps NSA | Top 100 influencers | Terror stats

A U.S. District Court judge finds that the NSA’ phone metadata gathering appears to violate the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. (Politico)

Defense News has a list of the …

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Cyber sharing

Cyber sharing

Building partner capacity in cyberspace will make them, and us, less vulnerable

By Lt. Col. Jason B. Nicholson and Lt. Col. David A. Pokrifchak

It’s time for the U.S. military to add …

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Who supports whom in the maritime domain?

Who supports whom in the maritime domain?

Joint and service doctrine remain dangerously unclear

When a joint force goes to war at sea, sound command and control requires that the force’s commander clearly state the support relationship between the …

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