Features

Battlefield robots raise ethical issues for military

The 7-foot-7-inch humanoid robot in the 1951 film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” foreshadowed the ethical concerns facing developers of robots for the Defense …

America’s military is overdue for a dramatic overhaul

The U.S. military, if it is to measure up to its future responsibilities as an effective instrument of statecraft and a trusted institution of …

TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA for a Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech that did what his West Point Afghanistan speech failed to do: Show the spine of a commander in chief. Right at …

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced in April that he was canceling the vehicle part of the Future Combat Systems program, he pledged to protect FCS vehicle money so that it would …

Technically speaking, UAVs, guided missiles, torpedoes and unmanned submarines are robots. There are about 50 countries that have or are developing military robots. Many have chemical, temperature and radiation sensors, some are …

Where joint doctrine fails

There is increasing awareness within the Defense Department that wars are interactively complex or “wicked” problems. A series of new publications and ongoing doctrinal revisions reveals a growing …

I found the November issue quite stimulating. In particular the opening letter to the editor by Lt. Col. Ken Beebe and short commentary by the usually historically astute William Owens [“The war …

TO NAVY SECRETARY RAY MABUS for his commitment to develop by 2012 a plan for a “green” carrier strike group that can be deployed by 2016.

All U.S. aircraft carriers and submarines …

TO THE NAVY for a lean manning policy that appears to have gone too far. Efficiency is good in any large organization, but a Naval Inspector General’s report following a visit to …

Ten weeks into his presidency, Barack Obama announced his “comprehensive strategy” for Afghanistan.

The president emphasized that the future of Afghanistan was inextricably linked with that of Pakistan, and that in turn …