PENTAGON ACQUISITION REFORM - CounterStrikeMedia

Why Aircraft Carriers Still Dominate & Why We Shut Down The F22 Industrial Base

3/27/2017

Why America's Aircraft Carriers Are So Powerful
From Dave Majumdar, The National Interest: “Naval aviation is an inherently dangerous business, but over the course of more than 75 years, through robust procedures, rigorous training and continuous practice, the U.S. Navy has honed its carrier flight deck operations into a well-oiled machine."

The Air Superiority Challenge
From Lance A. Wilkins, RealClearDefense: “Members of the fighter pilot community often sarcastically remark that “we have air superiority because we’re American.” While tongue-in-cheek, a large percentage of CONUS and JCA exercises are often flown “unopposed,” just like so many of our operations downrange, not to be construed, however, as criticism. Seven decades of air superiority/supremacy in any domain is likely to yield a similar outcome. So where to go from here?”

Did the Air Force Dash Hopes for Building More F-22s?
From Oriana Pawlyk, Military.com: “When the F-22 Raptor production line ceased in 2011, Air Force Lt. Col. Daniel thought the Pentagon had made a huge mistake.”

Why Aircraft Carriers Still Dominate the Oceans
From Robert Farley, The National Interest: “Fundamentally, the strength of a carrier depends most on the capabilities of its air wing. In the next decade, the aircraft launched from U.S. carriers will undergo considerable change. Most notably, the arrival of the F-35C (whatever the larger problems with the program) will increase the stealth, sensor capacity, and communications capabilities of the air wing. In combination with the EA-18 Growler, this will increase the lethality of the entire air wing.”

The Heart of the F-35 Is Its Remarkable Engine
From Daniel Gouré, RealClearDefense: “The F-135 engine is a remarkable engineering feat. It is derived from the F119-PW-100 engine, also by P&W, that powers the F-22 fighter. In reality, the F-135 is not one engine but a family ranging from a conventional, forward thrust variant for the F-35A to a multi-cycle variant that includes a forward lift fan for the short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant that powers the Marine Corps’ F-35B. It is able to achieve supercruise without the use of an afterburner and has advanced stealth coatings.”

The Multi-Domain Task Force & The Re-Balancing for Small Wars Theatre

3/22/2017

Breaking Defense

Balancing Force Modernization and the Most Likely Future Wars We’ll Be Fighting
From Brad Nicholson, Modern War Institute: “Today, military planners focus intensely on countering Russian revanchism in Europe and containing Chinese expansionism in Asia. After more than a decade and a half of fighting “small wars” In Iraq and Afghanistan and conducting counterterrorism strikes in many more countries, our national security focus and increasingly prevailing wisdom suggest the international system may be returning to an era of great power war. Except, it is not.”

Until the Trump Administration, one of the standard limits on bureaucratic power was the circumscribed reach of anyone serving in an acting capacity. Unless or until a person was confirmed by the Senate for a senior position in the Pentagon, the argument went, they didn’t possess the political or public authority to make new policy or approve major changes to their organizations. That may have changed as part of the Trump Administration’s apparent push to scrap large numbers of civilian appointees and reduce the size of Washington bureaucracies. – Breaking Defense

Concrete Barriers: A False Counterinsurgency Idol
From Tommy Daniel, Modern War Institute: “In 2013, David Kilcullen, an advisor to Gen. David Petraeus during the Iraq War, was asked how the US military reduced violence in Baghdad by 95 percent. “We did it by killing the city,” he responded. “We shut the city down. We brought in more than 100 kilometers of concrete T-wall. We put troops on every street corner.” The US military’s counterinsurgency campaign—and the concrete barriers that were an integral part of it—certainly brought impressive, measurable short-term improvements to the security situation in Baghdad. However, by 2014, just after Kilcullen’s explanation, civilian deaths in Iraq had returned to 2006–2007 levels.”

Marine Corps Fragility: Operating Concepts

3/21/2017

For Want of a Broadside: Why the Marines Need More Naval Fire Support
From Rachel Ansley, CIMSEC: “According to the 2016 Marine Corps Operating Concept (MOC), the greatest risk to the Marine Corps is that it becomes unbalanced in its development as a force that is at once naval, expeditionary, agile, and lethal. Four decades of institutional neglect of naval surface fire support (NSFS) has led to precisely that: the Corps is over-reliant on aviation and cruise missiles to provide fires in a non-permissive maritime domain. Without investment in NSFS solutions that balance capability and capacity, the Marine Corps will be constrained in its ability to maneuver at sea, leaving Marines ill-equipped to fight and win in the future operating environments the MOC predicts.”

National Military Strategy: Time for a Revolutionary Approach

3/17/2017

Pouring hundreds of billions into pay and benefits has not and cannot solve the military’s personnel problems. Despite spending 50 percent more per servicemember since 9/11, the services are short everything from cyber specialists to pilots, medics, nuclear engineers, and Arabic speakers. Spending more and more isn’t just unsustainable: It’s ineffective. – Breaking Defense

Reforming State Department

Center for Strategic Budgetary Assessments: Addressing the Crisis of U.S. Military Primacy

Real Clear Defense

Fixing Personnel - Civilian Side of Pentagon: Government Executive

Breaking Defense: Fixing Civilian Reform

Gary Schmitt and James Cunningham write: The administration must realize that it cannot pay to rebuild the US military by cutting discretionary spending. The budgetary contortions it achieved in this year’s blueprint are not replicable going forward; if Trump is serious about rebuilding the military, he must abandon the animating fiction behind this budget, commit to repealing the Budget Control Act, include entitlement spending as part of the budget package, and embark on a serious, multiyear path of steady, increased funding for the armed forces. - Real Clear Defense

The Pentagon should aim for interdependency, not just interoperability, in assessing its future warfighting requirements, three national security experts told the Senate Armed Services Air/Land subcommittee this week. – USNI News

Chinese Military Doctrine: Deterrence, Peace Through Strength

3/17/2017

Does China's J-20 Rival Other Stealth Fighters?
From China Power Project, CSIS: "The Chengdu J-20 marks the first entry of a multirole stealth fighter into China's armed forces. According to the Department of Defense (DOD), China views stealth technology as a core component in the transformation of its air force from “a predominantly territorial air force to one capable of conducting both offensive and defensive operations.” Designed for enhanced stealth and maneuverability, the J-20 has the potential to provide China with a variety of previously unavailable air combat options and enhance its capability to project power."

War on the Rocks (Free Subscription)

Soft Power’s Path to the Gate of Tears
From Sean P. Morrisroe, RealClearDefense: “The “String of Pearls” theory posits that the Chinese are building a string of civilian and military installations starting from Hainan Island, through the Parcel Islands, ports in Sri Lanka, Myanmar; Gwadar, Pakistan and eventually ending with the naval base in Djibouti. According to the theory, the Chinese are using these installations to secure a line of communication to the oil fields of the Middle East. China imports approximately 70% of its oil from the region. So a benevolent China securing its shipping lanes makes sense, and maybe the world should not worry.”

China's Evolving Nuclear Deterrent
From RAND Corporation: "China's approach to nuclear deterrence has been broadly consistent since its first nuclear test in 1964. Key elements are its no-first-use policy and reliance on a small force of nuclear weapons capable of executing retaliatory strikes if China is attacked. China has recently accelerated nuclear force building and modernization, and both international and domestic factors are likely to drive faster modernization in the future."

Trump's Defense Budget

3/17/2017

AEI

New Military Technologies: Hoover's Strategika

3/16/2017

HOOVER

We Need Changes in Strategy & Technology

Seth Cropsey writes: Serious competitors keep emerging and with them the increasing possibility of conflict. Their growing ability to command or at least deny the world’s key oceanic passages to the United States is sufficient reason to rebuild U.S. sea services and provide the nation with a clear maritime strategy. – The American Interest

Thomas Donnelly writes: Electromagnetic guns, hypersonic projectiles or even directed energy death rays would by themselves not necessarily constitute a revolution in warfare. But these technologies could yield a substantial increase in the capabilities of a wide variety of legacy platforms—and, importantly, again provide U.S. forces with a significant battlefield edge. Most of all, such investments could get the American military back in the habit of continuous modernization and the operational innovation that comes from actually fielding new capabilities – Hoover Institution’s Strategika

Max Boot writes: The pattern of history is clear: Good ideas travel fast, and effective technologies are disseminated quickly. It is doubtful that any future invention will allow the U.S. to dominate the military sphere for long. In fact, it is sobering to realize that despite its recent technological dominance, the U.S. has not been winning wars in places like Afghanistan and Iraq against low-tech adversaries. Superior weapons don’t necessarily deliver superior strategic results. While the Pentagon rightly devotes considerable resources to R&D, it should save some mental room for grappling with why the U.S. has not had a better record of achieving its aims by force—and how it can improve in the future. – Hoover Institution’s Strategika

Kiron Skinner writes: As a tool of war rather than one of its causes, technological innovation will have to be paired with the innovation of ideas, strategy, and doctrine. These latter factors have more to do with enhancing credible deterrence, peace, and stability than rapidly-changing exotic technologies. – Hoover Institution’s Strategika

Will Wiley writes: The B-21 coupled with the LRSO provides the nation with an operationally flexible platform with the stealth capability to penetrate enemy air defense systems or deliver a standoff cruise missile if aircraft cannot penetrate those systems. These upgraded air assets and associated weapons, when paired with the capabilities of the other two legs of the nuclear triad, will provide the nation with a sound strategic deterrent for the majority of the twenty-first century. – The National Interest

Understanding military Modernization

3/16/2017

AEI

A Chocolate Lover’s Guide to the Nature and Character of War
From Jessica Malekos Smith, RealClearDefense: “Indeed, war can be conceptualized in many different forms. And as human beings, we are often inclined to take that which is familiar to us and apply it to unfamiliar concepts. Here, using a simple analogy of a Snickers chocolate bar, this article explains how Carl von Clausewitz’s theory of the changing character of war can be readily understood (or at the very least digested).”

Repeal & Replace The Navy, Winning Indefinite Conflicts

3/15/2017

Thomas Spoehr writes: The Pentagon has sustained year after year of budget cuts without corresponding reductions in commitments and missions. The resulted is a “meatless skeleton”: a military deprived of the ability to repair what gets broken, to train to critical levels of proficiency, or to maintain the supporting structures needed to sustain operations while still having to carry out those operations. Budget deliberations should start from a fact-based understanding of this situation and then explore options to fix it. – Real Clear Defense

Winning Indefinite Conflicts
From Mark E. Vinson, Small Wars Journal: “If, as President Obama asserted, “ideologies are not defeated by guns,” but by “better ideas,” then how should the U.S. military be used to help achieve strategic success in the growing number of protracted, irregular conflicts with ideologically-motivated violent non-state actors (VNSAs)? In Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, the Philippines, and many more countries around the globe, VNSAs, motivated by religious, political, ethnic and other status-quo-challenging ideas, have been remarkably resilient, perseverant, and influential. By surviving and rapidly recovering from punishing attacks by the United States and its partners—while continuing to carry out violent agendas against local, regional, and even global adversaries—these VNSAs can credibly claim that they are succeeding strategically.”

The U.S. Navy’s Role in Ensuring 21st Century American Security and Prosperity
From Kirkland Donald, Jonathan Altman, and Jon Solomon, RealClearDefense: “The average American rarely if ever thinks about the United States Navy. Relatively few Americans today work in jobs or live in communities in which they directly and regularly encounter the Navy or its personnel. Moreover, the United States’ uncontested military dominance of the seas over the past quarter century, not to mention its general maritime superiority throughout the Cold War’s four and a half decades, has meant that neither the goods and information we transport via ships and undersea cables to our overseas markets, nor the foreign goods and services we bring to our shores to fuel our industries, have been seriously threatened since the height of Germany’s Second World War U-boat campaign. The fact that this superiority is not an inherently permanent condition is simply not contemplated by Americans beyond a relatively small community of navalists. Nor is there any evidence that traditional navalist talking points, such as how much of the world’s surface is covered by water or how much international trade is carried by ships, “move the needle” of American public opinion. The “demand signal” for seapower is simply not self-evident to Americans.”

Dawn of Jihadi Drones & The Future of Laser Weapons

3/14/2017

Dawn of the Jihadi Drone Wars
From Patrick Megahan and John Cappello, FDD's Military Edge: “The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported February 23 that it had downed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over the Mediterranean after it was launched from the Gaza Strip. According to IDF sources, an Israeli F-16 shot down the UAV, which it said belonged to Hamas, before it was able to cross into the country’s airspace. Details of the type of drone and its mission remain sparse, but the flight demonstrates Hamas’s determined pursuit for UAV capability even after the death of its chief drone engineer last month in Tunisia. While Hamas’s nascent drone program has yet to produce any tactical or strategic advantage, the use of drones by terrorist organizations elsewhere in the region underscores the challenges they can pose.”

The Future of U.S. Laser Weapons
From James Hasik & Julian Eagle-Platon, Atlantic Council: "About what topic did Congressmen Doug Lamborn of Colorado and Jim Langevin of Rhode Island ask Defense Secretary Jim Mattis during his first week on the job? “Lasers,” of course, for they run the Congressional Directed Energy Caucus. That’s a thing, apparently, for as one of us wrote in November 2013, “lasers will save us all—if they ever work.” Directed energy has been a fetching technological idea for decades, but as Sandra Irwin wrote in National Defense in July 2015, the technology seemingly “has perennially been on the cusp of a major breakthrough.” Last summer, though, Jason Ellis of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory wrote a report for the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) about a coming “inflection point” in development. “Technically credible, operationally usable, and policy friendly directed energy weapons” could soon be available—if only the Congress would fund them, and the Pentagon would prioritize their adoption. So, if the congressmen get through to the secretary, what could be possible?"

The U.S. Air Force’s F-35A, in its current iteration, can’t hit a moving target — at least without a human manually directing the bomb to its destination. The service plans to change that over the next year by adding a new weapon, Raytheon’s Enhanced Paveway II (GBU-49), which it hopes to integrate into the F-35’s arsenal in time for full combat capability. – Defense News

Trump's Pentagon

3/14/2017

Filling in the Blanks at Trump’s Pentagon
From Mark Thompson, The National Interest: “The U.S. military is an immense bureaucracy. That breeds conservatism—as a character trait, not a political philosophy—in its more senior ranks. It doesn’t much care for change, or for outsiders—even in Congress. (Raise your hand if you remember the Pentagon vainly telling lawmakers to stuff it when it came to the wholesale changes in military command that Congress ordered it to make under 1986’s Goldwater-Nichols act, or the creation of the U.S. Special Operations Command the next year). The only way to change the U.S. military is to inflict it from the outside. Alas, few civilian outsiders are demanding change, so it’s simply not happening, despite flashing red lights that says the status quo is unacceptable.”

Army Returns to Multi-Domain Battle Concept

3/13/2017

The Pipe Dream of (Effective) Multi-domain Battle
From A.J. Shattuck, Modern War Institute: “America is rapidly losing its military advantage to other nations. Russia and China exist in a gray zone between near-peer and peer competitor. While neither possesses the full power-projection capabilities of the United States, both countries’ militaries have harnessed the ability to nullify American advantage in key aspects of warfighting. This advantage is seen most notably in the modernization and procurement of new weapons systems to establish anti-access and area denial (A2/AD) zones that prevent the United States from operating without acquiescence.”

Army’s Multi-Domain Battle Gains Traction Across Services: The Face Of Future War
From Sydney Freedberg, Breaking Defense: “Less than six months after its official rollout, the Army’s new concept of future warfare has gotten traction with all four armed services. In brief, Multi-Domain Battle envisions the military — everything from submarines to satellites, tanks to jets, destroyers to drones, grunts to hackers — working together to overwhelm the enemy with attacks from all domains: land, sea, air, space, cyberspace and the electromagnetic spectrum. While that vision is years from reality, it’s already spurred inter-service cooperation on how to make it real.”

Breaking Defense

Army Leaders Search for Answers to Multi-Domain Battle
From Matthew Cox, Military.com: “"I personally believe we are not ready to execute a decisive action fight against a near-peer competitor," said Perna, the commanding general of Army Materiel Command, before an audience at the Association of the United States Army's Global Force Symposium and Exposition in Huntsville, Alabama.”

Army Wants to Talk Directly to Defense Industry
From Sydney Freedberg, Breaking Defense: “Can we talk? In private? If you’re a defense contractor with a good idea, the US Army wants to say yes — but laws and regulations get in the way. That’s a problem the Army Capabilities Integration Center (ARCIC) is struggling to solve with what it calls a Capabilities Information Exchange.”

F-22 Upgrades

3/10/2017

F-22 Raptor Gets New Weapons and Stealth Upgrades
From Kris Osborn, Scout Warrior: “"In the Summer of 2019, the F-22 fleet will begin to receive upgrades to its available weapons with the Increment 3.2B upgrade. This upgrade allows full functionality for the AIM-120D and AIM-9X Air-to-Air missiles as well as enhanced Air-to-Surface target location capabilities," 1st Lt. Carrie J. Volpe, Action Officer, Air Combat Command Public Affaris, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., told Scout Warrior. ”

The Price for Payload: 5th Generation Fighters & AC/AD Access in South china Sea

3/9/2017

The Price of Payload: Light Attack for Pennies on the Pound
From Brody Burks, Strategy Bridge: “Whether trading speed for altitude or cost for capability, military aviation requires compromise. The current trend in United States airpower has been to acquire fewer aircraft with an emphasis on the ability to complete a wide variety of missions. Fifth generation aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35 further blur the lines of traditionally distinct roles such as air superiority and strike capability. The ability to succeed in this wide variety of missions comes at a very real price.”

Anti-Access/Area Denial Options in the South China Sea
From Ryan Kort, Divergent Options: “The PRC adopted a policy of island building over shallow shoals in the SCS. The PRC forcibly evicted and continues to harass commercial and naval vessels from other SCS claimants such as the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia through use of fisherman ‘militias’ as naval proxies and other means of gray-zone or ‘hybrid’ warfare.”

The Army, Mega-Cities & The Coming Islamic Culture Wars

3/8/2017

Army Will Need Smaller Units for Megacity Combat
From Matthew Cox, Military.com: "The Army's chief of staff said Tuesday that in about 10 years, the service must be ready to fight in megacities, a type of warfare that will require future units to resemble today's special operations forces.”

What an Army Megacities Unit Would Look Like
From John Spencer, Modern War Institute: “Megacities cannot be ruled no-go areas for military forces. The intent of the Army as outlined by U.S.C. Title 10 is to be “capable, in conjunction with the other armed forces, of—(1) preserving the peace and security, and providing for the defense, of the United States, the Commonwealths and possessions, and any areas occupied by the United States; (2) supporting the national policies; (3) implementing the national objectives; and (4) overcoming any nations responsible for aggressive acts that imperil the peace and security of the United States.” These are global requirements. And the globe is increasingly made up of megacities. As I pointed out in my first article, by 2030 there will be 662 cities around the world with at least one million inhabitants (compared to 512 today) and 60 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. The potential for operations in dense urban areas will rise correspondingly, presenting a challenge the Army cannot ignore.”

The Coming Islamic Culture War
From Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Foreign Affairs: "Western observers are often blind to social currents within the Muslim world. During the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011, outside analysts confidently predicted that the uprisings would marginalize the jihadist movement in favor of more moderate and democratic reformers. In fact, the opposite happened—an unprecedented jihadist mobilization that has inspired legions of fighters from around the world and fragmented or threatened more than half a dozen countries. In large part, this was because the collapse of the old regimes, which had suppressed Islamism domestically, created new spaces for jihadists. These spaces included both literal ungoverned territory and discursive spaces, where radicals were newly able to engage in dawa, or proselytism."

The Weaker Foe
From Jim Greer, Strategy Bridge: “We have enjoyed absolute dominance in the air and at sea, and significant advantages in forces, technologies, and logistics on land, resulting in overwhelming victories in the major combat operations of JUST CAUSE in Panama and DESERT STORM in Iraq. This power and dominance shaped the development of American military forces; physically, mentally, and culturally. This two-part series will focus on the land power and Army implications of such development. Part one of this two-part series will focus on the challenges ahead, while part two will focus on how we can adapt to meet those challenges.”

The Importance of Cross-Cultural Capabilities to Win Armed Conflicts
From Magdalena Defort, Small Wars Journal: "Military and civil alliances are paramount for maintaining peace and stability in the globalized world. Understanding the residents (language, religion, culture, political system) and environment where a mission takes place is relevant to gain their trust, which facilitates intelligence gathering and collaboration. The real Army’s landpower is more about the knowledge about a region and its people than military and technological capabilities. Indeed, a respect for these elements is required for a modern and committed Army."

The Army's chief of staff said Tuesday that in about 10 years, the service must be ready to fight in megacities, a type of warfare that will require future units to resemble today's special operations forces. – Military.com

The Army is creating an experimental combat unit to develop new tactics for lethally fast-paced future battlefields. – Breaking Defense

Weekly Recon - Small Unit Tactics, Asia Maritime Race . . .
From Blake Baiers, RealClearDefense: “Small Unit Approach to Megacities – Speaking this week at the Future of War conference, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said that the military has a decade to be ready for the challenge of combat in so-called megacities: cities with a population of ten million or more. A fundamental shift in the character of warfare as battle shifts to from woodland and desert environs to megacities. Some may dispute that point, but what is irrefutable is that military weapons platforms and force structures of the future will need to conform, such as a smaller is better approach.”

In the Mind of the Enemy: Psychology, Wargames, and the Duel
From Thomas McDermott, Strategy Bridge: “Military practitioners should hold these twin ideas of force and will close to their hearts. Every action taken in war is fundamentally an application of force, or a threat of force, to compel others to do our will. This includes killing; the most fundamental and final way of persuading an individual to change their point of view. Military art (be it strategic, institutional, operational or tactical) should always be seen through this lens - the skill of applying or threatening the right amount of force, with acceptable risk and reasonable cost, to compel an opponent to do our will. At the heart of this, I believe, is the need for an intimate, near spiritual connection with an adversary; the quest for a deep psychological understanding of their hopes, needs and fears in order to leverage the nature of war against them.”

Obama's Restraint. why IT MAY Matter.

3/6/2017

Reassessing Obama’s Legacy of Restraint
From Paul Miller, War on the Rocks: "In place of the black-and-white establishment view that the United States must always do something, Obama played a “long game” in which patience, balance, restraint, and pragmatism counted as much as the establishment’s fetishes, strength and credibility."

Rogin: Tillerson pushes back on cuts, Pence rising in foreign policy

New Russian Threat: Submarine

3/6/2017

U.S., RUSSIA: Why the U.S. Navy Fears Russia's Akula-Class Submarines
From Sebastien Roblin, The National Interest: “Intelligence provided by the spies John Walker and Jerry Whitworth in the 1970s convinced the Soviet Navy that it needed to seriously pursue acoustic stealth in its next attack submarine. After the prolific Victor class and expensive titanium-hulled Sierra class, construction of the first Project 971 submarine, Akula (“Shark”), began in 1983. The new design benefited from advanced milling tools and computer controls imported from Japan and Sweden, respectively, allowing Soviet engineers to fashion quiet seven-bladed propellers.”

Forward Air Control & The Future

3/1/2017

21st-century Forward Air Control: The Roots to Rebuild
From Mike Benitez, War on the Rocks: "Today there are four main platforms that perform the FAC(A) mission: The AV-8B, A-10, F-16, and F-18. Since the A-10 focuses on ground missions, roughly half of the pilots in a typical Warthog squadron unsurprisingly maintain a FAC(A) qualification. However, multi-role F-16 and F-18 communities must delicately balance FAC(A) qualification, currency, and proficiency with other missions that compete for limited resources, such as counter-air, suppression of enemy air defenses, interdiction, close air support, and more. Because of these competing priorities and a longstanding aversion to use the skill-set, FAC(A) has fallen by the wayside."

Acquisition from Within

3/1/2017

The Department of Defense is looking at a greater realignment of the roles held by the undersecretary of defense for acquisitions, technology and logistics, or AT&L, than is required by Congress, and the agency hopes to craft a chief management officer position to handle departmentwide business processes, according to a memo obtained by Defense News. – Defense News

DoD’s Gambit to Reform Acquisition "From Within"
From Jared Serbu, Federal News Radio: "The Pentagon’s internal improvement plan, known as Better Buying Power, coincided with several consecutive years of declines in the rate of cost growth for the Pentagon’s major weapons systems, from more than 9 percent in 2011 to 3.5 percent in 2015, the lowest level since 1985. For the first time since 2000, the Pentagon in 2015 recorded no substantive breaches of the Nunn-McCurdy Act, a law that requires DoD to notify Congress when a weapons systems’ costs balloon well beyond its previously-planned baseline. By comparison, there were eight separate breaches in 2009, including seven “critical” ones."

Matthew Continetti writes: Artificial constraints such as the sequester, and the all too real but ultimately secondary constraint of the deficit, are less important than the overriding necessity of restoring America's deterrent, its military readiness, and its long-term capabilities. President Trump should follow his negotiating instincts, side with his generals, and bid high on America's defense. – Washington Free Beacon

5 STRATEGIES FOR INCOMING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

3/1/2017

Real Clear Defense

Missile Defense Against Russian-Chinese Nukes

3/1/2017

Breaking Defense

Missile Defense and Defeat: Considerations for the New Policy Review
From Thomas Karako, et al., CSIS: “The national defense authorization act signed into law in 2016 contained a provision mandating a review of missile defeat policy, strategy, and capability, to be completed and submitted to Congress by January 2018. This Missile Defeat Review (MDR) appears likely to serve as a successor to both the Department of Defense’s 2010 Ballistic Missile Defense Review and other publications by the Joint Staff. .”

India & Building the F-16 Abroad

3/1/2017

Breaking Defense

Major Defense Firms Facing Global Supply Chain Risks
From Robert Levinson, Bloomberg: “The “Big Five” defense companies — Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co., General Dynamics Corp., Raytheon Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. — rely on a global network of thousands of subcontractors that often overlaps, putting them at risk of supply chain disruptions, a Bloomberg Government analysis shows.”

eaglen_china_one-pager.pdf
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GOLDWATER DoD REFORM
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2023 INDEX U.S. MILITARY STRENGTH
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JAMES HOLMES 'REPLICATOR' 19FORTYFIVE.COM

DoD REFORM
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WHY ARE GENERALS DON'T WIN WARS
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ELAINE McCUSKER AEI/DoD

REFORMING DEFENSE BUDGETING
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FIXING DEFENSE BUDGET
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TRANSPARENCY & COST CAPABILITY
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MACKENZIE EAGLEN
AEI

DEFENSE STRATEGY-PRIORITIES
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DEFENSE INNOVATION PROBLEMS
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REBUTAL TO EAGLEN
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DOD ACQUISITION REFORM

twelve problems_negatively_impacting_defense_innovation___american_enterprise_institute_-_aei.pdf
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the_1960s_had_their_day__changing_dod’s_acquisition_processes_and_structures___realcleardefense.pdf
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Dr. Kathleen Hicks

getting_to_less.pdf
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THUCYDIDES & THE LONG WAR PROBLEM

FORCE PLANNING IN AGE OF GREAT POWER COMPETITION

AGAINST ALL ODDS: CHANGING ACQUISITION CULTURE

THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN MILITARY PRIMACY

NATIONAL MILITARY STRATEGY: REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH

UNDERSTANDING MILITARY MODERNIZATION

5 STRATEGIES FOR SEC. OF DEFENSE

WHY THE 3RD OFFSET FAILS

INADEQUATE DOCTRINES FOR IRREGULAR WAR

ALTERNATIVE WAR STRATEGIES & FORCE POSTURE

REVERSING DECLINE: ELIZABETHIAN ENGLAND

U.S. GRAND STRATEGY FOR WINNING WORLD WAR IV

MULTI-DOMAIN BATTLE REPLACES R.M.A.

GLOBAL DEFENSE SPENDING.pdf
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REBUILDING AMERICAN MILITARY.pdf
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Tweets by WilliamHolland

Principles Guiding Pentagon Acquisition Reform
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