The Pentagon is downplaying major F-35 Joint Strike Fighter design flaws that could leave service members at risk in an effort to keep the long-scrutinized program on schedule, a watchdog group warned this week. - Military.com
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 30 years at Defense News: Reflections from a ‘war industry stooge’ (Defense News) After 30 years at Defense News, it’s time to move on. Defense News Editor Jill Aitoro and my colleagues will officially retire me at the upcoming Defense News Conference in Washington, where I’ll compare and contrast my experiences covering political-military-industrial establishments in the U.S., where I started this gig in the closing months of the Reagan administration; and from Israel, where I’ve been a one-woman bureau since 1999. Israel aims for Middle East with new ‘precision rocket’ BY ALISON TAHMIZIAN MEUSE Planned rocket system aimed at 'diversification' of Israeli military, which for years has carried out air strikes in neighboring Syria F-16V to beef up Taiwan’s air defense against China’s J-20 BY ASIA TIME STAFF Taiwan's F-16s will be upgraded to the V configuration in batches in Taichung and Texas to give Taipei more power in the skies Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced Monday that Israel is purchasing advanced rockets that he says can reach "anywhere in the Middle East." - Haaretz The idea has long been in the works, but the Defense Ministry’s decision on Monday to finally purchase new precision ground-to-ground rockets for the Ground Forces is nothing short of a revolution. Years from now, it will also likely be looked at as one of the most significant decisions Avigdor Liberman will have made as Israel’s defense minister. - Jerusalem Post
The Problem With China's Powerful Air Force
By J. Tyler Lovell & Robert Farley, The National Interest: “The appropriation strategy remains constrained by bottleneck technologies due to lack of testing data and industrial ecology. This problem is starkly illustrated by China’s ongoing difficulty in producing a high-quality indigenous jet engine.”
Russian Ground-Launched Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons
By Mark B. Schneider, RealClearDefense: “Russia maintains the largest force of ground-launched non-strategic or tactical nuclear weapons in the world. Even more striking is the fact that essentially 100% of these weapons violate Russian arms control commitments.”
The hypervelocity case shot
(C4ISRNET) Any future nation-state adversary surely understands the U.S. reliance on satellite communications for global military operations. Therefore, they likely understand there is a crude and unsophisticated way to disturb and degrade satellite communication, an IED of outer space that can be introduced, by polluting orbits with shrapnel and debris that are likely to damage any space-borne assets in their way.  How the U.S. Is Preparing to Match Chinese and Russian Technology Development By Patrick Tucker, Defense One: “The Pentagon’s R&D chief adds some numbers and details to the laundry list of priorities.” Securing America’s technological advantage (The Cipher Brief) National security experts agree that a strong and successful domestic economy is crucial to keeping our nation safe and having the upper hand in the development of super-fast processors, state of the art bio-tech devices, adaptive ways to generate and store energy are just a few examples of our leadership strength. While pursuing new innovation is important, protecting these technologies is imperative. CIVIL MILITARY RELATIONS POST OBAMA ERA & WHAT WWI TAUGHT THE ARMY ABOUT EXPEDITIONARY WAR FIGHTING8/21/2018  Danger Close: Military Politicization and Elite Credibility by Michael A. Robinson
McRaven's Rousing Protest: Are Civil-Military and Democratic Norms in Tension? by Kori Schake  Russia says it's working on an experimental fifth-generation MiG-41 — but an expert says a pure interceptor is already obsolete
(Business Insider) The CEO of the Russian MiG corporation said on Friday that work on an experimental design for a MiG-41 fifth-generation interceptor will begin "in the immediate future."  Untangling the Government's Innovation Architecture By George Kulczycki, Strategy Bridge: “The Defense Innovation Board stated that what the Pentagon has is not a problem innovating, but, rather, a problem adopting innovations.” You don’t get to the NDAA personnel reforms without force of the future (War On The Rocks) The Department of Defense is overhauling the military personnel system for the first time in a generation. And the changes, some large, others small, all indicate that the department has finally embraced the “talent management” revolution that swept the private sector more than two decades ago. State Department Raises Alarm Over Russian Satellite’s Behavior
By Maddy Longwell, C4ISRNET: “A Russian satellite made a series of maneuvers in October 2017 that was “inconsistent" with its expected behavior and marks “a very troubling development.”” The Cloud: A Catalyst for a More Efficient and Secure Government By Mark Weatherford, RealClearDefense: “"The cloud is not just strategic but existential. Some firms owe their very existence to the cloud, whether they call it that or not. Others can blame their demise to a failure to formulate effective cloud strategies." So said Joe Weinman, the digital strategist and technology executive, in his 2012 book Cloudonomics.”  Army Makes ‘Hard Choices’ in 2020 Budget Blueprint By Jon Harper, National Defense Magazine: “The Army’s fiscal year 2020 budget plans would cut funding for a number of programs to free up money for its top six modernization priorities.” It’s no secret senior military and congressional leaders are worried about adversarial gains in the electronic warfare space, with some even going as far as to say the U.S. is tactically outgunned. One member of Congress who retired as a one-star general in the electronic warfare field has even said the U.S. is now just bringing up the rear of the top three EW powers in the world. - Fifth Domain
 Defeating modern air defenses is achievable with smart strategies, not only stealth and standoff (Defense News) Air forces need not be entirely stealthy nor exclusively standoff to execute effective rollback strategies like Desert Storm or Operation Iraqi Freedom. Stop wasting time so we can beat China: DoD research boss (Breaking Defense) How much of a military-industrial rock star is Mike Griffin? Well, the former NASA director turned Pentagon R&D chief can call tell a room full of defense contractors and officials they’re wasting everyone’s money and time AND get a standing ovation. The U.S. Army is heading toward acquiring an interim cruise missile protection capability as part of an effort being spearheaded by the air-and-missile defense cross functional team within the service’s new Futures Command. - Defense News The Missile Defense Agency is ‘not averse’ to developing and fielding space-based missile defense interceptors, its director, Gen. Samuel Greaves, said August 8 at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium. - Defense News Missile defense leaders within the Pentagon as well as Congress are pushing for more missile defense capability in space and the Missile Defense Agency Director Gen. Samuel Greaves laid out a rough idea of what a space-based missile defense sensor layer could look like. - Defense News The U.S. is seeing the need more and more to become increasingly interoperable with allies when it comes to missile defense, but there are many challenges still to overcome, according to a panel of former and current missile defense stakeholders at the August 7 Defense News Missile Defense Networking Reception. - Defense News Deterrence: The 2018 NPR, Deterrence Theory and Policy By Keith B. Payne, RealClearDefense: “This favorable bipartisan response to the 2018 NPR is also fully evident in the recently-released Conference Report for the FY 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).” The Military's Search for Innovation By Daniel M. Gerstein, RealClearDefense: “...in looking through the lens of history, it is at best unclear whether technology or operational necessity has led the innovation that has driven these advances.” China’s military capabilities are booming, but does its defense industry mirror that trend?
(Defense News) China’s massive military modernization program over the past two decades has been matched to a large degree by a parallel development in its state-owned military-industrial base, and that trend is set to continue as China continues it efforts to build up its forces to challenge U.S. military primacy in the western Pacific.  Defense companies are taking matters into their own hands — in partnership with the Pentagon — to recover a withering supply chain for the munitions market. Released in the spring of this year, the annual industrial capabilities report, put out by the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, concluded that the industrial base of the munitions sector is particularly strained. - Defense News Hoover Fellow Contributes To Military Personnel System Reforms
featuring Timothy Kane via Stanford News When the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act was signed into law on Aug. 13, its highly anticipated personnel reforms came with a connection to the Hoover Institution—Tim Kane.  CHINA: China’s Hypersonic Aircraft Can Fire Nukes at 6 Times the Speed of Sound By Liu Zhen, South China Morning Post: “First test flight of experimental design, which rides its own shock waves, deemed a ‘huge success’” On Tuesday, China announced it had successfully tested its first hypersonic aircraft. It could penetrate even the most advanced missile defense system, thanks to its ability to fly six times faster than the speed of sound. The successful test was a major breakthrough for China, as it is racing against both Russia and the U.S. to develop hypersonic aircraft and missile technology. - Newsweek Raytheon and a Lockheed Martin-Dynetics team are now locked in a head-to-head battle to build a powerful 100-kilowatt laser for the U.S. Army, pushing the envelope on directed-energy capability development. - Defense News As the U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency move into the second half of 2018, the SM-3 Block IIA missile is heading for a crucial test that the Pentagon hopes will dispel nagging doubts after two successive failures. - Defense News To address the Russian and Chinese threats to the United States, as laid out in the National Defense Strategy, a focus on missile defense sensors is an absolute must, U.S. Strategic Command commander Gen. John Hyten hammered home during an August 7 speech at the Space and Missile Defense Symposium. - Defense News Raytheon has built a new massive radar development facility — complete with robotic helpers — to assemble and test its newest radars, but the facility’s design will take the company’s radar work well into the future. - Defense News Kris Osborn writes: The Navy is expanding its attack submarine strategy to further emphasize enhanced “spy” like intelligence, surveillance reconnaissance missions to quietly patrol shallow waters near enemy coastline - scanning for enemy submarines, surface ships and coastal threats. - The National Interest Kimberly Schuster writes: With all the talk of high-tech Russian super-missiles and Trump’s addition of Space Force as a new military branch, it is easy to forget that the US and Russia having been working closely together in space ever since the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975—even as the overall relationship has become more adversarial. [...]But three recent developments threaten to undo even this area of remaining U.S.-Russia cooperation. - Center for Strategic and International Studies
 Why Marine Aviation Is Leaping Into the Future and Army Aviation Isn't
By Loren Thompson, Forbes: “During the two difficult decades following the 9-11 attacks, the U.S. Marine Corps transformed its aviation arm.”
Chinese and Russian Defense Innovation, with American Characteristics?
Military Innovation, Commercial Technologies, and Great Power Competition By Samuel Bendett & Elsa B. Kania, Strategy Bridge: “The apparent absence of the freedom to debate and dissent can have negative consequences for innovation, but patriotism and nationalism can also be powerful motivations in countries that aim to catch up with, and eventually overtake the U.S. military.”
Long-term strategic competition between the United States and China in military aviation
Ariana Skylar Mastro and Michael Chase | Cambria Press |
DOD ACQUISITION REFORM
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THUCYDIDES & THE LONG WAR PROBLEM
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THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN MILITARY PRIMACY
NATIONAL MILITARY STRATEGY: REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH
UNDERSTANDING MILITARY MODERNIZATION
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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.
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