Tag: Pentagon

Washington, D.C. – In what was billed as the final major national security address of his administration, President Barack Obama took a victory lap for his counterterrorism achievements in remarks made to Special Operations and Central Command officials at MacDill Air Force Base. The Dec. 6 speech also doubled a thinly veiled rebuttal to the […]

Washington, D.C. – A leading think tank told the Senate Armed Services Committee Dec. 6 that the incoming Trump Administration should undertake an assessment of special operations forces as part of any new counterterrorism strategy. The incoming Trump administration will have the burden to ensure SOF is enveloped into the Pentagon structure appropriately with new […]

It takes what feels like an eternity for the Pentagon to adopt new technology. Often a system is already outdated by the time it is ready for combat. “It takes us a really long time to build anything new, usually between five to eight years for new technology to get to our warfighters,” Col. Bruce […]

The Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) is the principal defense policy advisor to the President. Under the direction of the President, the Secretary exercises authority, direction, and control over the Department of Defense. The Secretary of Defense is not a Joint Chiefs of Staff on steroids. It’s a policy implementation role, final authority, and principal liaison to the […]

Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s new proposal to relax the military’s recruiting standards for fitness and body composition is fraught with potential problems both politically and practically, observers say. Carter floated the idea during a speech in New York on Tuesday, suggesting current recruiting standards may be “overly restrictive” and result in the military rejecting people […]

The Islamic State relies on religious precedence to absolve responsibility for the individual and group. As such, they’re finding authority to run from the battle. Nearly everything that the Islamic State does, in their view, has some kind of canonical precedent. They wish to create their own currency, based on the Quranic meaning of currency, […]

A great many of media reports have exposed a recent development in the military world, a develop that has many outraged. Because soldiers are being forced to repay their bonuses, with interest, that were awarded in wartime. The Pentagon is asking for its soldiers to repay them for wartime bonuses they originally gave. It’s unthinkable […]

Within weeks of the Pentagon allowing transgender service members to serve openly, Army officials said 10 soldiers have formally asked to be recognized as their new, preferred gender. The small number represents only those who have publicly said they are transgender, and doesn’t include soldiers who may be considering or beginning gender transition or those who […]

The Military wants its spies that can go where traditional ones cannot. The world is becoming flush with proxy wars and fewer permissive environments. The world saw how potentially cumbersome GRS attached to American spies can be during meetings in “13 Hours.” But, they also felt the lack of tactical and situational awareness those spies […]

Our air traffic control system successfully monitors thousands of aircraft per day. Yet, no such system for monitoring drones exists, yet. And UAVs are not required to report their location, as aircraft does. Even so, drones are quickly becoming ubiquitous in our society, making it less likely for us to know if the flier has ill intentions, until it’s too late. A group of no-goodniks could easily fly an explosive-laden drone, or half a dozen of them, into an office building, a park, city square, or even a stadium full of spectators.

A Saudi Instagram account shows a shell with the words “Martyr Jamil Hadi” written on it. Additional images show that Saudi forces are using several systems for firing white phosphorus munitions, including tank rounds, mortars, howitzers and rifle grenades. The most recent footage — posted Sept. 9 — shows a U.S.-developed M198 155mm Saudi howitzer with the telltale sea-foam green white phosphorus rounds nearby ready to be loaded and fired.

On Sept. 13, Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, the top U.S. Air Force officer in charge of operations in the Middle East, announced that American jets — including deadly A-10 ground-attackers and lumbering B-52 bombers — had blown up a giant chemical weapons site in Iraq. According to the general, Islamic State terrorists had been using the converted pharmaceutical plant […]