Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is in Asia trying to prevent further escalations in tensions over several territorial disputes. National elections in South Korea and Japan and a leadership transition in China’s Communist Party have fueled a resurgence of nationalism and historical animosities. Although the rhetoric and political posturing is coming …
Retired General Arnold Punaro, Chairman of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Business Board task force was recently quoted saying that he would “put a match” to the entire set of regulations governing the acquisition of weapons and military equipment and start over. This is a colorful comment by such …
A July 24 article in the online Mobile Magazine describes the advanced technology of Raytheon’s Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) for destroying missile warheads in space. The article is right to tout the capabilities of this and similar anti-missile kill vehicles. The EKV is the payload portion of anti-missile missiles and …
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta recently sent a letter urging Senator Daniel Inouye (D–HI), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to conclude a test phase of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) in fiscal year (FY) 2013. MEADS is a trilateral anti-aircraft and missile program with Germany and Italy. …
The House of Representatives has taken one step toward preventing the deterioration of America’s nuclear forces. It approved an amendment to the defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2013 last Thursday that would prohibit the Obama Administration from using the funds provided in the bill to reduce the nuclear forces …
In his recent article in Foreign Affairs, “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb: Nuclear Balancing Would Mean Stability,” Kenneth N. Waltz is swimming upstream against the consensus position regarding the instability stemming from nuclear proliferation. In this case, the consensus position is right, and Waltz is wrong. The international nuclear …
Recent news articles, including one by journalist and author Bill Gertz, indicate that the Obama Administration will soon release an update to a previous study of U.S. nuclear weapons policy that will recommend that the number of strategic nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal be reduced to between 1,000 and …
Former Representative Bob Barr’s (R–GA) criticism of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) anti-aircraft and missile program is understandable but misplaced. Representative Barr, quite reasonably, points to the Obama Administration’s plan to continue spending money on this cooperative program with Germany and Italy despite an announcement early last year …
During the NATO meeting in Chicago, the alliance will declare that it has an interim operational capability to defend itself against ballistic missile attacks. This is a major step forward for NATO and U.S. leadership within the alliance. The declaration marks the achievement of the first phase in the Obama …
According to press reports, the House Armed Services Committee has preserved a provision in its draft of annual defense legislation that would place ballistic missile defense interceptors on the East Coast to defend U.S. territory more effectively against ballistic missile attacks, including short-range missiles carrying electromagnetic pulse (EMP) warheads that …
