Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Robert Papp recently oversaw the keel laying ceremony of the newest National Security Cutter (NSC), the Hamilton. Fittingly, this vessel is one of the fleet of NSCs to replace the outgoing Hamilton-class cutters, which have been in service since the 1960s. Yet while the outgoing geriatric …
Tomorrow, the House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on implementing the mandated defense cuts known as sequestration. Instead of implementing the cuts, Congress should be doing everything it can to overturn them. The committee has already projected the actual consequences of these across-the-board cuts, and the Secretary of …
Constituents at a Great Falls, Montana, town hall meeting understand what many in Congress do not seem to understand: Cuts mandated by budget sequestration will erode the defense industrial base to the point where irreversible damage may be done to military readiness. Recounting a town hall meeting with Congressman Denny …
The House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness is holding a hearing this week titled “Department of the Air Force Aircraft Force Structure Reductions.” The last word of this hearing—reductions—is telling. The subcommittee usually holds hearings in which military officials update the status of their respective branches. However, the U.S. Air …
While the President has reveled in recent U.S. military accomplishments (even at the expense of classified or sensitive information), his Administration has been guardedly quiet about the defense community’s elephant in the room: the automatic cuts mandated by sequestration. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has repeatedly stated that the cuts …
Whether in Washington, D.C., or Wichita Falls, Texas, people are wondering nervously how the automatic defense cuts of sequestration will impact the U.S. military. While varied groups and individuals struggle to find solutions to preserve national security, one organization with significant influence in the matter—the Obama Administration—has refused to seriously …
“The impact of this decline is no longer invisible. Far too many of the military’s top priority development programs are experiencing schedule delays and development risks which are attributed mainly to a lack of adequate funding, not technical problems—funding problems.” The above quote paints a startling picture of the state …
The Coast Guard needs to call more attention to its undersized fleet, according to Congressional Research Service expert Ron O’Rourke. While the sea service has publicized its requirement list, “the other part [of the discussion] is the extent to which that program of record will permit the Coast Guard to …
Yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber’s first flight. The last B-52 came off the production line 10 years later. Such milestones are often celebrated nostalgically for their achievements in times past. However, we can’t call them the “good old days” quite yet for the B-52, …
