“The Department of Defense is not what’s causing the debt and the deficit. It’s the entitlement programs,” says former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in an interview with Human Events. Rumsfeld goes on to say that if the U.S. makes the mistake of cutting defense, the country will be facing another attack and the country’s intelligence will be weakened. This is nothing new—Rumsfeld joins the ranks of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, current Secretary Leon Panetta, and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, who have all sounded the alarm of real and …
The Heritage Foundation is proud to wish the United States Air Force a happy 64th birthday. Sixty-four may not sound old in the context of American history, considering that some of the founding members of the Army Air Corps are still living. Yet the history of these men and women goes back to early aviation itself. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) has much to boast. It developed aerial combat and produced the nation’s first Ace. From World War I and the plains of western Europe, it conquered the skies. In …
When it comes to the Pentagon’s acquisition process, the devil is in the details. Some details, however, can have deadly consequences for men and women in uniform. Loren Thompson offers a sobering analysis of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s (JSF) costs over its 50-year operational lifetime and how the Pentagon itself distorted the picture by making the F-35 seem more expensive than it actually is. The JSF is designed to replace the aging fleet at a time when more than half of the Navy’s deployed aircraft are not fit for …
The situation looks bleak. The military faces hundreds of billions of dollars in defense cuts while being involved in three military engagements. On the horizon is the new Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction—a.k.a. the “Super Committee”—and the possibility of a $1 trillion “trigger” that would change the military as we know it. This Thursday afternoon, the Defending Defense project will host an event on the future of defense spending in the face of this deficit-reduction “Super Committee.” Featured speakers include Senators Lindsey Graham (R–SC), Jon Kyl (R–AZ), and Kelly …
At the 2011 Space and Missile Defense Conference in Huntsville, Alabama, one could sense increasing concerns from engineers and scientists who support and contribute to the U.S. defense industrial base. The U.S. defense industrial base put a man on the moon, allowed the country to win the Cold War, and developed numerous technologies Americans use in everyday life. The type of education and advanced skill sets these men and women possess are invaluable to national security and the U.S. economy. These resources, once lost, would be difficult, expensive, and time-consuming …
With Defense Secretary Robert Gates making his final rounds and Secretary of Defense nominee Leon Panetta headed to his Senate hearing tomorrow, the obvious question is how Panetta will face the defense issues at hand. The Defense Department is rife with challenges, including rampant defense spending cuts in the name of fiscal responsibility and lack of proper modernization. End-strength reductions for the Army and Marines and talk of leaving Afghanistan echo in the halls of both the Pentagon and the Capitol. Panetta’s answers to these challenges will be important for …
As Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi’s forces ramp up their attacks on rebel fighters, talks in the U.S. of a no-fly zone over the country are intensifying as well. Washington needs to look carefully at the crisis instead of impulsively implementing a no-fly zone just to do something. Rather than giving the appearance of action while not making policy, the U.S. would do better to actually show leadership in the situation. Qadhafi’s air force is just one factor—and a limited one at that. The aged and poorly maintained planes, mostly from …
Now that the President has abandoned the third missile defense site which was slated to be built in Poland, the question remains: what will be done with the money which was allocated in the FY 2009 defense budget for the system? Surely the funds should be used to boost the Ground-based interceptors which are already under-funded. To be voted on as early as today, the bi-partisan Lieberman-Sessions amendment moves to allocate between $50 million and $151 million to be used for research, development and testing of the 2-stage ground based …
Former director of the Missile Defense Agency General Trey Obering (ret.) took a USA Today article to task at a recent screening of 33 Minutes in Washington D.C. Listening to Obering, the “reasons” not to build missile defenses sound a lot more like just bad excuses. Technology: Obering said the interceptors they have tested have been able to repeatedly hit within inches of where they aim. What the USA Today article doesn’t say, and Obering pointed out, is that the land based missile system was 3 for 3 in its …
In a recent Associated Press article, Secretary Hillary Clinton’s trip to Europe and the Middle East showed improvement as far as missile defense is concerned. Secretary Clinton “appeared to suggest that missile defense in Europe was a good idea even if Iran was no longer a worry.” While Iran is currently one of the biggest reasons for an effective missile defense system, Iran represents an evolving threat that will likely exist as long as ballistic missiles do. Missile defense systems are an integral part of national security in the 21st …
