Secret Brief On DoD Readiness Woes Set For House Members; HASC Hopes To Sway GOP Leaders
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CAPITOL HILL: The House Armed Services Committee will hold an extraordinary classified briefing Thursday, open to all House members, on the state of readiness in the US military. Rep. Randy Forbes and other HASC members who pushed for the briefing hope it will help convince Speaker John Boehner and other key GOP leaders that the combined effects… Keep reading →
Service Chiefs Critique Hagel’s SCMR: ‘Rosy’ & ‘Dangerous’ Assumptions
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CAPITOL HILL: We’ve had nearly two years of hearings about how hard the automatic budget cuts called sequestration would hit the Department of Defense. Yesterday, we saw something new. For the first time, the uniformed chiefs of all four services publicly told Congress that they have big problems with their civilian bosses’ plan to cope… Keep reading →
Raytheon Non-Lethal Heat Beam Tackles New Missions
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WASHINGTON: The Marine Corps has long championed what are called non-lethal systems, designed to stop mobs from killing Americans without us having to kill them. After all, Marines are responsible for defending American embassies and consulates around the world, which are all too often threatened by rampaging crowds angry with whatever the latest American perfidy… Keep reading →
US Military Could Not Handle One Major Theater Operation If Sequester Sticks
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CAPITOL HILL: Even the cameras stopped clicking in a hushed Armed Services hearing room today as Rep. Jim Cooper told the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his colleagues on the biggest committee in Congress today that America’s lawmakers had failed the country. “You gentlemen make life and death decisions in the Tank almost every day,”… Keep reading →
US Marine Force in Darwin, Australia Boosts To 1,000 Next Year; Rise To MEU Force Proceeds
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WASHINGTON: The US presence in the remote northern Australian port of Darwin will soar from its current 250 troops to 1,000 next year and ultimately to 2,200, granting a full Marine Expeditionary Unit an effective base of operations. Although the general agreement had been made in 2011, the renewed commitment is likely to elicit a… Keep reading →
Marines Will Sacrifice Everything But ACV & Readiness To Sequester; Marine Personnel Carrier Dropped: Gen. Amos
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WASHINGTON: Fewer F-35B Joint Strike Fighters, MV-22 Ospreys, AH-1 Cobras, and UH-1 Hueys. No Marine Personnel Carrier. Maybe no Joint Light Tactical Vehicle to replace the Humvee. 8,000 fewer Marines on active duty. The Marine Commandant has put all that on the table as part of his proposal to the Defense Secretary’s Strategic Choices and… Keep reading →
F-35B IOC To Come ‘Latter Half of 2015,’ Marine Commandant Gen. Amos Says
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[updated with official dates] WASHINGTON: Just two days before the Pentagon is required by Congress to report when the different versions of F-35 will hit Initial Operating Capability, that mark when the services begin to deliver planes that are sort of ready for war missions and serious training, Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos told me… Keep reading →
Gen. Amos: Marines Can’t Fight Major War If Sequestered; Navy Short Carriers Too
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CAPITOL HILL: The commandant of the Marines told Congress today that his service could not handle even one major war if Congress doesn’t undo the $500 billion, 10-year cut to defense spending known as sequestration. The Navy, for its part, would have only one aircraft carrier ready to “surge” in a crisis instead of two… Keep reading →
Gen. Amos, Adm. Greenert: F-35 Essential But Procurement ‘Constipated’
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NATIONAL HARBOR: The top officers in the Navy and Marine Corps defended their most expensive program, Lockheed Martin‘s troubled F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, while acknowledging the way the Pentagon buys such weapons is not merely broken but “constipated.” “There’s no alternative for the United States Marine Corps to the F-35B,” Commandant Gen. James Amos said… Keep reading →
80,000 Tons Of Innovation: USNS Montford Point, The Navy’s New Mobile Landing Platform
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We attended the christening last week of the newest US Navy ship, an 80,000 ton (fully laden) vessel that is not an aircraft carrier. Instead, the USNS Montford Point is the first of a new class of Navy ships, a Mobile Landing Platform, in essence a deployed port at sea. The ship, built at General… Keep reading →