CRYSTAL CITY: “I’ve never wanted to enter any tactical scenario where all I had is a defensive capability. It’s a losing proposition,” said the chief of Pacific Command, Adm. Samuel Locklear. “You will defend yourself until you’re dead.” That was the PACOM commander’s blunt and public response when I asked him about the chronic imbalance between…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.ROC-X – The solution to organic precision strike capabilities
At AUSA Global Force 2024, IAI presented integrated, AI-driven combat systems – both manned and unmanned – that are opening new opportunities on the battlefield.
At 1:30 am this morning – 7:30 pm yesterday Hawaiian time — the Navy’s newest missile defense system marked its second successful shootdown in a month. Under what Lockheed Martin called an “operationally realistic scenario” – more on that in a moment – the USS Lake Erie picked up the target with its Aegis Ballistic Missile…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
After failing its first test back in 2011, the Raytheon-built SM-3 Block IB missile looks like it’s back on track, with yesterday marking the third successful test in a row, each against increasingly difficult targets launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai island in Hawaii. The SM-3 IB is the latest iteration of…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.CRYSTAL CITY: From standardizing paint schemes to buying fewer types of valves, the Navy is going all-out to save money as budgets tighten. This new emphasis on affordability goes beyond the usual mundane economies to a sea change in how the service develops new vessels and technologies, with the much-criticized Littoral Combat Ship as the…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Tomorrow morning, at Manhattan’s Pier 88, the Navy will commission its newest destroyer, DDG-112. The USS Michael Murphy‘s namesake was uncompromisingly heroic, a Navy SEAL who died earning the Medal of Honor in Afghanistan. The ship itself, however, embodies a series of cost-conscious compromises that will keep the Navy sailing a 1980s design — albeit…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
What’s new in naval radars and missiles: Defending the Pacific
Defending U.S. naval forces in the Pacific, Red Sea, and elsewhere require a range of systems from close-in weapons to anti-ballistic missiles.
Robbin Laird, a member of the AOL Board of Contributors and vocal F-35 proponent, outlines why Japan’s decision to purchase the Joint Strike Fighter will redefine the U.S. and its allies fly and fight in the Pacific. The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will be the cornerstone of Japanese defense. The Japanese know something about technology.…
By Robbin LairdUPDATED WASHINGTON: A Navy plan to base four Aegis warships in Spain could end up being sunk by congressional lawmakers looking to protect their own political interests. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the ship relocation plan in October at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The decision “should send a very strong signal that the United States…
By Otto KreisherWashington: A veteran Republican defense official played the skunk at the garden party today, raising serious technical and financial doubts about the Obama administration’s approach to ballistic missile defense for Europe after the Missile Defense Agency director and a top State Department official praised the program. Dov Zakheim, a senior Defense Department official under two…
By Otto KreisherThe U.S. military faces a readiness crisis. A recent Congressional hearing generated headlines about the Navy’s surface fleet falling into disrepair. But that was news four years ago. Across all the services, long-standing readiness problems are worsening; breakdowns are happening more frequently. Several years ago, an Air Force F-15C literally broke in half during flight.…
By Mackenzie Eaglen
Crafting A Pacific Attack & Defense Enterprise: The Strategic Quadrangle
The pivot to the Pacific started more than a century ago. The United States first became a Pacific power in 1898, the year the US first annexed Hawaii and then gained Guam and the Philippines (as well as Puerto Rico) from Spain after a “short, victorious war.” The United States is at a turning point…
By Robbin Laird