LAS VEGAS: As the Army institutionalizes robotic systems that began as ad hoc expedients for Iraq and Afghanistan, the Chief of Staff wants drones in every combat aviation brigade and every division — even at the price of spreading them thinner across the force. The Army’s first company of Grey Eagle UAVs, a variant of…
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.
WASHINGTON: After months of deadlock and $2.1 billion in extra costs to the Pentagon, Pakistan agreed to reopen NATO supply lines to Afghanistan after getting the high-level civilian apology it had long sought from the US. The price besides American pride? Zero. Top Afghanistan commander Gen. John Allen and other military officers had expressed regret…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.BREAKING: SecDef Panetta says Pakistan has reopened PAKGLOC supply lines – for real this time? http://1.usa.gov/P34Etc SydneyFreedberg
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.PENTAGON: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey took the stage together at the Pentagon this afternoon, 12 months after Panetta took office, to urge Congressional action against sequestration and to defend the administration’s strategy in Afghanistan. The normally calm Panetta became audibly emotional as he discussed the sacrifices of the…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.CAPITOL HILL: The US must not go ahead with planned cuts to the Afghan National Army and police, a panel of experts urged the House Armed Services Committee today. Instead, we must keep spending $6 billion a year to support 350,000 Afghan security personnel, go slowly on drawing down our own forces — and escalate…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.PENTAGON: The Army showed off an impressive array of battlefield wi-fi gadgetry today in the Pentagon courtyard, exhibiting new-found realism about what gadgets it might not need. Consider the hardware to connect the individual foot soldier to the brigade-wide command network, which has been stripped down from a 14-pound prototype to a militarized smartphone plugged…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: As the United States military begins to leave Afghanistan, the Defense Logistics Agency is emptying its warehouses there of stockpiled supplies such as copper wire and shipping them back to the States, says DLA Director Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek. Harnitchek expects the supply agency’s spending will shrink from a wartime peak of $46 billion…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Modernizing military simulation with open systems architecture
Best-of-breed common models and architecture enable virtual training and testing with the same data in a cyber-resilient posture.
After eight years and billions of dollars, the Army has given up on an ambitious effort to clothe its soldiers in a “universal camouflage pattern.” The grey uniform, widely issued and widely loathed, was supposed to blend in equally well in all environments, from desert sand to green forest to city streets. It just didn’t.…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Another soldier killed by infiltrators in Afghan Police (http://aol.it/J5GRjY) uniforms: Jarrod Lallier, age 20. RIP. http://1.usa.gov/PjEIaq SydneyFreedberg
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.US-backed Afghan drug court convicts everyone – HuffPo: http://huff.to/KqEWaU. DoD cites same court as success story @ http://aol.it/N4dy8T SydneyFreedberg
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.ARLINGTON, VA: How confident is the new management at private security contractor ACADEMI — formerly known as Xe and, also, infamously, as Blackwater — that they’ve turned the company around? Last month, apparently without attracting any public attention (until now), they quietly bought another security firm, International Development Solutions, and took over its piece of…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: It’s spring, and 70-ton Marine Corps M1 tanks rumble through the flowers in southern Afghanistan (pictured above), while at home, both chambers of Congress are adding funds for armored vehicles to the Pentagon spending bill. It may seem counter-intuitive that a nation shifting from hearts-and-minds counterinsurgency to “AirSea Battle” in the Pacific would need…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.THE CAPITOL [updated 9:40 pm with details from Senate press release]: The Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously passed its mark-up of the annual defense spending bill, rejecting all proposed cuts to the Air National Guard, cutting the Defense Department’s civilian and contractor workforce by 5 percent over five years, and restricting aid to Pakistan. The…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Fight Against Afghan Corruption Pits Few People Against Big Foe
Anti-corruption programs established to combat graft and fiscal malfeasance in Afghanistan are struggling with a daunting mission. Sparsely resourced, US military and civilian groups battle malign networks that connect distracted American officials, for-profit corporations, predatory Afghan insiders and the Taliban in a toxic system so pervasive that American taxpayers are funding both sides of the…
By Douglas Wissing