WASHINGTON: The V-22 Osprey that crashed during a military exercise in southern Morocco, killing two Marine crew chiefs, had just dropped troops off in a landing zone on a clear day and was flying away when the accident occurred, military sources tell Breaking Defense. Those circumstances might seem to suggest that the tiltrotor troop transport…
By Richard WhittleA major overhaul is coming in software for missile warning
Space Systems Command’s FORGE program is the first, major missile-warning software modernization effort in 20 years.
WASHINGTON: A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey crashed in Morocco on Wednesday, killing two U.S. military personnel. Neither the cause nor circumstances of the accident were immediately available. Wire services quoting U.S. embassy spokesman Rodney D. Ford called the dead “soldiers” but military sources told Breaking Defense the only personnel aboard the aircraft were its Marine…
By Richard WhittleWASHINGTON: Landing a V-22 Osprey helicopter-style on the sprawling flight deck of the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush was a snap, says Marine Corps test pilot Capt. Dan McKinney. With Lt. Col. David Weinstein, McKinney did it a dozen times on March 20 – six landings in daylight, six at night. After their…
By Richard WhittleCAPITOL HILL: “These findings should outrage every American.” Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is a tough former prosecutor but he rarely offers such sweeping condemnations as he did today when releasing the findings of a congressional sting operation designed to test whether China had changed its ways and had started…
By Colin ClarkLibyan rebels, Somali pirates, Osprey tiltrotors, and a long, long time at sea: The future of the Marine Corps post-Afghanistan can be seen in what you might call “Yoda and Bart’s Great Adventure,” an extraordinary ocean journey that began a year ago Friday. This Yoda and Bart aren’t fictional characters, but the radio call signs…
By Richard WhittleThe Navy-Marine Corps team just completed the largest amphibious exercise in more than a decade. But what did people see? What did they recognize in the Bold Alligator exercise and focus upon? Because it is called an amphibious exercise, outsiders who attended the exercise tended to focus upon the amphibious ships themselves, the landing ships,…
By Robbin LairdWashington: Two of Washington’s better known taxpayer groups today offered a salad of Pentagon cuts, including recommendations to kill the entire F-35 program. The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) — who occupy very different parts of the political spectrum — issued the recommendations to the congressional Super Committee…
By Colin Clark
Enterprise-wide training: the Army’s $3.5B program for multi-service combat readiness
The competition for Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring together training networks, combat training centers and live ranges across the DoD enterprise.
I commissioned this story from one of the foremost — if not the foremost — independent authorities on the V-22 because I thought it important to address the basic question: is the V-22 worth the lives and treasure it has cost America? The answer by reporter Richard Whittle — the man who literally wrote the…
By Richard WhittleWashington: Sometimes events are, in and of themselves, news. So it was today when the Joint Strike Fighter program working with the Marines, flew the F-35B for the first time in front of a carefully selected portion of the defense press corps. For more news and information on the swiftly-changing defense industry, please sign up…
By Colin ClarkTo defend the nation we must cut defense spending. We can no longer afford to waste money subsidizing the defense of Western Europe, overpaying contractors, and buying overpriced and under-performing weapons with exquisite requirements. As Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says: “Our national debt is our biggest national security threat.”…
By Ben FreemanThose Navy SEALs who killed Osama bin Laden arrived at his hideout in Pakistan by helicopter. While few Americans have seen video of those helos in flight, that is just the most dramatic example of how much the military relies on such machines these days. No military equipment has been more pivotal for U.S. forces…
By Richard WhittleParis: Boeing’s military aircraft business expects its international sales to grow by some 5 percent over the next five to seven years, president Chris Chadwick told Breaking Defense. He said Boeing sees “about a five- to seven-year window of opportunity that only comes along once in a while in the international arena.” Most of that…
By Colin ClarkLt. Gen. Terry Robling talks to Breaking Defense Editor Colin Clark about why funding for the controversial V-22 Osprey must not be cut. The Project for Government Oversight, a nonpartisan group, has called on lawmakers to cut all funding for the plane, as has the New York Times in an editorial.
By Colin ClarkThe future of the Marines, which has been hotly debated ever since Defense Secretary Robert Gates referred to it as our “second land army” days after he announced the closure of Joint Forces Command, may well lie more in the air than on the sea. If you want to glimpse that future you could look…
By David Axe
