Category Archives: U.S. Air Force

Opinion: Unmanned Vehicles and Cyber are a Warfare Evolution, Not Revolution

Opinion: Unmanned Vehicles and Cyber are a Warfare Evolution, Not Revolution

A Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle is launched from USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44) in 2012. US Navy Photo

A Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle is launched from USS Gunston Hall (LSD-44) in 2012. US Navy Photo

The use of cyber-tactics combined with unmanned aerial vehicles to prosecute the campaign against terrorists has increased dramatically over recent years. Technological development along those lines has sparked discussions ranging from talk of revolutions in how wars will be fought to changes in domestic law enforcement. The New York Times recently published a column titled “At War: How Cyber Warfare and Drones Have Revolutionized Warfare,” by Tim Hsia and Jared Sperli. Both are West Point graduates and combat veterans, currently serving as ROTC military science instructors. Unfortunately, geography and the facts on the ground do not bear out their observations. Read More

Document: Carter Memo on Headquarters Reduction

Document: Carter Memo on Headquarters Reduction

The following is a July 31, 2013 memo from Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to military leaders on a planned reduction of 20 percent in the management in headquarters across the Department of Defense.

The cuts will occur regardless of the current legislative impasse over military funding.

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Pentagon's Carter: Choices Made Under Sequestration Are 'Dumb'

Pentagon’s Carter: Choices Made Under Sequestration Are ‘Dumb’

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United States Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter

The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian agreed “the math does not add up” to meet the immediate requirements of a second round of sequestration cuts, even after adopting Department of Defense’s most drastic scenarios in its latest management review — the Strategic Choices and Management Review.

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Two Options for Pentagon's Future

Two Options for Pentagon’s Future

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel answers reporters' questions during a Pentagon press briefing on July 31, 2013. Department of Defense Photo

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel answers reporters’ questions during a Pentagon press briefing on July 31, 2013. Department of Defense Photo

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said the Pentagon has to choose between a small high tech force or a larger one with antiquated equipment if the services are forced to live in a budgetary world dictated by the mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration, he told reporters in a Pentagon briefing on Wednesday. Read More

Pentagon Takes Next Steps in Moving Women into Combat Jobs

Pentagon Takes Next Steps in Moving Women into Combat Jobs

Chief Engineman Patricia Cooper, a student in the Riverine Combat Skills course (RCS), patrols the training grounds during a field training exercise in Camp Lejeune, N.C. in 2012. US Navy Photo

Chief Engineman Patricia Cooper, a student in the Riverine Combat Skills course (RCS), patrols the training grounds during a field training exercise in Camp Lejeune, N.C. in 2012. US Navy Photo

The Marine Corps intends to build up a female cadre of officers and noncommissioned officers to help women as more military occupations and units become open to females, the deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs told the House Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee on Thursday. Read More

Navy's Next Generation Communications Satellite Launches Amidst Murky Future

Navy’s Next Generation Communications Satellite Launches Amidst Murky Future

An Atlas V rocket launches the Navy's Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) 2 satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. on July 19, 2013. US Navy Photo via NASA

An Atlas V rocket launches the Navy’s Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) 2 satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. on July 19, 2013. US Navy Photo via NASA

The Navy has successfully launched its second satellite as part of its Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), designed to provide U.S. troops and allies with higher bandwidth communications options, according to the service.

On Friday, an Atlas V rocket launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. to send the second of five planned Lockheed Martin-built satellites in the MUOS constellation into orbit.

The launch comes, however, amidst a dispute in Italy over one of the four planned ground stations and a lack of next-generation radios able to utilize the higher bandwidth features of the new systems.

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Pentagon's Sequestration Plan

Pentagon’s Sequestration Plan

The following is the July 10, 2013 Pentagon response to Sen. Carl Levin’s (D-Mich.) request to the Department of Defense to provide the Senate Armed Services Committee with a plan for sequestration.

The Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposal ignored the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) which instituted across-the-board cuts to the defense budget cuts. Read More

Document: Pentagon's Aviation Plan

Document: Pentagon’s Aviation Plan

An F/A-18F Super Hornet flies from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69). US Navy Photo.

An F/A-18F Super Hornet flies from USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69). US Navy Photo.

The following is the Pentagon’s aviation plan, dated May 2013.
From the report:

Summary of the Annual Plan and Certification

This plan was developed based on the FY14 President’s Budget submission and does not include the effects of sequestration / Budget Control Act funding decreases. The Department is in the process of a Strategic Choices and Management Review (SCMR) to resolve these impacts.

As such, changes to this plan are probable in next year’s report. Moreover, sequestration is already having an adverse effect on readiness across multiple mission areas, including aviation.

Changes in technology and organizational structure make categorizing aircraft into bins of like capability increasingly difficult.

However, this aviation force structure plan provides the diverse mix of aircraft needed to carry out the eleven missions identified above. The capabilities provided by aircraft identified in this plan reflect five principal investment objectives identified Read More