December 2009 Issue
The unseen cost
“If one examines U.S. national security or defense strategy documents, or the last three Quadrennial Defense Reviews (QDRs), there is almost no mention of the industrial base. The...
By Marion C. Blakey
Robotic contractors
Technically speaking, UAVs, guided missiles, torpedoes and unmanned submarines are robots. There are about 50 countries that have or are developing military robots. Many have chemical,...
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!
The 7-foot-7-inch humanoid robot in the 1951 film “The Day the Earth Stood Still” foreshadowed the ethical concerns facing developers of robots for the Defense Department today.
BY SCOTT HAMILTON
The danger of déjà vu
During the past year, we have seen our U.S. national security establishment ponder the question of what to do next in Afghanistan. With the January inauguration, a new president became...
BY COL. CHARLES D. ALLEN (RET.)
No fix
TO THE PENTAGON for its new fixation on fixed-price contracts. DoD is quite right to focus on reining in preposterously out-of-control weapons programs that end up costing millions of...
Prize words
TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA for a Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech that did what his West Point Afghanistan speech failed to do: Show the spine of a commander in chief. Right at the top of...
Loophole lunacy
TO ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF GEN. GEORGE CASEY for bypassing ethics laws so the Army could rehire two retired generals as mentors on lucrative contracts. Records show that the Army wanted to use...
Forum pick: From our online discussion boards
This article is evidence of the alarming misunderstanding that permeates much of the thinking about maritime domain awareness. Their argument is that these bad actors will exploit the...
A dangerous ban
A recent report indicated that President Barack Obama had finally made an important security policy-related decision — on whether his administration would seek to have the U.S. sign...
BY HARVEY M. SAPOLSKY
True transformation
The U.S. military, if it is to measure up to its future responsibilities as an effective instrument of statecraft and a trusted institution of society, must embark on the path of...
BY GREGORY D. FOSTER
War planning for wicked problems
There is increasing awareness within the Defense Department that wars are interactively complex or “wicked” problems. A series of new publications and ongoing doctrinal revisions...
By T.C. Greenwood and T.X. Hammes
A vehicle for modern times
The Army leadership will soon restart its stillborn effort to develop and produce a new family of fighting vehicles. More is at stake than just beginning another weapons-buying program. The...
BY MAJ. GEN. ROBERT H. SCALES (RET.)
The need for NATO
The Alma battlefield in Crimea is a bleak ridge that rises from a long and bare plain cut by the Alma River. Here, near the village of Bourliouk on Sept. 20, 1854, 90,000 British, French,...
BY BOB KILLEBREW
Letters
I found the November issue quite stimulating. In particular the opening letter to the editor by Lt. Col. Ken Beebe and short commentary by the usually historically astute William Owens...
In this issue
When Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced in April that he was canceling the vehicle part of the Future Combat Systems program, he pledged to protect FCS vehicle money so that it would...
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Posted 7/8/2010 by Administrator
Commanding speech
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