My colleague Colin Clark reports from the Hill today where chief Pentagon weapons buyer Ashton Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Joint Strike Fighter now costs 50 percent more than it did in 2002 and that it will breach the Nunn-McCurdy cost limits in a few days. Carter said the cost spike […]
From the monthly archives:
March 2010
Earlier this week, on a flight back from Utah where I was visiting my ageing parents, I finished reading CSBA president Andrew Krepinevich’s new paper titled “Why AirSea Battle?” (.pdf) The evolving AirSea Battle concept is a spin on the Army’s 1980s AirLand Battle concept that aimed to rain punishing ground and air strikes on […]
Via Defense Industry Daily I learned that China’s PLA is not the first to paint their vehicles with digital camouflage. Apparently the Jordanians might be the trendsetters, applying “fractal” camo to their vehicles back in 2006 (follow the DID link for a larger image). Honestly though, compared to the Chinese, the Jordanian camo pattern is […]
Since we’re talking China, and I love vehicle camouflage patterns, I had to put up this shot of Chinese APCs (or SP howitzers?) with digital camouflage. Its the first shot I’ve come across of a vehicle with digital camouflage. As my colleague Christian Lowe writes over at Kit Up, it’s from the Chinese military parade […]
That’s what defense industry insider and analyst Loren Thompson says. It’s hard to imagine that given the country’s ugly fiscal situation, annual defense outlays of $700 billion will continue. Thompson peruses the 2010 QDR and finds another reason why defense spending will turn south: lack of an urgent threat sufficient to focus lawmakers and taxpayers. […]
