It has come to my atten­tion that I might not have accu­rately reported the method by which the Navy intends to obtain its air­craft under the Imminent Fury program.

According to two sources involved with the pro­gram, the intent has always been to lease the air­craft from a third party rather than pur­chase them. I under­stand that my arti­cle caused quite a stir in the halls of the Capitol based on this misunderstanding.

As far as I’m con­cerned, the SEALs need this plane, the nation needs this capa­bil­ity and no mat­ter how the darned things are paid for, just make it happen!

PS — And another quick point of clar­i­fi­ca­tion: My main source never men­tioned the “train­ing” aspect of the Imminent Fury pro­gram, though I’m sure he knew that was an added ben­e­fit. So when I said “which is slightly dif­fer­ent from what my sources told me about the ori­gins and goal of the pro­gram” what I meant was that my sources left me with the dis­tinct impres­sion that this plane was offensive/​defensive in nature, not being leased for train­ing native air services.

– Christian

Just a heads up to all out inter­na­tional read­ers here at Defense Tech…Monster.com (Military.com’s par­ent com­pany) just launched its new oper­a­tion that givesmil­i­tary folks in the United Kingdom a place to go along the lines of Military​.com.

Monster is proud to announce the cre­ation of HMForces​.co​.uk, a new online space designed exclu­sively for the UK mil­i­tary com­mu­nity to con­nect and develop their careers.

Do you need advice on land­ing a great civil­ian job once you leave the Forces? Curious if youre claim­ing all the ben­e­fits youre enti­tled to receive?

Or, just want to ban­ter about which Service really works the hardest?

Check out our dis­cus­sion forums, videos, ben­e­fits overview, plus much more, its clear HMForces is going to be at ground zero for the mil­i­tary com­mu­nity to meet up and share.

However, since the site will always be a work in progress and as it is entirely about and for mem­bers of the Armed Forces your feed­back is crucial.

Please drop us a line if you have an idea for a new fea­ture, want us to inves­ti­gate some­thing, or even if youve found a bro­ken link.

We’re proud to extend our ser­vices, news and mem­ber resources to a mil­i­tary com­mu­nity that has recently par­tic­i­pated in a lot of U.S. oper­a­tions and shares a close alliance with American forces.

I hope you all will take some time to check out the new site and feel free to throw some feed­back our way on things you think could be improved.

– Christian

I know you all must have been won­der­ing “who is this Colin Clark guy and what’s he doing here?”

“Catch the Buzz?” what the heck does that mean. And on and on…

Well, folks, the day has come. Colin is a crack defense busi­ness reporter and edi­tor who’s been hired on by our par­ent site Military​.com to lead a new online pub­li­ca­tion we’ve dubbed “DoD Buzz.” The goal of the online defense and acqui­si­tion jour­nal is to pro­vide timely, need-​​to-​​know busi­ness intel­li­gence for defense indus­try deci­sion mak­ers and experts. Colin’s going to be track­ing the defense indus­try, weapons con­tracts and the shift­ing sands of pro­cure­ment pol­icy to a degree seen only in the pricey “Insides” and “Defense News” broad­sheet landscape.

But what Colin can bring to the space that the oth­ers can’t is an edi­to­r­ial inde­pen­dence and enthu­si­asm lost with print pubs. You’ve already prob­a­bly noticed the wry wit he brings to the copy he’s posted on Defense Tech and Military​.com. Well, now we’re unleash­ing him on DoD Buzz to take it to the next level.

Since many of you are indus­try play­ers and need the kind of intel Colin can bring to the table to help make bet­ter deci­sions in your world, I hope you’ll make DoD Buzz a daily stop along­side Defense Tech. So put it in your favorites and “catch the buzz” of break­ing news, cut­ting edge cov­er­age and a good-​​hearted chuckle at this crazy world we call Pentagon pro­cure­ment with Colin Clark and the kick-​​butt new site, “DoD Buzz.”

– Christian

While it’s been a plea­sure hold­ing down the fort over the last few weeks, I’m very pleased to announce the arrival of Defense Tech’s per­ma­nent edi­tor, Christian Lowe. If you’ve fol­lowed mil­i­tary news over the last five years or so, Christian’s name should be familiar.

Before join­ing us at Defense Tech, Christian was a senior writer for The Politico cov­er­ing defense and national secu­rity issues after spend­ing five years with the Military Times news­pa­pers. Always run­ning to the sound of gun­fire, he has cov­ered mil­i­tary oper­a­tions world­wide, embed­ding with Army and Marine units in both Iraq and Afghanistan, observ­ing deten­tion facil­i­ties at Guantanamo Bay, cov­er­ing human­i­tar­ian mis­sions in Lebanon and New Orleans, par­tic­i­pat­ing in train­ing exer­cises at mil­i­tary bases from California to Florida and report­ing on mil­i­tary pol­icy and bud­gets in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill.

Christian trav­eled to Afghanistan in 2002 and 2004, spend­ing time in Kabul, Khost and Kandahar chas­ing the bin Laden trail and scour­ing the coun­try­side with U.S. forces for Taliban hold­outs. He went to Iraq in June of 2003, liv­ing in down­town Baghdad and trav­el­ing through­out the south of the coun­try for six weeks. Christian returned to Iraq in late 2005, spend­ing a month in Ramadi dur­ing the December par­lia­men­tary elec­tions and patrolling the streets of Hit in al Anbar province with the U.S. Marines dur­ing the new year.

In 2005, Christian was awarded the Associated Press Managing Editor’s Association award for inves­tiga­tive jour­nal­ism after expos­ing that the Marine Corps had fielded tens of thou­sands of body armor vests to troops in Iraq that had not passed qual­ity assur­ance test­ing by gov­ern­ment audi­tors. He was also part of an Emmy-​​nominated doc­u­men­tary team that fol­lowed a group of Marine Corps offi­cers from their first days of offi­cer train­ing to the bat­tle­fields of Iraq.

Raised in Charlottesville, Va., and a grad­u­ate of the University of Virginia, Christian lives on Capitol Hill with his wife Catherine and his Jack Russell ter­ri­ers Noor Whali and Banjo. When he’s not sniff­ing around for the lat­est defense and mil­i­tary news, he likes to take advan­tage of any oppor­tu­nity to slip out of town to go hunt­ing, fish­ing or surfing.

Welcome, Christian. We’re psy­ched to have you onboard.

– Ward