Airmen and civilian engineers from the Arnold Engineering Development Complex played a crucial role in ensuring that the landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars last month was a victory instead of a $2.5 billion tragedy. Curiosity, NASA’s roving space...
It's easier to deliver a cyber attack than it is to build and deploy a kinetic weapon system, says Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. This has helped crime syndicates leverage power and will likely open the cyber domain to ...
The Air Force is expected to decide in September whether to bring on Raytheon to develop advanced communications terminals to support the US military’s nuclear chain of command under the Family of Advanced Beyond-Line-of-Sight Terminals program. Boeing, which won the...
When Afghan soldiers fire upon the coalition forces training them, the damage extends beyond the immediate loss of coalition lives, said Maj. Gen. Tod Wolters, who oversaw Air Force air operations in Afghanistan from May 2011 to May 2012. “When...
This month’s removal of two influential Afghan security officials may hinder the momentum of military operations against anti-government insurgents in Afghanistan, said Maj. Gen. Tod Wolters, who oversaw US air activities there from May 2011 to this May. Former Defense...
Under the Obama Administration, “there has been a sea-change” in the level of cooperation between the Pentagon and State Department, said Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs. State Secretary Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta—as well as...
The specter of budget sequestration is generating a climate of fear and uncertainty by threatening to disrupt the defense industry and undermine military capability, Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the House Armed Services Committee on Aug 1. He urged "action now" to prevent sequestration ...
From 1985 to 1987, Jack Manclark, the Air Force’s former test and evaluation director, oversaw a special-access program dubbed “Constant Peg.” Under this then-secret initiative, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy fighter pilots trained in the skies northwest of Las...
Slashing satellite and space launch programs would displace the United States as the world’s leading power within decades, said speakers at a space forum on Capitol Hill. Steven Bucci, a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow, viewed satellite capabilities as fundamental...
The services’ cyber security commanders told the House Armed Services Committee’s emerging threats panel this week that cyber warfare called for an irregular skill set, and perhaps atypical individuals. That led Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Tex) to ask them whether the...
The “Buckshot Yankee fiasco” of 2008, in which software carried on a thumbdrive infiltrated the Defense Department’s networks, was a pivotal moment for the Air Force because it helped shape the service’s “proactive defense posture,” said Lt. Gen. Michael Basla,...
Lt. Gen. Michael Basla, chief of information dominance in the Air Force Secretariat, thinks a centralized approach to the cyber theater will save the Air Force money and generate capabilities for the armed services at large. He said joint efforts...
By 2025, Mark Maybury, the Air Force’s chief scientist, hopes to see a cyber elite amongst airmen. He previewed Cyber Vision 2025, the Air Force’s long-range strategy to maintain cyber superiority, at an AFA-sponsored Air Force breakfast program speech on...
: The Pentagon could tailor military compensation to meet service members’ preferences and save money in the process, according to a new study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Between 2001 and 2011, the cost of compensating active...
Army Gen. Keith Alexander, US Cyber Command boss, thinks the United States would be safer if the federal government and private industries developed legal standards of cyber security. Much-contended cyber legislation pending in the Senate would be “absolutely vital to...
Air Force Academy cadets and personnel deemed mission-critical were holding their ground, as of midday on June 27 local time, as the Waldo Canyon fire raged in Colorado Springs, Colo., according to academy officials. At the time, “no structures” on...
Air Force Academy cadets and personnel deemed mission-critical are holding their ground, as of midday on June 27 local time, as the Waldo Canyon fire rages in Colorado Springs, Colo., according to academy officials. Already, approximately 2,100 people living in...
Some 3,600 striking union workers may soon return to their jobs building fighter jets for Lockheed Martin in California, Maryland, and Texas. Members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers have been on strike for nine weeks, having...
Jason Healey, director of the Atlantic Council’s cyber statecraft initiative, said the Air Force must be both air- and cyber-minded. “We learn heritage to understand the future, but we ignore this when it comes to cyber,” said Healey during a...
Pitting defense expenditures against entitlement spending doesn’t add up, said Todd Harrison, senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. There’s an “underlying structural deficit” that the United States has to address to resolve the current budget quandary,...