Congress needs to come up with a 10-year strategy that works toward balancing the budget and reducing the deficit, while protecting America’s national security interests, said Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) Thursday. In other words, it needs to figure out how to do more with less and identify the missions that it wants US troops to conduct, said Smith, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, during a speech Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. “Whatever we decide is the mission, we have to fund it,” he asserted. “We need to decide what we can afford, what’s in the best interest of our national security, and then fund it so our troops have the equipment and resources to do what we ask them to do.” (AEI webpage of event, including event video)
There is a new entrant in the highly competitive field of collaborative combat aircraft—semi-autonomous drones meant to fly alongside manned combat aircraft. Northrop Grumman unveiled its new Project Talon aircraft to a small group of reporters at the facilities of its subsidiary Scaled Composites.
