News
America’s Ultimate Weapon of War: Precision-Guided Munitions
How has the growth of the Precision-Guided Munitions (PGM) complex changed the balance of international power? More specifically, how has the U.S. military’s embrace of this system of weapons affected its ability to accomplish U.S. national goals? The president’s decision to pursue the war against ISIS strictly through the means of airpower and seapower makes the question particularly relevant. The United States will fight ISIS with precision-guided munitions, and apparently little else. It’s worth asking how effective they are in accomplishing national ends. The answer, it turns out, is surprisingly mixed.
Measure Troops’ Readiness by Results, Random Tests, Report Says
Today’s military might need its own Billy Beane.
Cost Of Bombing ISIS Closing In On $1 Billion
The U.S. military operations targeting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria have already cost taxpayers between $780 and $930 million, according to an analysis by an independent think tank.
U.S. Campaign Against ISIS Has Cost Nearly $1 Billion So Far, Report Says
U.S. military operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) have cost up to $930 million as of Sept. 24, according to a report released earlier this week, as the Pentagon broadens its air campaign against extremist Sunni militants in Syria and Iraq.
Tab for Trucks Pentagon Doesn’t Need Could Top $100M
The Army and Marine Corps may have wasted more than $100 million returning vehicles from Afghanistan that they don't need over just a one-year period, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.
War’s Costs
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said last week that the Pentagon is spending $7 million to $10 million a day on operations in Iraq, and now Syria, that began Aug. 8 and include airstrikes, humanitarian air drops and the addition of what will soon be 1,600 U.S. advisers and headquarters personnel in Iraq.