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Navy’s Nukes Won’t Keep Pace With New Missile Subs
There is no question that America needs to invest in keeping its nuclear deterrent credible, said Paul Huessy, an expert on nuclear weapons at GeoStrategic Analysis. In his view, however, the missile industrial base is less of a concern than retaining the ability to develop an actual nuclear warhead, he said. Huessy and Barry Watts at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments say that programs like the EELV or refurbishment programs for existing missiles are probably sufficient to keep ICBM and SLBM design skills alive. Huessy said that there are many components on the U.S. Air Force Minuteman III, for example, that are being replaced—which requires many of the skills needed to design an entirely new weapon. “They have all sorts of ideas on how to build a Minuteman [replacement],” he said.
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Army’s Future: Missiles?
Jim Thomas, the director of studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, argues in a new essay -- published in the latest edition of Foreign Affairs -- that as the Defense Department shifts its attention to the Asia Pacific region, the Army can burnish its case for a greater role by focusing more on land-based missile systems and less on its ground expeditionary forces:
Analysis
Why the U.S. Army Needs Missiles: A New Mission to Save the Service
Traditionally, the core purpose of the U.S. Army has been to fight and win the United States' wars. Since World War II, this has meant planning for overseas operations to defend friendly countries against invasion, seize and hold territory, and overthrow despotic regimes. But the protracted counterinsurgency campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, like the one in Vietnam a generation earlier, marked a departure from the army's preferred way of war. Today, with U.S. forces out of Iraq and leaving Afghanistan, an intense debate is under way about what kind of army the United States needs.
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Military Compensation: What’s Most Important?
Did you know that the average cost of pay and benefits per active-duty service member grew over the period 2001-2012 from $54,000 to $109,000? That’s an increase of 56 percent once inflation is considered.
Analysis
How Can We Save Money On Troops’ Pay And Benefits? Let’s Ask The Troops
Defense and entitlements. That’s how Washington has tried to define the debates over cutting federal spending, as if the two inhabited entirely distinct spheres. Yet, the Pentagon is dealing with an entitlements problem of its own, one that threatens to consume the defense budget if unchecked.
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U.S. Analysts Dismiss China’s Military Report
China this week revealed new details about the size of its military in a report that U.S.-based analysts largely dismissed for its omissions on defense spending, weapons systems and strategic ambitions.