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Deadly Navy accidents in the Pacific raise questions over a force stretched too thin
The Navy has been strained by fewer ships taking on more missions. A 2015 study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments found that deployed ships remained at a constant level of 100 between 1998 and 2014, even though the fleet shrank by about 20 percent.
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US, Allies Should Make Military Build-up Costly for China
China’s assertiveness has already stimulated a series of regional realignments that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
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Looming Budget Standoff Has Pentagon, Defense Industry on Edge
Procedural and political hurdles “make it difficult to see how a substantial defense buildup on the order of the $54 billion proposed by the Trump administration can be realized,” said Katherine Blakeley, research fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “The wide gulfs between the political parties, and between the defense hawks and the fiscal hawks, will not be closed soon.”
In the absence of a budget deal, defense hawks will seek to pump more money into the overseas contingency operations account, which is not constrained by the BCA caps, Blakeley noted. “Congress’ window for funding defense — and the rest of the government — before the end of the 2017 fiscal year is short and closing fast.”
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Navy ‘Orion Hammer’ Investigation into USS John McCain Collision Has Turned Up No Evidence of Cyber Attack
What might be the most tantalizing point behind the cyber attack theory is that it’s technically possible, Bryan Clark, a naval analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and former aide to former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, told USNI News on Thursday.
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It’s Time for the US to Penalize China Where It Hurts
I think risk aversion partly explains the timid U.S. response to China. In particular, fears of provoking China probably influenced the Obama administration’s decisions.
Several interrelated assumptions underpinned this reluctance to confront China more forcefully. It should be noted that these assumptions informed Obama’s predecessors as well. First, the United States assumed that engagement could coax China into becoming a responsible stakeholder. Second, Washington was convinced that it needed China’s cooperation on a host of global challenges, ranging from climate change to nonproliferation to North Korea. Not surprisingly, preserving stable Sino-U.S. relations was the prime directive while confrontation with China was anathema.
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B-52, B-2 and B-21 Bombers Are Getting Nuclear-Tipped Cruise Missiles
“DoD [Department of Defense] should no longer assume that its strike aircraft will always be able to use short-range, direct attack ‘gravity’ weapons against targets that are covered by advanced point defense systems,” Mark Gunzinger, a former B-52 pilot and current analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said. “This applies across the spectrum of conflict, not just conventional warfare.” Gunzinger notes that even for a stealth bomber, a standoff weapon will likely be a necessity. “Attacking these defended targets will require medium-range standoff attack weapons,” Gunzinger said.