News
Experts Warn Weapons Gap Is Shrinking Between US, Russia and China
"Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. military has never really had to fight an enemy that had its own arsenal of precision-guided weapons," said Mark Gunzinger, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
McCain Opposes OCO-To-Base Funding Shifts; Sets up Likely Conference Issue With House
Kate Blakely, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the fiscal maneuver in Thornberry's bill was unlikely to find traction elsewhere in Congress. "By re-allocating $23 billion of war funding to the base defense budget, Rep. Thornberry is breaking last year's BCA deal," she said. "This approach doesn't seem likely to fly in the Senate, where both Republican and Democratic leadership are determined to stick to the deal."
CSBA Sees Strategic Benefits To Distributive Lethality
The U.S. Navy’s philosophy of distributive lethality – arming more ships with more powerful missiles – will likely have more of an impact on naval strategy than operational concepts, according to Bryan Clark, military and naval analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Chinese Scarborough Shoal Base Would Threaten Manila
Putting offensive capabilities like long-range missiles on the islands would be “a very destabilizing move,” said Andrew Krepinevich, former president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Such assets would be intimidating in a crisis, but so vulnerable in an actual shooting war that China would face the temptation to “use it or lose it.” “Given the small size of the islands, the missiles would be highly vulnerable, as they could not rely on mobility or hardening to provide passive defense against attack,” said Krepinevich.
Unmanned Subs, Virtual Reality Goggles: Technology Reshapes Military
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has developed a 130-foot boat that can prowl the seas unmanned. Military officials think it can be effective in detecting submarines. For an assessment of whether this is where we’re headed, Pentagon Solutions turned to Bryan Clark, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
U.S. Sees New Flashpoint in South China Sea Dispute
Beijing may be using the shoal as a bargaining chip, rather than actively seeking to establish another military outpost there, some analysts said. “They imply that they may want Scarborough Shoal, then they will back off and show that they are a good international player,” said Bryan Clark, a former senior adviser to the chief of naval operations who is now an adviser at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think tank in Washington.