A well-regarded national security think tank on Dec. 10 presented its version of an “offset strategy” to counter the growing threats to U.S. power-projection capabilities, which calls for increased investments in longer-range and stealthy strike and reconnaissance platforms, unmanned systems and lower-cost defense weapons such as the electromagnetic railgun and lasers.
The Navy’s carrier-based unmanned aircraft demonstrator is undergoing preparations for automated aerial refueling testing next year, including a possible flight demonstration using the aircraft itself, said officials from the service and X-47B manufacturer Northrop Grumman.
The White House is developing a fiscal 2016 defense budget that would align with its long-planned $535 billion top line, ensuring that the administration would ignore the congressionally mandated budget caps put in place in 2011, according to a source with knowledge of the deliberations.
The nomination of Ashton B. Carter to be secretary of defense is expected to sail through the Senate, but the former Harvard scholar and physicist will face powerful headwinds finding consensus on a host of security challenges — from military operations to pending budget cuts that could upend the military’s future plans.
The compromise defense authorization bill announced this week includes an additional $331.1 million and 2,000 more airmen than the Air Force initially had proposed in the fiscal 2015 budget request to account for additional personnel needed to keep A-10s flying.
After a decade of patient negotiations with Iran over its contested nuclear program, the prospects of the United States and other world powers securing a final deal are not good. The wheels of diplomacy will grind on and an extension of the talks should be granted. But it is time to acknowledge that the policy of engagement has been predicated on a series of assumptions that, although logical, have proven largely incorrect. As Washington assesses its next moves, it would be wise to reconsider the judgments that have underwritten its approach to one of its most elusive adversaries.
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