As the US pivots the counterterrorism mission toward Africa, Pentagon leaders are quick to point out that the size and scope of the continent provide significant challenges that will require a commitment to intelligence and surveillance technologies to give them, and their fledgling allies, a better picture of what lies over the next hill.
The Obama Administration says 275 troops are deploying to Iraq to protect the U.S. Embassy and other interests. We don’t yet know the full cost of any U.S. action in Iraq, but we can lift the curtain a bit on the economics behind military intervention, and what the Pentagon gets for its half trillion dollar baseline budget.
While proponents of different U.S. grand strategies might concur that China has the greatest potential to challenge America over the long run, they don’t see that challenge as a very serious one in the near term. Why?
Aircraft carriers are perhaps the most powerful expression of U.S. military might. They’re also expensive and potentially vulnerable. In an era of fiscal constraint, defense officials, lawmakers and the commander-in-chief must answer a question that could have enormous strategic consequences: How many are enough?
No single issue is likely to have a more profound impact on the future of international relations than the evolving relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
On the evening of June 2, the US Air Force announced a pair of contracts worth a total of more than $1 billion. Both the Space Fence, won by Lockheed Martin, and the Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals (FAB-T), won by Raytheon, are major boosts for service capabilities and the business’ bottom lines.
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