CSBA in the News

North Korea’s long-range missile might have crashed into the sea shortly after takeoff, but the defiant regime got most of what it wanted from the failed launch.

Plans for a new Air Force One appeared in the latest version of the Pentagon’s aviation plans, according to Defense News. Officials haven’t said which model they plan to purchase, but it is likely to be an updated version of the current Boeing 747 VC-25.

Like some of the senior sailors who walk its deckplates, the USS Blue Ridge did a little weightlifting recently to stave off the physical decline that sometimes comes with getting older.

The Army is coming out of a decade of war beat up and strapped for cash/…/ After spending huge amounts of money on equipment to fight terrorists, the Army has none to truly modernize itself with new core platforms such as attack helicopters and battle tanks/…/

Between now and Jan. 2, when automatic spending cuts are set to slash up to $54 billion from the Pentagon’s 2013 budget, there is only one date that truly matters: Nov. 6, Election Day.

/…/That China is rapidly modernising its armed forces is not in doubt, though there is disagreement about what the true spending figure is. China’s defence budget has almost certainly experienced double digit growth for two decades. According to SIPRI, a research institute, annual defence spending rose from over $30 billion in 2000 to almost $120 billion in 2010. SIPRI usually adds about 50% to the official figure that China gives for its defence spending, because even basic military items such as research and development are kept off budget. Including those items would imply total military spending in 2012, based on the latest announcement from Beijing, will be around $160 billion/… /