By Euan Graham, The Strategist (ASPI): "The United States military hasn’t conducted a single combat operation within the sprawling area of responsibility that defines the Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) in 44 years."
By Tyler Rogoway, The WarZone: "Last week Bell unveiled its 360 Invictus high-speed armed scout helicopter contender for the Army's Future Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) tender and now Sikorsky is firing back with its long-anticipated entrant, the "Raider X.""
(USNI News) At a pair of special meetings on Friday morning, shareholders approved the United Technologies’ purchase of Raytheon, paving the way for creating a defense industry behemoth.
Sikorsky says their Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft design will fly faster, with bigger weapons, than archrival Bell’s. Bell says theirs will be cheaper and more reliable.
The new commandant says the Corps has to start “unshackling ourselves from previous notions of what war looks like and reimagining how Marines will train, how we will operate, and how we will fight.”
(Defense News) Bell has pulled the shroud off its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) design for the Army after keeping it under wraps as a competition for a chance to build prototypes heats up.
(C4ISRNET) After nearly two decades consumed by counter-insurgency campaigns, the Pentagon means what it says about elevating high-end conflict to the forefront of budget priorities.
Monitoring capabilities, ISR tech will deter America’s adversaries
(C4ISRNET) A recent escalation of aggressive acts in the Middle East underline the need for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities. Early warning and the ability to track adversary action is often still missing.
Diverse, layered missile defense is key to killing drone swarms
(Defense News) This is a time for more concerted efforts to achieve the sort of layered defenses that are truly needed, not for the adoption of outliers such as the Russian systems.
(Defense News) A debate on the future of aircraft carriers is roiling the U.S. Department of Defense, and it is increasingly spilling out into the open. While the debate over the efficacy of carriers in high-end conflict is nothing new, a general understanding that the DoD will not have unlimited funds with which to deter an increasingly potent China and Russia have made the questions particularly urgent.
One step forward, two back
(Defense News) It takes time to change a culture that has persisted for decades. At least that’s one explanation for the current state of things for the Army’s plan to replace the Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle.