Saturday, January 4, 2014

Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- January 4, 2014

Image Credit: U.S. Air Force

Will The F-35 Live Up To The Hype? -- James R. Holmes, The Diplomat

Interservice and multi-national rivalries could undermine the Joint Strike Fighter. Then again, we may never know.

Air-power heretic Rob Farley wonders whether the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter will rule the skies. Heck, I dunno. The F-35 finds itself in the same limbo inhabited by platforms like the littoral combat ship, the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer, and the CVN-78 Ford-class aircraft carrier. Proponents have advanced ambitious if not extravagant claims on each program’s behalf. Hardware and crews must now deliver on their promise. Or not.

To make matters more perplexing, we may never know for sure whether these platforms deserve their hype. Combat is the ultimate arbiter of how a weapon system performs in specific tactical settings in concert with other systems. While the strategic competitions ringing Asia may turn hot, applying this harsh standard, they may not. A prolonged strategic competition like the Cold War leaves questions about real-world battle performance largely conjectural — and can prompt even expert commentators to infer conclusions that the historical record may not fully justify.

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MILITARY AND INTELLIGENCE NEWS BRIEFS

The Latest Word on F-35 Unit Cost -- Pogo Blog

Russian Navy to Get 40 New Ships in 2014 -- RIA Novosti

Russian Submarines: Reinforcing The Black Sea Fleet -- Strategy Page

Russia to test 70 new rockets and missiles in 2014 -- Voice of Russia

Southeast Asian States Deploy Conventional Submarines -- The Diplomat

Will Britain's New "Stealth Destroyer" Turn the Royal Navy Invisible? -- Motley Fool

Despite delays, Ottawa pushes ahead with Cyclone chopper plan. -- The Globe and Mail

Israel Replaces Export Control Chief After Tech Transfer to China -- Defense News

Coalition servicemember killed in attack in eastern Afghanistan -- Stars and Stripes

Meet the Cape Ray, the U.S.’s 22,000-Ton Floating Chemical Weapons Eater -- Dan Lamothe, Foreign Policy

Pentagon Eyes WMD-Fighting Nanotechnology -- Global Security Newswire

Pentagon Issues 25-Year Unmanned Systems Roadmap -- AIN Online

The Tanker Nears Takeoff -- Air Force Magazine

Pentagon Orders Hundreds more FirstLook Robots -- Defense Tech

Bzzt! Military Wants to Protect Satellites from EMP Weapons -- War Is Boring

X-37B: Air Force's secret space plane to get new home at KSC -- Stars and Stripes/Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel

Administration moves on 2 fronts to preserve NSA surveillance -- FOX News

US govt appeals ruling denouncing NSA’s mass phone surveillance as unconstitutional -- RT

Ruling against NSA collection of phone data is appealed -- Washington Post

Supreme Court May Not Review Conflicting NSA Phone Spying Rulings -- Threat Level

Napolitano: No clemency for Edward Snowden -- The Hill

Pentagon removes Persian Gulf from imminent danger pay list -- The Hill

Marines Delay Three Pull-Up Requirement for Female Recruits -- Washington Free Beacon

Marine infantry grad: I want to prove women can serve in infantry -- Stars and Stripes

Ex-Deputy Defense Secretary Makes Compelling Case For Why Acquisition System Is Busted -- Daniel Goure, Lexington Institute

How the Defense Lobby Became Irrelevant -- Sara Sorcher, National Journal

The Cost Of Global Annihilation -- Strategy Page

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