David Axe

A $50-Billion Warship Mystery

While costly, the ship was the linchpin in the sea service’s advanced strategy to patrol and fight in the most dangerous shallow sea lanes, known as littorals. Think Iraq’s national waters, where the country’s two oil terminals are located. But the Navy suddenly killed the weapon program. The explanation has pleased no one — especially Congress.

Taking on Military Contract Reform

PART 2: Despite Congress’ attempts to curb spending on wasteful military integration contracts, problems continue.

Reining in Military Contracts

PART 1: A Coast Guard upgrade project, “Deepwater,” reveals a troubled military contracting system.

The Military’s Internet ‘Civil War’

This is the third and final installment in a series on social networking sites and the military.
Part One: How the Army Found Middle Ground
Part Two: How the Coast Guard Botched Its Online Start
Islamic extremists long have used Websites as their primary means of sharing ideas and recruiting new fighters. The Pentagon, by contrast, largely rejected [...]

The Military’s Internet Civil War

This is the second in a series on the military and online social networking sites.
In recent years the Pentagon has moved to ban many “Web 2.0” Internet sites like YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. The Air Force, the military’s Internet point service, declared that blogs, in particular, were not “established, reputable media.” It blocked blog [...]

The Military’s Internet ‘Civil War’

This winter, the Air Force, as the Pentagon’s point agency for Internet operations –“cyberwarfare,” in military jargon – banned access from official networks to many blogs, declaring that they weren’t “established, reputable media.” The Air Force didn’t seem concerned that America’s greatest enemies, international jihadists, had long ago latched onto websites as cheap, effective tools [...]

High-Tech Weapons Plan for Now

The tiny four-wheeled robot made it halfway to the fist-size bomb before its battery ran out of juice. It was early January 2005 in Baqubah, Iraq, a hotbed of insurgent activity. The Army officers standing at a distance cursed the tiny robot, a 25-pound remote-controlled truck equipped with cameras for investigating suspected explosive devices. The [...]