I asked Geoff Morrell, spokesman for Defense Secretary Robert Gates, for a reaction to Gates’ victory in the Senate over the F-22 just now. Morrell:
“Secretary Gates appreciates the careful consideration Senators have given to this matter of national security and he applauds their bipartisan support to complete the
Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Carl Levin (D-Mich.)’s amendment to strip funding for the F-22 fighter jet passed five minutes ago on the Senate floor. Levin’s office recorded the vote as 58 in favor and 40 against. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has just won his first major legislative fight over More…
The F-22 fight notwithstanding, David Axe reports that a recent Air Force document on the future of the service’s investment in unmanned aircraft entertains the possibility of pilotless drones to replace all piloted planes by mid-century. As David writes, the document doesn’t say that such More…
In this corner: President Obama, Defense Secretary Bob Gates, (reluctantly) the service secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force, this very smart Air Force captain, Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), and the current threat environment the U.S. faces. In that corner: Rep. More…
Building on yesterday’s announcement that Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) didn’t have the votes to strip funding for the Air Force’s F-22 fighter jet from the defense authorization bill, here’s an Air Force captain providing some really useful context — namely, the Air Force’s problems with adjusting to a More…
More from the White House’s letter objecting to certain provisions in the fiscal 2010 defense authorization. I thought this deserved to be quoted in full:
Interrogation Duties: The Administration objects to section 823 in its current form, which would prohibit contractor personnel from interrogating persons detained during or in
Today was supposed to be a critical day for the Obama administration’s efforts to kill the troubled F-22 fighter jet. It goes like this: the Senate is taking up the fiscal 2010 defense authorization, which 13 pro-F-22 Senators on the Armed Services Committee last month used as a vehicle More…
Something I didn’t know but Brandon Friedman at VoteVets did: a staff sergeant leading an infantry squad in Afghanistan makes, with combat pay, about $44,500 per year. And it costs about $42,000 per hour to fly an F-22, a fighter jet never used in post-9/11 combat at a time More…
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at the National Press Club, is asked about drone strikes and civilian casualties in Afghanistan. “Don’t think in the history of counterinsurgency you can win by killing civilians who live there.” Specifically endorses Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s metric of “the number of Afghan More…
Will Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz criticize Defense Secretary Bob Gates’ decision to cap the F-22 fighter jet in public, as Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) suggested today?
Find out on May 21, when Schwartz and Air Force Secretary Michael Donley testify to the Senate Armed Services Committee, More…
rss