Early next year the Obama administration, with eager backing from hardliners in Congress, is expected to commit the U.S. taxpayers to a bill of $20 billion to $30 billion for a new nuclear weapon the United States doesn’t need: the Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) air-launched cruise missile. The new nuclear cruise missile will not be able […]
Military terms and symbols that are used by the U.S. Army have been compiled in an updated reference manual, along with acronyms and abbreviations. See ADRP 1-02, Terms and Military Symbols, December 2015. Intended to foster a common vocabulary, the manual can also help outsiders to interpret distinctive Army expressions and patterns of speech. The […]
The U.S. Air Force is attempting to develop and procure multiple major aircraft systems at the same time, generating programmatic and budgetary uncertainty. “The United States Air Force is in the midst of an ambitious aviation modernization program, driven primarily by the age of its current aircraft fleets,” a new report from the Congressional Research […]
By Hans M. Kristensen With a series of highly advertised sea- and air-launched cruise missile attacks against targets in Syria, the Russian government has demonstrated that it doesn’t have a military need for the controversial ground-launched cruise missile that the United States has accused Russia of developing and test-launching in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range […]
The number of chronically homeless persons in the U.S. dropped from more than 120,000 in 2008 to around 84,000 in 2014, a new report from the Congressional Research Service notes. The federal government has undertaken to end chronic homelessness by 2017. “One of the reasons that federal programs have devoted resources to ending chronic homelessness […]
The national census in 2020 will be the first to rely primarily on the Internet for collecting census data, thereby creating new avenues for fraud and disruption. A new report from the JASON scientific advisory panel describes the problem and outlines some solutions. Why would anyone want to interfere with the constitutionally-mandated census, which maps […]
Employees of the U.S. intelligence community are expected to be bold, innovative and imbued with moral courage. At least, those are the desired qualities that are defined in a series of Intelligence Community Standards (ICS) first issued in 2008 that have just been released under the Freedom of Information Act. Even a non-supervisory employee at […]
The guiding principles for implementing and operating the Intelligence Community (IC) Information Technology Enterprise (ITE) were set forth in a 2013 memorandum from the Director of National Intelligence that was recently released under the Freedom of Information Act. The purpose of IC ITE (pronounced “eye sight”) is to establish a common information architecture for the entire […]
A newly updated Department of Defense publication affirms the importance of public outreach, not simply as a gesture towards democratic governance, but also as an instrument of operational utility. “The US military has an obligation to communicate with its members and the US public, and it is in the national interest to communicate with international […]
The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows foreign nationals from 38 countries to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa. The travelers must still present a valid passport and meet certain other requirements. There were 20 million visitors who entered the United States under this program in FY 2013. […]
By Hans M. Kristensen The new Polish government caused a stir last weekend when deputy defense minister Tomasz Szatkowski said during an interview with Polsat News 2 that Poland was taking “concrete steps” to consider joining NATO’s so-called nuclear sharing program. The program is a controversial arrangement where the United States makes nuclear weapons available […]
The possible outcomes of the ongoing Paris climate change conference, and the challenges remaining to be overcome, are considered in a new report from the Congressional Research Service. See International Climate Change Negotiations: What to Expect in Paris, December 2015, November 27, 2015. The shifting numbers of U.S. troops and contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan […]