The Air Force must continue changing, focusing more on the joint fight, keeping its focus on increased UAV deployments and seeking balance between transport, rescue and the other missions demanded of it today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Air Force Academy. Lest he be accused of hammering fighter pilots again, Gates said he has been misunderstood when he has made speeches at West Point and before the Navy League criticizing basic systems and how they are used and built.

UPDATED: Rep. Norm Dicks Comments

Arguing that Boeing may well find it difficult to build and fly its airborne tanker on cost and on schedule, EADS NA made clear the Air Force had run the competition with integrity and fairlness and would not pursue a bid protest on one of the largest Pentagon procurements ever.

When Defense Secretary Robert Gates put the presidential helicopter program on ice in 2009, he left nine completely built birds sitting in a hangar. Given the fabulous capabilities required of the VH-71 helicopters — executive protection plus, hardened and encrypted communications gear, all sorts of neat active protective systems — it seemed a bit sad […]

While it’s not official, there are indications that EADS NA will not file a bid protest about the airborne tanker deal with the Government Accountability Office.

Ever since the Afghan surge began there’s been considerable behind the scenes talk of a hammer and anvil strategy toward Al Qaeda, its friends in the Haqqani network and the Pakistani Taliban. Much of that anvil has appeared to take the form of drone strikes and special forces actions inside far northern Pakistan or along […]

While Congress averted a government shutdown this week, its current course could lead to lasting damage to weapons programs, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs made clear today. “Some programs may take years to recover if the continuing resolution is extended through the end of September,” Adm. Mike Mullen told the House Appropriations Committee.

Ever since then-Army Chief Dennis Reimer made Doug Macgregor’s book, “Breaking the Phalanx,” required reading for the general officers corps, his ideas have stirred passions in the largest US military service. Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ West Point speech spurred him to call on the next defense secretary to remake the Army in truth, and not just to give the idea lip service.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said today that the Navy is prepared to help implement a no-fly zone over Libya should the order come. “The capability that we have on our aircraft carriers, they can perform that function, they can perform a variety of functions.”

UPDATED: House Passes Two Week Budget Reprieve

The Defense Department would be forced to furlough half of its civliian employees if the government were to shut down, Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn told the Senate today. On top of that, Lynn said the department would be hard-pressed to pay its both its civilian and military employees in mid-March should a shutdown occur.

Recent upheavals in the Middle East — including the overthrow of the governments in Tunisia and Egypt, riots in Bahrain, and near civil war in Libya — raise the question of what lessons the People’s Republic of China, and especially the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), are likely to have learned.