Joint Forces Command will soon begin shipping its Valiant Angel technology package to Afghanistan to help troops collect and sort through the massive terabytes of digital imagery collected daily by aerial drones. Bundling off the shelf technology used by the commercial video industry, the hardware and software package promises to allow troops at remote combat outposts with slow dial up to access crucial imagery.

Reviews of the 2010 QDR have been pretty harsh. Last week, we asked Kathleen Hicks, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense and lead QDR author, to responsd to critics who say the report focuses too much on the current wars and neglects the rise of high-end challengers such as China. In a defiant tone, Hicks challenged critics to show where the report failed to address emerging threats.

Reviews of the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review are pouring in from Washington’s defense cognoscenti and so far they come with a strong tilt towards disappointed. The lack of any real news or major program or policy shifts has led a number of defense wonks to question the value of the whole QDR process.

It is official. The two major theater war strategy — blueprint for American power for almost a quarter century — is no more. In the long run, that is likely to be the most significant change outlined by the Quadrennial Defense Review. This QDR acknowledges the need for a robust force capable of protecting U.S. interests against a multiplicity of threats. But it is “no longer appropriate to speak of major regional conflicts as the sole or even the primary template for sizing, shaping and evaluating US forces.”

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, coping with two wars and terrorism, has sent analysts to Haiti to help SouthCom and the State Department plan and deploy trrops and aid. We got an email from NGA spokeswoman Sue Meisner telling us of the deployment. Given the enormous strains on the intelligence community’s analysts, pouring through huge quantities of pictures, human intelligence, multi-spectral imagery and signals intelligence data, this deployment sends a clear signal of the depth of the Obama administration’s commitment to Haitian relief.

The proposed new charter for the nation’s spy satellite builder, the National Reconnaissance Office, is stuck in the Department of Defense’s general counsel’s office. The lawyers are apparently worried that the new charter may expand the agency’s powers into areas governed by the military services.

The Pentagon will probably send the U-2 to Haiti so its unique multi-spectral imagery capabilities can be put to use spotting breaks in water and gas lines, chemical spills and similar problems. “My expectation is that we hope to get that deployed soon,” Col. Bradley Butz, vice commander of the Air Force’s 480th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing at Langley Air Force Base, Va., told reporters this morning. The U-2 contains unique multi-spectral imagery equipment (the seven-band SYERS 2) that Global Hawk and Predator don’t possess.

The U.S. bombing campaign targeting Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other extremist groups in Pakistan, continues to escalate, according to a a data rich analysis put together by the invaluable Long War Journal. The U.S. carried out 53 drone strikes in Pakistan last year, compared to 36 in 2008, a 47 percent increase. With multiple bombing runs already in 2010, LWJ says to expect the intensity of the campaign to match or beat least year’s pace.

The Army has released the final version of its Capstone Concept, shifting the service’s big ideas from preparing to fight mechanized battles on open battlefields to waging complex wars amongst the people against a hybrid mixture of adversaries. The new pub pushes the idea of “operational adaptability,” demanding intellectually agile soldiers who can rapidly adapt to complexity and a shifting and shadowy enemy.

The top intelligence officer in Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn, just released a damning report urging a wholesale shakeup of the intelligence gathering and analysis effort there. The report, Fixing Intel: A Blueprint for Making Intelligence Relevant in Afghanistan, released through the Center for New American Security, a Washington DC think tank, is a devastating assessment of the failed intelligence effort in Afghanistan. It details how poorly the U.S. intelligence community has adjusted to the demands of counterinsurgency.

How do you counter a “low signature” adversary that hides among the population and in complex and urban terrain? An emerging Israeli-U.S. concept explores “distributed manuever,” multiple small combined arms units striking simultaneously at an enemy, to force the hidden opponent to raise his signature level to a detectable and targetable level.

There were 28 lap­tops lost or stolen in the last four months and 66 in total since January 1, 2009. Looking back over the last 4 years there were 658 that van­ished. A major hunt is now on in London after a lap­top crammed with secret data was stolen from inside the Ministry of Defense (MoD) nerve cen­ter. FROM THEIR HEADQUARTERS!

Cyber insecurity has become such a seri­ous issue that President Obama recently ordered a thor­ough review and the devel­op­ment of a new approach to inter­na­tional cyber policies. One of the more sig­nif­i­cant actions resulting from this was the decision to begin talks between Russia and the United States. Back on 12 November, a Russian del­e­ga­tion led by Gen. Vladislav Sherstyuk, a deputy sec­re­tary of the Russian Security Council, flew to Washington for a meet­ing with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the U.S. National Security Council and the State Department, Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Marines are experimenting with an enhanced rifle company as their primary manuever unit for expeditionary warfare. Its all part of the quest for every smaller, yet highly lethal, units that can fight in dsitrbuted operations against hybird enemies. The big obstacle to making the concept a reality: robust data pipes for on the move command and control on austere battlefields.

The world cannot defeat al Qaeda until Osama bin Laden is captured or killed, Gen. Stanley McChrystal told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday. Bin Laden, the terrorist leader who has eluded capture since the U.S. and coalition forces invaded Afghanistan eight years ago, “is an iconic figure at this point whose survival emboldens al Qaeda,” and helps them attract new recruits around the world, McChrystal told Sen. John McCain, the committee’s top Republican.

Although the Pentagon’s general counsel’s office is still slicing and dicing the language, the NRO’s boss says he is “confident” that the Defense Secretary and Director of National Intelligence will soon approve a document laying out new responsibilities for the maker and operator of the nation’s spy satellites. The document, known as the statement of principles, is all part of an effort by the national security leadership — and pushed hard by NRO Director Bruce Carlson — to improve the NRO’s performance and accountability.

Iran is flexing its military muscle as world condemnation grows over its nuclear program. Last week, Iran held what it touted as its largest ever air defense drill intended to send a message to Israel that an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites would not be a repeat of the fairly effortless Israeli destruction of Syria’s al-Kibar nuclear facility two years ago. Analysts warn that delivery of a missing piece in Iran’s air defenses would almost guarantee an Israeli air attack: the long talked about sale by Russia to Iran of the S-300 (SA-20) surface to air missile system.

Two influential analysts told lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week that America’s strategic position in the world is eroding. America is losing its technological edge and is in deep financial trouble, while purchasing power is shifting from the West to Asia. Those trends cannot be undone, they warned, so the U.S. must adapt and seek greater cooperation with allies and establish “rules of the road” with potential rivals.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair should sign by Dec. 1 a document laying out new responsibilities for the National Reconnaissance Office, builder and operator of America’s spy satellites. This will set in motion the first substantial changes to the NRO charter since 1965, four years after then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara created the NRO and drafted its charter.

The American battle for Sadr City in 2008 and the Israeli war in Gaza later that year are being held up as models for future fights against irregular opponents. We take a look at some of the key lessons learned from both operations as well as an important factor that may limit where they can be replicated.