astropolitics.org Blog

Navy Hits USAF On Satellite Acquisition (UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL 17 MAR 08)WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy has told lawmakers it fears being short-changed when cuts are made to over-budget spy satellite programs run by the Air Force.
In unusually blunt testimony, Rear Adm. Kenneth Deutsch, director of warfare integration in the Navy’s communications networks office, raised [...]

Well, I’ll be … After reporting ont he Army’s perpetual problem with breakage (see Scales’ Lament, below), it seems that Fox News is reporting we were wrong. The Army is just fine.
U.S. Army Isn’t Broken After All, Military Experts Say
I may refrain from jumping on the band wagon just yet. By the way, I had [...]

A lot of passion shows through in the ink spilt over the demise of Fox Fallon at CENTCOM.
A piece by Astropolitics.org reader Dr Gary Schaub appeared as an op-ed in The Montgomery Advertizer, and deserves much wider distribution: The Fall of Fox Fallon (Fall of Fallon.pdf and Fall of Fallon.doc).
Mark Perry’s Comment in the Asia Times [...]

Having been accused of being a nanobrain myself, I initially took offense… Seriously, this article suggests some very interesting developments—one could use this concept to control a MEMS device that could interact with molecules chemically, but could be controlled both in terms of movement and chemical interactivity, sort of like Fantastic Voyage without Raquel Welch… [...]

Northrop Grumman Responds to Inaccurate Comments Concerning the U.S. Air Force KC-45A Award Decision
(NOTE: Our source in DC says these tanker commentaries come straight from their respective company PR Depts—the analysis [Word.doc] in the last one was Boeing’s…)
LOS ANGELES – March 5, 2008 – When the process to replace America’s aging fleet of KC-135 aerial [...]

CHICAGO, March 10, 2008 – The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] will file a formal protest on Tuesday asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review the decision by the U.S. Air Force to award a contract to a team of Northrop Grumman and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) to replace aerial refueling tankers [...]

Thought this one was worth posting. Looks like General Chilton might be coming around to a warfighter’s view of space. Not a bad thing to have happen to a former Shuttle astronaut now in charge of the nation’s Strategic Command. And Mike Vickers always knows what he is talking about.
The New Art of War By [...]

Jim Oberg has another great take on “Sense, nonsense, and pretense about the destruction of USA 193” in The Space Review.