Pentagon News

American defense officials have announced that a very senior Islamic State (ISIS) leader has been killed in a U.S. military operation. While this is good news, it’s difficult to speculate the exact effect this will have on ISIS’ operations. It’s also pure conjecture to guess at what this success says about the U.S. military’s ability…

Not since the heady days of the “revolution in military affairs” over a decade ago has reforming the Pentagon been such a central focus of Washington musings. Recently, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., kicked off a series of hearings looking at the roles and missions of the armed forces with an eye toward reducing…

After the grim announcement last month that only four or five Syrian rebels trained by U.S. military personnel remained inside Syria, the Obama administration has decided to call it quits on the program altogether. There were supposed to be roughly 5,400 trained fighters this year and 15,000 within 3 years in order to effectively combat…

The Pentagon cares as much about how money moves around the world as it does about the movement of arms. Small wonder the recent bobbling in Beijing’s economy has caught the armed services’ attention. After owning bragging rights to one-third of global economic growth, the Chinese economy just hit a major speed bump. Growth slowed. The…

As Congress and the Obama administration clash over the Department of Defense’s budget, few Americans will probably think of the former Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird. This would be a mistake, as many of the current budget battles within the Pentagon have parallels that can be drawn to Laird’s tenure as secretary of defense. From…

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, has done something well-nigh unthinkable on Capitol Hill: He has filed a bill to cut red tape. Thornberry’s goal is to make the military’s acquisition process more efficient, but his approach—while intuitive for most people—goes against the grain of “normal” congressional problem solving, which typically tries to increase efficiency…

When it comes to how the Pentagon buys new stuff, everyone’s a critic. The zeal for reform rivals that of Carrie Nation when she first took up her hatchet. Yet, despite numerous initiatives—complete with promises, new laws and regulations—the complaints continue to pile up. Perhaps it is time for a different take on acquisition reform….

Before the arms race with the Soviet Union came the hiring race among U.S. military bureaucracies. It started not long after the National Security Act of 1947 established what became the Department of Defense (DoD). The Secretariat added staff and functions to ride roughshod over the services. In turn, the services added staff to meet…

What is the Pentagon trying to do with this new Ebola domestic response team? When called upon by other parts of the federal government (or state governors) for help in domestic emergencies (hurricanes, floods, etc.), the Defense Department provides support. It can be logistical, medical or related tosecurity and transportation. This mission, which is part…