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Gates: Cutting Defense Means More ‘Risk,’ Fewer Missions
Robert Gates’ final defense policy speech in Washington turned out to be a challenge to his boss. President Obama has a goal of cutting $400 billion out of the Pentagon budget over the next 12 years. To do that, Gates says, the armed forces are going to have to stop taking on certain roles — and the country is going to have to accept the “additional risk” that comes from a pared-back military.
You see, Gates already killed the Army’s gazillion-dollar Future Combat Systems and the Marines’ “swimming tank” troop transporter. He stopped the production lines for the F-22 Raptor stealth jets. Then he and the services wrang out another $78 billion over four years for future spending.
The result? All the “low hanging fruit” in the defense budget have “not only been plucked, they Read more…
Libya: missile destroys Gaddafi building

Libyan officials claimed that the strike on his Bab al-Azizia leadership compound amounted to an attempt to assassinate the long serving leader.
A huge plume of smoke rose from the site of an three-storey administrative building just 100 yards from the tent in the compound used by Col Gaddafi for media interviews and high level visits.
There were no reported casualties but the front of the building had collasped.
A crowd of loyalists gathered near the collapsed building to denounce the first attack on the Libyan leader’s personal citadel
Officials said the building was an administrative bloc not connected with the military. Shrapnel was Read more…
North Korean Nukes Might Fit on Missiles, Aircraft: U.S.
(Mar. 11) – U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper, left, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess attend a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday. Burgess warned North Korea might now possess nuclear weapons suitable for delivery by missiles and bomber aircraft (Mark Wilson/Getty Images).
North Korea could now possess nuclear warheads compact enough to be fitted to missiles and carried by bomber planes, U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess said on Thursday (see GSN, March 10).
(Mar. 11) – U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper, left, and Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess attend a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday. Burgess warned North Korea might now possess nuclear weapons suitable for delivery by missiles and bomber aircraft (Mark Wilson/Getty Images).
“The North may now have several plutonium-based nuclear warheads that it can deliver by ballistic missiles and aircraft as well as by Read more…