Sunday Morning Reading

"Longest Running Scam" - That is how Congress is describing Missile Defense. The MDA budget is around 10 billion. The most successful aspect of BMD is the AEGIS system. The Navy is funded about 7% total of the entire MDA budget. While it would be nice if THAAD and other systems were getting a big share of the 93%, sadly that isn't how it works.

This is a very good story on the USNS Algol delivering the 24th MEU equipment bound for Afghanistan, plus a bunch of MRAPs bound for Iraq. The Sea Base wants fast transport, start by building a system to load/off load these ships. These are great ships, but between the 8 FSS in inventory they can only carry 3 Army BCTs. Several studies have highlighted the need to build a new ship more than twice the size, and build other platforms with similar lift capabilities with 40% more speed (over 50 knots). Regardless of these futuristic plans, the current FSS fleet still gets the big jobs done faster than anything else in inventory.

This story is how the Europeans are leveraging amphibious ships for all kinds of roles for offshore sea basing. This article from last month has been emailed me at least 3 times now. Not sure why I haven't decided to discuss it specifically, but all it really does it repeat the conceptual use of Amphibious ships we believe should be done more often by the US Navy. Anyone who enjoys our discussions on Expeditionary Warfare will find this article interesting.

Congress looking at “roles and missions” within the Pentagon. Full report available by link from that story. I have not observed enough wisdom in our elected leaders to believe they can change the Goldwater-Nichols Act for the better. Sorry, but this is the same bunch running around blaming John McCain for the tanker deal. It is a bad sign when a bunch of people in Congress, bipartisan btw, are complaining because a Senator stood up for clean government and stood against corruption in the defense industry. That hardly gives the impression those people are qualified to apply the wisdom necessary for a decision on the scale of the Goldwater-Nichols Act.

Finally there is a new RAND report on The Evolution of Air Force-Navy Integration in Strike Warfare. I haven't read it yet, but I plan to soon. It is easy to focus on the aspects of Goldwater-Nichols that haven't worked, but the level of joint operations between the various services really is testament to how many aspects of Goldwater-Nichols have worked out very well.