Tragedy at Beaufort
Mrs. Spook and Your Humble Correspondent made a trip to South Carolina over the weekend, one of those semi-annual pilgrimages to visit relatives. The weather was absolutely delightful; lots of…
This is Why We Need the F-22
From the Interfax News Agency: Test flights of fifth-generation aircraft to be held in 2009. By comparison, our “first” fifth-generation fighter, the F-22 is already operational. Our next fifth-generation aircraft,…
Helicopter Wars
Last November, the Air Force announced plans to replace its inventory of HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue choppers with a new variant of the venerable HH-47 Chinook, built by Boeing. As…
Don't Let the Facts Get in the Way of a Good Story
Regrettably, that seems to be one of the axioms of modern journalism, as practiced by the MSM. If the facts don’t fit a particular template, just ignore them. It’s a…
Raptors for Japan?
Last week, we noted the Air Force’s long-standing opposition to potential exports of the F-22 stealth fighter. From the service’s perspective, it made little sense to share our most advanced…
The Nanny State
It’s rare when we agree with the American Civil Liberties Union, but this appears to be one of those occasions. To its credit, the ACLU was spot-on when it denounced…
An "Executive Agent" for UAVs?
There’s a major battle brewing in the Pentagon, over who will control the military’s most important–and capable–unmanned aerial vehicles. Last month, Air Force Chief of Staff General T. Michael Moseley…
Mr. McCain and CSAR-X
The Air Force has unveiled its plans for moving ahead with the bidding process for its next-generation, combat-search-and-rescue helicopter, a.k.a. CSAR-X. As we noted yesterday, the CSAR-X program has become…
Reforming the General Officer Corps
There were two media performances of note in recent days, illustrating (once again), that new media dictum that he who laughs last has the latest publishing date, the best book…
Running on Foreign Policy
With President Bush’s approval rating hovering around 30%, and public dissatisfaction over the war in Iraq running high, the Democrats and their allies in the MSM are feeling their oats.…