Continue reading “Doug Macgregor: YouTube (2:00) Margin of Victory”
Doug Macgregor: Margin of Victory Presentation at Metropolitan Club, Washington DC 9 February 2017
Capabilities-Force Structure, Ethics, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Strategy, Strategy-Holistic Coherence
On the evening of 9 February 2017 Col Dr Doug Macgregor presented a new briefing to a packed house at the Metropolitan Club of Washington, DC. Summarizing his latest book, Margin of Victory, his extemporaneous commentary was riveting.
His two most important points: first, that Grand Strategy covers all elements of national policy, not only national security — commerce and diplomacy, agriculture and energy — ALL elements of national policy must be managed as a whole to achieve peace and prosperity; and second, that wars are won or lost based on the ten years of strategy, policy, and acquisition that precede them — he did not say this, but it was clear that the military we have today cannot win wars.
Thirteen Slides Below the Fold
DefDog: Two-Thirds of All US Navy Jets Cannot Fly
Corruption, Government, Ineptitude, Military
Nearly two-thirds of US Navy’s strike fighters can’t fly
…nearly two-thirds of the fleet’s strike fighters can’t fly – grounded because they’re either undergoing maintenance or simply waiting for parts or their turn the aviation depot backlog.
Long comment below the fold.
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David Isenberg: Trump & Private Military Contractors — Can Jim Mattis Close This Door?
Ethics, Military, Officers Call
Trump and the Return of Private Military Contractors
The PMSC sector is the U.S. military’s American Express card; it dare not deploy without it. Or, to use a more morbid pop culture reference, consider the first Alien movie, when they try to remove the facehugger from a crewman’s face, only to realize that trying to do so would kill the patient. The PMSC sector is now so intertwined with the service and support components of the U.S. military that the U.S. military would have to be rebuilt from scratch in order to do without it.
Steven Aftergood: CRS on US Army Out-Gunned & Out-Armored
Ethics, Military
INNOVATION IN FOREIGN ARMY SYSTEMS
Several nations are independently pursuing development of ground combat weapon systems that are comparable or superior to their U.S. Army counterparts, says a new report from the Congressional Research Service.
Accordingly, there is a “possibility that in the not-too-distant future, foreign armored vehicle design and capabilities could surpass existing U.S. systems.”
See Selected Foreign Counterparts of U.S. Army Ground Combat Systems and Implications for Combat Operations and Modernization, January 18, 2017.
Continue reading “Steven Aftergood: CRS on US Army Out-Gunned & Out-Armored”
On Defense Intelligence – Seven Strikes
Ineptitude, Military
Full Text Below the Fold.
Don Vandergriff: The US Army’s Poor Leadership — How Did It Get So Bad?
Ethics, Military
How did the US Army’s leadership problem grow so bad?
Summary: The US spends $600 billion on the US military (narrowly defined; almost a trillion broadly), yet repeatedly fails to defeat our poorly trained and equipped foes. In this chapter of our series asking “why”, Don Vandergriff points to ways the Army selects and promotes officers (its problems are usually about people; seldom about hardware). Tomorrow he discusses solutions.
Continue reading “Don Vandergriff: The US Army's Poor Leadership — How Did It Get So Bad?”
