The Army JLENS blimp fiasco, the $43 million Afghan gas station, the fumbling F-35 program, the NDAA veto, government shutdowns, the Syrian train-and-equip program, etc. These are just some of the issues that have come up in recent times that highlight the desperate need to work towards defense reform in the United States. And the work should start now.
The U.S. Needs to Stop Throwing Weapons at Problems
The survival of the Iran nuclear agreement in Congress sent countless members of Congress scrambling for new ways to demonstrate their opposition to the deal and to throw sand into the gears required to carry out the agreement. One of the more preposterous ideas put forward was to send Massive Ordnance Penetrators (or MOPs) to Israel. MOPs are essentially really, really big bombs that have the capacity to penetrate up to 200 feet into the ground.
Secretaries Kerry & Moniz: Time to Reconsider the Test Ban Treaty
After their success in achieving an Iran nuclear agreement, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz have announced a new joint project: educating the Senate about the nuclear test ban treaty. Similar to their last joint endeavor, the Secretaries will face considerable opposition as they lay the groundwork for a renewed push towards ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).
Top 10 Reasons Obama Should Veto the Defense Authorization Bill
On October 21, Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate President Pro Tempore Orrin G. Hatch formally completed action on the fiscal year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and sent it to President Obama. The president now has ten calendar days, excluding Sunday, to either veto or sign the bill. Here are ten reasons the president should veto the NDAA.
Looking Beyond New START to the Future of U.S.-Russian Arms Control Treaties
On October 1,, 2015 the U.S Department of State’s Bureau for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance released its count of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons covered under the New START treaty. For the first time since the treaty entered into force on February 5, 2011, the United States has dropped below the imposed limit on deployed strategic warheads.
