National Defense articles

Recent articles from National Defense

Uncertain times: military services ponder future of their war-worn trucks.(Tactical Vehicles)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MONTEREY, Calif. -- Six years after the invasion of Iraq changed the way the military looked at tactical wheeled vehicles, the Army and Marine Corps are still trying to find the right balance between protection and performance. How much armor belongs on how many...

Oil dependency: energy-related security crises coming sooner than expected.(Energy)(Viewpoint essay)
April 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] VIEWPOINT The average global temperature has not risen now for a couple of years. A barrel of crude oil is down $100 from its recent high and gasoline costs half of what it did last summer. So why still bother with energy policy? Don't we have other, more immediate...

Lost agency: CIA must return to its roots to become effective once again.(VIEWPOINT)(Central Intelligence Agency)(Viewpoint essay)
March 1, 2009... In 1942, as the United States went to war with brutal and fanatical foes, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the creation of the first civilian intelligence collection organization in U.S. history. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), under the brilliant direction of its first and...

Noted police chief slams federal-local partnerships.(SECURITY BEAT)(Edward Flynn )(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... The man who led the local police response to the 9/11 attacks on the Pentagon hopes the new administration does a better job of coordinating counterterrorism efforts with local law enforcement. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "We have been essentially cut out of the homeland security discussion,"...

NATO commander: send more spy planes to Afghanistan.(WASHINGTON PULSE: NEWS FROM INSIDE THE BELTWAY)(North Atlantic Treaty Organization Army Gen. Bantz John Craddock)(Brief article)
March 1, 2009... * The U.S. military has deployed thousands of unmanned surveillance aircraft to war zones, but not nearly enough went to Afghanistan, laments Army Gen. Bantz John Craddock, head of U.S. European Command. "We need full-motion video, persistent surveillance," he says. "In Afghanistan,...