Category Archives: David Axe

For U.S., Pakistan Flooding an Opportunity

Posted on August 21, 2010

The heavy rains in Pakistan’s restive Swat Valley began in late July and didn’t let up for weeks. Flooding and landslides killed at least 1,500 people and displaced 4 million in the worst natural disaster to strike Pakistan in years. Continue reading →

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Comic Books Invade Afghanistan

Posted on August 11, 2010

In World War II, we had Bill Mauldin, a U.S. Army sergeant who depicted the travails of frontline troops in a comic strip for the military’s Stars and Stripes newspaper. In the 1990s, writer-artist Joe Sacco continued Mauldin’s tradition with a series of graphic novels about the wars in Palestine and the Balkans. In 2005 and 2006, Sacco turned his attention to the Iraq war. Continue reading →

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The Coming “Cloud” Concept for Air Power

Posted on August 2, 2010

by DAVID AXE On July 26, U.S. defense firm Northrop Grumman announced it had won a $46-million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to “develop, test and field-demonstrate a net-centric architecture system that enhances warfighters’ awareness of … Continue reading →

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Unmanned Option for Future Air Dominance

Posted on July 14, 2010

Dave Dietsch from the U.S. Air Force Association advocacy group is worried about the future. Specifically, he’s worried that the U.S. military will lose its traditional air-defense prowess, rendering vulnerable thousands of American drones, attack planes, spy planes, transports and helicopters. “Without enough modern fighters to control the skies over future battlefields, American soldiers and Marines will lose the vital information and support these systems provide,” he wrote in a newspaper editorial. “Losing the air power edge — ever — would be inconceivably costly in the lives of American ground troops.” Continue reading →

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Desert Storm Origins of Plan to Bomb Oil Leak

Posted on July 1, 2010

Two weeks ago, U.S. military scientists Franz Gayl proposed stopping the nearly three-month-old Gulf of Mexico oil leak by exploding an Air Force bunker-busting bomb over it. The idea, Gayl says, has its roots in a proposal he developed during the 1991 Desert Storm campaign, when retreating Iraqi forces ignited hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells. Continue reading →

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Military Scientist Proposes Massive Blast to End Oil Leak

Posted on June 10, 2010

by DAVID AXE He pushed for blast-proof trucks to protect against roadside bombs — years before the military embraced them. He advocated small flying drones, now considered indispensable, at a time when many officers were skeptical. He has helped lobby … Continue reading →

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Floating Causeway Boosts Hospital Ship Ops

Posted on May 24, 2010

The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy will use techniques and technology developed for amphibious operations to boost her ability to see patients in remote, under-developed Pacific countries. On May 1, Mercy embarked on a five-month cruise, delivering free medical care to communities in Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, East Timor, Palau and Papua New Guinea. Continue reading →

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English-Speaking Navies Reorganize

Posted on May 14, 2010

Shrinking shipbuilding budgets and a growing tension between high-end air operations and maritime security patrols are driving deep changes in the world’s leading, English-speaking navies. Among allied powers, only the United States has resisted the call to reorganize its maritime forces. Continue reading →

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U.S. Defense Secretary Fires Broadside at “Wasting” Navy

Posted on May 5, 2010

by DAVID AXE In a few pointed words, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates challenged six decades of U.S. Navy tradition. “Do we really need eleven carrier strike groups for another 30 years when no other country has more than … Continue reading →

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Navy Thinker Calls for Bigger U.S. Navy with Smaller Ships

Posted on April 16, 2010

U.S. Navy Commander Jerry Hendrix really rocked the boat in April 2009, when he proposed a radical change in the kinds of ships the world’s largest sea service buys and how it organizes them. Hendrix’s article, “Buy Ford, Not Ferrari,” published the U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings magazine, advocated replacing a portion of the Navy’s high-end aircraft carriers and destroyers (“Ferraris”) with a much larger number of inexpensive vessels (“Fords”) organized into what Hendrix calls “Influence Squadrons.” The new squadrons would deploy across the globe, to the waters off developing countries whose governments struggle against increasingly bold and more numerous smugglers, pirates and insurgents. Continue reading →

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