* The US Veterans Health Administration's Inspector General published an interim review [PDF] on the Phoenix Health Care System's patient wait times, scheduling practices, and their effects on patient outcomes: "To date, our work has substantiated serious conditions...
S-80 cutaway, labeled(click to view full) The CIM-2000 Scorpene class diesel-electric attack submarine partnership was just the first step for Spain's Navantia, as it joined with France's DCNS to enter the global submarine market. Now Navantia is building on that base...
F/A-18 with test JASSMs(click to view full) In March 2005, Lockheed Martin's AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (or JASSM) cruise missile won the competition with Boeing's SLAM-ER and the Taurus KEPD 350 for the AIR 5418 Follow-on Standoff Weapon (FOSOW)...
* President Obama announced the US would leave 9,800 troops in Afghanistan in 2015, then cut than number by half the next year. * US Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO, SAC-D member) sums up the Republican reaction: "If we are going to leave forces in Afghanistan, we should...
* Ukraine elected businessman Petro Poroshenko as its next president with a relatively high margin, and one of his pledges is to wrap up operations in Eastern Ukraine quickly. Fighting in Donetsk (Eastern Ukraine) reportedly led to the death of about 40 pro-Russian...
Monday, May 28th is Memorial Day in the USA. As we mentioned on Friday, DID honors those who have given all of their tomorrows in American military service, and will not be publishing. Readers are reminded that in America, the Memorial Day moment of silence takes...
* The Economist notes that "money and reform have given Russia armed forces it can use." There are serious remaining weaknesses, and Russia may not sustain this forever, but with more than 20% of public spending dedicated to defense, the current modernization effort...
Nimrod MR2 at work(click to view full) British naval theorist Sir Julian Corbett saw the navy's proper role as "directly or indirectly either to secure the command of the sea or to prevent the enemy from securing it." Airpower plays a prominent role in both of those...
* Qinetiq announced sales for the year ended March 31 2014 that were down by 10.3% to £1.2B ($2B). Growth in the UK and the rest of Europe was not nearly enough in absolute terms to compensate for a tough Y/Y comparison in the US. Theirs is a cautionary tale for...