Free Republic

Against the advice of its own panel of outside experts, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is forgoing tests meant to ensure that a critical component of the nation’s homeland missile defense system will work as intended. The tests that are being skipped would evaluate the reliability of small motors designed to help keep rocket interceptors on course as they fly toward incoming warheads. (Snip) But in order to stay on schedule for a planned expansion of the GMD system, none of the 40 thrusters that are being installed on 10 new interceptors will undergo hot-fire testing, government officials told the...

Key members of the national security community warn a Trump presidency would be dangerous for America and the world. More than 75 members of the Republican national security community banded together to pen an open letter to Donald Trump, the Republican front runner in the 2016 presidential race.

New Russian tanks sent to Syria have been able to survive hits from US-made TOW missiles, although their anti-missile counter-measures have yet to be seen in combat. In a report on new weapons in the Syrian conflict, Robert Fisk noted tank-based anti-missile systems, as well as night vision and reconnaissance systems. Although new the tanks supplied to the Syrian army have the ability to deflect TOW-like missiles, their full implementation has yet to be seen. A video released by rebels showed the T-90 surviving a hit by a TOW missile, but an open hatch prevented the deployment of an aerosol...

A Minuteman 3 missile was test-launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base northwest of Los Angeles Saturday at 11.34pm PST The unarmed missile's destination was 4,200 miles into the Pacific OceanIt was carrying a test re-entry vehicle to the Marshall IslandsTest-launches are a common sight at the base

Donald Trump said Sunday he actually opposes Obamacare's individual mandate, following up his reversal last week of his apparent support for the law. The GOP presidential frontrunner told CNN's Anderson Cooper Thursday that he "likes" the healthcare law's requirement to have health coverage. He tweeted the following day that he would actually repeal it, along with the rest of President Obama's healthcare law. On CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday Trump said he doesn't like the mandate at all.

Microsoft keeps shouting about the millions of users that have switched to Windows 10, and soon the company will have another 4 million to bray about. The US Department of Defense is the latest big name to give Windows 10 the seal of approval apparently unconcerned with the privacy and telemetry issues that have put off others. 4 million enterprise upgrades for Windows 10 is a real feather in the cap for Microsoft, and the aim is to get each system running the latest version of the operating system inside a year. The DoD has also announced that it is...

North Korea's new satellite cruised over Levi's Stadium after Super Bowl 50 BY Nicole Hensley / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS / Monday, February 8, 2016, 5:29 AM Kim Kwang Hyon/AP North Korea's satellite, which was launched on Feb. 7, passed over the Super Bowl 50 game. Pictured is the country's Unha 3 at the Sci-Tech Complex in Pyongyang in 2012. A "Shining Star" was watching over Levi's Stadium after the Broncos 24-10 win. As football fans poured out of the Bay Area stadium, North Korea's observational satellite zipped by the field at an orbit 300 miles above the Earth at...

There was an unusual shooting in Garland, Texas on 15 January, 2016 .  It involved an old girl friend, a home security system, and a warning phone call.  It seems the homeowner and the person he shot knew each other.  The person had been told to leave the property an hour earlier.  Then the homeowner received a phone call from the person's ex girlfriend, that he was returning, and was a threat. From cbslocal.com: Tampered home surveillance equipment is the first sign that this was not an ordinary crime. Police say that and a warning phone call is what...

What could go wrong? The Obama administration pushed its project to empty the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to a new level today. CNN’s Jake Tapper reported that the Department of Defense announced the release of a full-fledged member of al-Qaeda to Bosnia — one of the men who presented a threat to commercial airliners before getting captured in 2002 by purportedly inventing the shoe bomb: DOD announces transfer of Gitmo detainee Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed Al Sawah to Bosnia. Member of AQ who developed IEDs to use v commercial planes— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 21, 2016 The Miami Herald...

Clearly human driven climate change and anthropogenic global warming can not be defeated through political action alone. A challenge this monumental will call for more strident measures. With that in mind, the Obama administration has apparently decided to bring in the big guns… literally. The Pentagon has been ordered to “address climate change.” (Free Beacon) A new directive issued by Pentagon leaders mandates that the agency work to "assess and manage risks associated with the impacts of climate change," according to a copy of the Jan. 14 directive issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work.As the Obama administration...

NEW YORK – US Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that security clearance could be denied to an applicant with relatives in any foreign country. “If a security-clearance applicant has relatives or other close connections to people in any foreign country, this could potentially disqualify that person from being eligible for a security clearance,” he said. But, he added, “The Federal Adjudicative Guidelines do not call for any special scrutiny for applicants with relatives in Israel.” Wright spoke on Thursday in response to the recent protest by Jewish organizations against the US Navy’s denial of...

There's a scene at the beginning of The Bourne Identity where the film's protagonist is sitting in a diner, trying to figure out who he is and why he has a bunch of passports and a gun stashed in a safety deposit box. Bourne also notices that he, well, notices things that other people don't. ~snip~ ...situational awareness is simply knowing what's going on around you. It sounds easy in principle, but in reality requires much practice. And while it is taught to soldiers, law enforcement officers, and yes, government-trained assassins, it's an important skill for civilians to learn as...

The plans of the next president are personal to the officers of the Pentagon, who are threatening to quit if The Donald becomes commander-in-chief. Republican presidential candidate and business mogul Donald Trump has repeatedly vowed to build up the U.S. military if elected president. But it is not clear he will have the experienced commanders within the ranks to do it. In the halls of the Pentagon, there is a different plan afoot for the Trump presidency. Here, officers are privately contemplating what they would do should Trump become their commander-in-chief. And more often than not, they proclaim they will...

Published on Dec 16, 2015 BACKGROUND: In the dead of night after 2am this morning, Congressional leadership unveiled a more than 2,000 page 'omnibus' year-end funding bill which would, among other things: fully-fund the President's refugee expansion; fully-fund sanctuary cities; fully-fund the resettlement of illegal aliens youth and their families crossing the border; lock-in tax credits for illegal aliens; and quadruple the highly controversial H-2B foreign worker visa being used to replace Americans as truck drivers, construction workers, theme park employees, and in blue collar jobs across the nation. Sessions, the Chairman of the Immigration Subcommittee, issued a statement about...

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is climbing to his highest support yet in a new national poll. The real estate mogul earned a broad 41 percent support from Republicans and Republican-leaning registered voters in a new national Monmouth University poll released today.

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS) Operational Test Agency, in conjunction with U.S. Pacific Command, U.S. European Command, and Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense, successfully conducted the first intercept flight test Dec. 9, Hawaii Standard Time, of a land-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) weapon system and Standard Missile (SM)-3 Block IB Threat Upgrade guided missile, launched from the Aegis Ashore Missile Defense Test Complex at the Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kauai. During the test, a target representing a medium-range ballistic missile was air-launched from a U.S. Air Force...

The Constitution, not personal moral views, is THE issue when it comes to federal acts and omissions. The Constitution does not mandate federal allowance of immigration whereas the Constitution DOES at least have an implied mandate for the feds to REPEL INVASIONS (Art I, Sec 8, Cl 15) and not to give AID or COMFORT to our enemies (Art III, Sec 3) which is impeachable treason (Art II, Sec 4). People who claim to be on the Right need to get a bearing on the Constitution, the ONLY source and authorization of federal power. The Free Exercise Clause does not...

It is the opinion of the Editorial Board and many contributors of Bearing Drift that the statements made by Donald J. Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, regarding halting the entry of those of the Islamic faith from entering the United States, are reckless, inappropriate, and contrary to the founding principles embodied in Virginia’s Statute for Religious Freedom. Mr. Trump's statement is a direct attack on America's history of religious tolerance, and it represents a violation of the Federal Constitution, and in Virginia, of our Statute for Religious Freedom, the oldest such enacted law in...

We are living in a world rapidly evolving away from the mental constructs and language of the last 375 years. These ideas can be traced to the Treaty of Westphalia ending the 30 Years War in 1648 and Grotius proposal of a system of International Law in the same era. The ideas were then extended through the development of state warfare culminating in the Napoleonic Wars.

"Combat Effectiveness" Being Degraded by Obama's Military Policies By evaluating an overwhelming amount of evidence that has been building for 6 ½ years, the obvious conclusion personnel with extensive military experience will come to, is that Obama’s military policies have been degrading the finest US military fighting force in history. Over the last 6 ½ years, the US Armed Forces has been hollowed out by Obama, his Social Experiment On Diversity has severely fractured unit cohesiveness, his “Politically Correct Policies” have negatively affected unit morale, and the “Combat Effectiveness” of the US military is being degraded. Tip of the spear...