Free Republic

The third offset strategy hopes to accomplish two objectives. First, by investing in groundbreaking technologies in such areas as undersea systems, hypersonics, electronic warfare, big data analytics, advanced materials, 3D printing, energy and propulsion, robotics, autonomy, man-machine interfaces and advanced sensing and computing, the Pentagon hopes to create new military capabilities that will counter competitors’ advances in precision weapons, long-range missiles and electronic warfare. Second, by relying more heavily on technologies developed in commercial industry and, even more important, on the practices of cutting-edge IT companies in the areas of innovation, experimentation and rapid development and deployment, DoD believes it...

Most Americans have never spent a day in uniform in America of 2016 and that is a problem. The White House social engineers have been able to manipulate the Congress and the American people and have led them to believe that women can serve successfully in the combat arms and special operations because most Americans don’t understand anything about the military. Combine the ignorance of a nation, with the political correctness of Congress and the moral cowardice of the Joint Chiefs and it’s open season to destroy the military if your Valerie Jarrett, Ray Mabus, Ash Carter or Barack Hussein...

God told Abraham that he would spare Sodom if he could find ten righteous men. Is their one righteous man in the Pentagon who can save the US military from its impending doom? Last September, General Martin Dempsey retired as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Dempsey’s reign at the Pentagon was a green light to use the US armed forces as some kind of laboratory for the testing and implementation of every lunatic, left wing fantasy of what the military should be like, but in reality, isn’t. Any senior officers not supporting Obama’s Maoist Revolution in the US...

Navy Petty Officer Lentoyi White, 26, feared she’d be dismissed from the service after twice failing the Navy’s body composition assessment (BCA), which measures body fat percentage. But in January, the Navy loosened its body fat restrictions for both men and women, giving White and thousands of other sailors another chance to stay in the Navy. “I am very grateful for a second chance with this new policy,” said White, a single mother with a 5-year-old daughter. White has gone from 212 pounds to 188 and is optimistic she’ll pass this spring under the new standards. Under the Navy’s previous...

The Navy is giving another chance to thousands of sailors who otherwise would be kicked out for repeatedly failing their physical fitness tests because they exceeded body fat limits. The service branch loosened its body fat restrictions in January and is allowing those who failed their exams three or more times to get one more opportunity to be tested this spring under the more lenient guidelines. The Navy said it has been losing too many talented sailors. Some were resorting to liposuction, diet pills and other measures to save their careers. The Navy allowed about 2,400 sailors who passed a...

Looking at the case of Sergeant First Class Charles Martland, the highly decorated Green Beret who refused to stand by and do nothing when he was confronted with pure evil, one would think that as a result of how he faced down evil in Afghanistan that he would be given another medal to pin on his uniform. Unfortunately quite the contrary is the case. Instead of being rewarded for having the courage to do the right thing, Sergeant First Class Martland may well be facing the end of his military career. Martland, along with his former commander Captain Daniel Quinn...

The Pentagon is ordering the top brass to incorporate climate change into virtually everything they do, from testing weapons to training troops to war planning to joint exercises with allies. A new directive’s theme: The U.S. Armed Forces must show “resilience” and beat back the threat based on “actionable science.” It says the military will not be able to maintain effectiveness unless the directive is followed. It orders the establishment of a new layer of bureaucracy — a wide array of “climate change boards, councils and working groups” to infuse climate change into “programs, plans and policies.” The Pentagon defines

PETERBOROUGH, N.H.-Ted Cruz on Sunday said he opposes requiring women to register for a potential draft, breaking with Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, all of whom indicated support for opening up the Selective Service to women during Saturday night's debate. "I have to admit, as I was sitting there listening to that conversation, my reaction was, 'Are you guys nuts?'" Cruz said Sunday, speaking at a town hall here. "Listen, we have had enough with political correctness, especially in the military. Political correctness is dangerous. And the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them...

Army and Marine Corps leaders swapped pledges with members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday not to cave to political pressure and relax ground combat skill requirements so that more women will qualify to serve in infantry, armor and special forces units. Certainty that such pressure will come, and the need to resist to protect combat effectiveness, was expressed both by senators and witnesses during the first congressional hearing held to review how Army and Marine Corps plan to open all ground combat jobs to women. No senator on the committee suggested Congress should block the Dec. 3...

All-male ground combat squads proved faster, stronger and more lethal in most cases than units that included women, concludes a Marine Corps study that evaluated the impact of integrating women into all jobs. The women also suffered higher injury rates during physically demanding training, according to a summary of the study released Thursday. The Marine Corps faces a deadline the Pentagon has set for requiring military branches to open all specialties to women, including infantry and special operations forces, beginning next year.

Defense: Even as the U.S. faces unprecedented security challenges, the Obama administration continues to slash the military. Cuts in funding and troop levels are leading to a dangerous lack of readiness. President Obama's most recent reduction in forces is a big one: The Army last week announced it would drop 40,000 soldiers from its ranks, a reaction to ongoing deep budget cuts. These cuts are real, deep and damaging — unlike spending in the rest of the federal government, where spending continues to rise. Since 2011, the Army's "base budget" has plummeted by nearly 18% in real terms.

Two lawsuits have been filed seeking information about the U.S. military’s plan to use women to “close with and kill” the enemy, based on reports that suggest having women in “tip of the spear” fighting units such as the Rangers and the Navy SEALs may be counterproductive. The Obama administration announced two years ago it would make female military personnel eligible for assignment to direct ground combat units, including the infantry, beginning in January 2016. Under the military’s structure, women would be ordered into such positions. Various military agencies and units since then have been analyzing the safety and effectiveness...

Yesterday at the DFW airport. It was strikingly difficult to talk to the Pakistani women selling food, with their head coverings, OBVIOUSLY pious Muslims. And turning around were Muslim Women with head coverings removing trash. I just WISH someone had the testicular power to tell these women if they want to work at an AIRPORT where travelers are sensitive about Muslim people that blow up things, they need to REMOVE their coverings, or go work at the local dry cleaning shop, or sell used tires. But to put them in the AIRPORTS knowing that all of the things that get...

An independent panel appointed by the Pentagon and Congress said Thursday that President Obama’s strategy for sizing the armed services is too weak for today’s global threats. The National Defense Panel called on the president to dump a major section of his 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and write a broader strategy that requires the military to fight on multiple fronts at once. It also said the shrinking U.S. armed forces, which are being downsized to fit that strategy and budget cuts, is a “serious strategic misstep on the part of the United States.” The forces’ numbers spelled out in...

MOBILE, Alabama -- It's judgment day for the littoral combat ship. The July 31 deadline has passed for a task force of U.S. Navy officials to collect information for a new or improved small surface combatant. In a released statement the Navy said it will begin reviewing the preliminary findings that will decide the future of the littoral combat ship, or whether to replace it. "Because the task force alternatives will be considered as part of (the fiscal year 2016 budget) deliberations, the Navy will not comment publicly on the report's findings until budget decisions within the defense department are...

More than half of female Marines in boot camp can't do three pullups, the minimum standard that was supposed to take effect with the new year, prompting the Marine Corps to delay the requirement, part of the process of equalizing physical standards to integrate women into combat jobs. The delay rekindled sharp debate in the military on the question of whether women have the physical strength for some military jobs, as service branches move toward opening thousands of combat roles to them in 2016. Although no new timetable has been set on the delayed physical requirement, Marine Corps Commandant Gen....

The Marine Corps has delayed the requirement for female Marines to do three pullups because most women have so far been unable to pass the test. For 40 years, male recruits were required to perform three pullups to prove their upper body strength for combat, where they would need to carry heavy equipment and potentially lift themselves out of mud walls. Starting Jan. 1, female recruits would have been required to do the same. But 55 percent of female recruits could not complete all three pullups, compared to just 1 percent of male recruits who could not, so the requirement...

A recent military report on sexual assault in the military shocked many in Washington and around the nation, but a leading expert on military personnel revealed the prevalence of men assaulting other men is one of the major headlines in this study. The extended analysis of the report first appeared in Monday’s edition of the the Washington Times. The Defense Department survey of sexual assault in the military during fiscal 2012 estimated 26,000 assaults took place in the armed forces. Nearly 3,000 of them were formally reported. Just more than 6 percent of women reported being victims of assault and...

Military-readiness advocate Elaine Donnelly warns that the Obama administration’s decision to put women in ground-combat roles amounts to “social engineering to achieve a political end in the name of diversity.” She adds that the policy shift means “lives could be lost unnecessarily, not just women, but men.” Donnelly’s organization, the Center for Military Readiness, released a 42-page report earlier this week exploring the unintended consequences of putting women on the front lines. “It will do great harm to women in the military, especially those who will find themselves in the infantry—something there’s no indication they wanted,” Donnelly said Wednesday in...

America has been creeping closer and closer to allowing women in combat, so Wednesday's news that the decision has now been made is not a surprise. It appears that female soldiers will be allowed on the battlefield but not in the infantry. Yet it is a distinction without much difference: Infantry units serve side-by-side in combat with artillery, engineers, drivers, medics and others who will likely now include women. The Pentagon would do well to consider realities of life in combat as it pushes to mix men and women on the battlefield. Many articles have been written regarding the relative...