Free Republic

Financial records from The Lincoln Project – the anti-Trump group lauded by the establishment media – appear to reveal that the group funneled over $10,000,000 to enrich its own founders personally through their communications and consulting firms, The National Pulse can reveal.The news comes days after co-founder John Weaver admitted sending sexually inappropriate messages to young men.Launched in 2019 by a cohort of establishment, so-called “Republicans” dedicated to “defeating President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box,” the group has routinely funneled the millions it raises to its founders and advisors, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.Co-founder Reed Gallen’s Summit...

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Family Christian Stores, the nation's largest Christian bookstore and gift chain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in hopes of restructuring its debt in the face of declining sales. The Grand Rapids-based chain said it does not expect to close any of its 266 stores in 36 states or layoff any of its 3,100 full-time and part-time employees. "We strive to serve God in all that we do and trust his guidance in all our decisions, especially this very important one," said President and CEO Chuck Bengochea in a news release. "We have carefully and prayerfully...

CEO: 'We have carefully and prayerfully considered every option.'Family Christian Stores (FCS) has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Yet the ministry assured customers yesterday that it "does not expect" to close any of its more than 250 stores or lay off any of its approximately 4,000 employees. “We strive to serve God in all that we do and trust His guidance in all our decisions, especially this very important one,” stated FCS president and CEO Chuck Bengochea. “We have carefully and prayerfully considered every option. This action allows us to stay in business and continue to serve our customers,...

“Ideas matter.” So says the first sentence in the Army’s newly published Capstone Concept, titled Operational Adaptability: Operating Under Conditions of Uncertainty and Complexity in an Era of Persistent Conflict. It bears the imprimatur of its primary author, Brig. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a revolutionary thinker. Not surprisingly then, its the most revolutionary document the Army has produced in a long time because it discards two very big ideas – actually it discards one and demolishes the other — that have driven Army doctrine and weapons buying over the past three decades. The first idea retired by the new capstone concept...

On June 23rd, the U.S. Army announced the official cancellation of its FCS (Future Combat Systems). This was a program of next generation weapons, vehicles and other equipment that was going to cost over $160 billion. The cancellation was no surprise. A year ago, the army dropped any pretence of trying to roll out its new FCS stuff as a complete package. That's mainly because the Department of Defense had ordered that FCS items be readied for combat use as soon as possible. The future will arrive piecemeal, as had been actually happening ever since September 11, 2001, and especially...

The U.S. Army is carrying out an aggressive development program to produce a new, lightweight composite armor for its next generation tank. This vehicle, part of the FCS (Future Combat System) series of vehicles, will weigh under 30 tons. The current U.S. tank, the M-1, weighs 70 tons. Composite armor was invented in Britain during the 1980s. The British developers had found that layers of different metals and ceramics made the armor lighter, and more resistant to penetration by solid shot or HEAT shells. The U.S. added a layer of depleted uranium to its composite armor, and produced the most...

The march of the killer droids continues, with news that a US robot helicopter gunship has passed a significant milestone - engine testing. This success means the robot can head for production - once avionics and sensors arrive. The cyber-copter in question is the RQ/MQ-8 vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned air vehicle (VTUAV) commonly known as "Fire Scout". Fire Scout MQ-8B UAV makes its first flight in St Inigoes, Maryland. The Fire Scout is a heavily modified small commercial 3/4-seat chopper, the Schweizer 333. The cockpit for outmoded flesh pilots has been removed and replaced by robo control and...

WASHINGTON — Army brass and Democratic lawmakers are trading fire over proposed cuts to the service's top modernization priority, the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, who overseas operations for the Army chief of staff, told Army Times this week that a proposed $867 million cut to the Army's $3.7 billion request for FCS in fiscal 2008 would gut the program. Speakes told the paper that proposed cuts approved by the House Armed Services Committee on May 9 would force the cancellation of eight variants of planned ground vehicles. "The Army is not going to surrender its...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13, 2007 – Testing for some of the systems slated for the first “spin out” of the Army’s Future Combat Systems program has gone well, except for one minor glitch: the soldiers testing them don’t want to give the prototypes back. The Future Combat Systems Class I unmanned aerial vehicle can be carried in a backpack and provides dismounted soldiers with new capabilities in reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition capability on the battlefield. U.S. Army photo  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “They won’t give me back my stuff,” joked Army Maj. Gen. Charles A. Cartwright, program...

The Army this week successfully completed the first Live-Fire Soldier exercise, Experiment 1.1, involving Future Combat Systems (FCS) technologies and equipment. The culmination of an eight-month demonstration that took place at both Fort Bliss, Texas, and Huntington Beach, Calif., the exercise is the first step in accelerating the delivery of key FCS capabilities to current-force Soldiers and part and parcel of the most comprehensive Army modernization effort in more than half a century. "The future is now," said Army FCS Program Manager Maj. Gen. Charles Cartwright. "Networked Soldiers already are using early FCS systems; and we're getting invaluable Soldier feedback...

    Today the Quadrennial Defense Review hits the Beltway. While I don't agree with some of the provisions in the document, I was impressed with the commitment of the Defense Department to preserve substantively intact modernization of the ground services. This is a historical departure from the past when the Army and Marine Corps always arrived at the dispensing of materiel largess with hands out and expectations low.     The second most expensive program within the DoD is the Army's Future Combat System. FCS is in fact a collection of many smaller systems, ranging from light armored vehicles to aerial drones and...

The Army's pie-in-the-sky Future Combat Systems will make brigades more easily deployable by replacing vehicles like 70-ton M-1 Abrams tanks with much lighter alternatives. To match the survivability of the older systems, FCS will rely on superior communications, new surveillance equipment and forthcoming electromagnetic shields. That's the fantasy. The reality might turn out quite differently. For while many of the communications and surveillance tools of the future force are already finding their way into service in Iraq, the Army isn't getting any lighter. In fact, it's only getting heavier. The North Dakota National Guard's 164th Engineer Regiment has got to...

The Pentagon last week was poised to approve Army plans to move billions of dollars within its spending plans, including small cuts to hundreds of modernization efforts while boosting its modularity initiative. In a draft program budget decision obtained by Inside the Army, the Pentagon describes a set of “program change proposals” nominated by the Army to modify its spending plans over the next five years. The PBD, No. 701, includes more than 20 pages of line items, each outlining a cut or a boost to a specific program. Most of the cuts impact procurement and research and development plans,...

It's only taken $50 billion in extra cash, a heap of missed deadlines and redrawn requirements, and a war that's lasted about two years too long. But the Pentagon may finally be ready to start putting the axe to the Army's leviathan modernization program, Future Combat Systems. Inside Defense reports that FCS is on a "short list of...weapon system programs that could be terminated or significantly pared back." “They are looking to slip it to the right or kill it,” said a source familiar with FCS options advanced by the Pentagon's office of program analysis and evaluation. Army officials are...

Lockheed Martin, part of the NetFires with Raytheon, recently performed four successful tests of the Non-Line-of-Sight – Launch System (NLOS-LS) Loitering Attack Missile (LAM) Multiple Explosively Formed Penetrator (MEFP) warhead. The tests took place at the National Technical Systems (NTS) facility in Camden, AR, and confirmed the performance of the penetrator. All of the objectives in the four tests were achieved. The data from each test will be used in compiling additional Army lethality simulations, which have already shown the LAM warhead to be lethal against the desired target set. The Aerojet designed and built warhead was integrated onto the...

The U.S. Army has big plans to modernize its fleet, but faces some heavy fighting ahead.In March 2002, 1,700 U.S. troops brought the full power of American military technology to bear on 100 square kilometers of rough mountainside in Afghanistan. Unmanned aerial drones, sensor-laden ground robots, and satellites scoured the Shar-I-Kot valley for an estimated 1,000 al Qaeda and Taliban fighters hiding in crags and caves. But the electronic eyes did not see all. While the United States claimed victory in the battle 18 days after it started, nine U.S. soldiers were killed and scores—possibly hundreds—of enemy fighters escaped. The...

Last week a furore rightly erupted over the insistence of Ministry of Defence officials that soldiers engaged in Iraq must face prosecution for alleged offences against the European Convention on Human Rights. Earlier this month in the House of Lords, six former Chiefs of the Defence Staff joined forces to protest that this posed a major threat to the morale and future efficiency of the British Army. Only gradually emerging, however, from behind veils of official obfuscation, are the details of another, equally serious threat to the army's future, as MoD officials plan to lock it into a fully integrated...

Misstatements by the Army’s top acquisition chief on a $14.8 billion agreement with Boeing could spur another round of congressional hearings, forcing the Army once again to defend its decision to use a nontraditional contract for its key transformation program. During congressional testimony March 16, Claude Bolton assured the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee that the Future Combat Systems contract contained a provision requiring Boeing to certify its cost and pricing figures with government contracting agencies. The next day, Bolton wrote Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the powerful subcommittee, to correct the record to show that the contract did...

ST LOUIS, March 22, 2005 – Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), as the Lead Systems Integrator team for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, recently released separate Requests for Proposals for development of FCS Class II and III Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems. Industry participants will have 30 days in which to respond with contract awards anticipated in early August. A phased acquisition approach will be implemented for Class II and III development efforts, working collaboratively with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Multiple contracts will be awarded in early August 2005 for...

The rain is turning to snow on a blustery January morning, and all the men gathered in a parking lot here surely would prefer to be inside. But the weather couldn't matter less to the robotic sharpshooter they are here to watch as it splashes through puddles, the barrel of its machine gun pointing the way like Pinocchio's nose. The Army is preparing to send 18 of these remote-controlled robotic warriors to fight in Iraq beginning in March or April. Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems, will be the first...