War Is Boring

by PETER VINE Libya As the battle for Tripoli looms, France has begun air-dropping assault rifles, machine guns, RPGs and even Milan anti-tank missiles to rebels in the mountains south of the Libyan capital. Whether this fits U.N. Resolution 1973 is a serious debate, with France insisting that it is simply arming civilians to protect [...]

There was something odd about the photos. It was the day after U.S. Navy SEALs from Joint Special Operations Command had swooped in on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden with bullets to the head and chest. No Americans had died in the raid, but the Pentagon admitted that one of their Blackhawk helicopters had suffered a mechanical failure and had to be destroyed where it settled inside the compound.

It was one of the most awe-inspiring rocket launches in recent memory. On January 20, a Delta IV Heavy rocket as tall as a 23-story building blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, apparently carrying a multi-billion-dollar, school bus-size Keyhole spy satellite that took at least five years to fund and build. The noise and vibration from the 1.6-million-pound rocket were so tremendous, that the Air Force had to tell local residents it wasn’t an earthquake.

In Central African Republic, two international aid groups established a radio-based network for tracking rebel groups and alerting people of possible attacks.

It was another big reveal in a long history of them. Six months after the Chinese air force let the first photos of its new stealth fighter leak online, Beijing’s military has “accidentally” showed off another secretive weapon system: a small drone, apparently used to scout ahead of China’s fast-growing fleet of warships.

The Chinese Navy’s annual sortie through the disputed waters between the Japanese islands Okinawa and Miyakojima held a surprise for foreign observers. Japanese forces tailing the 11-strong Chinese fleet spotted a previously unknown Chinese weapon system: a small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, apparently launched from the deck of a Chinese warship.

by DAVID AXE It’s an arms race Beijing claims it doesn’t want, Russia can’t afford, the United States believes it can’t afford and Japan probably isn’t prepared for on its own. All the same, the intensifying competition to build radar-evading jet fighters has had a powerful effect on the politics, industry and military forces of [...]

The Navy’s newest warship is slowly disappearing, one molecule at a time.

November is hot in Congo. Every month is hot in Congo.

For seven decades, they’ve been the ultimate symbol of American power. When conflicts break out across the globe, U.S. Navy aircraft carriers — fast, mobile and each packing more firepower than most countries’ entire air force — have been the first responders, more of than than not. “When word of crisis breaks out in Washington, it’s no accident the first question that comes to everyone’s lips is: where is the nearest carrier?” Bill Clinton famously said.