Synthetic opioid trafficking is a huge new revenue target for ISIS affiliates -- think Al Capone and the liquor gangsters.  Read about the UN's concerns on opiod trafficking in this piece by CNN.

General John Nicholson promised a “tidal wave of airpower” to defeat Taliban, ISIS and other insurgents in Afghanistan. He’s delivering.  Weapons releases are up 300%, rising from 1337 in 2016 to 3,906 as of 30 Nov 2017. Coalition air forces led by the USAF are hitting Taliban drug processing labs in Helmand.   Strikes are directed by controllers like those pictured here in a training photo from December 2017. 

President Trump’s strategy applies tactics that succeeded in Mosul, Raqqa and across Iraq and Syria.  US and Coalition advisers are assisting Afghan forces in combat.  Another key is building ...

We have a Trump Doctrine.  It's principled realism and here are the 4 principles: Protect the Homeland, Promote American Prosperity, Peace Through Strength and Advance American Influence Abroad.  Read the National Security Strategy

Power is central.  American economic power is at the foundation and it’s the engine of military power.  Is it true realism?  Yes and no.  Realism in International Relations theory prioritizes power, and the balance of power, over and above moral and cultural preferences of any individual state.  

Sovereign states observe rules of the road and engage in peaceful competition over trade and territory. 20^{th ...}

China wants to catch the USA in AI technology by 2020 and surpass us in 2025.  Then China plans to lead the world in economic and military applications of artificial intelligence by 2030.  So said former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work at a US Naval Institute talk December 4.  Work is a leading thinker and a retired Marine who left the Pentagon in the spring of 2017, so he knows.   

"China’s military and commercial AI ambitions pose the first credible threat to United States technological supremacy since the Soviet Union," wrote Gregory Allen  for the Council on Foreign ...

The Rawda mosque attack showed a wounded beast is the most vicious.  Now that their Syria/Iraq caliphate is gone, top ISIS priorities include Egypt’s Sinai, Libya, East Africa and the Khorasan insurgency in Afghanistan.

JCS Chairman Gen Joe Dunford spoke on Oct. 24, 2017 of Egypt's efforts to deal with “an ISIS concentration in Sinai.”  Dunford says their new strategy is to leverage local insurgencies to rebrand and stay relevant.

Egypt with its population of 97 million would be a prize.  Since 2011, ISIS Sinai has targeted mainly Egyptian military and security forces.  ISIS operatives at Sharm ...

Nuclear strikes and responses to attacks on the US are handled through a chain of command set up decades ago to ensure civilian control of military forces as mandated by our Constitution. Recently the Senate fussed over Trump's role.  "We are concerned that the President of the United States is so unstable, is so volatile, has a decision-making process that is so quixotic that he might order a nuclear weapons strike that is wildly out of step with US national security interests," said US Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, inspiring articles like this one in The Atlantic.

Here’s what ...

New engines can boost the range and payload of the US Army's Blackhawk and Apache helicopters.  GE and ATEC, a Pratt&Whitney and Honeywell team, are developing improved turbine engines to remove and replace on Arny helicopters.  This viatla competition will power up Army missions, making it possible to carry more soldiers, equipment and to omit hazardous forward area refuelings.  Under any budget IREP is a vital Army program -- and one that makes sense for America's global missions and counterterrorism fight.

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US military options in the Pacific depend on airpower.  This paper examines how stealth and legacy fighters like the F-35, F-22 and F/A-18 among others may be deployed to counteract Chinese activity and give US commanders maximum options. 

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Strike sorties over Iraq and Syria now total 32,828 for the 3-year war that began in late 2014.  That's close to the number for Operation Desert Storm.  On Janaury 17, 1991, the US-led Coalition began a fight to eject Iraqi forces from Kuwait.  The six-week war dominated by airpower and finished up with 4 days of ground fighting redefined American military power.  The impact on Iraqi ground forces day after day led Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Merrill A. McPeak to conclude, "My private conviction is that this is the first time in history that a field ...

Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, USN, Ret. and Dr. Rebecca Grant discuss the Navy's requirement for versatile, bluewater fighting capability in its surface combatant fleet.  

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