I may be as well today because of illness. I'm sorry, readers.
"Hagel on farewell tour to endorse B-2" by Robert Burns, Associated Press January 14, 2015
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Tuesday vigorously endorsed an Air Force plan to build a next-generation strategic bomber, arguing that it would help deter nuclear war and preserve America’s global preeminence.
‘‘I think the long-range strike bomber is absolutely essential to keep our deterrent edge as we go into the next 25 years,’’ Hagel told reporters after addressing a group of several hundred airmen at this B-2 stealth base in western Missouri.
He called the future bomber, estimated to cost $55 billion to $80 billion for as many as 100 planes, ‘‘a critical element’’ of US global power.
The price tag is an issue, however, not least because the Pentagon says it also needs to modernize the two other elements of the strategic nuclear force: the Navy’s fleet of Ohio-class strategic submarines and the Air Force’s Minuteman 3 land-based nuclear missiles. The combined cost would exceed $300 billion, by current estimates.
I'm just going to step out for a few points here:
1). All this money constantly committed to the subjugation of the planet through military might while the citizens at home are neglected has really reached an end. May this empire fall as quickly as so many have in the past.
2). The hypocrisy of it all, modernizing the nuclear force as Obummer preaches non-proliferation and the Zionist-controlled Congress (can their really be any more doubt?) threatens Iran with what can only be considered acts of war?
Hagel noted that the 20 planes in the B-2 fleet — all based at Whiteman — are operating on 25-year-old technology. The other nuclear-capable plane in the bomber fleet, the venerable B-52, is even older.
Hagel flew to Whiteman to begin a farewell tour of US military bases. He later traveled to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego and also planned to visit Navy sailors aboard an aircraft carrier and Army soldiers in Texas this week.
Hagel’s designated successor, Ashton Carter, is expected to win Senate confirmation in early February. Until then, Hagel will remain in office.
The Whiteman stop gave Hagel a chance to say farewell and to cap a series of visits over the past year to key parts of the nuclear weapons force. One of the major problems Hagel confronted during his Pentagon tenure was breakdowns in discipline, low morale, and leadership lapses in the nuclear missile force, but not at Whiteman or among B-2 crews.
That vague reference is to the purge of the force, and is Chuck just getting out of town before the big one?
The B-2 was developed in secrecy in the 1970s; it has been flying since the 1990s and the Air Force says it will remain in the arsenal well into the 2040s. It remains the world’s only long-range bomber with stealth technology that makes the plane hard to detect and track on radar.
Details of Air Force plans for the new bomber are mostly secret, but a Congressional Research Service report last July said the plane could eventually be ‘‘optionally manned,’’ meaning it could be flown as a pilotless aircraft for some missions.
Nuclear bomb by drone, huh?
The Air Force has said the new bomber would play a nuclear as well as conventional bombing role, although it is not clear how many of the current bombers — the B-2, the B-52, and the B-1 — it would replace. The B-1 is not nuclear-capable.
--more--"
"Defense nominee made paid appearances during Pentagon hiatus" by Bryan Bender, Globe Staff January 20, 2015
WASHINGTON — Since leaving as the Pentagon’s second-ranking official over a year ago, Secretary of Defense nominee Ashton B. Carter earned over $100,000 from private appearances before high-profile Wall Street firms, technology investors, and defense labs, according to disclosure forms.
Yeah, this guy is a great pick.
Carter, a longtime Harvard scholar, defense consultant, and top Pentagon official whose Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for next month, also earned $120,000 last year as a consultant to the Markle Foundation, which has a stated mission of “leveraging technology and advancing public and private leadership.”
Carter served on the foundation’s task force on national security along with leading academics, government officials, and corporate leaders.
Carter’s confirmation as the next secretary of defense is widely predicted to get bipartisan support. If he does win the Pentagon job, he also will have to keep an eye on the business activities of his wife, Stephanie, to avoid any conflicts of interest.
Stephanie Carter is employed by ABS Capital Partners Inc., a venture capital firm with offices in Baltimore and San Francisco that has investments in two companies that do business with the Pentagon....
It's one ince$tuous club.
--more--"
So much for the "New" leadership in Washington, huh?
Looks like we are off to a Grimm start to 2015, and it's only going to get worse. Maybe Carter can write the letter of apology to Iran.
I may be saying goodbye sooner than I thought if these guys have their way.
NDU:
"Nuclear officer sentenced for drugs" Associated Press January 23, 2015
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A nuclear missile launch officer who pleaded guilty to illegal drug use was dismissed from the Air Force and sentenced to a month of confinement in a Montana jail Wednesday.
The officer, 2d Lieutenant Nicole Dalmazzi of the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, said she took ecstasy pills five times between January 2013 and February 2014, in part because she was going through a divorce.
I always wonder who is behind such things and why they do not get as much coverage in my paper.
Base officials said there was no indication she had used drugs while on duty....
I suppose that's a relief.
--more--"
