Twitter Does It Again: Behold @cromnibus

(Photo from Twitter) Legislative crises have becoming a Holiday Season tradition in Washington right up there with powerful officials mingling with other powerful officials at invitation-only parties. But, thankfully, a snarky soul has created a Twitter account to help us all cope. On Tuesday evening, senior lawmakers rolled out what’s called a “cromnibus.” You may…

Marine Corps Pioneering Unmanned Helo Headed for Storage

  After almost three years in Afghanistan, 2,150 flight hours and more than 1,950 sorties, the Marine Corps’ two K-MAX unmanned helicopters are being put out to pasture in central New York State. The unmanned rotary wing aircraft—which hauled a total of 4.5 million lbs. of cargo across southern Afghanistan since December 2011 for Marines…

DoD OCO Requests $700M for Bombs and Ammo

As the congressional oversight panels continue their review of the Pentagon’s $58.6 billion 2015 Overseas Contingency Operations budget request, much of the focus has been on the high-profile items, such as a $4 billion request for a new counterterrorism fund and $1 billion to boost US military presence in Europe. But the request includes $53 billion…

Hagel to Visit US Submarine, Fighter, Helicopter Bases

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will leave Wednesday on a two-day domestic trip that includes a stop at the much-watched F-35 joint strike fighter schoolhouse at Eglin Air Force Base on the Florida panhandle. During the visit, Hagel plans to stress the Pentagon’s commitment to the multinational, multiservice program, despite the fleet being grounded following a…

Army’s Aerostat Ready for Overseas Deployment

If a US combatant commander stationed somewhere around the globe feels that the one thing the command is missing is the ability to detect missiles, airplanes and drones hundreds of miles away, the US Army has just what they’re looking for. Almost a decade after it first began development—and just two years after a 2012…

US, UK Combined Chiefs Meet in London

The heads of the US and UK militaries have met for the second time, continuing the recent revival of the “Combined Chiefs of Staff” meetings that were made famous during World War II. This time, the group of generals and admirals met Tuesday in London. The group discussed the “long-term strategic challenges the respective armed forces can expect to face together…

ESSAY: Obama’s Bergdahl-Taliban Gamble Is All About Timing

Buried beneath the nasty political brawl over the Obama administration’s swap of five senior Taliban prisoners for Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is Obama’s cold-blooded strategic thinking. And President Barack Obama’s big gamble already has deepened Republicans’ frustrations with him, which could make easing sequestration a political impossibility.

NSA Doesn’t Scoop Up Facial Recognition info on US Citizens – On Purpose

The head of the National Security Agency insisted today that contrary to recent reports, his organization does not collect facial recognition data on US citizens – on purpose. “We do not do this in some unilateral basis against US citizens,” insisted Adm. Michael Rogers. “We have very specific restrictions when it comes to US persons.”…