Winslow T. Wheeler

United States is making a gigantic investment in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, billed by its advocates as the next -- by their count the fifth -- generation of air-to-air and air-to-ground combat aircraft. Claimed to be near invisible to radar and able to dominate any future battlefield, the F-35...

Co-written by Thomas Christie, Pierre Sprey, and Chuck Spinney

Almost 30 years ago, in 1983, The Heritage Foundation stepped forward as a thoughtful, independent thinking participant in the then-raging debate over Ronald Reagan's defense budget increases. In one of its major policy publications, Heritage published an insightful analysis with...

Before Tuesday this week, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta had been sprinkling Washington D.C. with words like "doomsday mechanism," "catastrophic," and "shooting ourselves in the head" to describe any cuts in the Pentagon's budget beyond the $450 billion over 10 years (overall...

The stench of elitism is permeating Washington, just as it did a decade ago when everyone of consequence bought the proposition that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction -- and even if there was room for doubt, he was a threat and "had to go." Today, the subject matter...

The invitation came to me from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta's Public Affairs Office to attend a "conversation" with Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the prestigious National War College in Washington. Although I knew it wasn't me they wanted to talk to, I sat in the audience...

The rhetoric of people rushing to rescue Pentagon spending from "completely unacceptable" cuts is quite hysterical. Leading the chorus has been Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. He termed the possible defense budget cuts (about $850 billion over 10 years according to most) a "doomsday mechanism," if the automatic sequestration trigger...

Robert Gates has been called the best secretary of defense in recent memory. On the other hand, he has a reputation with some as a slick career bureaucrat with a knack for avoiding blame but pocketing credit. Both are true.

"Best in recent memory?" It would have been hard for...

For months I have been reading in the press about Robert Gates cancelling more than 30 [defense hardware] programs. A May 24 Bloomberg article by Viola Gienger ("Gates Says Military Cuts May Protect F-35, Submarines") came up quick on a Google search. Other articles credit Gates...

Based on my experience at the Senate Budget Committee, I learned that reading different deficit reduction plans can be tricky. Some use CBO or other "baselines" as a basis for comparison, but those baselines can be a mystery to some and differ -- sometimes by huge amounts -- from more...

Memorandum

To: Senators-elect Ron Johnson (Wisconsin), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Kentucky), Marco Rubio (Florida), and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania)

From: Winslow Wheeler and Sanford Gottlieb, Center for Defense Information, Washington, D.C.

Subject: The Pentagon Budget

Welcome to Washington. This town is eager to learn how you will pursue...

Below find a sample of letters mailed earlier this week to each member of President Obama's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (the Deficit Commission).

The letter addresses the defense budget. It is significantly different from all but one of the major defense budget proposals and...

Below find a sample of letters mailed earlier this week to each member of the President Obama's Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (the Deficit Commission).

The letter addresses the defense budget. It is significantly different from all but one of the major defense budget proposals...

Despite challenges from the money heaving right, there is an emerging consensus that the Pentagon budget, now at post-World War II highs, will soon go south. The Pentagon is trying to avoid those budget cuts; it's device is to pretend reform with insignificant reductions in weapons programs, but not the...

For the last two weeks, the advocates of higher defense spending have shown their nervousness that the times may be changing -- that the defense budget may go south after the elections. Organizations like AEI, the Heritage Foundation, and William Kristol's various interlocked organizations have written about the dire consequences...

From 1999 to 2010 the Pentagon's managers squandered $1 Trillion. In the next ten years, it should be returned to the Treasury.

In 1998, the Pentagon budget was at a twenty three year low at $361 billion. For 2010, the DOD budget was $697 billion (all dollars in this piece...

Once again, the miscreant uncle crashed the family Lexus and was charged with reckless driving. His response to the judge when told he needed to learn self-control? "I want a Ferrari."

The analogy can go on (the family couldn't afford the Lexus; it was in bad need of a complete...

Whatever you may think of General Stanley McChrystal and his succession by General David Petraeus, something very sad is about to happen. The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) has already scheduled its hearing for the constitutionally required confirmation of General Petraeus in his new job. Watch that hearing. (It will...

Change is coming to the Pentagon. The prevailing wisdom is that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates brings it. Real change is, indeed, in the wind, but it is not coming from Gates. The long overdue program terminations and overhead savings Gates pursues are surely welcome, but they are not bringing...

Rather than addressing the fundamental problems in our military forces, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Congress, and President Obama are focused on mutually exclusive short term, tactical goals. With each going their separate way, none is likely to succeed, except in making our massive defense problems even worse. A historic...

Last fall, the Air Force announced that a F-16 Air National Guard unit in South Burlington Vermont was on a list of ten candidates to receive the F-35 when it is built and deployed. Not all of the local reaction has been positive. Reports from Eglin Air Force Base in...