Turns out that DoD proclamations and company marketing hype about how many targets we hit each day conveniently neglected two critical points: one, that we still have not seen a meaningful connection between ends, ways, and means (mostly because it's impossible to figure out exactly what this administration's desired policy end state is); and two, unloading hundreds of high-end weapons on targets that did not really help achieve strategic objectives (as ill-defined as those objectives might have been) does not bode well for the Indo-Pacific or any other OPLAN for that matter.
OTOH, the drone budget for FY27 does seem to represent a major leap forward. How that money will be allocated, and for what systems (along with corresponding network architectures, data needs, C2 requirements, interoperability standards etc. etc.) , will remain the multi-billion dollar questions.
Turns out that DoD proclamations and company marketing hype about how many targets we hit each day conveniently neglected two critical points: one, that we still have not seen a meaningful connection between ends, ways, and means (mostly because it's impossible to figure out exactly what this administration's desired policy end state is); and two, unloading hundreds of high-end weapons on targets that did not really help achieve strategic objectives (as ill-defined as those objectives might have been) does not bode well for the Indo-Pacific or any other OPLAN for that matter.
OTOH, the drone budget for FY27 does seem to represent a major leap forward. How that money will be allocated, and for what systems (along with corresponding network architectures, data needs, C2 requirements, interoperability standards etc. etc.) , will remain the multi-billion dollar questions.
Jack are you free this Friday morning? You should drop in!
I’ll be in DC on Wed for a couple of events but will be back home in North Carolina on Friday.