Years

2005

456 posts

Article

MDA R2s Hung Up

Bear with me for a minute. Go to the DOD Comptroller’s FY 2006 PBR website, click “Defense_Wide Budget Documentation” and mouse over “RDT&E.” You are now looking at the detailed summaries (R2s if you know the lingo) from the President’s…

Article

Bolton Iraq Wankery

You’ve likely noticed that the office of Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) released a letter describing State Department efforts to “conceal unclassified information about the role of John Bolton … in the creation of a [December 2002] fact sheet distributed to…

Article

Russian Nuclear Security Follies

Hands up! Participants celebrate. Reuters reports on Expedition Trophy 2005—a 15,000 km Murmansk to Vladivostok road rally through the Siberian wilderness: Another team, called Severny Dozor (the North Watch) and made up of Russians and Americans in two Chevrolet trucks,…

Article

Spacecraft for the Unmanned Modification of Orbits (SUMO)

DARPA is the gift that keeps on giving. I noticed this new start in the DARPA budget: Program (US$ Millions) 2006 2007 Spacecraft for the Unmanned Modification of Orbits (SUMO) 12.6 22.3 “SUMO combines detailed stereo photogrammetric imaging with robotic…

Article

Iran Wankery

Will someone in the press please, for the love of God, notice that Bush’s description of Washington’s Iran diplomacy does not constitute anything anyone could reasonably call “success”? Bush told an audience on Friday that: we [the US and the…

Article

Griffin to Head NASA

Don’t let the “Opie” grin fool you. He’s nuts, too. President Bush will nominate Michael Griffin to succeed Sean O’Keefe as NASA Administrator. Despite drawing bipartisan praise, Griffin’s missile defense background— he served as deputy for technology at the Strategic…

Article

Don't Make Us Call Him Mister Ambassador

Undersecretary Bolton hard at work, fighting proliferation. Michael Roston—author of Looking for Someone to Lie to Me and Nuclear Test Watch—has written a scathing opinion piece for Arms Control Wonk.com arguing against Bolton’s nomination. The full text is reproduced here.…

Article

Did Rumsfeld Propose Changes to the 1987 INF Treaty?

Nobody, Pavel Podvig included, seems to be able to craft a compelling reason for Moscow to threaten to pull out of the INF Treaty. But maybe, Ivanov didn’t bring it up. Maybe Rumsfeld did. Artur Blinov, writing in Nezavisimaya Gazeta…

Article

Missing the Point on Iran

On the Tehran. Woo hoo! Note to SecState Rice: Making token gestures to support the EU3-Iran negotiations is only a really, really, weak beginning of a coherent Iran policy. Look, Iran is being asked to do something that’s not legally…

Article

KE ASAT 4-Ever

KE ASAT in the Davidson Technologies booth at a recent SMDC conference in Huntsville, AB. It turns out KE ASAT is alive and well, living in Alabama. For those of you who don’t remember, the KE ASAT is a giant,…