US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Today, the U-T launches a new tradition. Each Jan. 1, we will honor the Person of the Year, an individual or category of individuals with San Diego ties.

We can think of no better way to begin this tradition than by selecting as our first winner the Marine. Since Sept. 11, 2001, America has relied on the Marine to keep us safe from terror at home and to take the fight to our enemies abroad, a task our Marines have handled with immense courage, professionalism and honor.

Some of the 56,000 Marines based in San Diego County — the West Coast hub for Marine ground and air forces — have served a half-dozen or more tours of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. Their sacrifices, and those of all the other military personnel based in our county, have been enormous.

Some have died, some have suffered horrific injuries, some are wounded in less-obvious ways. The Marine’s family also has borne a huge burden.

Yet the Marine perseveres, caring for loved ones, protecting our nation and demonstrating the wisdom of Marine Commandant Charles McCawley’s 1883 decision to make “semper fidelis” — Latin for “always faithful” — the Marine Corps motto. When not defending this nation abroad, the Marine is our neighbor, our friend, our children’s coach, our school’s supporter, a welcome, constructive and beloved member of our community.

The U-T is far from alone in its admiration. “Some people work an entire lifetime and wonder if they have ever made a difference to the world. But the Marines don’t have that problem,” President Ronald Reagan wrote in a letter to a young Marine about to deploy on a dangerous mission.

We couldn’t agree more.

In recognition of all the Marine has done for San Diego, for the United States and for the cause of freedom, the U-T salutes the Marine, our 2011 Person of the Year. Semper fi!

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navyreco said:

"We'll wipe Israel off the map" is pretty defensive all right

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WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is set this week to reveal his strategy that will guide the Pentagon in cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from its budget, and with it the Obama administration's vision of the military that the United States needs to meet 21st-century threats, according to senior officials.

In a shift of doctrine driven by fiscal reality and a deal last summer that kept the United States from defaulting on its debts, Mr. Panetta is expected to outline plans for carefully shrinking the military - and in so doing make it clear that the Pentagon will not maintain the ability to fight two sustained ground wars at once.

Instead, he will say that the military will be large enough to fight and win one major conflict, while also being able to "spoil" a second adversary's ambitions in another part of the world while conducting a number of other smaller operations, like providing disaster relief or enforcing a no-flight zone.

Pentagon officials, in the meantime, are in final deliberations about potential cuts to virtually every important area of military spending: the nuclear arsenal, warships, combat aircraft, salaries, and retirement and health benefits. With the war in Iraq over and the one in Afghanistan winding down, Mr. Panetta is weighing how significantly to shrink America's ground forces.

There is broad agreement on the left, right and center that $450 billion in cuts over a decade - the amount that the White House and Pentagon agreed to last summer - is acceptable. That is about 8 percent of the Pentagon's base budget. But there is intense debate about an additional $500 billion in cuts that may have to be made if Congress follows through with deeper reductions.

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Reader Question: Will the planned DDG-113 of flight IIA be cancelled?
AvWeek Answer: Defense analysts say the Navy will have to buy more Flight IIAs, such as the DDG-113.

Reader Question: Is it possible to see a revival of CGX not based on DDG-1000's tumblehome hull but on more conventional forms, maybe an enlarged but stealthier version of DDG-51?
AvWeek Answer: Analysts say what really is needed is analysis of alternatives for those types of ships, which could indeed lead to a type of ship suggested here or some other destroyer variant.

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