Inaugural Post
This is the inaugural post of DEFMUSE. I intend to write about national defense -- in which I have some interest and experience, technology -- which I think I know something about, and want to know more, and other things -- such as coffee, cars, and caving. Ok, "caving" is more correctly called "spelunking" but I needed another "c" word. Truth be told, I really want to write less about defense, and more about the rest of the stuff. I just wanted to use the name "DefMuse." In this first posting, I'll touch on all three areas.
With so many amazing things going on in the word, where to start. I'll start with some news I read recently: a man named Troels Overdal Poulsen, from Denmark, won the 2005 World Barista Championships held recently in Seattle. The competition requires baristas to prepare for the four judges three drinks in 15 minutes: an espresso, a cappuccino, and a "signature" beverage. Poulsen's signature creation was something with lavender and pepper.
In other news, the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review, or QDR, is well underway. There are a lot of people calling for a bigger Army. Some serious defense analysts --outside of government -- are calling for 100,000 more soldiers. You've got to wonder about that. For years Pentagon briefings have pondered the impact growing "entitlement programs," like social security and Medicare, will have on the defense budget. It's widely believed that the exponential growth in these expenditures will exert great pressure on the defense program (aka "defense spending"). More recently similar charts show the growing cost of "military entitlements" like Tricare and retirement benefits. Congressional action has extended benefits, like Tricare, to a greater portion of the nation's uniformed servicemembers and increased benefits to veterans. These "bills" within the defense program exert pressure on the Services' current operations & maintenance funds. These problems are compounded by increasing military end strength. In fact, the Air Force and Navy are voluntarily getting smaller, because they'd rather use their money modernizing equipment: its better to have fewer well equipped airmen or sailors than more of them with old stuff.
Steven Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments published a report on military compensation. The defense budget is about $400 billion this year, not including supplemental costs of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. CSBA says that almost $139 billion, or 35% of this is for military compensation, compared with $70 billion for R&D, $79 billion for procurement of new equipment, with the remainder for operating funds & readiness. (Kosiak, p. 67) Further, the trend is toward greater per-servicemember expense. From 1987-2000, the military shed almost 800,000 active (-36%) and nearly 300,000 reserve (-25%) personnel. Yet today's compensation costs are nearly the same as the $140 billion they cost in 1987. (Kosiak, p. 65) The Kosiak report further suggests annual compensation costs will increase to as much as $207 billion by 2022, without increasing the size of the military force. (Kosiak, p. 69) This is largely due to in. Where will this funding come from? Transformation? Modernization and force transformation are clearly priorities of Mr. Rumsfeld. And the recent National Defense Strategy calls for adapting the military Services to better contend with irregular, disruptive, and catastrophic challenges. That doesn't sound like a strategy for spending less on R&D and procurement to me.
Finally, lets turn to technology. What is up with Verizon Wireless and the Treo 650? Are they ever going to get it? Rumors have been flying for some time, culminating in a teaser on Vzw's own web site. By all accounts, including first hand reports made directly to me, this is a great smart phone. These PC Magazine and CNet reviews seem pretty typical. But where is the phone on "America's Choice" network?
Am I the only one who is having trouble with the latest iPodder and iTunes? Ever since I installed iPodder 2.0 on my Thinkpad T30, I've suffered from iTunes lockups that seem to be related to iPodder checking for, or downloading podcasts. iPodder now seems to start up much more sluggishly than the previous version. That said, I really like the improved interface and features in version 2.
That wraps up this installment of DefMuse. Tune in again.
With so many amazing things going on in the word, where to start. I'll start with some news I read recently: a man named Troels Overdal Poulsen, from Denmark, won the 2005 World Barista Championships held recently in Seattle. The competition requires baristas to prepare for the four judges three drinks in 15 minutes: an espresso, a cappuccino, and a "signature" beverage. Poulsen's signature creation was something with lavender and pepper.
In other news, the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review, or QDR, is well underway. There are a lot of people calling for a bigger Army. Some serious defense analysts --outside of government -- are calling for 100,000 more soldiers. You've got to wonder about that. For years Pentagon briefings have pondered the impact growing "entitlement programs," like social security and Medicare, will have on the defense budget. It's widely believed that the exponential growth in these expenditures will exert great pressure on the defense program (aka "defense spending"). More recently similar charts show the growing cost of "military entitlements" like Tricare and retirement benefits. Congressional action has extended benefits, like Tricare, to a greater portion of the nation's uniformed servicemembers and increased benefits to veterans. These "bills" within the defense program exert pressure on the Services' current operations & maintenance funds. These problems are compounded by increasing military end strength. In fact, the Air Force and Navy are voluntarily getting smaller, because they'd rather use their money modernizing equipment: its better to have fewer well equipped airmen or sailors than more of them with old stuff.
Steven Kosiak of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments published a report on military compensation. The defense budget is about $400 billion this year, not including supplemental costs of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. CSBA says that almost $139 billion, or 35% of this is for military compensation, compared with $70 billion for R&D, $79 billion for procurement of new equipment, with the remainder for operating funds & readiness. (Kosiak, p. 67) Further, the trend is toward greater per-servicemember expense. From 1987-2000, the military shed almost 800,000 active (-36%) and nearly 300,000 reserve (-25%) personnel. Yet today's compensation costs are nearly the same as the $140 billion they cost in 1987. (Kosiak, p. 65) The Kosiak report further suggests annual compensation costs will increase to as much as $207 billion by 2022, without increasing the size of the military force. (Kosiak, p. 69) This is largely due to in. Where will this funding come from? Transformation? Modernization and force transformation are clearly priorities of Mr. Rumsfeld. And the recent National Defense Strategy calls for adapting the military Services to better contend with irregular, disruptive, and catastrophic challenges. That doesn't sound like a strategy for spending less on R&D and procurement to me.
Finally, lets turn to technology. What is up with Verizon Wireless and the Treo 650? Are they ever going to get it? Rumors have been flying for some time, culminating in a teaser on Vzw's own web site. By all accounts, including first hand reports made directly to me, this is a great smart phone. These PC Magazine and CNet reviews seem pretty typical. But where is the phone on "America's Choice" network?
Am I the only one who is having trouble with the latest iPodder and iTunes? Ever since I installed iPodder 2.0 on my Thinkpad T30, I've suffered from iTunes lockups that seem to be related to iPodder checking for, or downloading podcasts. iPodder now seems to start up much more sluggishly than the previous version. That said, I really like the improved interface and features in version 2.
That wraps up this installment of DefMuse. Tune in again.
posted by JD2020 at 10:01
3 Comments:
I'm amazed at the breadth and depth of your comments as you tackle some very controversial and interesting topics. While you clearly are much more experienced in the area of National Defense, it is very interesting to follow your views. I'll look forward to more of your fascinating musings. PJ
You said:
" its better to have fewer well equipped airmen or sailors than more of them with old stuff."
While I don't disagree, isn't also true that our "old stuff" is mostly newer/better/faster than most of the rest of the world's "new stuff". For that matter, isn't much of the rest of the world's "new stuff" our "really old stuff"?
Interesting point, Ross, but two things: First, it's not necessarily "old" in terms of years, but "wear" too. Recent ops in AFG & Iraq have worn out a great deal of equipment. Some of the supplemental appropriations money for DOD has been to replace "used up" equipment -- not to mention ammo, fuel and such. So the main thing is that even a new shiny armored fighting vehicle or jet gets worn out when used more than expected. Secondly, some in the world are buying lots of "new new" stuff like jet fighters (India), advanced missile defenses (Syria), cruise missiles. The Air Force released a report on an exercise, COPE INDIA, where the Indian Air Force's Russian-made Su-35 fighters did surprisingly well against our best F-15 fighters. Some would say that indicates that we need new fighter jets. Furthermore, the comparison isn't necessarily fair with some adversaries we face. al Qaeda doesn't have any unmanned Predator aircraft, for example. So can you compare our equipment with theirs? Not really. In that case, the military wants the best capabilities to counter the adversary's. I'll grant you that the military always wants the best equipment possible, but sometimes that's the right approach. The key is balance.
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