A few things I'm chewing on....

I'm chewing on a few things this morning and while I have no "answers" I do have plenty of questions.

1.  Is NATO really operating just fine and all the members actually contributing EXCEPT for Germany?  I wonder because I look around and even the poorest nations are making efforts to modernize and expand their forces. The only outlier...Germany!

2.  We expanded Special Ops but did we lose something in the effort?  We basically put them in charge of our ops in the Middle East and even now in Africa but we're being fought to a stalemate on all fronts and actually losing ground in Afghanistan.  Additionally we're wrecking those units with continuous rotations to the war zone AND losing their ability to conduct specialized missions that ACTUALLY ARE beyond the capability of conventional forces to conduct at a high level (any mission can be conducted by any unit...the potential for success varies with the quality of the unit).  Should we rethink our drink and instead of expanding do the reverse?  Should we shrink the number of SEAL and A-Teams?  Push down the size of Marine Raiders to 1.5 Battalions MAX and consider the same with Rangers?  Just spitballing don't shoot the messenger!

3.  Is it time for the ground forces to finally rationalize air defense?  Is it time to search for a medium range ground launched missile and a mobile anti-air gun?  Howling from the air side will be intense but reality must take priority over wishful thinking. 

4.  What is going on with the JLTV?  That program should have vehicles rolling out hard but we're hardly hearing a peep.  WTF is going on?  The Brits seem to be rethinking things too.

5.  Remember the missile truck Boeing rolled out showing us an advanced F-15?  What happened to that idea?  Is the Air Force off the train...AGAIN!?!?!?!

6.  What is going on with all these concepts of penetrating fighters, penetrating bombers and penetrating refuelers?  Are we adding a premium to aircraft that will never perform that type mission in anger and if they do will simply have enemy defenses rolled back?

7.  Speaking of penetrating aircraft, how did the US become so enamored of offensive operations?  We're talking about a possible conflict with a near peer. Is it beyond the realm to believe that we could actually be ON THE DEFENSE against such a foe?  When was the last time we heard of an exercise that had defense as a hallmark?  Memory isn't perfect but I can only think of Reforger and a few Bright Stars from way back when that fit the bill.  Offense, offense, offense always gets busted up by defense in football.  The same might apply to nation state games.

That's it.  Feel free to discuss it or tell me why I'm wrong to even consider it an issue.