Defense Secretary Gates gave a speech today announcing sweeping changes in Military funding. Reactions in Congress ranged from Hysterical Republicans to shoulder-shrugging Democrats. Basically, the military is spending a lot of money building up an army force which can defeat the armed forces of other powerful advanced capitalist nations. However, as all the official reports coming out from RAND to IMF to UN predict, the future conflicts will be asymmetrical, against insurgents, rebellions, and non-state actors. Gates plan will, for instance, cut the vehicle portion of the Future Combat System, which was a program to prototype and release about 15 new vehicle by 2030, all of which were built around mobility and light armor (not tactical at all considering the use of IEDs by insurgents).

Two things struck out at me: An Increase in spending on Predators for Iraq and Afghanistan (UAVs, unmanned airplanes). The army is desperately craving more of these and more information. The second thing is the termination of the Multiple Kill Vehicle- a device which would destroy incoming missiles of a variety of complexities. Goodbye scariest weapon ever (see video):

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