The Pentagon risks running out of scientists to operate and upgrade the nation's arsenal of intercontinental nuclear and conventional missiles, according to a report released this week by the Defense Science Board.
[ Full Report: "Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Future Strategic Strike Skills"," March 2006 (1.9 MB PDF)
Iraqi scientists know how to make chemical weapons that can penetrate military protective clothing, and Iraq imported up to 25 metric tons last month of a powder that is a crucial ingredient to such "dusty" weapons.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, director of the Missile Defense Agency, denied reports that the Pentagon is planning to use nuclear-tipped interceptors as a part of its missile defense system.
The unmanned RQ-1 Predator spy plane became a star of the war in Afghanistan in November when one operated by the CIA fired Hellfire missiles that helped destroy an al-Qaida leadership compound near Kabul. Yet the Predator has been plagued by so many flaws that one in every eight of the Air Force's inventory crashed during the past six months. In a report issued just before the war began, the head of the Pentagon's testing agency declared the Predator "not operationally effective or suitable."