Mike Flynn: You’re fired! H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis, John Kelly: You’re hired!

WASHINGTON: While the DC parlor game of musical chairs gathers steam (see headline), some outlines of how President Donald Trump will govern are emerging. Look for two principles to govern much of how Trump initially manages the fundamental truth that people are policy. First, strong deputies will be chosen to ensure mistakes aren’t made and things… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON:  While it’s always a challenge to nail down just who will be nominated for top Pentagon jobs, Air Force Space Command leader Gen. John Hyten seems as close to a lock for Air Force Chief of Staff as you can get. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James has made clear her commitment to diversity… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Submariners come under a lot of pressure — up to 100,000 pounds per square inch, to be exact. Now sub program managers ashore are under intense pressure too, as the Navy tries to squeeze three major sub initiatives — including the enormously expensive Ohio-class replacement (ORP) — into a tightening budget. That’s the challenge career… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: A year after the Navy’s last Chief Information Officer left to become CIO of the entire Defense Department, the Navy Department is bringing in new blood to fill its CIO position: Rob Foster. A retired Navy officer with extensive acquisition and IT experience, Foster has served as deputy CIO of both HHS and ICE (Immigration &… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon named a Navy cryptologist to a top cyber policy position today. Rear Adm. Sean Filipowski, who’ll get his second star with the new job, is a protégé of former NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander. Filipowski even served as Alexander’s intelligence chief at US Cyber Command — a position that requires keeping on… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter is the biggest conventional weapons program in history and Vice Adm. David Venlet has run it to much acclaim and quite a bit of backbiting, depending on who you talk with. This afternoon the Pentagon very quietly sent out notice that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had nominated Venlet’s… Keep reading →

SASC sent full Senate nomination of Gen. Mark Welsh for CSAF http://aol.it/OcwsYw; also LTG John Kelly for SOUTHCOM, LTG Frank Grass for NGB Sydney%20Freedberg

Pentagon announces slew of appointments in Army (http://1.usa.gov/NyG9ng), Navy (http://1.usa.gov/MAzVP5), and NATO (http://1.usa.gov/NyG9nc) SydneyFreedberg

PENTAGON: The Defense Department named new chiefs today for the Naval Air Systems Command, responsible for all naval aircraft acquisitions, and for the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, better known as Naval Reactors (NR), an obscure but powerful organization shard between the Energy Department and the Navy. Vice Admiral John Richardson, currently the commander of the… Keep reading →