The Army’s senior leadership is determined to spend money on a new Ground Combat Vehicle (CV) to replace the aging Bradley Armored Fighting Vehicle. On the one hand, the admission that tracked mobile armored firepower is critical to survival and success in future combat is gratifying. On the other hand, the determination to focus on… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intelligence committee, cast doubt today on reports that the Stuxnet and Flamer viruses were the work of the US and Israel. In fact, he argued, it’s against America’s interest to be staging any cyber attacks because the US is so vulnerable to retaliation. “Don’t believe everything you… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon seethed with frustration at Senate Democrats today when asked about Senate Armed Services chairman Carl Levin‘s proposals for a “grand compromise” to avert sequestration. McKeon doubted any kind of grand bargain could happen this year, before or after the election, and said that the best plausible scenario… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Air Force has relieved the commander of its 8th Special Operations Squadron “because of a loss of confidence in his ability to effectively command the unit” in the wake of a tiltrotor CV-22 Osprey crash June 13 that injured all five crew members and destroyed the aircraft. Col. James Slife, commanding officer of… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: How much will it really cost to shut down the Army’s ill-fated Future Combat Systems program? Up to $1.5 billion, potentially three times the “special termination cost” reported by Inside Defense on Friday. Three years after then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates cancelled the sprawling FCS program — the Army’s ambitious attempt to build a… Keep reading →

A second, “small” fire broke out at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Saturday night, in the drydock where the fire-ravaged USS Miami is under repair, the shipyard’s public affairs office announced at noon today. There was no new damage to the Miami itself, and in fact a quick-thinking shipyard employee put out the blaze with a… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Congress must act by fall — before the election — and pass some sort of answer to sequestration, says the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Sen. Carl Levin told reporters that his colleagues are beginning to focus on the fact that layoff notices for hundreds of thousands of defense and government jobs… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The United States is still the world’s indispensable nation and we’ll probably avoid sequestration, albeit by the skin of our teeth. That’s the modestly reassuring message from the unlikely duo of Michèle Flournoy, who recently left her job as under secretary of defense for policy, and Dov Zakheim, Pentagon comptroller under George W. Bush.… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: Apologizing to Pakistan, the economic impact of sequestration, and the possibility of a cyber-war “Pearl Harbor” dominated today’s hearing of the defense panel of the all-powerful Senate Appropriations committee. Sen. Dianne Feinstein — who also chairs the intelligence committee — asks Defense Secretary Leon Panetta why we couldn’t just apologize to Pakistan for… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Air Force Gen. Norton Schwartz, nearing the end of his 40-year career, hit back aggressively today at a series of congressional moves to obstruct the promotion of top Air Force leaders, including Schwartz’s successor as Chief of Staff, and to undo what the service believes are essential force structure changes. Schwartz was dismissive of… Keep reading →