CAPITOL HILL: The Pentagon, clearly looking ahead to bolster the defense industrial base, is taking steps to ease and speed Foreign Military Sales, and it has a pilot program underway to reduce the time it takes to execute program acquisition. But let’s be clear: this is not an acquisition reform story; it’s an acquisition improvement… Keep reading →

    UPDATE: Explains Ambiguity of McCain’s Statement; At Least One More Industry Nominee Probably Coming WASHINGTON: President Trump was put on notice today by the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he should not nominate any more candidates for senior Pentagon jobs from the defense industry. Republican Sen. John McCain was joined… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: “My fear is we are a T-Rex….at the top of the food chain, right up until the day we’re extinct,” James “Hondo” Geurts once said of the US military. As acquisitions chief at Special Operations Command, Geurts has won acclaim and awards for rapid, affordable innovation, from modified Hellfire missiles to high-tech body armor… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: In an interesting twist in the era of software-heavy systems such as the F-35, President Trump has nominated a top cyber expert, Robert Behler, as the Pentagon’s top weapons tester. Behler currently is COO for the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, a Federally Funded Research and Development Center. Before that, he was president… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Third time’s (hopefully) the charm for the Trump Administration when it comes to candidates for Army Secretary. After the withdrawals of Vincent Viola, a billionaire with no government experience, and Mark Green, a Tennessee politician with a controversial track record, Trump has picked an experienced Washington insider, Mark Esper. Esper probably is unlikely to… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: President Trump’s pick for the No. 2 policy job in the Pentagon, David Trachtenberg, endorsed new nuclear delivery systems, praised NATO and allies in general and took a hard line towards the Kremlin in his confirmation hearing today. Responding to senators’ questions, Trachtenberg said Russia should pay “a cost” for meddling in the 2016… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has shaken this staid capital city by making policy pronouncements over Twitter. Far from the social media spotlight, however, Trump’s National Security Council, led by warrior-intellectual H.R. McMaster, is coordinating a comprehensive series of policy reviews that are deliberative, collegial and strategic, NSC staffer Christopher Ford said today. The new North… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: “Not a good beginning. Not a good beginning,” Senate Armed Services chairman John McCain told the administration’s nominee for deputy secretary of defense this morning. “Do not do that again, Mr. Shanahan, or I will not take your name up for a vote before this committee. Am I perfectly clear?” “Very clear,” said Patrick… Keep reading →

PENTAGON: There are a lot of empty offices around the E-ring, the most prestigious sector of the Pentagon, where top defense officials enjoy the rare privilege of windows. But that’s about to change, a senior aide to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told me. “There’s a bow wave of names that are very close to being… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: When it comes to Congress, Jim Mattis is making up for lost time — even if it means testifying at strange times. In an unprecedented sprint to make up for a delayed roll-out of the 2018 budget, the defense secretary and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Joseph Dunford, will appear before all… Keep reading →