‘Careless Mark’ Means Higher Costs For Space Program; Cut With Care, General Urges Hill
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WASHINGTON: Congress sometimes has a strange way of rewarding the armed services when they actually manage to save some of the taxpayers’ money. For example, when an Air Force program manager managed to reduce the expected cost of a program in half Congress cut half the funds allocated for his program. That was the complaint… Keep reading →
Cyber Chief Issues Call For Action — Not More Talk; Alexander Outlines Who Does What
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WASHINGTON: The nation’s top military cyber commander offered his version of how government and military agencies are likely to work together when America suffers cyber attacks, and warned that industry needs to take a greater role. “We have laid out lanes of the road,” Gen. Keith Alexander, commander of Cyber Command and director of the… Keep reading →
Bradley Offspring, GCV, May Top 84 Tons, Heavier Than M1 Tank
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What may weigh more than an M1 Abrams tank and carry 12 soldiers? The Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle. New weight estimates for GCV, released this week by the Congressional Budget Office, will likely go over like a lead ballon with the program’s critics in Congress and in the Army itself. Depending on the model and… Keep reading →
Spy Sat Costs Are ‘Unsustainable,’ Warns Space Commander; BTW, Don’t Cut Space, Cyber
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WASHINGTON: The head of Air Force Space Command worries that tightening defense budgets and looming force structure cuts could reduce his critical space and cyber capabilities. “Because these capabilities are so vital, and the need to maintain local and global capabilities, space and cyber capability doesn’t really scale well with force structure reductions,” Air Force… Keep reading →
BAE, Boeing, Raytheon Lose Congressional Champions; EMP Loses A Friend
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WASHINGTON: The overall balance of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees will shift little in the 113th Congress, but individual causes and companies have lost important advocates as individual legislators went down to defeat. This may have been a banner year for incumbents– as most years are — but the House Armed Services Committee… Keep reading →
Musical Chairs: Visclosky Aims At HAC-D, Hunter Hunts HASC Seapower
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CORRECTED: Loren Thompson Now Says Moran Not Likely To Take HAC-D WASHINGTON: While most media watch the White House race, defense contractors and Pentagon bureaucrats are keeping a close eye on a few key chairmanships on Capitol Hill who will control billions of dollars in funding for weapons and services. Todd Akin currently chairs the… Keep reading →
2012 Elections: Fiscal Cliff Looms Large, Senate Shuffles
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UPDATED: Added Comment By GOP Strategist John Ullyot About Obama Being In Strong Spot To Negotiate End of Sequestration If Reelected. WASHINGTON: All eyes are on the presidential vote tomorrow, with the country seeming to thrum with anticipation, fear and relief. What will all this sturm und drang mean for defense? Before we reveal our… Keep reading →
GD’s Tracked Stryker Aims To Knock BAE Out In Race to Replace M-113
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AUSA: BAE has had plenty on its plate lately, what with the failed merger with EADS and all. But at least BAE’s American division was the odds-on favorite for the Army’s Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV). That is, at least until last week. That’s when rival General Dynamics debuted a tracked version of its 8×8 wheeled… Keep reading →
JLENS Helps Kill Iranian Boat Swarms, Cruise Missiles But Does Army Care?
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Imagine Iran, for whatever reason, is threatening the Fifth Fleet, pledging to use its patented swarming boats to whup us. Well, the Army has spent almost $2 billion developing a capability that can track and provide “target-quality data” to protect the Navy from swarming Iranian attackers. It can also track and help kill cruise missiles.… Keep reading →
It’s Not Just Defense Cuts: Sequester Would Cripple Our Economy
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If the election results are pretty clear next week, expect to hear two things: the sounds of snoring from an exhausted Washington political class and the first tentative mentions of the shape of a solution to the dire fiscal cliff our country may fall off of in January. Given the enormity of the repercussions facing… Keep reading →