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 →

THE CAPITOL [updated 9:40 pm with details from Senate press release]: The Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously passed its mark-up of the annual defense spending bill, rejecting all proposed cuts to the Air National Guard, cutting the Defense Department’s civilian and contractor workforce by 5 percent over five years, and restricting aid to Pakistan. The… Keep reading →

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA: In an era of shrinking budgets, the military’s future is less about buying new hardware than making better use of what it already has, the armed forces’ top officer said yesterday, and that kind of change requires focusing not on equipment but on people. “It’s the human dimension that will get us… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: The vice-chiefs of the Army and Marine Corps warned legislators today that sequestration would force the military and the nation to break enlistment contracts with up to 225,000 troops who would have to be precipitately discharged to save money. “We would absolutely not be able to keep faith with our people,” said Gen.… Keep reading →

31 military & vets’ groups of Military Coalition (http://bit.ly/JKN4Ci) write Congress saying "stop sequestration" – http://1.usa.gov/JKMsfV SydneyFreedberg

It’s budget day, so keep your eye on the cups as budgeteers move them round and round. In real life, the Army will shrink steadily from its peak of almost 570,000 soldiers to 490,000 by 2017. But, on paper, in the Pentagon’s base budget for 2013, that shrinkage will happen overnight at the beginning of… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Army may be in the cross-hairs of the budget cutters, but it’s had a surprisingly good week. While the number of soldiers will drop to 490,000 as long expected, the service is getting a lot of what it wanted to cushion that fall – starting with time. “As important as the 490[,000] number… Keep reading →

With the regular Army shedding personnel to fit in ever-tighter budgets, the U.S. Army Reserve is positioning itself as a low-cost way to keep skilled, experienced veterans associated with the military. The plan, in a nutshell: If you can’t keep ’em in the regular Army, keep ’em in the Reserves. Today, only 9 percent of… Keep reading →

The Army has launched a major effort to strengthen its seven thousand infantry squads — an effort that will require overcoming cultural and bureaucratic resistance to succeed. Light-infantry traditionalists will have to get over their longstanding suspicion of digital technology both on the battlefield and in training, which will increasingly rely on simulations. Tech geeks… Keep reading →

The military’s retirement system is a mess. But the current proposals to fix it have a hidden agenda. No, I’m not talking about cutting benefits to save money. That’s the stated agenda, which is sure to get attention in this cash-strapped era. But cutting a benefit paid out over decades, throughout a beneficiary’s lifetime, won’t… Keep reading →