Pentagon Wrestles With How To Break Up ATL
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NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY: Like a surgeon planning to separate Siamese twins, Pentagon officials worry how complex the congressional mandated breakup of the acquisition bureaucracy could become. “We understand the challenges (and are) very cognizant” of the risk,” acting deputy assistant secretary for research and engineering Mary Miller told me this morning. “It’s going to be difficult,” Miller… Keep reading →
Build Limited Missile Defenses Against Russian, Chinese Strikes: Experts
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WASHINGTON: It’s time to build up missile defenses against limited attacks from Russia and China, leading experts gingerly suggest in a forthcoming study. While we can’t stop an all-out nuclear barrage, they say, we can and should reduce the temptation for Moscow or Beijing to risk a small strike. Such limited nuclear strikes are an… Keep reading →
Rogers, Richardson, Neller Brainstorm Future Cyber Structure
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SAN DIEGO: Adm. Mike Rogers, who heads both NSA and Cyber Command, is looking past CYBERCOM’s elevation to an independent Unified Command towards a much wider reorganization of military cyber. Some reorganization is implicit in a Feb. 17 memo in which Defense Secretary Jim Mattis charges Deputy Secretary Bob Work to “develop an initial plan…… Keep reading →
With Trump, Congress Can Kill Sequester: Thornberry
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CAPITOL HILL: Can Congress finally break the logjam of the Budget Control Act and increase spending on defense? Yes we can, said the cautiously optimistic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Why are the chances any better this year than for all the failures since 2011? Because, Rep. Mac Thornberry told reporters this morning,… Keep reading →
Stealth Destroyer DDG-1000’s Biggest Trials Lie Ahead
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WASHINGTON: As shipbuilder Bath Iron Works laid the keel for the third and final destroyer of the DDG-1000 class, the Navy and industry were struggling to understand embarrassing breakdowns on the first ship, the USS Zumwalt. Congress fears there could be worse to come. “The hard work hasn’t really begun yet in terms of delivering the… Keep reading →
2017 Forecast: Air Force Faces Intense Trump Scrutiny
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ARLINGTON: The Air Force got blasted from Donald Trump’s bully pulpit before the President-Elect was even inaugurated. It looks like 2017 — the youngest service’s 70th year — will be full of presidential turbulence. [We rolled out our crystal balls for our 2017 forecast. Click to read the whole series.] Outgoing Air Force Secretary Deborah… Keep reading →
Congress, Don’t Wait On Trump To Boost Defense Budget
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Congress is setting the defense budget on autopilot and high-tailing it out of town, leaving a lot of unfinished business behind. While President Obama is set to sign the defense policy bill for 2017 into law, this Congress left the funding bills in shambles for the next session to fix. As a stopgap, an extended… Keep reading →
Donald Trump Needs A ‘Bigger Stick,’ So Up Defense $: Thornberry
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WASHINGTON: The odds keep getting better that Donald Trump will ask for a big boost to defense spending in a supplemental request soon after his inauguration. But who gets how much for what? That raises a whole host of unanswered questions, experts and policymakers made clear today at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.… Keep reading →
The $50 Billion Earmark: Time to Cut Our Losses
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Now that conferees have hammered out a 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, the House and Senate must vote on the final product. They may want to read this before casting their votes. Read on. The Editor. Buried in the fine print of the defense authorization bills is a $50 billion earmark for an obscure facility in… Keep reading →
Pentagon’s Top Acquisition Job Gone, Reshaped In Defense Policy Bill
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UPDATED: Adds Comment By Head of Professional Services Council, David Berteau WASHINGTON: The post of undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, currently held by the estimable Frank Kendall, will be no more come 2018. A Senate staff member confirms that the post will continue through 2017, according to language in the 2017 National… Keep reading →