“We have a fairly well-positioned and growing counterintelligence activity across the organizations,” the official said, adding that the shift to DoD has created “what is arguably the single largest security-focused agency in the federal government.”

“We’re spending a lot of money in this area right now, but we don’t understand where we’re spending it” says Navy undersecretary Thomas Modly.

Army hosts NIE Industry Day @ Aberdeen 7/19. Invite: http://bit.ly/NmcisL. Our story on Army’s new outreach strategy: http://aol.it/FO8L8n SydneyFreedberg

In mid-June, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta took a seat in front of the Senate defense appropriations subcommittee and warned of the dangers of large, across-the-board reductions in national military spending. Panetta called such cuts “a disaster” that would severely compromise American security. The Secretary is right. Even in times of severe fiscal challenges, the government… 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 →

WASHINGTON: An Army general was named Friday to head plans and policy at Cyber Command, based at Fort Meade, Maryland. Maj. Gen. Jennifer Napper is moving from Fort Huachuca, where she headed Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, to Fort Meade, where she’ll be the director of plans and policy — staff section J-5 — for… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: In the budget wars between the services, “hybrid threats” and “AirSea Battle” have become rallying buzzwords of two opposing camps. On one side, Army leaders talk of hybrid threats, whose blend of guerrilla tactics and high-tech weapons pose the greatest plausible threat on land, now that Soviet-style tank armies are extinct and the nation… Keep reading →

Navy aviators from Lt. Ben Kohlmann’s squadron flaunt a US flag over Afghanistan. The insurgency is coming home. As the military winds down its post-9/11 deployments overseas, a generation of young officers used to urgent wartime innovation are starting to spend more time in the bureaucratic routine of stateside bases, and they don’t like it.… Keep reading →

More missions, less money: That’s the dilemma the U.S. Army faces as it looks beyond Afghanistan. The service is certainly grateful that the all-consuming commitments of the last decade are finally winding down, but it’s still struggling to shift gears on a shrinking budget. After ten years of optimizing itself for protracted counterinsurgency – a… Keep reading →

With attacks on U.S. networks increasing even as both government and industry pour more money into defense, top officials told the U.S. Senate Tuesday that the nation needs a new approach – one that presumes an eternal state of cyber-war. “I think we’ve got the wrong mental model here,” said James Peery of the Energy… Keep reading →