CAPITOL HILL: We have confirmed that Sen. James Inhofe, ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, will vote against the nomination of Chuck Hagel to serve as Defense Secretary. Inhofe, a tough partisan known for his positions sometimes outside the consensus of his fellow committee members, labeled Hagel as the “wrong person to lead… Keep reading →

[Updated Friday 12/21] CAPITOL HILL: It looks like the country’s getting a defense bill for Christmas, with provisions on everything from boosting cybersecurity to sanctioning Iran to loosening export controls on satellites. In what passes for high efficiency in Congress these days, the House and Senate Armed Services Committees completed their conference on the National… Keep reading →

[Updated and corrected 11:45 pm] WASHINGTON: The powerful National Guard Association of the US today denounced an unnamed “handful of House Armed Services Committee members” who, it says, are trying to use the ongoing House-Senate conference on the National Defense Authorization Act to reinstate cuts to the Air National Guard. The Air Force proposed reducing… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Why in the world is the Pentagon trying to develop a better beef jerky, run grocery stores, microbreweries, study flying dinosaurs and build (not tilt at) windmills? That is the question a conservative Republican senator from Oklahoma, Tom Coburn, asks in a new report — “Department of Everything” — issued today. The subtitle of… Keep reading →

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 →

Levin calls SASC hearing 11/15 to confirm Dunford, Allen — assuming he’s still chairman…. This was Panetta’s agenda: http://aol.it/RAUAoq SydneyFreedberg

CAPITOL HILL: Senate Armed Services Committee leaders released a 100-plus-page report on the administration’s Asia strategy today, including — perhaps inadvertently — four pages of comments from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Congress commissioned the study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the authorization bill for fiscal year 2012. SASC chairman Sen. Carl… Keep reading →

SASC sent full Senate nomination of Gen. Mark Welsh for CSAF http://aol.it/OcwsYw; also LTG John Kelly for SOUTHCOM, LTG Frank Grass for NGB Sydney%20Freedberg

CAPITOL HILL: Air Force Secretary Michael Donley warned Congress today that if it blocks cuts to the Air National Guard this year, it will just be “doubling down” on cuts required in 2014 — maybe not to the Guard, but somewhere in the Air Force — even if sequestration is averted. If sequestration does take… Keep reading →

FARNBOROUGH AIR SHOW: One of the topics dear to the hearts of Beltway bandits, defense lobbyists and — let’s be honest — reporters, is always who will run things after the November elections. Few people wise in the ways of Washington I know are willing to predict what will happen when the people vote. But… Keep reading →