DefenceTalkIf sequestration is triggered next week, unpaid furloughs for civilian Defense Department employees will start in late April, Pentagon officials said here today. Sequestration is a provision in budget law that will trigger major across-the-board spending cuts March 1 unless Congress agrees on an alternative. DOD Comptroller Robert F. Hale told reporters at a Pentagon […]https://www.defencetalk.com/if-sequestration-triggers-furloughs-begin-in-late-april-46894/

DefenceTalkDefense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has notified Congress that the Defense Department is prepared to implement furloughs for civilian personnel in response to the threat of sequestration. In a memo to all employees, Panetta vowed to continue working with Congress to avoid sequestration, which would add $470 billion to the $487 billion in defense spending […]https://www.defencetalk.com/panetta-notifies-congress-dod-preparing-for-furloughs-46892/

DefenceTalkTop officers from all of the military services today predicted dire consequences if looming automatic, across-the-board spending cuts are allowed to take effect, and they urged the members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to do all in their power to stop the process. If unchanged, the process known as sequestration will add $470 billion […]https://www.defencetalk.com/service-chiefs-detail-sequestration-consequences-46778/

DefenceTalkUnprecedented budget factors have placed the nation’s defense strategy in jeopardy, senior Department of Defense leaders told the Senate Armed Services Committee Feb. 12. During his opening remarks, the chief of staff of the Air Force stressed the severity of the current fiscal situation. “Sequestration threatens to carve crucial capability from America’s Air Force, with […]https://www.defencetalk.com/welsh-sequestration-will-undermine-readiness-46789/

DefenceTalkWhen Air Force Capt. Jeff Haney’s F-22 fighter crashed in Nov. 2010, while he was gasping for oxygen in the cockpit, the Air Force surprisingly blamed it on him – not the plane. In a controversial Accident Investigation Board report released a year after the accident, Air Force officials cited three “human factors” as causing […]https://www.defencetalk.com/defense-officials-call-air-force-f-22-probe-sloppy-and-inadequate-46776/

DefenceTalkBiological warfare agents pose more than a hypothetical threat to U.S. military servicemembers. Troops operate in hostile areas where they could come under attack from adversaries wielding bio-agents like anthrax and toxins. The first step in reacting to any such attack is knowing that it occurred. Quickly and accurately identifying the presence of airborne antigens […]https://www.defencetalk.com/bolstering-the-front-line-of-biological-warfare-response-46774/