Thursday, May 16, 2024
Key Issues USAF depot plan LSM design FLRAA program schedule
Recent cost and schedule problems that led to a restructure and delay of the Space Based Infrared System Low may lead to alternative fielding approaches but do not dim top-level Pentagon support for the developmental missile tracking system, senior defense officials said last week.
NORTH CHARLESTON, SC -- The Defense Department's long-term commitment to funding science and technology at 3 percent of the total defense budget is challenged by resistance to higher S&T funding levels in the military services, a senior DOD official said here yesterday.
The administration will submit a wartime budget request to Congress today seeking $379.3 billion for the Defense Department in fiscal year 2003, a total that includes $48 billion in new spending and a promise that additional supplemental funding will be sought later to further finance the war on terrorism.
The Air Force will soon relax the so-called "stop-loss" restrictions that prevent airmen from separating from military duty, the service announced today.
A strengthened international peacekeeping effort that will eventually hand power to a strong central military force in Afghanistan is needed to secure peace in the turbulent nation, according to a new analysis by the defense consulting firm DFI-International.
President Bush today called the military's success in Afghanistan just the first phase of the global war on terrorism and pledged $48 billion in new defense spending for fiscal year 2003 to address these military requirements.
Senior Defense Department officials said today that the Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners being held by U.S. forces at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, naval base are "hard core" individuals that needed to be removed from Afghanistan.
A preliminary study by several international relief organizations puts the cost of reconstruction in Afghanistan at $15 billion over 10 years, the World Bank announced today.
The Pentagon is urging the Commerce Department to tell the FCC that proposed rules governing use of commercial ultra-wideband technologies could "pose a threat to vital national security systems and operations," according to a Jan. 11 letter from the Defense Department chief information officer.
A senior Energy Department official said yesterday the department must step up its efforts to effectively upgrade some Air Force nuclear weapons over the next decade.
The Defense Department plans to gradually reduce strategic nuclear weapons in the active U.S. arsenal, while keeping large numbers of decommissioned warheads in storage to guard against possible long-term threats, senior government officials said today.
U.S. intelligence officials are analyzing al Qaeda laptop computers, cellular phones and other equipment captured yesterday that officials are hopeful will yield valuable intelligence information.
Congressional appropriators have instructed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to use nearly $18 million in fiscal year 2002 funding to set up a "regional defense counterterrorism fellowship program" that will be used to provide non-lethal training to foreign military officers battling international terrorism.
The Defense Department is rushing two new weapons designed to destroy underground caves and bunkers to Afghanistan, Pentagon acquisition chief Pete Aldridge said today.
A previously unreleased report prepared by the Defense and Energy departments states that "nuclear weapons have a unique ability" to destroy enemy weapons of mass destruction and their storage facilities.
The Air Force believes the Engine Component Improvement Program is increasingly important because fighters and their engines are remaining in service much longer than original plans, but officials say a recent funding cut approved by congressional authorizers could delay much-needed improvements to F-16 engines.
House and Senate authorizers this week approved a new round of Defense Department base closures after years of contentious debate on the issue, but voted to start closures no sooner than 2005.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld today praised the Pentagon workers who pulled people to safety in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the building as heroes and called the rebuilding effort a symbol of U.S. courage and strength.
NAS PATUXENT RIVER, MD -- The V-22 Osprey program is comprehensively redesigning the aircraft to correct a list of problems raised by independent review panels and the tiltrotor will be fielded in a new block upgrade approach, with safety improvements being the focus of "Block A," program officials told InsideDefense.com this week.
The Pentagon yesterday awarded a $52.4 million bridge contract to Lockheed Martin to ensure work on the Air Force's F-22 Raptor can continue unabated in the absence of a fiscal year 2002 defense appropriations bill.