Sunday, December 8, 2024
Jason Sherman is a reporter for Inside Defense. For more than two decades -- including stints with Defense News and Armed Forces Journal -- he has covered the Pentagon, defense industry, the military budget, weapon system acquisition and defense policy formulation as well as reporting on technology, business, and global arms trade. Jason has traveled to more than 40 countries, studied medieval history at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and lives in Brooklyn.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the outgoing chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is set to issue -- as soon as tomorrow -- the results of a yearlong review of the U.S. military that began with strong bipartisan support but is now not expected to carry the name of a single Democrat.
The Army should consider developing a self-contained nuclear power plant that could deploy with forces to provide energy for its garrisons and allow the service to significantly scale back its logistics operations -- including its reliance on foreign oil -- required to sustain troops around the world.
The Pentagon may tap the principal architect of CIA efforts to drive the Soviet army from Afghanistan in the 1980s to oversee the Defense Department's special operations policy and conventional military transformation efforts, according to defense officials.
The Air Force has nearly doubled its supplemental spending request for fiscal year 2007 by identifying $16 billion in new requirements the service says are linked to counterterrorism missions beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, according to an Air Force spokeswoman.
Peter Flory, the assistant secretary of defense for international security policy, is stepping down in the next few weeks, vacating another key Pentagon policy post, according to Defense Department officials.
A computer attack against the Naval War College last week prompted military cyber-defense officials to disconnect the entire New England campus from the Internet, disrupting e-mail communications and access to academic databases for nearly 1,000 students, faculty and staff at the Newport, RI, school.
Prodded in part by recent high oil prices, the Pentagon is poised to launch a pilot program requiring three new weapon system programs -- including the Air Force's new bomber -- to consider energy efficiency, a step that could set the stage for economic fuel consumption to play an increasingly central role in the design of future combat systems.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense has determined the Navy shortchanged its next-generation destroyer program in its fiscal year 2008 budget submission and is instructing the sea service to redirect $385 million from other parts of its spending plan to fully fund the DDG-1000 warship account, according to a Pentagon document.
Senate proponents of a key Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft program are pressing Pentagon leaders to extend procurement plans for the C-130J and KC-130J aircraft beyond 2008.
The Marine Corps wants to reverse course on a Joint Strike Fighter funding cut it proposed over the summer, according to a senior Marine.
U.S. and Dutch defense officials have inked an agreement covering the production, sustainment and follow-on development of the Joint Strike Fighter, a pact Pentagon officials hope to replicate with additional international partners in the coming weeks.
Gen. James Conway, the newly installed Marine Corps commandant, has announced a handful of "focus areas" he says will guide his term as head of the service.
Prompted last month by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to consider ways to make more personnel available for duty in Iraq, the Marine Corps is advancing a proposal to increase its overall size by 3,000 to 5,000 Marines -- a boost service officials say could allow for the reconstitution of key units abolished during the post-Cold War drawdown.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England is setting aside as much as $2 billion to disburse in coming weeks to select high-priority programs that advance key military capabilities and require additional funding in fiscal year 2008, according to Pentagon officials.
Encouraged by the Pentagon's No. 2 official to submit spending requests for all activities related to the U.S. military's counter-terror war, the military departments are tallying up new needs that will require more than $100 billion in additional fiscal year 2007 spending, according to Defense Department officials.
The greatest long-term threat to U.S. national security is not terrorists wielding a nuclear or biological weapon, but the erosion of America's place as a world leader in science and technology, according to the Pentagon's No. 2 official.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England yesterday summoned top Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps officials, as well as senior Pentagon budget experts, to review the status of the Pentagon's largest weapon system development program -- the Joint Strike Fighter -- and plan for a high-level follow-on meeting next month.
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has directed a $7 billion increase to the Army's fiscal year 2008 budget, $17.8 billion short of the amount Army leaders say is required to execute its part of the current military strategy, according to Pentagon officials.
Senior Army officials say the service is taking several steps to improve its ability to conduct irregular warfare, fulfilling a central objective of the Quadrennial Defense Review.
A group of senior Pentagon officials who play key roles in deciding which weapon systems the U.S. military develops and buys began an 11-day trip this week to meet with senior commanders around the world, holding discussions designed to ensure the Defense Department is buying the right equipment for tomorrow's force.