Wednesday, April 24, 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.
After nearly two years of experimenting with biometric technologies to identify enemy combatants in Iraq, the Pentagon has asked an influential advisory panel to consider how to accord these new activities -- which include collection of adversaries' fingerprints -- a more permanent place in the U.S. military.
The Defense Department is preparing a massive amendment to its fiscal year 2007 budget request that will flesh out its plans for spending $50 billion in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Pentagon officials.
The Defense Department is girding for a new round of fiscal belt tightening that could squeeze $25 billion from the Army across the Pentagon's new six-year spending plan and force the ground service for a second consecutive year to choose between significant cuts in the size of its forces and scaling back key equipment modernization programs.
The Defense Department is petitioning Congress for wider latitude to enhance the capacity of foreign nations to fight terrorism, seeking permission to train not only national militaries but also internal security forces.
An influential lawmaker is concerned that the inclusion of more students from non-defense agencies at the National Defense University, which the Pentagon says will foster greater cooperation across the federal government, could inadvertently dilute NDU's high-quality professional military education.
The Pentagon's special operations shop could benefit from a new acquisition executive to help oversee the surge in procurement of new high-tech weapon systems slated for commando forces, according to a senior Defense Department official.
An influential advisory panel to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is exploring the military implications of powerful Internet search engines like Google, online journals and other new tools for accessing and distributing information.
The Defense Department last week proposed a sweeping set of legislative changes for lawmakers to consider adding to the 2007 authorization bill, including provisions that aim to advance key objectives of the recently completed Quadrennial Defense Review.
The Navy and Marine Corps need $17.2 billion to restore and replace equipment and supplies expended during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Navy secretary.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive has blessed Air Force plans to pursue a multiyear procurement contract for the F-22A, an arrangement that service officials believe could save as much as $500 million.
The Defense Department has determined there is no place in its heavy lift air fleet for a commercialized version of the C-17 cargo plane, a move that sets back plans by aircraft maker Boeing to establish a need by the Air Force for its fledgling BC-17.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has asked Army Gen. Bryan "Doug" Brown, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, to extend his tour as leader of the Tampa, FL-based organization, a move that will keep the four-star Special Forces officer in charge of U.S. military counterterrorism efforts through at least September 2007, according to Pentagon and congressional sources.
The Defense Department's high-level weapon acquisition council will convene tomorrow to consider whether the Joint Strike Fighter program -- the largest military aircraft acquisition program in history -- is ready to shift from development to procurement.
The U.S. military can reduce its vulnerability to disruptive threats by increasing investments in programs that accelerate transformation, which will make American forces a more difficult target to attack.
The Navy is preparing to deploy an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean for the first time in two years, in an operation designed to enhance relations with maritime forces across the region and prepare the strike group for a longer mission.
The Defense Department has issued a new strategy for combating weapons of mass destruction, spelling out military objectives and responsibilities for dealing with the threat of nuclear, biological, chemical and dirty bombs.
An influential Defense Department advisory board has recommended the Air Force consider a range of alternative fuels to power its aircraft, a move that could make the massive air fleet more efficient and reduce dependence on foreign sources of oil.
Senior Pentagon leaders constructing the military's new six-year spending plan this summer will employ a potentially powerful new tool that could allow unprecedented comparisons of weapon system capabilities and assist decision-makers in deciding whether to move resources between service budgets.
The U.S. military's ability to launch strategic strikes with both nuclear and non-nuclear weapons is at risk of erosion due to the "imminent loss" of skills required to support research, development and production of systems that assist in delivering long-range attacks, according to a group of senior advisers to the Pentagon's leadership.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has elected to retain as a permanent part of the Defense Department's senior management structure a group of key Pentagon executives and top brass formed last summer to sift through significant policy, budget, procurement, personnel and intelligence issues during the Quadrennial Defense Review.