Thursday, April 25, 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.
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.
The high-tech U.S. military is eyeing a mix of low-tech weapons and new training to execute a central objective of the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review -- enhancing partner nations' ability to independently fight terrorist networks, according to senior military officials.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive yesterday blessed the Navy to move its plans for a new generation of prepositioning ships from the drawing board into the technology development phase, a key step in the sea service's effort to develop what it calls a "sea base."
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has directed U.S. combatant commanders to identify in detail capabilities they need to execute the global war on terrorism, a move expected to generate enormous new bills that could tilt investments away from long-term weapon development programs to pay for nearer-term needs.
The Defense Department is teeing up a new policy that aims to limit the disclosure of information about roadside bombs -- including military defenses and vulnerabilities -- in order to "deny enemies easy access to critical intelligence," according to a draft of the policy.
Pentagon officials are poring over wish lists for new combat capabilities recently submitted by the U.S. military's top operational commanders, requests that are expected to be pivotal in the coming months in shaping the Pentagon's new six-year spending plan, according to a senior military official.
President Bush has issued a new, classified directive to better coordinate the efforts of all federal agencies that play a role in fighting militant Islamic terrorist activities around the world, according to a senior government official.
An influential advisory panel to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says the Pentagon should increase its investment in a nondescript but crucial program that gives private manufacturing firms federal research funds to improve technologies considered essential to the production of future weapon systems.
The military's top brass have tallied up $21.8 billion worth of combat hardware they need but is not paid for in the Pentagon's fiscal year 2007 spending request now before Congress.
A new federal commission empowered to recommend sweeping changes to the National Guard and Reserves is set to launch a year-long review next week that is intended to ensure these forces are supported by policies and resources that match demands for regular deployments in the "Long War" against terrorism as well as new homeland defense responsibilities.
In a bid to find new ways to influence public opinion about U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a small media affairs team in Tampa has burrowed into the mushrooming cyber world of blogs and persuaded hundreds of Web sites -- which then link to thousands of other sites -- to post content prepared by military public affairs officials.
Eleventh hour cuts to the Army's portion of the fiscal year 2006 supplemental spending request stripped billions of dollars for key improvements to Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles, setting back service plans to modernize the force and threatening to break assembly lines that upgrade these front-line combat systems, according to Pentagon documents and industry officials.
The Defense Department is considering a new, low-tech approach to countering roadside bombs that are the scourge of U.S. forces in Iraq -- construct new roads for supply convoys that simply bypass densely populated, high-threat areas.
The Defense Department is seeking $17.2 billion to buy weapon systems and equipment "critical" to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a $65.3 billion supplemental spending request that will soon be provided to lawmakers, according to Pentagon documents and officials.
The Defense Department is drafting new operational plans for military action in response to a massive domestic disaster.
NEW YORK -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued a far-reaching call for improving the U.S. government's strategic communications capabilities in order to more effectively combat extremist organizations and individuals -- not on the battlefield, but in the media.
The Defense Department for the first time has published an unclassified version of its strategy for fighting terrorist networks around the world in a bid to provide non-military federal agencies and foreign governments a clearer picture of the Pentagon's long-term goals, according to military officials.
The Navy and Marine Corps are facing a collective $7 billion shortfall in fiscal year 2007 to pay for needed aircraft and warships that were not funded in the $127.3 billion spending request for the naval services the White House delivered to Congress last week, according to senior Pentagon officials.
An influential advisory panel to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has recommended the Pentagon improve its capacity to detect "disruptive" technologies that adversaries could use to negate the U.S. military's high-tech advantage.
The Defense Department is laying the groundwork for a new organization intended to be both a repository for military expertise on stability and reconstruction operations and an organization to support Pentagon policy makers dealing with such issues, according to a senior Pentagon official.