Wednesday, November 29, 2023
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.
The Pentagon has issued its first-ever comprehensive policy for the employment of contractors on the battlefield, a document designed to clarify key issues that have frustrated both military commanders in Iraq and the private firms supporting them.
The Pentagon has established an agency to oversee its transformation of the defense bureaucracy's business practices and improve administrative operations, an effort that military leaders say is essential to improving the nation's ability to fight in the future.
The Pentagon's point man for overseas arms sales has a new responsibility -- overseeing the management of the Defense Department's regional centers for security studies.
An influential Pentagon advisory panel is reviewing the U.S. military's need for a new heavy-lift aircraft, an assessment that could recommend as soon as next spring that the Army, Marine Corps and Navy consolidate their requirements and pursue a single program.
The Defense Department is preparing a proposal to replicate select military capabilities in other federal agencies, a move that would help reduce the reliance on the armed forces in the wake of catastrophic domestic disasters, according to senior Pentagon officials.
The White House has completed a package of new strategy and policy documents crafted to strengthen efforts to block terrorists from attacking the United States from the sea, inland waterways and the Great Lakes.
The new chairman of the Joint Chiefs has asked key Pentagon leaders to contemplate whether the decisions made in Washington to support the global war on terror have produced the intended results on the front lines of the campaign, as well as suggestions on measuring progress in the effort.
The Defense Department's top brass is set to issue a formal requirement for a constellation of new satellites that can provide persistent, global surveillance of vehicles moving on land or at sea, a move that is expected to bolster the fortunes of the Air Force's Space Radar program.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld next week will assemble the nation's top military leaders in Washington for a series of meetings that will include a preview of preliminary decisions being considered as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review.
The Defense Department is set to craft a new theory for the use of space in pursuit of military goals, an effort that analysts expect will tackle the thorny issue of establishing U.S. superiority in outer space, but could trigger debate over a possible international race to militarize the heavens.
Saudi Arabia wants to buy $800 million worth of C-130 upgrade kits, according to the Defense Department.
The Defense Department is commencing work on new guidance designed to better coordinate the billions of dollars spent on surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities utilized by the military and intelligence communities, according to a senior Pentagon official.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive is soliciting the U.S. defense industry's cooperation in an unorthodox undertaking -- terminating weapon system programs.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has approved a new initiative to consolidate the Pentagon's two major military intelligence efforts into a single new program, a move intended to facilitate better management that one observer warns could hamper congressional oversight.
Hurricane Katrina has triggered high-level deliberations central to the Quadrennial Defense Review over the adequacy of the Pentagon's homeland defense capabilities and plans, according to Defense Department officials.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the Pentagon has not been directed by the White House to cut military spending to offset swelling recovery and rebuilding costs from Hurricane Katrina damage to the Gulf Coast.
The Coast Guard has refined its Deepwater program, the service's top admiral says in a new fleet-wide message.
Gordon England today received the first of a dozen major 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review briefings set to be delivered through the end of the month, setting the stage for redesigning the military to better defend the homeland, defeat global terrorist networks and counter China.
Concerned that major military exercises are exerting unnecessary stress on the armed forces, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has asked Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to ensure that such drills are essential to the war on terrorism and executing the National Military Strategy.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is preparing to launch a new congressional assessment of the Pentagon's long-term defense needs to provide an alternative to the Defense Department's ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review.