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.
The next few weeks could bring significant changes to the shape and size of the Air Force, as senior Joint Staff and Office of the Secretary of Defense officials finalize decisions in the ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review.
The Defense Department should fundamentally overhaul its military psychological operations apparatus by providing an infusion of cash and new technology, while developing a streamlined process for approving messages for dissemination.
Navy leaders last week launched work on the service's new outyear spending plan to ensure the sea service is well positioned to defend the homeland and contribute to the global war on terrorism, an effort that today is dominated by ground forces, according to Pentagon documents.
Gordon England, the acting deputy defense secretary, has expanded the responsibilities of a key Pentagon acquisition office, giving it the power to assist in determining what military technologies are appropriate for sharing with friendly nations.
The Pentagon has told the services to slash $8 billion from their fiscal year 2007 budgets and warned them that even larger cuts may be coming soon, as bills from the White House are handed down and Quadrennial Defense Review recommendations take shape, according to Defense Department officials.
The Defense Department is conducting a follow-on assessment to the 2005 Mobility Capability Study, a review that could influence major investments in new ships and cargo aircraft, according to Pentagon officials.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld plans to summon combatant commanders from around the world back to Washington next month for an unprecedented fourth meeting this year of top civilian and military brass to discuss the final shape of the Quadrennial Defense Review, according to Pentagon officials.
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.