Tuesday, September 10, 2024
CIA Director Michael Hayden today issued a statement to agency employees explaining how the agency will educate the incoming administration while still supporting the outgoing Bush team -- a primer on how to serve two masters, in essence, that applies to the Pentagon and other government agencies.
A senior Pentagon advisory panel has issued a 66-page report laying out the top five issues the next commander-in-chief must put on his agenda.
Obama senior foreign policy adviser Richard Danzig had breakfast with defense reporters this morning, and he was asked whether Obama would ask America's European allies for more help in Afghanistan.
Defense spending is unlikely to decline in the early years of a Barack Obama administration because existing-national security demands are "very severe" and "very important to our national well being," the Illinois senator's senior foreign policy adviser said today.
The House this afternoon is debating a continuing resolution (CR) spending package to keep the federal government operating into next spring.
The Missile Defense Agency announced late last week that Boeing will be tapped to perform all remaining work on the core elements of the multibillion-dollar Ground-based Midcourse Defense program, a plan the agency adopted after rejecting the option of accepting competitive bids for some portions of the contract.
The House subcommittee that oversees the Navy's shipbuilding programs will once again examine the service's plan for building its next-generation destroyer when it meets with Navy officials at the end of the month.
The Missile Defense Agency wants to continue using research and development dollars through fiscal year 2010 to develop and field select systems, including the Navy's Standard Missile-3 interceptors and the Army's Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles, a request that runs counter to legislation Congress passed last year.
The Pentagon's top acquisition official late last month rejected a move by the Joint Staff to have the Missile Defense Agency take a lead role in cruise missile defense.
The Missile Defense Agency plans in 2009 to test the booster rocket for the missile interceptors it will put in the ground in Poland as part of a European missile defense, an agency spokesman said.
The Defense Department is warning Congress that the Senate's proposed $50 million cut to a missile defense program aimed at defeating countermeasure technologies could jeopardize a plan to field the system by the middle of the next decade.
A senior German defense official has asked Pentagon officials not to make any changes to the Medium Extended Air Defense System, warning that costs could rise and that the development of a second interceptor missile could be jeopardized if funding cuts are implemented.
At the prompting of the Defense Department's inspector general, the Army will determine whether a warfighting need exists for the second version of a new mortar-launched weapon, according to a newly released IG report. Developing this version will cost the Army up to $26 million.
The incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said today that Pentagon acquisition reform will be near the top of the panel's agenda when Democrats take control of the chamber next year, and many of the reforms pursued by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) will likely continue.
Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO), expected to become the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee when Democrats take over the House of Representatives next January, said today he will resurrect the oversight and investigations subcommittee that was eliminated after Republicans took leadership of the House in 1994.
In a few weeks, the State Department could send a team of diplomats and aid officials to Lebanon to help with reconstruction and civil support following that country's recent war with Israel as part of a new joint program with the Defense Department, a senior State Department official said today.
The Bush administration has sent Congress a $439.3 billion defense budget for fiscal year 2007 that makes large investments in defense language programs, special operations forces and unmanned air vehicles, which the White House believes are key to waging war against terrorists around the world.
Congress needs to take "ownership" of the Pentagon's missile defense mission by considering it a core competency for national security similar to naval, air and land power, the head of an influential Pentagon review board said today.
If the Senate fails to pass a defense authorization bill this year, the stature of the Senate Armed Services Committee would be dealt a severe blow and its standing in the chamber could begin to shrink, the panel's ranking Democrat said today.
Senior Navy budget officials will build a six-year spending plan covering fiscal years 2008 through 2013 around two central tenets: a balanced force that "delivers the right people with the right skills at the right time to the right place," and a shipbuilding plan that reflects a recently completed review of the service's force structure, according to an internal Navy memo.