Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today he has asked the military services to review the forces deployed in Iraq and assess whether those forces are properly balanced for the capabilities needed.
Friday, April 26, 2024
Friday, April 26, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today he has asked the military services to review the forces deployed in Iraq and assess whether those forces are properly balanced for the capabilities needed.
A former high-ranking Defense Department official today criticized the missile the Navy is using for its ship-based ballistic missile defense program, labeling it "flawed" and called on the service to design a new missile capable of intercepting ICBMs.
The Senate late this afternoon voted 87-12 to approve an $87 billion supplemental appropriations bill for the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The House Appropriations Committee today added language to an $87 billion Iraq and Afghanistan supplemental bill that calls for a Senate-confirmed administration official to be responsible for coordinating how the money is spent.
The Defense Department says the jobs performed by 45 percent of its total workforce could be opened up to competition among private-sector companies, according to a report issued late last month by the White House budget office.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark yesterday announced the Navy is creating a new Fleet Antisubmarine Warfare Command to oversee integrated ASW training and operations.
President Bush is asking Congress to add $850 million to his 2004 budget to accelerate the Department of Homeland Security's "Project Bioshield," an effort aimed at combating biological and chemical attacks.
Eight Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle (SD), introduced a bill yesterday that would require President Bush to send to Congress a detailed report on his plan for rebuilding Iraq, including a price tag for the effort.
Because the Bush administration is striving to execute missile defense missions with allied partners, the operational command and control of U.S. missile defense assets may not always rest in the hands of U.S. combatant commanders, a Missile Defense Agency official told an industry conference today.
The Defense Department cannot meet an April 29, 2004, deadline for destroying 45 percent of its chemical weapons stockpile as mandated by the Chemical Weapons Convention, so the Bush administration will request the deadline be extended until December 2007, DOD said today.
The Congressional Budget Office said today that defense spending through fiscal year 2003 is up 17 percent over 2002, with the increase making up the fastest growing piece of discretionary spending in the federal budget.
A mechanism designed to steer a kinetic interceptor toward a ballistic missile target failed during a June 18 test of the Navy's missile defense system causing the interceptor to miss its intended target, a Defense Department official said today.
The Missile Defense Agency today announced that it has selected Adak, AK, as the homeport for a sea-based X-band radar that will be used with the national missile defense system the Bush administration plans to field next year.
The Congressional Budget Office says defense spending through the end of fiscal year 2003 should be about $18 billion lower than CBO estimated just a month ago.
The Air Force has announced it will issue by Aug. 22 a request for proposals for a space-based communications system that may eliminate bandwidth restrictions faced by commanders in the field today.
Over the next several months, the Department of Homeland Security will ask the nation's colleges and universities how they would set up homeland security centers of excellence on their campuses to carry out research in several fields.
Attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq are becoming more organized and more sophisticated, a senior Joint Staff official said today, even though the pace of attacks has lessened somewhat since former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were killed last week.
U.S. military leaders have not given ground force commanders in Iraq a mandate to capture Saddam Hussein alive, a member of the Joint Staff told reporters today.
The commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said today those forces are facing "a classic guerrilla-type campaign," adding that mid-level members of the deposed Baathist Party are responsible for the attacks.
A group of physicists today said the Bush administration's plan to protect the United States from ballistic missiles by destroying them in the boost phase of flight is impractical because the interceptor rockets would have to be far larger and faster than any now in development.