Sunday, September 24, 2023
Upon his return from a trip leading a congressional delegation to North Korea, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) said yesterday that government officials there did not balk at the prospect of moving toward compliance with several international agreements aimed at stemming the flow of ballistic missile technologies around the world.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) told InsideDefense.com today that he would talk with Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, about holding hearings on the intelligence information used by the Bush administration to make the case for war against Iraq.
The Missile Defense Agency should take a different approach to developing and fielding a $3 billion satellite system that will detect and track ballistic missiles in flight, an approach that could include delaying the initial launch from 2007 to 2008 and stopping work on existing satellites to focus more on new technologies, the General Accounting Office says in a new report.
In building the fiscal year 2005 defense budget, Pentagon officials will take a "significantly different" approach than that used in crafting prior-year spending plans, and will particularly stress that there be a minimum number of program changes, according to interim guidance issued May 12.
Coalition experts who are examining an Iraqi mobile laboratory discovered near a Kurdish checkpoint last month can find no other reason for its existence than to produce biological weapons, a top defense intelligence official said today.
As it begins to prepare its fiscal year 2005 budget request, the administration has doubled the number of Defense Department programs subjected last year to performance reviews, according to guidance issued yesterday.
Faced with the increasing size, complexity and operational strains of the modern battlefield and a finite number of Marine Corps forward air controllers, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee is changing current service policy and opening up more FAC slots to non-aviators.
The Marine Corps wants to have Common Access Cards -- the Defense Department's planned facility and computer security key -- distributed to all active duty personnel, selected reserves, civilian employees and eligible contractors by October, according to an internal message issued yesterday by Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee.
The Pentagon has told Congress a two-year-old restriction on spending NATO security program dollars to support the alliance's Partnership for Peace effort, which involves countries of the former Soviet Union, is having "considerable negative political consequences."
President Bush today will sign a $79 billion supplemental appropriations bill to pay for Operation Iraqi Freedom, a White House spokeswoman said.
Senior Defense Department leaders are asking coalition allies supporting the U.S.-led war in Iraq to help provide security forces for Baghdad and other cities in the country as combat action starts to wind down, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.
Victory in Iraq for U.S. forces will not necessarily come with the capture of Saddam Hussein or the complete control of Baghdad, and will likely occur later rather than sooner, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today.
The Army's civil affairs units have restarted Iraq's oil-for-food distribution program in the southern port city of Umm Qasr and are slowly starting to set up distribution centers in town throughout the country, Army Col. David Blackledge said today.
The Bush administration will send Congress a $62.6 billion supplemental budget request tomorrow to pay for the Pentagon's cost of war with Iraq, a senior Defense Department official said today.
The Missile Defense Agency is moving ahead with the purchase of a second Boeing 747-400 aircraft for the Airborne Laser program, this time opting to buy a passenger version instead of a freighter in an attempt to ensure better weight distribution throughout the aircraft.
The Navy has stepped up its smallpox vaccination program to include emergency-essential sailors and mission-critical contractors who are deployed with naval troops in the Persian Gulf region.
The Navy and Marine Corps have made several moves to strengthen their ability to deliver information technology to sailors and Marines, including restructuring the management of their information technology programs.
The Bush administration will have to explain to Congress the timing and scope of its testing plan for the national missile defense system it wants to make operational in 19 months, the head of the Pentagon's missile defense programs said yesterday.
The Army will host a demonstration of force protection equipment -- such as unmanned air vehicles, chemical and biological detectors, and non-lethal weapons -- in early May at Marine Corps Base, Quantico, VA.
Saddam Hussein's use of Iraqi cultural sites and civilian buildings to protect military equipment will cause problems for U.S. military planners if the United States goes war with Iraq, but commanders in the theater will make the ultimate decision on whether to bomb a particular site, a Defense Department official said today.