The Insider

Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS), the chairman of the House Armed Services seapower and expeditionary forces subcommittee, fired a warning shot across the Pentagon’s bow today during a hearing on the Quadrennial Defense Review. After complaining about the dwindling size of the Navy’s fleet and the service’s plans to retire vessels that could stay in service longer, Taylor threatened to block those retirements.

According to the Navy’s new 30-year shipbuilding plan, the service intends to decommission 10 ships in fiscal year 2011 -- including three frigates that would be sold to foreign forces -- while building nine new ships.

Taylor warned the witnesses -- Vice Adm. Stephen Stanley, the Joint Staff’s director for force structure, resources, and assessment; Pentagon policy chief Michèle Flournoy; and Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation chief Christine Fox -- that the committee would write legislation barring the retirement of surface combatants unless each ship going out is matched by two new ships being built. Taylor noted he had already consulted with full committee Chairman Rep. Ike Skelton (D-MO) on the matter.

Cyber attacks against critical infrastructure now constitute the No. 1 threat to the nation, the top U.S. intelligence official said yesterday, in an annual assessment that bumped last year's most serious challenge -- the global economic crisis -- to the No. 2 slot.

Director of Central Intelligence Dennis Blair, in testimony to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence yesterday, said that while last year's fears of a global depress have been tempered by “unprecedented policy" responses by government and central banks -- which pumped cash into their economies -- risks of new economic challenges lurk as governments now decide how and when to withdraw stimulus measures.

“Exit strategy missteps could set back the recovery, particularly if inflation or political pressures to consolidate budgets emerge before household consumption and private investment have begun to play a larger role in the recovery,” Blair said in his testimony.

The implications for defense budgets around the world?

The financial crisis has increased industrial country budget deficits and efforts to reduce those deficits are likely to constrain European and Japanese spending on foreign priorities -- such as supporting efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, assisting poorer countries in coping with climate change and reducing C02 emissions, and addressing humanitarian disasters -- and spending on their own military modernization and preparedness for much of this decade.

The Senate Armed Services Committee this morning interrupted a hearing with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen because it had some pressing business -- a host of Defense Department nominations -- and a quorum.

According to the panel, the members approved the nomination of retired Lt. Gen. Malcolm O'Neill as assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology, as well as:

Douglas B. Wilson to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs;

Mary Sally Matiella to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management and Comptroller;

Paul Luis Oostburg Sanz to be General Counsel of the Department of the Navy; and

Jackalyne Pfannenstiel to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Installations and Environment

The committee also approved 1,802 "pending military nominations in the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps. All nominations were immediately reported to the floor following the Committee’s action."

After the vote was held, Gates responded to committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin's (D-MI) apology for the pause in his testimony by calling it a "most welcome" interruption.

Maj. Gen. Kurt Stein late last week took over as commander of TACOM Life Cycle Management Command, succeeding Maj. Gen. Scott West.

According to a statement issued by the service, the ceremony was conducted by Army Materiel Command chief Gen. Ann Dunwoody and held at Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

Stein, the release adds, previously served in Iraq as a deputy chief of staff for the Combined Joint 1/4/8 directorate of Multi-National Force-Iraq.

West had served as TACOM's commander since April 2008 and retired after 33 years of service.

Defense Secretary Gates, outlining the fiscal year 2011 defense budget request for reporters at the Pentagon, just served notice that he will "strongly" recommend the president veto any defense bill that includes funding for more C-17s or the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine.

Defense officials need the $33 billion included 2010 supplemental request by Memorial Day, May 31, to keep operations on track, according to Defense Department Comptroller Robert Hale. The money is subject to congressional approval.

Depending on the rate of spending at the time, the military may be able to hold out only "a little bit longer" beyond the holiday, he told reporters at the Pentagon today.

The Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization has challenges ahead, particularly in contracting, according to the farewell speech delivered Dec. 30, 2009, by Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, the organization's outgoing director.

Though he acknowledged JIEDDO's accomplishments, Metz said the "narrow link" is contracting. "JIEDDO’s establishment was a mandate to bring us to the reality of the enemy we currently face," he said. "I strongly feel that we must be prudent with our citizen’s money, and JIEDDO has embraced a transparent set of analytically driven processes to make sure we properly manage the funds allocated to us."

However, he warned, additional "layers of bureaucracy" would mean the Pentagon is "relinquish((ing)) the initiative to the enemy."

"The Department can significantly help JIEDDO with its mission by bringing a contracting capability inside the organization thus streamlining the processes while being prudent with our citizens’ money," Metz added. He urged allowing JIEDDO to operate in a "risk-tolerant environment"so potential solutions can get to soldiers quickly.

"If forced into a box of externally controlled, risk-averse processes, then close JIEDDO, because JIEDDO will no longer be able to do what it does best -- operate inside the Department’s 0- to 24-month capabilities delivery window, a place where DOD’s requirements validation and budget development processes and our contracting regulations are very difficult to maneuver," Metz added.

Additionally, he recommended the Quadrennial Defense Review -- set for release next week -- recognize the IED as "the enemy's weapon of choice" and require the Pentagon to continue aggressive efforts to combat IEDs.

That same day, Lt. Gen. Michael Oates, formerly the commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division (Light) and Ft. Drum, NY, assumed the JIEDDO directorship.