The Insider

The Defense Department is continuing to avoid funding the alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter -- despite Congress' repeated demands that DOD fund the effort -- but DOD Comptroller Robert Hale said today the Pentagon might one day accept Capitol Hill's point of view.

Asked why the alternate engine is unfunded in DOD's fiscal year 2010 budget request, he told reporters, "Because we don't think there's a business case for it, in terms of overall savings for the same capability."

But since Congress has repeatedly pushed the Pentagon to fund the effort, does it make sense at some point for the Pentagon to call it quits on the argument?

"Well, I mean, I think, our job is to propose what we think will provide the most national security for a given amount of money," Hale said. "I understand Article 1, Section 8. It's an independent branch of government. And they have the right to ultimately appropriate the money."

Then he briefly suggested DOD might one day see it Capitol Hill's way.

"But I mean, maybe there comes a day," he said. "But at this point, I think, that's the right thing for us to do, which is to continue to propose what we think is in the best interests of the country."

What did House appropriators decide to do with a $30 million White House request to buy a new air traffic safety system for Kyrgyzstan, host country of Manas Air Base? The funds were requested as part of the fiscal year 2009 wartime supplemental made public last month.

A review of the House Appropriations Committee report on the legislation and the panel chairman's statements from this week aren't entirely conclusive, so we posed the question to the office of John Murtha (D-PA), the defense subcommittee chairman.

According to Matthew Mazonkey, Murtha's spokesman, the supplemental bill in its current form would fully fund the plan out of "coalition support accounts."

But there's a catch.

"However, these funds are contingent upon a renewed agreement between the United States and Kyrgyzstan over the use of Manas Air Base," Mazonkey told us in an e-mail.

Some news reports suggest negotiations to that effect are still ongoing between U.S. and Kyrgyz government officials, although others quote Kyrgyz officials as denying this. Pentagon officials have described the installation, located outside the capital Bishkek, as a critical hub for transport flights to Afghanistan.

As it stands, U.S. military officials have until August to close up shop at Manas.

Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who is also the Pentagon's chief management officer, testified this morning before the House Armed Services Committee about Pentagon acquisition matters. Some lawmakers went out of their way to avoid asking the question which pending acquisition reform bill, the House's or the Senate's, Defense Department leaders prefer. Lynn, in turn, only said both pieces of legislation go "in the right direction" by addressing programs' technology shortcomings in early development stages.

Beside the two congressional efforts, Pentagon officials also are looking at acquisition-related issues during the Quadrennial Defense Review.

In the area of program cost projections, Lynn offered some thoughts on who he believes should be the ultimately authority in estimating how much programs may end up costing taxpayers -- program managers or the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Cost Analysis Improvement Group (CAIG).

When assessing programs, the Pentagon acquisition chief should have both estimates available, but -- "all things being equal" -- go with the CAIG estimate, Lynn said.

Later in the hearing, Lynn did express a preference for the House acquisition reform bill's provisions regarding the CAIG. The panel, which he described as the "best in the building" for cost analysis, should remain under OSD's director for program analysis and evaluation, Lynn said. The Senate bill would make the office a stand-alone organization at DOD.

The Senate Armed Services Committee today approved the following defense-related nominations, according to a committee statement:

Elizabeth L. King to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Legislative Affairs;

Michael Nacht to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs;

Wallace C. Gregson to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs;

Jo-Ellen Darcy to be Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works; and

Ines R. Triay to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management; as well as

296 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.

As the Army beefs up its electronic warfare abilities, an article published by the Russian state news agency suggests that Moscow's plans for an equivalent electronic warfare cadre were "thwarted" by the country's economic crisis.

In the last several months, the U.S. Army has okayed an electronic warfare field manual and set aside 1,500 slots for an EW force. But similar Russian plans fell victim to "yet another army reform," the piece alleges.

The article, authored by Yury Zaitsev, an academic adviser with the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences, says electronic warfare "will play an increasingly greater role in future conflicts."

Russia has used electronic warfare against insurgent communications networks and roadside bombs in the North Caucasian region, said Zaitsev. And EW may have been used against Russian helicopter pilots in the same region when they found that their GPS devices displayed inaccurate readings.

While there may not be a Russian EW unit, the country has developed an EW weapon that can "fit inside a car trunk and can disable the power grid of a small country or an entire region in just a few minutes," Zaitsev said.

But he closes with this:

A couple of years ago, the Government discussed the issue of establishing an electronic warfare force. Well-informed sources say the Defense Ministry had drafted all the required documents and coordinated them at top military-political level. The new military branch was designed to obstruct enemy electronics in the air, on land and at sea, as well as in space, and to shield Russian military installations and government facilities.

These plans were thwarted, however, by yet another army reform, a decision to adopt new military uniforms, and the present-day financial and economic crisis. This is rather lamentable, as electronic warfare units will become an indispensable asset during a hypothetical conflict with any powerful enemy.

In the final analysis, electronic warfare will decide the outcome of future military conflicts.

However, a U.S. Army official wasn't buying Zaitsev's claims, contending, "They just want the public to think so. A nice ((information operations)) campaign."

House lawmakers want to make sure local extremists aren't the only radio jockeys to be heard in the Taliban-infested border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Members of the House Appropriations Committee plan to beef up the programming of Voice of America's Radio Deewa and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) in the area with $10.9 million, according to a panel report on the latest fiscal year 2009 supplemental spending bill.

The committee understands that research shows that radio is a dominant medium for news in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and that, with the exception of ((VOA's Radio Deewa)) and a few other international broadcasters, much of the radio broadcasting to this region is done by extremists.

The funds should be used to expand Radio Deewa's daily programming from six to nine hours, according to the report. In addition, lawmakers are eying a new six-hour program stream for RFE/RL, dubbed "Azadi Deewa," the report states. "Funds may also be used to establish capacity to send headlines and breaking news to listeners via mobile phones and to enhance security for RFE/RL's Kabul bureau," it adds.

Inside the Army this week reports on what the service is doing to scale back its recruitment efforts now that it has met its end strength goals early. It has postponed several recruiting programs and closed enlistment waivers for “adult major misconduct,” or felonies, as well as testing positive for drug and alcohol at military entrance processing stations.

Similar issues are addressed in a new Government Accountability Office report, released today, in which the Army is applauded for meeting its recruitment and retention goals early in its attempts to increase end strength by roughly 7 percent by 2013.

The report also examines how the Army managed this growth and the cost-effectiveness of the financial incentives used to recruit and retain enlistees. The GAO concludes that the Army's use of bonuses could be more cost-effective, stating that the service has not taken advantage of existing research on how best to use recruiting resources to calculate its bonus amounts. The GAO also found that bonus amounts vary widely across the Army's components. However, the Army states in the report that since the GAO completed its study, the service has reduced the numbers and amounts of bonuses it offers.

GAO is also critical of the Army for loosening its quality goals for new recruits, including the practice of giving waivers to those who don't meet academic, physical and conduct standards. GAO recommends that the Army collect data on the costs of recruiting and training soldiers with conduct waivers. According to the report, existing analyses show these recruits perform similarly as those without conduct waivers, but they are more likely to be separated from the Army for "adverse reasons."