The Insider

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said today the Pentagon still prefers a single engine manufacturer for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, despite a failure during a recent test of the Pratt & Whitney F135 prime power plant.

“It hasn’t caused us to change our view on the second engine,” Donley said of the test failure last week. He did note that the service has not received details on the incident, but added that the test was in the final stages when the engine failed.

The failure comes as Congress is putting the finishing touches on the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2010 budget, in which the administration did not request funding for the G.E.-Rolls-Royce alternative power plant.

The Government Accountability Office this week released a report finding that while U.S. Northern Command has made some progress in dealing with state governments when responding to emergencies, a good amount of work still needs to be done.

Specifically:

NORTHCOM faces challenges in involving states in the planning, conduct, and assessment of its exercises, such as adapting its exercise system and practices to involve other federal, state, local, and tribal agencies that do not have the same practices or level of planning resources. Inconsistencies with how NORTHCOM involves states in exercises are occurring in part because NORTHCOM officials lack experience dealing with states and do not have a consistent process for including states in exercises. Without such a process, NORTHCOM increases the risk that its exercises will not provide benefits for all participants, impact the seamless exercise of all levels of government, and potentially affect NORTHCOM’s ability to provide civil support capabilities.

Several lawmakers, in a joint statement released today, commented on GAO's report.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS):

NORTHCOM must work even harder to operate seamlessly with State, local, and tribal governments throughout the country. Anything less than total synergy and collaboration in our nation's disaster planning and exercise programs is unacceptable and avoidable. NORTHCOM has made progress over the years, but we shouldn't have to cross our fingers and hope the Command has strong relationships with an affected State, we should be able to count on it. The task of operating a military command for the United States is a difficult one that can be best achieved through strong partnerships with State National Guard Units and our State and local leaders.

Senate Guard Caucus Co-Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT):

It is concerning that GAO has determined that NORTHCOM, the lead command at the Department of Defense for national disaster planning, has not consistently involved states in large-scale disaster preparations. And perhaps even more troubling is that GAO concludes that NORTHCOM cannot ensure that it has met internal standards for planning and execution of joint exercises.

Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT):

NORTHCOM, like the Department of Homeland Security, is a new organization that has made great strides while navigating through difficult, uncharted waters. I am pleased that NORTHCOM has acknowledged the gaps in coordination that GAO found - which are certainly not unique to NORTHCOM - and I will be monitoring closely how they are resolved.

Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME):

Although NORTHCOM has made some progress in developing a comprehensive exercise program, this GAO report demonstrates that NORTHCOM needs to do more to collect and share lessons learned from those exercises and to ensure greater participation from other Federal, State, local, and tribal governments. I encourage General Renuart and DOD leadership to address these shortcomings in a timely fashion.

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO):

This report underscores the need for NorthCom to coordinate with and support the state and local officials and Guardsmen who know their own backyards better than anyone else," said Bond, co-chair of the Senate Guard Caucus. "The citizen soldiers and airmen in the National Guard are not only highly trained for disaster mitigation and homeland defense, but also are members of the impacted communities which they serve.

Yesterday, a bipartisan group of former senior government officials released a statement on the interconnectedness between climate change and national security:

Climate change is a national security issue. The longer we wait to act, the harder it will be to mitigate and respond to its impacts. U.S. leadership alone will not guarantee global cooperation. But if we fail to take action now, we will have little hope of influencing other countries to reduce their own contributions to climate change, or of forging a coordinated international response.

Here at home, we must cut our own carbon emissions, reduce our reliance on foreign oil, and develop and deploy clean, renewable energy sources that will generate economic growth. We must also help less developed countries adapt to the realities and consequences of a drastically changed climate. Doing so now will help avoid humanitarian disasters and political instability in the future that could ultimately threaten the security of the U.S. and our allies. But most importantly, we must transcend the political issues that divide us -- by party and by region -- to devise a unified American strategy that can endure and succeed.

We, the undersigned Republicans and Democrats, believe Congress working closely with the Administration must develop a clear, comprehensive, realistic and broadly bipartisan plan to address our role in the climate change crisis. WE MUST LEAD.

The former White House officials who put their names to it include national security advisers Samuel Berger, Anthony Lake, and Robert McFarlane; former Chief of Staff Kenneth Duberstein; former special counsel Ted Sorensen; and former CIA Director James Woolsey.

Former military officials: Former Defense Secretary William Perry; retired Vice Adm. Dennis McGinn, retired Adm. Joseph Prueher; and retired Gen. Charles Wald.

Former diplomats: Ambs. Warren Christopher; Donald McHenry; Thomas Pickering; George Schultz; John Whitehead; and Frank Wisner.

Former representatives and senators: Lee Hamilton (D-IN); Howard Baker (R-TN); John Danforth (R-MO); Slade Gorton (R-WA); Gary Hart (D-CO); Nancy Kassebaum-Baker (R-KS); Sam Nunn (D-GA); Warren Rudman (R-NH); and John Warner (R-VA); Tim Wirth (D-CO).

Other notable names: Rita Hauser, chair of the International Peace Institute; Richard Leone, president of the Century Foundation; former U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills; and former Govs. Thomas Kean (R-NJ) and Christine Todd Whitman (R-NJ).

The recently reconfigured Defense Policy Board is set to meet this week to take up a classified agenda, according to knowledgeable sources. The two-day gathering, which begins Wednesday and culminates with the group presenting findings to the defense secretary on Thursday, comes as the military is managing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and as the Defense Department is hammering out a new 20-year blueprint for the entire military enterprise.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will likely hear some new perspectives on national security challenges from the 11 new members appointed in July.

The board is chaired by John Hamre, president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and includes:

Richard Danzig, President Obama's national security adviser during the presidential campaign; former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel; journalist Robert Kaplan; John Nagl, director of the Center for New American Security; Rudy DeLeon, senior vice president at the Center for American Progress and a senior Pentagon official during the Clinton administration; Robert Gallucci, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the former dean of Georgetown University's foreign service school; Andrew Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and author of the recent book “7 Deadly Scenarios,” which recently impressed Gates; Steven Biddle, senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations; Sarah Sewall, a human rights policy expert and a Harvard University professor; Wendy Sherman, a principal at the Albright Group who was a senior diplomat during the Clinton administration; Larry Welch, a retired Air Force general; David McCurdy, former Democratic Oklahoma congressman and co-author of 1982 landmark weapon system acquisition legislation; Frank Miller, a veteran Pentagon policy official; former defense secretaries Harold Brown, James Schlesinger and William Perry; former DOD official J.D. Crouch; Fred Ikle, the Pentagon's policy chief during the Reagan administration; Henry Kissinger, former President Richard Nixon's top diplomat; Marin Strmecki, senior vice president of the Smith Richardson Foundation; Vin Weber, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota; Vern Clark, retired admiral and former chief of naval operations; Jack Keane, retired general and former Army vice chief of staff; and Peter Pace, retired Marine Corps general and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Ellen Tauscher told business groups last month that updating the products covered by the U.S. Munitions List and the Commerce Control List (CCL) is her top priority in an ongoing review of export controls launched earlier this month by the White House, Inside U.S. Trade reports today:

Removing items from these two lists that no longer need to face export controls has long been a priority of business groups. In order to export defense articles on the Munitions List, or the dual-use items on the CCL, exporters must obtain licenses.

Scrubbing these two lists was the only priority specifically mentioned by Tauscher on Aug. 25 in a private meeting with the Coalition for Security and Competitiveness (CSC), a leading industry group on export controls, according to sources. Tauscher also met separately with the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which is a member of the CSC, the next day, sources said.

Sources said that Tauscher emphasized that this is a security review but the views of business associations are important. The process for public comment has not been decided on yet, she said.

Concerning the overall administration review, Tauscher made clear that the administration has not yet set a hard deadline for the end of the review, has not yet refined the scope of the review, and has not yet decided whether to seek legislative changes for some aspects of export control reform that cannot be done administratively, according to these sources.

However, inter-agency meetings have already occurred after the review was announced on Aug. 13, sources said. Tauscher said she would prefer a multistage approach.

“The review would put in place a process for regularly scrubbing the lists and the first scrub would take the longest,” one source said.

The White House announced today that Thomas Paul D'Agostino will continue serving as under secretary for nuclear security of the Department of Energy and administrator for nuclear security of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Here's his bio, as released by the White House:

Thomas Paul D'Agostino was sworn-in on August 30, 2007 as the Undersecretary for Nuclear Security at the U.S. Department of Energy and the Administrator for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The NNSA's responsibilities include designing, producing, and maintaining safe, secure and reliable nuclear weapons for the U.S. military, providing safe, militarily effective naval nuclear propulsion plants, responding to nuclear and radiological emergencies in the U.S. and abroad and promoting international nuclear safety and nonproliferation. Prior to serving as Administrator, Mr. D'Agostino served as the Deputy Administrator for Defense Programs at NNSA and directed the Stockpile Stewardship Program, which is responsible for maintaining the safety, security, and reliability of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. He was also previously the Deputy Director for the Nuclear Weapons Research, Development, and Simulation Program where he directed the formulation of the programs and budget for the research and development program that supports the Stockpile Stewardship Program. He spent over eight years on active duty in the Navy as a submarine officer to include assignments onboard the USS SKIPJACK (SSN 585) and with the Board of Inspection and Survey where he was the Main Propulsion and Nuclear Reactor Inspector. D'Agostino earned his undergraduate degree from the United States Naval Academy, his masters in Business Finance from Johns Hopkins University and his masters in National Security Studies from the Naval War College as a distinguished graduate.

The Air Force's desire to speed up the Massive Ordnance Penetrator program is driven partly by cost considerations, according to Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Col. Karen Platt.

The effort to produce a large, conventional bunker-busting bomb to ride aboard U.S military bomber aircraft is expected to become a program of record later this year when Congress approves the fiscal year 2010 defense budget.

But air service officials don't want to wait that long. In early July, they asked lawmakers to allow the internal shift of $95 million toward MOP-related programs. The money is to pay for up to a dozen bombs, plus work required to integrate the behemoth onto the B-2 bomber, among other projects.

"Immediate funding allows continuation of current efforts, fully capitalizing on progress to date . . . allowing faster development at a lower end cost to the Air Force," Platt wrote in an e-mail this week.

Members of the Senate Armed Service Committee are expected to weigh the air service's argument for the reprogramming after the congressional recess next week. The other three defense committees have already approved it, according to Platt.