The Insider

And it is a race -- for the new administration to figure out what to do with space, according to a new report written up today on InsideDefense.com:

In the wake of last year's Chinese anti-satellite test and the more recent U.S. shoot-down of a defective intelligence satellite, the next administration needs to address as soon as possible what kind of international space regime best suits its interests, according to a new Council on Foreign Relations report.

Last December, a Chinese missile destroyed an aging weather satellite, and earlier this year, the United States shot down a defective intelligence satellite deemed to pose a danger to human health because of its toxic fuel.

"While the United States will likely remain the preeminent space power at least for the next twenty to thirty years, it will no longer enjoy the level of near-monopoly on military space capability that it has enjoyed since the fall of the Soviet Union," the report, released Sept. 18, states. "As China becomes a credible space power with a demonstrated offensive counterspace capability, the question for U.S. policy is what kind of feasible and stable space regime best serves U.S. long-term security interests.

"This question should be addressed early in the new administration's tenure, if not earlier," the report emphasizes.

Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey recently wrote his own report on Air Force Space Command, asserting that because the existing Air Force space strategy is "under-resourced and severely constrained," the next administration will have "at most a year" to make critical decisions relating to the United States' global superiority in space -- before it starts "rapidly eroding."

The Defense Department is going through the Mother of All Budget Drills, gaming options for how it would spend an additional $57 billion in fiscal year 2010, according to the Pentagon's No. 2 official.

"We have considered a range of possibilities, and that's certainly one of them," England said of the $57 billion boost, first reported by InsideDefense.com. "But we won't have that budget together until November." England's comments, delivered following an address to the Navy League of New York City on Sept. 12, mark the first public acknowledgment by a Pentagon official that a major increase in defense spending could be in the offing.

Such a boost would be an 11th hour bid by the White House to revise the Pentagon's base budget, which the administration set on a course to steadily decline between FY-10 and FY-13 in its current five year budget plan.

The big question on the minds of many inside the building and on the Hill is when a decision on the size of the FY-10 budget will be made: before or after the Nov. 4 presidential election.

Advisers to presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama talked about intel last week, urging U.S. agencies to better coordinate and share information at home and abroad, Inside the Navy reports:

"The New York Police Department intelligence unit, I think, is the best intelligence unit in the world," John Lehman, a former Navy secretary under Ronald Reagan who advises McCain, said Sept. 10 at a conference on homeland security sponsored by the National Defense Industrial Association. "I would far sooner get a briefing from them every morning than I would CIA -- they are small, they're lean, they're agile and they bring in people with outside expertise; they're not bureaucratic."

Lehman argued the intelligence community in the United States is "bloated."

"In my judgment, though there have been great efforts made and some tremendous leaders and professionals trying to work and rearrange the deck chairs on this Titanic, it is worse than it was at 9/11 in producing usable intelligence product for the president, for commanders engaged in combat," he said.

"Fundamental reform is going to have to be addressed to the intelligence community, including the FBI," Lehman added.

Also quoted is Rachana Bhowmik, Obama's adviser for homeland security:

"One of the important issues that we've seen under-exercised in the last eight years is the role of intelligence in the Department of Homeland Security," Bhowmik said. "I think we're still kind of getting our sea legs. How does the director of national intelligence interact with the Department of Homeland Security? How does the Department of Homeland Security handle its intelligence role? This is still not clear, but what is clear is we do not have an effective, cooperative relationship with our state and local governments."