The Insider

Furlough Folly?
By John Liang
March 28, 2013 at 3:25 PM

The Associated Press reported last night that the Pentagon plans to cut from 22 to 14 the number of unpaid furlough days civilian defense employees would have to take:

According to defense officials, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made the decision Wednesday, as military service chiefs and defense leaders continued to work through the details, trying to prioritize how they will allocate the more than $10 billion that Congress, in an attempt to take some of the sting out of the across-the-board budget cuts, shifted to operations and maintenance accounts. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter ahead of the public announcement.

While some of the military services initially considered eliminating the furloughs altogether, senior leaders argued that since not all the services could do that, it would be better to treat all civilians across the defense department equally.

However, "it makes little sense" to furlough government employees like air traffic controllers and border patrol agents "while retaining employees who are AWOL, on standby, not performing official duties or sitting idle awaiting security clearances," according to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Ranking Member Tom Coburn (R-OK).

In a March 27 letter to Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry, Coburn writes:

Employees of government contractors are also being paid to do nothing. Delays in the security clearance process have kept between 10 and 20 percent of all intelligence contractors sitting idle while they await clearance, according to a December 2011 study of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance. This process can take months even for already-cleared workers who are being re-cleared just for moving to a new agency. Under current arrangements, these employees are paid large salaries during the waiting periods, but are not given meaningful work.

Mission Command
By John Liang
March 27, 2013 at 3:58 PM

The Joint Staff this month released a "focus paper" on "Mission Command And Cross-Domain Synergy."

According to the Joint Staff's doctrine publications website, the document was "written by the Deployable Training Division (DTD) of the Joint Staff J7 and published under the auspices of the Joint Staff J7. The paper helps inform both the joint warfighters and key functions within the J7, notably lessons learned, doctrine, education, and future joint force development."

The document's executive summary states:

The juxtaposing of mission command and cross-domain synergy has clear utility at theater-strategic and operational level for operating at the speed of the problem. Mission command is important in setting conditions for military subordinates. Cross-domain synergy leverages the capabilities of our many mission partners to increase overall effectiveness.

The DTD came up with three "major insights," according to the document:

1) Building trust and gaining shared understanding: Our joint commanders increasingly note the large number of mission partners that they must work with to build trust, share understanding, and achieve unified action. They also note how National and International leaders’ viewpoints and policies change as these decision-makers interact and learn. Building and maintaining trust, continuous dialogue, and gaining shared understanding with the many mission partners impose significant time demands on commanders and staffs at combatant commands and JTFs. This may be a markedly different experience for those whose previous experience was at the tactical level. However, it is this trust and shared understanding that enables empowerment, cross-domain synergy, and ultimately effectiveness.

2) Empowering subordinates to act: Today’s interconnected world is unpredictable and complex. The pace of change and speed of operations is accelerating. In response, commanders find they must share both operational context and their intent to successfully empower disciplined initiative in their subordinates.

3) Role of the support command relationship and the establishing authority: The need to leverage the many capabilities from other commanders and partners to achieve cross-domain synergy highlights the importance of the support command relationship, and requires increased effort by Establishing Authorities to prioritize, allocate resources, and synchronize actions in order to act at the speed of the problem. OSD and JS level direct involvement is essential to enabling agile, cross-combatant command synergy.

View the full report.

CR Signed Into Law
By John Liang
March 26, 2013 at 8:31 PM

President Obama has signed the fiscal year 2013 continuing resolution into law that funds activities for several government departments as well as an appropriations bill for the Pentagon through the end of September, according to a White House statement issued this afternoon.

View the final bill.

CRS On China
By John Liang
March 26, 2013 at 6:01 PM

The Congressional Research Service issued a report last week on China's naval modernization programs and the impact on the U.S. military.

The report -- originally obtained by Secrecy News -- states:

Decisions that Congress and the executive branch make regarding U.S. Navy programs for countering improved Chinese maritime military capabilities could affect the likelihood or possible outcome of a potential U.S.-Chinese military conflict in the Pacific over Taiwan or some other issue. Some observers consider such a conflict to be very unlikely, in part because of significant U.S.-Chinese economic linkages and the tremendous damage that such a conflict could cause on both sides. In the absence of such a conflict, however, the U.S.-Chinese military balance in the Pacific could nevertheless influence day-to-day choices made by other Pacific countries, including choices on whether to align their policies more closely with China or the United States. In this sense, decisions that Congress and the executive branch make regarding U.S. Navy programs for countering improved Chinese maritime military forces could influence the political evolution of the Pacific, which in turn could affect the ability of the United States to pursue goals relating to various policy issues, both in the Pacific and elsewhere. . . .

Potential oversight issues for Congress include the following: whether the U.S. Navy in coming years will be large enough to adequately counter improved Chinese maritime anti-access forces while also adequately performing other missions of interest to U.S. policymakers around the world; the Navy’s ability to counter Chinese ASBMs and submarines; and whether the Navy, in response to China's maritime anti-access capabilities, should shift over time to a more distributed fleet architecture.

View the full report

Nuke Advisers
By John Liang
March 25, 2013 at 7:58 PM

House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-WA) has appointed former Rep. John Spratt (D-SC) and former Deputy Energy Secretary T.J. Glauthier to serve on a congressionally established advisory panel to evaluate the governance of nuclear security programs. According to a statement issued this afternoon by Smith's office:

The panel, which is required by Section 3166 of the FY2013 National Defense Authorization Act, will provide a final report to Congress by February 2014 detailing recommendations on how to improve management and oversight of nuclear programs.

"I am pleased to nominate John Spratt and T.J. Glauthier to the Congressionally-mandated advisory panel to evaluate the governance of our nuclear security programs," said Ranking Member Smith. "Effective management and oversight of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s programs, including nuclear weapons stockpile, nuclear nonproliferation and naval reactors programs, underpin our national security."

The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has faced serious challenges in the past decade.  Recently, significant cost increases on the order of billions of dollars and schedule slips have plagued nuclear weapons life extension programs and major construction programs, and an unprecedented security breach occurred at Y-12. NNSA's management, oversight and accountability problems must be fixed particularly as fiscal constraints increase.

"Together, former Congressman Spratt and former Deputy Secretary of Energy will contribute decades of expertise to the important task of improving management and oversight of nuclear weapons and non-proliferation programs, including heath safety and security," continued Smith.

Raytheon Restructuring
By John Liang
March 25, 2013 at 4:21 PM

Raytheon is restructuring its business groups, the company announced today.

The new structure will consist of four businesses, the company said in a statement:

Intelligence, Information and Services, resulting from the combination of the Intelligence and Information Systems and Raytheon Technical Services businesses; and the Integrated Defense Systems, Missile Systems, and Space and Airborne Systems businesses, each of which will be expanded by the realignment of the former Network Centric Systems business operations. This new structure will be effective April 1, 2013.

"Our new structure will help us enhance productivity, agility and affordability in a challenging defense and aerospace market environment," Raytheon CEO William Swanson said in the statement. "We will remain focused on success for our global customers while returning value to our shareholders."

Swanson also announced new roles for members of the company's leadership team, including:

Daniel J. Crowley has been named president, Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), succeeding Kennedy. Headquartered in Tewksbury, Mass., IDS will now include two new product lines: C4I Systems and Air Traffic Management. The expanded business had annual external sales1 of approximately $6 billion in 2012.

Lynn A. Dugle has been named president of the newly-formed Raytheon Intelligence, Information and Services (IIS) business. John D. Harris II, formerly president of Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC (RTSC), has been named vice president and general manager of the new business, reporting to Dugle. IIS combines the operations of the former Intelligence and Information Systems business, based in Garland, Texas, and RTSC, based in Dulles, Va. The combined business had annual external sales1 of approximately $5.5 billion in 2012.

Dr. Taylor W. Lawrence continues to lead Raytheon's Missile Systems (RMS) business based in Tucson, Ariz. The expanded business will now include Combat & Sensing Systems, along with Raytheon UK. The combined business had annual external sales1 of approximately $6.5 billion in 2012.

Richard R. Yuse continues to lead Raytheon's Space and Airborne Systems (SAS) business based in El Segundo, Calif. The expanded business, with 2012 annual external sales1 of approximately $6 billion, will now include Integrated Communication Systems and Advanced Programs.

Homeland Strategy
By Christopher J. Castelli
March 22, 2013 at 4:46 PM

The Defense Department today released its "Strategy for Homeland Defense and Defense Support of Civil Authorities," which lays out DOD's priorities for homeland defense and defense support of civil authorities through 2020, consistent with the National Security Strategy and the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance, according to a DOD statement.

"It links with other DOD and national strategic documents related to missile defense, space, cyberspace, counterterrorism and the Western Hemisphere," the statement adds. "The strategy identifies two priority missions for the department in the homeland: defend U.S. territory from direct attack by state and non-state actors; and provide assistance to domestic civil authorities in the event of natural or manmade disasters, potentially in response to a very significant or catastrophic event." It calls for maintaining DOD capabilities to defend against conventional and emerging threats in the air and maritime domains, while "expanding cooperation with federal, state, and local partners to defeat asymmetric threats including, for example, homegrown violent extremists who may seek to use improvised explosive devices," the statement notes. The strategy also addresses DOD preparations for responding to man-made and natural disasters.

"The Department of Defense's contributions to the defense of our nation have evolved over the past decade and account for new threats and challenges. Lessons learned from events like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy and collaboration with our interagency partners and State Governors have framed our current approach to DoD civil support activities," said Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas' Security Affairs Todd Rosenblum, in the statement. "This strategy emphasizes strengthening our partnerships with federal agencies like the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice, with state and local governments, with the private sector, and with our Canadian and Mexican neighbors not only for more comprehensive approaches to complex security challenges in the homeland, but also to create efficiencies through collaboration and joint action."

Furlough Delay
By Christopher J. Castelli
March 21, 2013 at 6:52 PM

The Defense Department has decided to delay the issuance of civilian employee furlough notices for approximately two weeks, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said today in a statement.

"This delay will allow the department to carefully analyze the impact of pending continuing resolution legislation on the department's resources," he said. "We have not made any decisions on whether or not the total number of planned furlough days for fiscal [year] 2013 will change as a result of this delay. We believe the delay is a responsible step to take in order to assure our civilian employees that we do not take lightly the prospect of furloughs and the resulting decrease in employee pay."

Senators Approve CR
By John Liang
March 20, 2013 at 9:04 PM

The Senate has approved its version of a continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year by a 73-26 vote.

In addition to including appropriations bills for defense, military construction and veterans affairs -- as the House version of the legislation did which passed last week -- the Senate version "expands on the House bill, adding three domestic bills, including: Agriculture; Commerce, Justice, Science; and Homeland Security. In addition, the Senate added a number of critical provisions to enable the government to meet its mission-critical obligations," according to a Senate Appropriations Committee statement.

"Working across the aisle and across the dome, the Senate has come together to prevent a government shutdown," committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said in the statement, adding: "I am so proud the Senate bill protects national security while meeting compelling human needs. It makes investments in human infrastructure like early childhood education. And it creates jobs today and jobs tomorrow by supporting research and innovation. I thank my Vice Chairman, Senator Shelby, for his support and hard work. I look forward to swift action in the House so we can focus on passing a budget, ending sequestration, and getting back to regular order."

Committee Vice Chairman Richard Shelby (R-AL) said in the statement that the vote was "an important step in breaking from crisis mode in Washington," adding: "Chairwoman Mikulski and I set out to prevent a government shutdown, provide flexibility for those implementing budget cuts, and produce a bill that both parties in both chambers can support. It is my hope that the tone we set in meeting these objectives for the current fiscal year will carry over to our work on subsequent appropriations bills. We must continue to work together to replace a last minute, shotgun approach to reducing spending with a deliberate, targeted process."

The bill now returns to the House for its consideration, according to the statement.

Wireless Wonders
By John Liang
March 20, 2013 at 12:00 PM

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced yesterday that it plans to meet with prospective contractors on April 1 to hear their ideas for building more robust military wireless networks.

According to the agency's statement:

In areas lacking trustworthy communications infrastructure, deployed servicemembers rely on wireless devices to perform double duty: they not only provide access to the network; they are the network. Protocols for these networks require nodes to coordinate among themselves to manage resources, such as spectrum and power, and determine the best configurations to enable sharing of information. A problem with these protocols is that they implicitly trust all information shared about the security and operational state of each node, and the network as a whole. Consequently, inaccurate control or security information can quickly render the network unusable. This shortcoming could put productivity and mission success at risk as use of military wireless systems increases.

To help address these issues, DARPA has created the Wireless Network Defense program. The program aims to develop new protocols that enable military wireless networks to remain operational despite inadvertent misconfigurations or malicious compromise of individual nodes.

"Current security efforts focus on individual radios or nodes, rather than the network, so a single misconfigured or compromised radio could debilitate an entire network," said Wayne Phoel, DARPA program manager. "We need to change how we control wireless networks by developing a network-based solution for current and future systems that acknowledges there will be bad nodes and enables the network to operate around them."

A key objective of the program is to develop protocols that determine the viability and trustworthiness of neighboring nodes and automatically adapt the network to operate through problems. Similar to a neighborhood watch program -- where neighbors know each other and can identify suspicious or unusual behavior on their street -- the protocols must help identify unusual activity that may indicate a problem on the network.

Inspiration for addressing these challenges could come from economic and social networks.

"Credit card companies use various indicators for trying to determine if someone has stolen your credit card and is posing as you," Phoel said. "Unexpected purchase locations, amounts and other factors could raise an alert. Online social sites for buying and selling personal items use seller ratings to help you decide the trustworthiness of someone before you make a purchase. Similar concepts of reliability estimation and control methods could be applied to wireless military networks by calling out specific areas of the network that may have untrustworthy nodes."

Wireless Network Defense is specifically not a new waveform or radio program. Phoel seeks solutions that make existing and future wireless networks more robust and resilient to compromise, regardless of specific radio node hardware or software.

DARPA will host a Proposers' Day on April 1, 2013, in Arlington, Va. For details visit: http://go.usa.gov/2nuR

Phoel believes expertise in the following areas may likely contribute to the success of the program: military and commercial wireless network system design and operation, wireless network security protocols, distributed control theory, and economic and social networking structural analysis.

Strategy Review
By Christopher J. Castelli
March 19, 2013 at 4:45 PM

The Defense Department has not yet determined when Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will receive his first update on the strategy review launched last week, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters today. Hagel will receive regular updates on the effort, according to a March 15 memo that calls for the assessment to conclude in May. The review "really hasn't gotten going in earnest" yet, Little said. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who will play a leading role in the effort, has been traveling in Asia this week.

"This is not a wholesale revision of the strategy," Little said. Rather, the department is looking to determine "what budgetary choices we might have to make if sequestration becomes a protracted condition to be managed," he said.

QDR Review
By Megan Eckstein
March 19, 2013 at 2:54 PM

The Navy has begun staffing its Quadrennial Defense Review team but might not be able to proceed as in years past, a Navy official said this morning.

Rear Adm. Bruce Grooms, assistant deputy chief of naval operations for operations, plans and strategy (N3/N5B), said the Navy was still trying to determine its level of involvement in the process.

"It really is a big question of whether it will be QDR-light, QDR-heavy or QDR at all," he told the audience at the Defense Strategies Institute's Expeditionary Operations Symposium. Citing the unknowns related to the budget and the Navy's future force structure, Grooms said the service was beginning to add personnel to the QDR staff but might not keep to the typical schedule for such reviews.

Inside the Navy reported earlier this month that the Marine Corps has 10 people working on the review, a smaller number than what the Marines have had for past reviews. The team will reach out to the service's three-stars to get answers to questions, Maj. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the service's lead on the QDR, said on March 7. A smaller group, he said, is the best approach. Further:

"The strategic choices group process that has met over the last year or two, I think that's viewed as very successful and it's much smaller and a little bit more task-organized," he said.

The service has not started work on the QDR because of the recent appointment of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the fact the service is looking for more clarity in terms of the budget, McKenzie stated.

It is a possible for the Defense Department to request the "heart" of the QDR to be completed in the fall so that it can inform the fiscal year 2015 budget. However, the QDR is not due to Congress until February 2014, he said.

View the full story.

Shipboard Lasers
By John Liang
March 18, 2013 at 3:26 PM

A recent Congressional Research Service report finds that the Navy "currently does not have a program of record for procuring a production version of a shipboard laser, or a roadmap that calls for installing lasers on specific surface ships by specific dates."

The report -- originally obtained by Secrecy News -- notes that the service and the Defense Department "have conducted development work on three principal types of lasers for potential use on Navy surface ships -- fiber solid state lasers (SSLs), slab SSLs, and free electron lasers (FELs)."

The possibility of equipping warships with lasers in the future "raises a number of potential issues for Congress," the report states, including:

* whether the Navy should act now to adopt a program of record for procuring a production version of a shipboard laser, and/or a roadmap that calls for installing lasers on specific surface ships by specific dates;

* how many types of lasers to continue developing, particularly given constraints on Navy funding, and the relative merits of types currently being developed; and

* the potential implications of shipboard lasers for the design and acquisition of Navy ships, including the Flight III DDG-51 destroyer that the Navy wants to begin procuring in FY2016.

Along with deciding whether to keep funding the development of potential shipboard lasers, other options for lawmakers "include, among other things, encouraging or directing the Navy or some other DOD organization to perform an analysis of alternatives (AOA) comparing the cost-effectiveness of lasers and traditional kinetic weapons (such as missiles and guns) for countering surface, air, and missile targets, and encouraging or directing the Navy to adopt a program of record for procuring a production version of a shipboard laser, and/or a roadmap that calls for installing lasers on specific surface ships by specific dates," according to CRS.

View the full report.

Road Trip
By Christopher J. Castelli
March 15, 2013 at 7:33 PM

Deputy Secretary Ashton Carter's upcoming trip to Asia, slated to begin on March 17, will start with a stop in Japan, where he plans to "emphasize the steadfast U.S. commitment to the defense of the country," a Pentagon spokesman said today.

Next, Carter will travel to South Korea, the Philippines, and Indonesia, where he will participate in the 2013 Jakarta International Defense Dialogue (JIDD), the spokesman said.

In a statement issued Thursday, the Defense Department noted the trip would enable Carter to "continue U.S. defense consultations on a range of common security challenges" and reinforce ties with allies and partners in the region.

Interceptor Increase
By John Liang
March 15, 2013 at 5:02 PM

House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) just released a statement regarding press reports that the Obama administration will place additional ground-based interceptors at missile silos in Alaska and California:

After wasting years and millions of taxpayer dollars, the Obama Administration apparently has begun to realize the shortcomings of its missile defense strategy. Simply slashing funding of a key part of the defense of our homeland doesn't actually make us safer. Our missile defenses need to be expanded now to counter the long-apparent threats from around the globe. Nations like North Korea and Iran are committed to building long-range ballistic missiles and are undertaking robust nuclear weapons programs. No longer can the Administration ignore these threats. The building of a missile defense site on the East Coast is the next logical and prudent step to ensure we can counter the rising threat to the homeland.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is scheduled to formally announce the decision at a 3 p.m. Pentagon briefing today.