SAC makes 671 cuts to "unnecessary or under-performing programs" for DoD; FY 2013 OCO and base = $604.9 billion in their CR, out tonight. @ColinClarkAOL
By Colin ClarkHow to ensure readiness of next-generation defense technology: Solving the issue of massive heat.
High-performance systems generate tremendous amounts of heat that can compromise missions and make high-tech systems less effective in tactical environments. But there is a solution to this modern-age challenge.
Chuck #Hagelnomination will come to vote tomorrow @ 2:30pm. Sen. Carl Levin, #SASC chairman, intends to hold vote right after. @colinclarkaol
By Colin ClarkCRYSTAL CITY: A senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee has given up hope that the House can agree on anything to prevent sequestration, provide defense appropriations for the remainder of the year, or raise the debt ceiling. Judging from the way all the recent fiscal crises have been resolved, the solution has been…
By Otto Kreisher[After meeting this morning with Amb. Susan Rice, Senator Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, spoke to reporters today at a 12noon roundtable at the Foreign Policy Institute’s annual conference, where she promised there “absolutely” would be a hold if Amb. Rice is nominated for Secretary of State — and potentially, a hold on any administration nominee for…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.In the Army, David Fastabend urged his fellow soldiers to “Adapt or Die,” as he entitled his essay on the need for innovation — but the principle also applies to the field he now works in, civilian cybersecurity. With the defeat of the Senate cybersecurity bill last week, one of the crucial unresolved questions is…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: The defense spending bill passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee today keeps Block 30 Global Hawk drones flying, instead of letting them be warehoused as the Air Force had planned, a congressional source confirmed to Breaking Defense. That is arguably the final flourish on Congress’s utter rejection of the Air Force’s proposed cuts in…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: The Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter is the biggest conventional weapons program in history and Vice Adm. David Venlet has run it to much acclaim and quite a bit of backbiting, depending on who you talk with. This afternoon the Pentagon very quietly sent out notice that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had nominated Venlet’s…
By Colin Clark
How to unlock innovation and savings for DoD: “commercial,” not COTS
Overmatch is fleeting and while traditional acquisitions can’t always keep up with new threats, a different and approved practice can.
CAPITOL HILL [updated 12:40 with Feinstein, Inouye remarks and results of amendment vote]: Sequestration drama roiled an otherwise pro forma mark-up of the Senate’s defense appropriations bill this morning, with a precious flicker of bipartisanship over the need to avert the sequester soon overtaken by disagreement over the legalities of layoff notices. If the automatic…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.CAPITOL HILL: Senate Armed Services Committee leaders released a 100-plus-page report on the administration’s Asia strategy today, including — perhaps inadvertently — four pages of comments from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Congress commissioned the study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in the authorization bill for fiscal year 2012. SASC chairman Sen. Carl…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.SASC sent full Senate nomination of Gen. Mark Welsh for CSAF http://aol.it/OcwsYw; also LTG John Kelly for SOUTHCOM, LTG Frank Grass for NGB Sydney%20Freedberg
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.CAPITOL HILL: Air Force Secretary Michael Donley warned Congress today that if it blocks cuts to the Air National Guard this year, it will just be “doubling down” on cuts required in 2014 — maybe not to the Guard, but somewhere in the Air Force — even if sequestration is averted. If sequestration does take…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: As jetlagged aerospace executives and defense reporters head home from a frankly discouraging Farnborough Air Show, Washington is gearing up for storm of stop-sequestration events this coming week. What it will actually accomplish is an open question. Sequestration has hardly been a quiet topic this past week, with a pointed, partisan, and unproductive exchange…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.“Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle” is arguably the most awesome name on record for a Pentagon program. Technologically, the Raytheon-built EKV is pretty impressive, able to hit an incoming missile head-on at over 15,000 miles per hour. Some background: The Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle is the business end of the missile defense system now based in Alaska and…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Army Reserve Chief Stultz @ SAC-D: "I’m not satisfied our modernization strategy is going to meet my needs for the immediate future, no sir" SydneyFreedberg
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
