U.S. And Israel Created 'Flame'
(Washington Post) The United States and Israel jointly developed a sophisticated computer virus nicknamed Flame that collected intelligence in preparation for cyber-sabotage aimed at slowing Iran's ability to develop a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials with knowledge of the effort.’
Dempsey Maps Sequestration Cuts At Defense
(GovExec.com) Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said Tuesday that automatic cuts to the Defense Departments budget resulting from the sequestration deal struck by the Obama administration and Congress would have to come from military operations, maintenance, training and modernization.
Pentagon Revamps Rules On Reporting Sex Crimes
(NPR) President Obama recently said sexual assault has no place in the U.S. military. The Pentagon has announced a number of new steps to deter assaults and make it easier to prosecute offenders. But, as NPR's Larry Abramson reports, many victims believe the first problem is a military culture that makes it tough for victims to report these crimes.
Military Sponsorships Under Close Watch
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution) The $26.5 million in public funds affixed to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race car in the form of a National Guard logo is an attractive target for lawmakers in the midst of a military budget squeeze.
Sailors, Marines? Sailabrated? Through Volunteering
(Baltimore Sun) About 60 sailors and Marines who shipped into Baltimore for Sailabration, the maritime festival marking the bicentennial of the War of 1812, combined shore leave with community service. They spent Monday volunteering at the Baltimore Station, a transitional housing and counseling center for men, many of whom are veterans.
Feds: Orlando Soldier Charged $10M In Purchases To Army, Then Sold Goods
(OrlandoSentinel.com) A soldier stationed with the Army Active Guard Reserve in Orlando admitted to making more than $10 million in authorized purchases, charging the items to the military, and then selling the goods.
Captain Of Navy Ship Fired After Collision
(U-T San Diego) The Navy captain in charge of the Essex, the San Diego-based U.S. warship that collided with an oiler last month, was fired Tuesday.
Navy Plucks 19,000 Pounds Of Weed Out Of Ocean
(U-T San Diego) An aircraft carrier group recovered an estimated 19,000 pounds of marijuana that had been dumped into the Pacific Ocean over the weekend by three boats off the California coast, the Navy said Tuesday.
Bronze Stars For Four Generations Of Zumwalts
(Washington Post) Former Navy Lt. James E. Zumwalts great-grandfather was awarded the Bronze Star during World War II for his actions as an Army doctor when Nazi labor camps were being liberated. His grandfather, one of the Navys most revered admirals, received the medal after serving aboard a destroyer during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Pacific. His uncle was awarded it for his actions as a Navy swift-boat commander in Vietnam.
Navy CO Fired For Record Falsifying
(ABC News) The ex-commander of a Maryland squadron that flies Navy leaders in corporate-style jets was fired after she acknowledged she lied on records that said an evaluator was on hand during flight simulator training, an investigative report obtained by The Associated Press shows.
Fully Loaded
(Stars and Stripes) The flight out of Ramstein was one of 750 flown worldwide each day by crews and aircraft from Air Mobility Command, or AMC, the arm of the Air Force in charge of airlifting U.S military cargo, transporting people and refueling other aircraft in midflight.
Pentagon Aims To Be Proactive In Countering Terror Threat In Africa
(WashingtonTimes.com) The U.S. military's new strategy in Africa calls for partnerships with regional governments to disrupt and eventually destroy al Qaeda and its African affiliates, a top Pentagon official said Monday.
Pentagon: Libyan Weapons Entering African Trouble Spots
(WashingtonTimes.com) A breakdown in security in Libya has allowed militants and weapons to flow into other troubled areas in Africa, a top Pentagon official said Monday.
FBI Gets New Role In Domestic Intelligence
(Washington Post) The FBI has been given an expanded role in coordinating the domestic intelligence-gathering activities of the CIA and other agencies under a plan enacted this year by Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., officials said.
CIA Releases Declassified Documents From 9/11 File
(Yahoo.com) In the months before the terrorist attacks of September 2001, the CIA unit dedicated to hunting for Osama bin Laden complained that it was running out of money, and analysts considered the likelihood of catching the terror leader to be extremely low, according to government records published Tuesday.
VA Would Need A Staff Of 4,000 To Scan All Its Backlogged Paper Records
(NextGov.com) The Veterans Affairs Department would have to employ 4,000 more workers in order to scan billions of pages of paper benefit claims, William Bosanko, a top executive at the National Archives and Records Administration, told a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee today.
VA: Backlog Of Agent Orange Claims Nearly Cleared
(Stars and Stripes) Veterans Affairs officials say theyre poised to make a major breakthrough on the departments massive claims backlog, but skeptical lawmakers and veterans advocates say theyve heard such proclamations before.
Lockheed Needs Pressure To Pare F-35 Costs, Levin Says
(Bloomberg.com) The Pentagon and Congress should press Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) to reduce soaring costs of its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee said.
Russian Ship Carrying Arms For Syria Turns Back
(Washington Post) A Russian ship carrying attack helicopters to the Syrian government turned back toward home Tuesday after its London-based insurance carrier canceled coverage, following a warning from the British government that the delivery would violate European Union sanctions.
Putin Rules Out Intervention To Stop The Syrian Rebellion
(New York Times) President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said Tuesday that the fate of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria should be left to the hands of the Syrians, saying that no one country has the right to tell another people whom their leader should be.
Doubt Is Cast On Mission By Monitors Inside Syria
(New York Times) The commander of the 300 unarmed United Nations observers assigned to monitor Syria, in his first direct report to the Security Council, cast doubts on Tuesday on the survival of their mission, telling diplomats that he had decided to suspend their work this past weekend because of repeated exposure to close-range gunfire and hostility, some aimed directly at them, by the antagonists there.
In Syrian Conflict, Rebels Lack Firepower But Not Will
(Washington Post) On a Sunday late last month, Syrian army forces attacked this town. By early afternoon, two children had been killed by a mortar shell, and doctors and nurses were struggling to save an elderly woman shot in the chest with a Kalashnikov. An attack helicopter circled overhead. The local rebel commander phoned his compatriots in the nearby town of Madaya for help.
Mubarak Said To Be In Critical Condition In Egypt Hospital
(New York Times) Former President Hosni Mubaraks health deteriorated rapidly and he was rushed to a military hospital on Tuesday, adding to the uncertainty gripping the nation as the ousted strongmans longtime opponents, the Muslim Brotherhood, battled his onetime allies in the military for political power.
New Worries About Women?s Rights And Ethnic Tensions Emerge In Afghanistan
(New York Times) Events this week that raised questions on womens rights and ethnic tensions have added to long-term concerns about Afghanistan after American-led forces withdraw in 2014 and new elections are held.
US, New Zealand Sign Defense Cooperation Accord
(Yahoo.com) The United States and New Zealand signed an agreement to expand defense cooperation but the deal does not alter Auckland's longstanding ban on port visits by nuclear-armed American warships, officials said.
Okinawa Governor Opposes Osprey Deployment
(Kyodo News) Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima on Tuesday urged the Japanese government to stop the planned deployment of MV-22 Osprey aircraft at the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station following recent crashes abroad.
U.S. Forces Korea Bolsters Ground Units Ahead Of Wartime Control Transfer
(Korea Herald) The U.S. Forces Korea is moving to strengthen the capabilities of its ground units ahead of the wartime operational control handover to South Korean forces in 2015.
Lockheed Says More Orders Key To Cutting F-35 Cost
(Reuters.com) Senior executives at Lockheed Martin Corp said they were working hard to reduce the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the Pentagon's biggest weapons program, but ultimately needed bigger order volumes to make the program affordable.
Trade With Russia Is A Win-Win
(Wall Street Journal) By making Moscow a normal trading partner, Congress would create American jobs and advance human rights.
America, Russia And The Tragedy Of Syria
(Wall Street Journal) The ordeal of Syria has been a rebuttal of what the diplomacy of Barack Obama once promised and stood for. It is largely forgotten now that Syria and Iran were the two regimes in the Greater Middle East that Mr. Obama had promised to "engage."
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America, Russia And The Tragedy Of Syria
(Wall Street Journal) The ordeal of Syria has been a rebuttal of what the diplomacy of Barack Obama once promised and stood for. It is largely forgotten now that Syria and Iran were the two regimes in the Greater Middle East that Mr. Obama had promised to "engage."
Letter prompts base to change flight suit rules. What started as a pilot’s argument for why he and other pilots should be allowed to wear flight suits whenever they like blew up in his face. Now his commander has barred flight suits for anyone not on flight status at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. The letter, by Capt. Lawrence P. Wilson and published in Air Force Times on June 4, outlined the pilot’s belief that pilots have earned the right to wear their flight suits. [ Read More ]
Montana Governor Sues to Keep Guard Aircraft
Conference Addresses High Suicide Rate
GAO: F-35 Fighter More Costly than Planned
Senator Pushes GI Bill Overpayment Change
End of the Line: The Air Force on June 19 ordered its 224th, and likely its final, C-17 transport from Boeing. The company received a $169.8 million contract to provide the new-build airlifter off of its production line in Long Beach, Calif., announced the Pentagon. Work on this airframe is expected to be completed in May 2013, according to the Defense Department's release. Congress appropriated the funds for the Air Force to build a fleet of 223 C-17s. However, with the loss of a C-17 in a crash in Alaska in July 2010, lawmakers provided the money for the service to procure a replacement aircraft, the 224th, to keep the fleet size at 223. The Air Force leadership maintains that the service does not need any more C-17s beyond that. The Pentagon has just launched a nine-month mobility study to assess how well the US military's transport enterprise supports the Obama Administration's new defense strategy through 2018. Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said in March he thinks the Air Force's proposed fleet of air mobility assets, including its C-17 force, is right-sized for the strategy.
undefinedSeth Miller and Michael C. Sirak
Take Two: Both Sierra Nevada and Hawker Beechcraft submitted revised bids to the Air Force for the Light Air Support contract. The service originally awarded Sierra Nevada the contract last December, but later set aside the contract after then-unsuccessful offeror Hawker Beechcraft filed a lawsuit. "While nearly a year and a half has passed since the original [request for proposal] was issued, the A-29 Super Tucano remains the only aircraft in the running that is combat-proven and capable of meeting the needs of commanders in theater today," said Taco Gilbert, Sierra Nevada's vice president of ISR business development, in a June 19 release.
Pink Slips for Everyone: Lockheed Martin will formally notify its 120,000 employees this fall that they may lose their jobs because of sequestration, said company chairman and CEO Bob Stevens June 19. During a press conference in Arlington, Va., Stevens said the Budget Control Act "is on the books, and the President has said he would veto" any change to it. Thus, the company must assume sequestration will happen and must take action to get ready and satisfy its "fiduciary responsibility" to its shareholders, he said. In many states, employees must receive 60 days warning of a layoff; in New York, it's 90 days, meaning the notices could go out as early as Oct 1, he said. About 12,000 employees would lose their jobs, if sequestration takes 10 percent of Lockheed programs, said Stevens. However, "we just don't know" how it would be implemented, so there's no way to predict which programs would be affected, or to what degree, so all employees are technically on the block, he noted. The employment hit doesn't count the secondary effect on the company's 40,000 suppliers, he said. He urged Congress to head off the crisis by striking a budget deal.
undefinedJohn A. Tirpak
The Next Round of Consolidation: With or without sequestration, the defense market in the United Statesundefinedas in many parts of the worldundefinedis shrinking. So does that herald a new round of defense industry consolidation? Not necessarily, said Chris Kubasik, Lockheed Martin's president and COO, and its chairman-elect. Speaking with the Daily Report after a company press conference in Arlington, Va., on June 19, Kubasik said the Pentagon wants to preserve competition as much as possible, and that means federal regulators "probably wouldn't want to go below the 'big five'" companies supplying the Defense Department (Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon). Similarly, regulators probably wouldn't allow two of the majors to join up, creating a behemoth no one else could match, he said. However, "if an equity firm wanted to buy one and break it up," selling pieces to each of the others, regulators "might be willing to go along with that," said Kubasik.
undefinedJohn A. Tirpak
Maximum Effort: B-52 bombers flew in two major exercises, flexing nuclear and conventional strike forces on a global scale, according to Air Force Global Strike Command officials. As two B-52s returned to Barksdale AFB, La., on June 11 from a simulated maritime strike over the Baltic Sea, another 10 bombers launched on a mass nuclear-generation exercise from Minot AFB, N.D., states a June 15 Barksdale release. BALTOPS, the NATO exercise in the Baltic, "was a good example of how the Air Force can support the US Navy's operations by striking targets at sea," said Robert Thomson, AFGSC exercise division chief. "This type of exercise is a prime example of how teamwork among different nations can help increase stability," he added. Constant Vigilance, the second exercise, proved the nuclear bomber force's ability to "respond quickly and efficiently to real world situations," said Thomson. Both exercises validated AFGSC's ability to "support both conventional and nuclear missions simultaneously," he added. (Barksdale report by Carla Pampe)
A welcoming home for our Troops.
