The Army, perhaps having absorbed the lessons of Comanche and looking to what we are politely calling the constrained budget environment, has put aside all thoughts of building a new recon helicopter any time soon and will instead upgrade the venerable Kiowa Warrior. The Army will upgrade the existing fleet so it can meet the mission through 2020, Lt. Gen. Ross Thompson, principal military deputy to the assistant secretary of the Army for acquisitions, logistics and management, told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee Tuesday morning.

Shootouts between Sunni Awakenings groups and Iraqi security forces and a string of suicide bombings highlight the tenous security situation in Irag, just as policymakers shift their attention to Afghanistan. As one analyst says, American troops in Iraq are maintaining a “ceasefire” between the Sunni and Shia, and as ceasefires go this one could easily revert back to a full blown civil war.

America has done a lousy job of ensuring we have a crop of well trained and experienced strategists and must act to fix this. That is the conclusion of Barry Watts, one of the leading US experts on transformation and its discontents and a top analyst of weapons systems. Few failures are as fraught with consequences as poor strategic decision making. We may have the best weapons and and best trained troops, but if we use them badly the results are unlikely to transcend the abilities of the fine men and women who serve in the military. The last decade should be ample proof of the poor quality of our national security strategists.

If you read the tea leaves around Washington the beginning of the shift in power from the Pentagon to the State Department, US AID and other centers of soft power is easy to see. Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of Defense for policy, spoke at the Brookings Institution about the Obama Administration’s policies and goals as they move to fix the mess in Afghanistan.

Rep. Jack Murtha is one of Capitol Hill’s toughest and most powerful defense lawmakers. He has also become a lightning rod for criticism in the last few years; the last few days have seen him become even more highly charged. My colleague Christian Lowe has posted a story at our sister web site, Military​.com, about […]

The OSD Policy shop, reflecting its boss’ predilections and intentions, is reorganizing and plans to elevate strategy to one of the top positions reporting to Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michelle Flournoy. DoDBuzz got a copy of part of a larger briefing Flournoy put together on the direction her very important part of the Pentagon will take. The biggest change is Flournoy’s creation of a new position of deputy undersecretary for strategy, plans and forces

The Pentagon must focus more sharply on rapid fielding of equipment to ensure troops in the field are getting the equipment they need when they need it. Fixed price contracts should be used “whenever possible,” and the Pentagon should hire more acquisition experts to better manage the military’s programs.

The first F-22 has crashed since the plane was declared operational, sending shivers through the Air Force at a time when the fate of the program hangs in the balance. Sadly, the pilot has been confirmed dead. The crash occurred about 35 miles from Edwards Air Force Base. If you have new information, post away.

One of the biggest budget decisions of this extraordinary period will be made soon by the Director of National Intelligence and the Defense Secretary about just how big and sophisticated should be the constellation of electro-optical satellites the intelligence community is planning. Paul Kaminski and his panel “are asking for the Rolex,” said our source.

All 84 Ospreys were temporarily grounded following the discovery March 21 of four loose bolts in a V-22 in Iraq. “This is a temporary grounding bulletin issued strictly as a precautionary measure,” NavAir’s V-22 spokesman Mike Welding said Tuesday evening. “If one of those came lose in flight, the worst case scenario you would lose control of the affected prop rotor,” he said, adding that no planes had been affected in flight. “Our priority first and foremost is safety.”

The Army and senior OSD leadership are debating whether to eliminate all but one of the eight FCS vehicles, a Hill source says. The sole surviving vehicle would be, not surprisingly, the Non Line of Sight Cannon. But the plan being considered would save a relatively paltry $500 million in 2010. As the Hill source noted, the FCS network and software comprise “most” of the R and D money.

Two of America’s most powerful defense politicians made clear today that they expect the Missile Defense Agency to change how it has done business. They told roughly 1,000 missile defense advocates in separate speeches that more and better testing must be done and hard choices are coming that will probably mean substantial cuts to the MDA budget. But there were also distinct signs of a hopeful nature.

In what will become known as the beginning of a major shift in military acquisition and strategy, Marine Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today that the Obama administration can’t afford to wait for the 2012 budget to stamp its imprint on the Pentagon and so will make major changes to the 2010 budget. The money will go to systems that address the “most likely” threats, not to the those aimed at the “most dangerous” threats, Cartwright told a missile defense conference in Washington.

The GAO’s report on the Army’s FCS program was a catalog of program miscues and technological challenges. The report said the program’s active-protection system, designed to outfit armored vehicles and defeat anti-armor warheads, has hit a roadblock. Analysts doubt the system can be made to work in “operational” conditions.

Anti-satellite weapons. There. We’ve got your attention. The topic we are really discussing — space situational awareness (SSA) is something lots of people know very little about because almost everything about it is so highly classified. Read on for a proposed international plan to lessen the chances of satellites colliding.

The redoubtable Norm Polmar offers a grim analysis of the Navy’s prospects as we approach the end of one of the most exciting –and excruciating — budget debates in at least a decade. Polmar urges the Navy’s leadership to make some sound strategic decisions about just what they want to build to patrol the world’s blue waters. Translation: stop vacillating (DDG-1000 vs. DDG-51), pick your winners and tell the country what you really need.

Adm. James Stavridis will be nominated to lead NATO, a crucial post as the fight in Afghanistan ramps up. He will bring one crucial skill as he works with the European nations that comprise the bulk of NATO membership. Stavridis possesses the rare gift among senior military leaders of being able to speak to people he knows don’t agree with him and give them a fair and full hearing.

The international financial crisis, compounded by the poor quality of strategic decision making over years, will force the United States to scale back its global commitments and revise its global strategy. “We are really out of money and we just can’t do this any more,” said Loren Thompson, defense analyst and COO of the Lexington Institute. “The world has to get used to taking care of itself.”

The 2006 QDR marked a profound shift in the military’s strategic priorities by elevating irregular warfare to the “dominant” form of war that would confront American troops. That reorientation of the military from preparing for large conventional wars to instead gearing up for smaller, more numerous irregular wars will significantly accelerate under the 2010 QDR, according to Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Vickers.

The Army has let slip one of the worst-kept secrets in the world — that Israel has the bomb. But a Defense Department study completed last year offers what may be the first time in an official unclassified report that Israel is a nuclear power.