The new electro-optical spy satellites that President Obama approved in early April have won funding in the 2010 budget while Space Radar has lost the funding it tentatively had in the budget, according to congressional and intelligence community sources. A congressional source said the money was taken from Space Radar to help pay for the new system. However, an intelligence community source said it would be more accurate to say that the Pentagon has tilted to electro-optical capabilities and away from Space Radar.

A panel of experienced acquisition experts told the House Armed Service Committee today that the key to fixing what many lawmakers have said is a broken acquisition system lies with the requirements process. The focus on requirements arose from a question put by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, the committee’s Nr. 2 Republican, about how they would weight the causes of program cost overruns. Score “requirements creep, intentional under-bidding and overly optimistic or incompetent cost estimating,” Bartlett asked them.

France’s defense attache met with defense reporters this morning and said his country hopes to buy 14 to 15 airborne tankers. No date is set for a Request for Information yet, but France does plan to buy tankers, said Air Force Maj. Gen. Gratien Maire. Perhaps not surprisingly, Maire said that France would place a premium on interoperability with allies and noted that Britain is buying the EADS tanker” “It is important for us that the equipment is completely interoperable.”

The combined reporting and brain power of the Military​.com/​D​e​f​e​nse Tech/DoD Buzz team was brought to bear last week to compile a report card for President Barack Obama’s first 100 days as it related to the military and national security. Read on and let us know how you think Obama has done.

It sounds almost Chinese. The five threats. The five challenges. The six principles. That was how Michele Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, outlined the Pentagon’s approach to the Quadrennial Defense Review. But the key to this QDR: balance. Balancing “current operational needs with an increasingly uncertain future” and balance between the current and future budgets.

America’s national security interests lie fundamentally in Pakistan, not in Afghanistan, and the United States needs a strategy beyond throwing money at the Pakistanis, according to Fred Kagan, one of the architects of the counter-insurgency efforts in Iraq. “You don’t reasonably have anything you can call a strategy,” said Kagan, who spoke at a breakfast organized by the National Defense University. He acknowledged that Pakistan “is very hard to do,” but stressed that the stakes far exceed those at risk in Afghanistan.

Outgoing Pentagon acquisition czar John Young sharply criticized the Air Force today in his last meeting with reporters, saying the service had refused to budget for auto-landing gear for Predator UAVs even though the Air Force has lost a substantial portion of these to landing accidents. The new undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, Ash Carter, was sworn in this afternoon. Young also spoke about FCS in some detail.

Joint Chiefs chair Adm. Mike Mullen toured American bases in Afghanistan last week where he heard reports from commanders that Taliban fighters are flowing back into the country after a winter hiatus spent refitting and training in their sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan. The U.S. is rushing troops and more aerial drones to the border region but stemming the flow of fighters through the mountain passes remains a near impossible task.

The Air Force has been very sensitive about its image over the last eight years of fighting, concerned the country did not appreciate its role in the several wars we are waging. As part of his effort to make the Air Force a bigger joint player and ensure the service can play an important part in this age of hybrid warfare, Gen. Norton Schwartz, is considering the need for a light propeller driven aircraft for a strike role, similar to aircraft used against the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

Divorces usually leave the parties exhausted, miserable and, sometimes, a lot poorer. People fight over the kids, the dogs, the books. Only the Pentagon could be contemplating a divorce over a satellite system. But OSD is considering seeking permanent separation from NASA and NOAA, its confreres in the deeply troubled and fiscally challenged program known as NPOESS. The first recommendations on just how to divide the family assets and responsibilities are likely next week.

Pentagon policy chief Michele Flournoy filled in some of the blanks on the Obama administration’s new Afghan strategy in a presentation this week at CSIS, in Washington. The new approach will focus on local level governance and development, counternarcotics and a rapid build-up of the Afghan security forces. But the administration’s efforts are likely to be hindered by a lack of intelligence on exactly who we are fighting in Afghanistan and the crumbling security situation in neighboring Pakistan.

UPDATED: With Sen. Chambliss Comments Accusing Gates of Failing to Develop Strategy And Making ‘One-Time’ Budget Decisions
The F-22 fight is in full swing, notwithstanding comments earlier this week from Lockheed Martin’s CFO that the company will not fight down to the wire for the weapon. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and James Inhofe signaled this week that they are almost certain to keep fighting for the plane. “Just because you are the boss doesn’t always mean you are right, and it doesn’t always mean you will win,” the former commander of Air Force Material Command, Greg Martin, said Thursday in a clear sign of just how vigorous the fight over the F-22 may become.

Did the Obama administration effectively drop the Next Generation Bomber as part of its arms control strategy? That is the theory posited by Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, the Air Force’s top Global Strike commander and 8th Air Force chief, at a breakfast meeting yesterday.

“We are consuming our readiness as soon as we get it,” Army Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff, told lawmakers Wednesday. If a hotspot such as North Korea exploded into combat or a major terrorist attack occurred, the Army and Marines would have a very difficult time responding. “I think it would be very difficult, challenging — I don’t think there is any question about it,” Gen. James Amos, assistant commandant of the Marines, said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and whoever is the acquisition czar will face enormous difficulties in hiring large numbers of acquisition experts to help fix the broken weapons acquisition system. That is the consensus of several congressional aides, two acquisition experts and several industry experts I’ve spoken with over the last week. “It’s a nice idea but I just don’t see how they can find the people, the engineers especially, that they are going to want,” said one of the country’s most experienced acquisition experts who works in the Pentagon.

The White House should expect that Rep. Ellen Tauscher’s nomination to be undersecretary of State for arms control and international security will face rough waters in the Senate. During a breakfast speech this morning, Kyl noted wryly that Tauscher’s ostensible new job requires Senate confirmation, a clear signal that he may place a hold on Tauscher’s nomination. A congressional aide confirmed that Kyl is expected to place a hold on the nomination once it is formally made by the White House.

SecDef Gates said it was a “miracle” few details on spending or decisions on key weapons programs were leaked to the press, Congress or industry during more than three months of deliberations with the service chiefs, the Joint Chiefs, senior civilians and combatant commanders. Why no leaks about Gates’ “hard choices” from a notoriously porous Pentagon? He said it was because of those nondisclosure agreements he made people sign.

Has the manic hornet’s nest that is North Korea been stirred so much by the UN’s reaction to its missile launch that the Dear Leader bunch might launch a cyber attack on the members of the Security Council? Kevin Coleman, who regularly writes on cyber war issues for DefenseTech, has a penetrating analysis of North Korea’s cyber capabilities and discusses the chances North Korea might launch a cyber attack. He notes that, while the North Koreans only spend an estimated $56 million annually on their cyber troops they are ranked eight in the world in terms of effectiveness.

As the National Security Council meets to consider US policies and operations to counter piracy, it should consider creation of an operational international center to coordinate the world’s response. Pirates can run rings around the world’s navies in part because there is no one place where governments can find and share information about pirates. Creating one or more centers where countries can share operational information about pirates to coordinate and speed the responses of the world’s navies is an idea worth considering, says retired Coast Guard Rear Adm. Ed Gilbert.