Not only did the House Appropriations defense subcommittee call the administration’s bluff on funding for the F-136 engine for the Joint Strike Fighter; it told the Defense Secretary to stuff money into the regular budget in the future. The HAC-D also froze all spending on the NPOESS weather satellite system until ATL certifies the program is complying with Pentagon acquisition rules.

In what appears to be the first official expression of deep concern on the Hill about the war in Afghanistan, the House spending bill report says the appropriations committee is “concerned” about an “open-ended U.S. commitment” in a country long known for “successfully rebuffing foreign military intervention.”

In yet another sign of the Air Force’s commitment to new aspects of warfare, my colleague Stephen Trimble has broken the story that there’s a Request for Information out to industry asking for “fixed-wing platforms available for passenger and cargo transport in support of Irregular Warfare.”

After being publicly shoved hard by Sen. John McCain for having accepted $100,000 from the now-defunct lobby shop PMA, incoming Army Secretary John McHugh promised Thursday that no matter whether he was confirmed or not he would never “never receive another earmark.” Since McCain decided not to hammer McHugh over the issue any more and there’s no need to highlight the irony of a departing lawmaker suddenly taking the pledge, let’s look at some of the policy issues that arose during the nomination hearing.

CSIS’s Anthony Cordesman recently returned from Afghanistan where he was part of a team of experts brought in by new Afghan commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal to help craft a new strategy to arrest the downward slide in the war there. Reversing the downward slide in Afghanistan will require lots more U.S. troops and a “very substantial” increase in spending, he said.

The Army is struggling to find the right balance between protection and deployability as it draws up the requirements for the future Ground Combat Vehicle. Battlefield lessons seem to be tipping the debate to the greater protection side, says Maj. Gen. James Terry, fresh from TRADOC and on his way to take command of 10th Mountain.

One of the top Joint Strike Fighter officials outlined the arguments he will present Wednesday to OSD’s Program Analysis and Evaluation and the Cost Improvement and Analysis Group about why the program is not an additional two years behind schedule. Dan Crowley, F-35 executive vice president and program manager for the Joint Strike fighter, told reporters after the roll out of the plane’s carrier version that the Joint Evaluation Team had identified four areas that posed threats to the program’s manufacturing; schedule and cost: personnel retention; software; and the frequency of flight tests. Crowley said these were under control.

UPDATE: White House Issues NO Veto Threat Over F-136.

The Navy’s top officer, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, used the roll-out ceremony of the carrier version of the Joint Strike Fighter to send a stark message about the planes to Lockheed Martin and its suppliers: “They must — they absolutely must — be delivered on time and on budget. And JSF PEO Brig. Gen. David Heinz took Pratt and Whitney to task for quality control problems with its F-135 engine that have resulted in up to 50 percent of parts being thrown away because they do not meet the program’s high standards.

Mention of the Vietnam-era “Phoenix” program typically conjures images of rogue CIA-backed assassination teams roaming the Vietnamese countryside executing Viet Cong agents and innocent civilians alike. Now, a RAND research team says the controversial Phoenix program demands reexamination and in fact may provide useful lessons for the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

The struggle to find the right path forward after the wrenching decision to kill the Manned Ground Vehicle has clearly galvanized Army officers in a fashion not seen in some time. The DoD Buzz story, “Army Planning for Last War” elicited several comments by persons with .mil email addresses who included the time-honored “views expressed are personal…” disclaimer, and there were half a dozen posts to very recent FCS stories that appear to have come from serving officers. They all agree that Gates’ decision to kill the Manned Ground Vehicle is the right move.

Out in the Mojave desert at China Lake, Ca, Joint Forces Command is trying to build a persistent surveillance and intelligence gathering architecture for troops engaged in a bloody fight against an adaptive Taliban insurgency. One of the biggest challenges troops face is sifting out “actionable” intelligence from the data firehose that the many remote sensors now provide.

The incoming commander of the famous 10th Mountain Division, Maj. Gen. James Terry, sat down with defense reporters to talk about the future of Army modernization. Terry, a very personable commander with a refreshingly candid approach, wouldn’t offer specific answers about what the Army’s Brigade Combat Team Modernization would look like. After all, it’s one of the biggest acquisition decisions the service will make for years and it’s not unreasonable for him to go slow. But there is a larger issue that a major general dares not address in public — are the Pentagon and Army moving in the right direction when it comes to redesigning the force? The answer we got from a respected analyst is a resounding “No!”

Michael Vickers provides the Pentagon one of the most creative brains around, especially in his area of expertise — irregular (hybrid etc. etc.) warfare. Vickers had breakfast with Christian Lowe and a small group of defense reporters and told them that OSD will probably support the idea — first offered publicly by the Air Force CoS Gen. Norton Schwartz – of a COIN air wing during the QDR. Of course, that would mean the Air Force will have to buy one or more versions of an increasing slew of propeller planes designed for counter-insurgency operations.

It probably won’t mean much in the long run, but the Senate voted today to approve an amendment by Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), long-time opponent of the F-136, to strip funding for the second F-35 engine. It will be difficult to prove, but I bet this was one of those trades that were worked out before the vote to kill the F-22. Sen. John McCain supported Lieberman’s amendment and it was approved by voice vote — not a roll call vote, which would have left a very clear trail for everyone to follow.

The Navy says it faces a strike-fighter gap that could severely reduce the number of deployable carriers from 11 to as low as seven by the middle of the next decade. Those numbers may need to be recalculated if, as is expected, the QDR strategic review changes the miitary’s force sizing construct, said CRS’ Ron O’Rourke.

The builder of the nation’s highly classified spy satellites, the NRO, should be getting a makeover soon, and one of the top House intelligence lawmakers says it’s about time. “We need a new charter, a new look at the NRO,” Rep. Mac Thornberry, ranking member House Intelligence’s technical and tactical intelligence, told me yesterday. A panel of senior intelligence gurus led by former Missile Defense Agency Trey Obering has put together recommendations about the new charter as well as other on other issues relating to the NRO. Thornberry called the panel’s work and the prospect of change at the NRO “an opportunity we shouldn’t miss.”

One of the military’s top counter-insurgency experts said this morning that M-ATVs are not the best solution for most counter-insurgency uses since they are closed and inhibit interaction between soldiers and the locals. But Col. John Agoglia, director of the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute in Kabul, said he didn’t think buying hundreds of M-ATVs was a mistake since the US and allies must use them in areas where they just don’t have enough troops to handle the Taliban and friends.

UPDATED: With Vote Analysis

In a vote sure to be read as a sign of the Obama administration’s power on defense matters, the Senate voted by a lopsided 40–58 in favor of an amendment stripping $1.75 billion for the F-22 from the defense authorization bill. You could almost hear the whoops in Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ offices as he and his team scored a decisive victory. He will be difficult to defeat on any major program decision he takes for the forseeable future.

UPDATED: Mike Wynne Comments.

Rep. Jack Murtha’s House Appropriation defense subcommittee has granted the Pentagon some latitude for the tanker program, giving it the choice of a single or dual buy. Perhaps more importantly, Murtha says the Pentagon should double the number of planes its buys each year so it doesn’t leave the nation with some tankers that are 80 years old by the time the 513-plane fleet is rebuilt.