Sometimes policymakers face no better test of their ideas than simply exposing them to the public, especially when that public is well informed. I combed through the comments posted to our Gates doctrine story and found two main threads. First come those who believe Gates simply doesn’t understand the strategic challenges faced by the US […]

The tanker competition did not change much publicly this morning after EADS NA received its briefing from the Air Force on just why Boeing won the $35 billion program. “Our objective has always been that the U.S. warfighter receive the most capable tanker, following a fair and transparent competition. That remains our position today,” company spokesman Guy Hicks said.

As congressional staff continue to pour through the budget documents as they roll in from the Pentagon, we are entering the beginning of the detailed hearings on the services, agencies and their budget requests.

The United States should not deploy large numbers of combat troops on the ground to most of the world, outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in his last speech to the West Point corps of cadets.

The United States stands on “the brink of catastrophe” as the budget deficit keeps growing and national security spending must be a major part of the answer, former Sen. Pete Domenici told about 150 people on Capitol Hill today.

UPDATES: Boeing Pledges ‘On Time, On Budget’

Boeing continued its dominance of the US airborne tanker business, winning the $35 billion contract to build 175 KC-X tankers, one of the biggest defense contracts in the next decade. The award shocked experienced observers who had predicted a big win for EADS NA. Word came from a Pentagon email announcing the initial $3.5 billion contract.

The governors of Alabama, Mississippi and Lousiana today wrote President Obama about the tanker competition, urging him to choose the aircraft that would do the best job and ignore World Trade Organization rulings about illegal subsidies.

The next major security gaps in the military’s computer networks are likely to be found in the smartphones on which soldiers, sailors and airmen increasingly rely in theater. The Army may equip every soldier with a smartphone and it has experimented for more than a year with phones and how they might be used at […]

Suppose you are the Air Force, or Defense Secretary Robert Gates. You possess a decision sure to ignite a firestorm on Capitol Hill once it is announced. Do you make the announcement about the KC-X airborne tanker when Congress is in town or do you try and slip it in and buy yourself a day or two of peace –and perhaps disrupt the reaction time — of those lawmakers ready to erupt at your decision.

Orlando — The Air Force would like to start work on a sixth generation fighter. It would. And it will work on advanced technologies at the service labs and encourage industry to keep ploughing ahead on promising technologies. But Air Force Secretary Mike Donley made very clear at the Air Force Association conference that the service is focused on building the coming fifth generation aircraft (also known as the Joint Strike Fighter) and has no plans to begin investing the nation’s treasure on a new aircraft.

ORLANDO–Tougher contracts, less ambitious and more flexible requirements must be pursued if the Air Force and the US military are to get the space systems they need, says the head of Air Force Space Command. “We’ve become the poster child for things that are late and expensive.”

It’s 11 days until either the Tea Party drives America to the brink of insolvency, the brave GOP drives the Democrats back from their mad pursuit of a more bloated and tyrannical federal government, or bold politicians on both sides hammer out a way to avoid shutting down the federal government on March 4. Choose your result according to your politics.

ORLANDO – No one will say there will be a bid protest when the $35 billion KC-X tanker contract is awarded in the next few weeks. Neither Boeing nor EADS NA will rule out a protest either. So if — as most observers believe — a protest is filed is the Air Force ready? Does it have a plan?

House lawmakers are scrambling to put together an FY-11 defense spending bill this week so as to avoid having to pass a year-long continuing resolution that would leave the Pentagon billions short of its funding requirements for FY-11.

UPDATED: With LightSquared Company Comments

ORLANDO– Deputy Defense Secretary Bll Lynn has raised concerns with the Federal Communications Commission about a new technology used by a company called Light Squared that jams both military and civilian GPS signals. The Federal Aviation Administration shares the Pentagon’s worries. Air Force Gen. William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, disclosed the Pentagon and FAA’s concerns at the Air Force Association winter conference today.

The power of the Tea Party and other deficit conscious Republicans was on full display today as the House passed an amendment stripping $450 million for the second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter from HR 1, the continuing resolution for 2011. The amendment was sponsored by House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Tom Rooney. The vote of 233–198 may mark a tipping point for the debate about whether to cut the defense budget generally.

Ashton Carter, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer today emphasized that the DoD will not condone defense industry mergers done for the sake of short term profit over the long term health of the defense industrial base; warning that the Pentagon will keep a close watch on future mergers and acquisitions to ensure they result in long-term good.

With the contract award for the $45 billion tanker program less than a month off, EADS NA board chairman Ralph Crosby said today that his company would not rule out a protest, but that his company was unlikely to file one barring an “egregious process error.” That, of course, does not rule out a protest from Boeing if they lose. And it does not rule out a protest from EADS NA if they conclude the Air Force screwed in an impressive fashion.

The House of Representatives looks set to approve $450 million for the second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter, ready to thumb its collective nose at Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the Obama administration and its boldly stated opposition to the program. While a final vote on HR 1, the omnibus spending bill cobbled together by the House Appropriation Committee, isn’t likely until Thursday, the result is likely to be approval.