DoD Buzz

A technology that has “forever changed our Army” almost never made it to the troops. Called the Tactical Ground Reporting System (TIGR), it has made it to 15 brigade combat teams in less than four years “in spite of everything the Army could do to stop it,” Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli told the Army Science Conference this morning.

Claims made by the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization that it is defeating IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan are hard to back up with any real data, says an investigation by the House Armed Services Committee. The investigators say DoD has invested billions of dollars and created a sprawling organization with one goal: defeat IEDs. Yet, IED use continues and, in Afghanistan, is spreading.

Influential analysts are arguing that the Marine Corps should cancel its costly and problem plagued Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle program. Its far too specialized for an unrealstic amphibious assault mission and is ill-suited to the anti-armor threats found on the modern battlfield.

The highly influential Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Pentagon funded think tank, recommends that the Army cut its planned force expansion of 65,000 new soldiers and comes mighty close to saying the service should axe its prized Future Combat Systems modernization program.

The Army has requested bids from industry for up to 10,000 lightweight versions of its Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle, dubbed MRAP All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV), a lighter, off-road capable and more maneuverable vehicle than the monstrous MRAPs the Army bought to shuttle soldiers around Iraq.

The Army has asked industry to re-compete for the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter Program that was cancelled last month due to cost overruns and schedule delays. The Army says it is “reassessing” ARH performance requirements.

Morgan Stanley’s defense industry analysts, led by sharp veteran Heidi Wood, have written up their initial thoughts on “Obama and Defense.” They said the “leanings” of players in the Obama administration will be to cut back on defense spending following a “reasonable” time in office, which in their accounting equals around 18 months into his term.

In these days of tanker, CSAR-X and other protests it will probably come as small surprise that Northrop Grumman has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office since it lost on its bid to gain part of the $100 billion or so Joint Light Tactical Vehicle program. “After careful examination of the data presented at the Nov. 5 [bid] debriefing, it is apparent that inconsistencies in the bid and evaluation process unfairly placed the Northrop Grumman team at a competitive disadvantage,” the company said in a press release.

It’s like something out of “The Terminator.” Self-aware virtual humans, regenerating body parts on “nano-scaffolding,” mind controlled weapons - all the stuff of movie robots, comic heroes and otherworldly tomes. But for some, this kind of higher-than-high tech is as real as life and death.

In the last two days I’ve seen several stories citing polls that Rep. John Murtha (D-Penn.), one of the most powerful House members, may lose to the GOP after making some very unwise comments about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and whether Murtha’s own constituents would vote for the senator. Murtha’s defeat — he is the second-ranking member of the appropriations committee and leads the defense subcommittee — would put Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) next in line to make the big defense spending decisions.