DoD Buzz

Names for likely members of the team to head President-elect Barack Obama’s intelligence team are quietly leaching out of the gray world.

One top possibility is former Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.), who helped sponsor the legislation that created the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission.

The nascent Obama administration has filled the job of lead for the Pentagon transition and it isn’t Sam Nunn, as earlier reported by some media outlets. Because of all the fog surrounding this story, I checked with a source familiar with Obama’s defense team to confirm that Michele Flournoy, co-founder of the Center for a New American Security thinktank and former head of strategy under Clinton, is joining former Deputy Defense Secretary John White to head the team reviewing the Pentagon. White is now head of the Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative.

Continuing with Washington’s favorite parlor game of who will be named to an Obama cabinet, according to sources, John Hamre, President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, assured staffers there that he was not going anywhere and would continue to lead the highly regarded think tank. Hamre, a former deputy secretary of defense, has been considered a strong contender for Defense Secretary to replace Gates.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates may be fading as an easy choice for the top defense job in the Obama administration. But like all the reports on this issue right now, no one but President-elect Barack Obama and a few aides actually know what is likely. And anyone who has direct knowledge isn’t talking until the boss does. A source with contacts among senior Obama security officials says the job is Richard Danzig’s for the taking, should he want it.

For at least another few hours we can live in the gray world where we don’t know who is winning the presidential election. So let’s look at some of the likely choices for defense secretary. We’ll start with McCain, since M comes before O. McCain’s close friend Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) is almost certain to be on the short list for Defense Secretary.

Word from the Pentagon is that this week should see the final version of the 2010 budget sent to the White House.

Known in lovely Pentagon-speak as the POM lock, this will mean the services are barred from screwing around with their numbers any more. At least until the next administration comes in and they start running to the new folks crying, “the wolf is at the door! The wolf is at the door.”

Reports of the death of a crucial satellite system known as BASIC have been grossly exaggerated.
The Associated Press and other media outlets reported 10 days ago that $1 billion for BASIC was cut by the House and Senate Appropriations intelligence subcommittees, canceling the program. Well, as often happens with intelligence spending, the picture is much more complicated and nuanced, according to a senior Pentagon source and a congressional aide.

Theresa Hitchens, former editor of Defense News, is leaving the gently liberal (and officially nonpartisan) Center for Defense Information to take up a post with the United Nations. Hitchens will leave town in January to take up a post in Geneva, Switzerland as director of the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. So when you see definitive UN research about weapons of mass destruction (nukes, chem/bio,) small arms, landmines, and space issues, that will be Theresa’s doing.

The rumors, speculation and fear about China and its plans to build a true blue water fleet, complete with carrier groups and all that would mean for the shift in power in the Pacific, appear to have gained some substance.
The respected naval analyst Norman Polmar is hearing reports “that 50 Chinese naval officers have begun [...]

A few thoughts about tonight’s town hall-style debate… Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) may mention the issue of cost-plus contracts, something he sees as a root cause of the enormous cost overruns plaguing today’s systems.
McCain raised this issue in the last debate, saying the country should “do away with cost-plus contracts” because weapon systems costs “are [...]