Marine Gen. Hoss Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is still on most lists, but he may have been tainted — rightly or wrongly –by the recent IG report which cleared Cartwright but also questioned his judgment. That is the latest from the ever-active Pentagon rumor mill.
When Defense Secretary Robert Gates put the presidential helicopter program on ice in 2009, he left nine completely built birds sitting in a hangar. Given the fabulous capabilities required of the VH-71 helicopters — executive protection plus, hardened and encrypted communications gear, all sorts of neat active protective systems — it seemed a bit sad […]
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said today that the Navy is prepared to help implement a no-fly zone over Libya should the order come. “The capability that we have on our aircraft carriers, they can perform that function, they can perform a variety of functions.”
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.
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.
Anthony Cordesman looms as one of the wisest and best informed experts on those crucial places that stretch from Morocco to Afghanistan, especially in terms of their strategic and military issues. In the following commentary, he offers a trenchant analysis of the Egyptian military and security forces, what they may have to gain or lose and who among them to watch.
Reports are swirling around that the People’s Liberation Army Navy has successfully tested Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles. If so, this achievement would represent an important advance in China’s strategic capabilities. Norman Polmar, the respected naval and intelligence author. mentioned this at a presentation Wednesday night.
While Boeing went public with the news that they had met with the Air Force to discuss their KC-X bid and would revise their offering, EADS NA has stayed mum and only went public when we gave them a call. They also met on Monday with the Air Force. “We received final proposal revisions, which are due to the customer on Friday, Feb. 11 at 8 a.m at Wright Patterson,” said Guy Hicks, head spokesman. Hicks refused to say whether his company would revise its bid.
Ray Mabus, the Navy Secretary who has been whispered of as an unlikely but possible candidate to fill departing Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s shoes, is moving into the lead among some savvy Pentagon handicappers. Mabus appears to have built up steam from his service as the administration’s lead in rebuilding the Gulf states after the BP oil rig exploded.
Only a truly authoritarian regime could generate such wonderful irony as China did when an official broadcaster apparently showed footage from the Top Gun movie and portrayed it as film from a recent military exercise. That comes after the PRC’s president Hu Jintao had to tell Defense Secretary Robert Gates in mid-January that he did not know that the the supposedly stealthy J-20 was to have been unveiled during Gates’ visit.
Senior Air Force leaders are growing increasingly concerned that Joint Strike Fighter maintenance and operating costs will rise far above previous estimates. A source familiar with the issue said that the Air Force believes a study performed by the Navy one year ago looks increasingly accurate, based on preliminary data the service has compiled.
The Pentagon is will reportedly slash the Marine Corps Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and Army’s Surface-Launched Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile system that would have someday replaced the Stinger missile-based Avenger air defense system, according to Lexington Institute analyst Loren Thompson.
Earlier in the week we gave you our rundown of the top DoD policy and procurement stories of the last year. Now, it’s time to look ahead at what may be in store for defense programs to see who will win and who will likely feel the sting of budget cuts.
Lawmakers are scrambling to put together a continuing resolution after Senate democrats abandoned their effort to pass a trillion dollar omnibus spending package for FY-11 containing $667.7 billion in defense funds.
The aerospace and defense industries continue pushing arms export reform hard but several well-place sources within the industry say very little change is likely to happen in the next year. In the latest thrust, President Obama announced the beginnings of a yet another review of the Munitions List, which describes which weapons and parts are subject to the control of the State Department, and of the Department of Commerce’s version.
With the F-35B getting a reprieve, it is time for all good Marines to look to the fate of the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos faces difficult budget choices between the V-22, the F-35B and the EFV. The V-22 clearly boasts the greatest support from the Corps, followed by the STOVL version of the JSF.
House CR Allows Dual LCS Buy
The Senate seems to be leaning toward an omnibus spending bill to keep the government going next year. The House is moving a continuing resolution that would effectively freeze spending at current levels. Why does all this matter for the F136, the second engine for the Joint Strike Fighter? After four conversations with congressional aides and congressional experts to try and figure out just what this might mean for the F136, one conclusion stands out stark and clear. It all depends.
UPDATED: Corrects Who Called Whom
Boeing and EADS NA are busy spending the holiday season preparing for the KC-X contract award sometime early next year. It’s not exactly a factory to build KC-45s from the ground up, but EADS NA said today it wants bids to build a “conversion” facility in Mobile, Ala. And Boeing launched what looks like a clever pysops campaign to out-psych EADS, using defense analyst and consultant Loren Thompson to spread the word that — shock, horror — it may well lose the tanker competition after having seen some of the bidding data that the Air Force shared with the two companies.
The Coast Guard, who scrambled to respond to the BP oil well explosion and oil spill, is about to lose an entire class of ships to the masters of federal spending at the Office of Management and Budget. The Offshore Patrol Cutter, which the Coast Guard is getting ready to begin buying, appears likely to fall to the OMB ax, says one source who closely follows the Coast Guard. Worth somewhere between $300 million and $400 million through the life of the program, the OPC would replace the Famour and Reliance class cutters.
The wonderfully sort-of-secret X-37B is back on terra firma after a long stay in space. Very little information beyond its appearance, dimensions and the fact that the Air Force is deploying it is known about the vehicle, which looks a lot like a mini space shuttle. The vehicle can stay in orbit for at least nine months. Is it a sensor platform, a mobile satellite launcher, or…?
