DoD Buzz

The end of black-white space integration may be at hand. The man long identified as one of its most devoted followers, Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler, the head of Air Force Space Command and former deputy commander at Strategic Command, told the intelligence community that “this approach is posing insurmountable problems, and those problems are going to get worse as we look to the future.”

UPDATED: Mike Wynne, former secretary of the Air Force, sharply criticized John Young’s decision to approve advanced funding for a small number of F-22s. “This gives efficient acquisition a very bad name, as everyone knows this level of quantity will lead to high prices..”

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.

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.

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.

The Air Force generally does a rotten job of managing and budgeting for space programs. That was the strongest message sent today by John Young, undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, as he discussed the 2010 budget and acquisition in general during a wide-ranging discussion with reporters today.
Although Young said he didn’t want [...]

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.

In what may be his last major policy speech before the next administration takes power, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a strong pitch today at a highly symbolic venue — the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — for a new generation of nuclear weapons.
Clearly worried that nuclear deterrence has been neglected as a strategic issue, [...]