Tag Archives: DoD

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in a March, 12 2013 photo released by a North Korean news agency.

Document: Pentagon Assessment on North Korea

The following is from the executive summary of the Pentagon’s report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea 2012, released Thursday.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) remains one of the United States’
most critical security challenges in Northeast Asia. North Korea remains a security threat because of its willingness to undertake provocative and destabilizing behavior, including attacks on the Republic of Korea (ROK), its pursuit of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, and its willingness to proliferate weapons in contravention of its international agreements and United Nations Security Council Resolutions. Read More →

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at National Defense University in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2013.

Hagel on Budget: ‘We are Living in a World of Complete Uncertainty’

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at National Defense University in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2013.

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel at National Defense University in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2013.

The Pentagon has issued a budget that hopes to sidestep mandatory sequestration cuts as part of a larger Obama administration spending reduction strategy.

The $526.6 billion budget, announced Wednesday at a press briefing at the Pentagon, is part of the larger budget proposal across government that would save $1.8 trillion over ten years. Read More →

Reports: US Starts Pulling Gear Out of Afghanistan

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A Pakistani policeman guards a road used by NATO trucks Monday. The U.S. will use the road to start pulling military equipment out of Afghanistan. Associated Press Photo

The massive material withdrawal from Afghanistan began Monday when almost 50 containers of weapons and equipment began leaving via Pakistani supply routes, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The departure began the day after U.S. Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford took charge of the NATO forces in the region from USMC General John Allen.

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Rear Adm. Kevin Sweeney, commander of the Harry S. Truman Strike Group, addresses the media on the pier alongside the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) on Wednesday. US Navy Photo

Down to One Middle East Carrier

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Rear Adm. Kevin Sweeney, commander of the Harry S. Truman Strike Group, addresses the media on the pier alongside the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) on Wednesday. US Navy Photo

Rear Adm. Kevin Sweeney, commander of the Harry S. Truman Strike Group, addresses the media on the pier alongside the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) on Wednesday. US Navy Photo

Looming budget restrictions means the U.S. Navy will reduce the American presence in U.S. Central Command from two aircraft carriers to one for the immediate future, a defense official told USNI News on Wednesday.

A deployment of the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), planned for later in February, has been delayed to preserve operating a carrier in the Middle East well into 2014, the official said.

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Mine resistant ambush protected vehicles offloaded from the Military Sealift Command roll-on/roll-off ship USNS Pililaau in Kuwait in 2008. U.S. Navy Photo

MRAPs On the Way Out

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On Monday the Pentagon ceased production of the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected  Vehicle (MRAP), perhaps the most iconic acquisition program of the past ten years. The trucks were designed and built in response to the urgent need to protect service members in Iraq from the pervasive improvised explosive device (IED) threat. The vehicle went through five different iterations and the production lines produced 27,740 trucks. The total price tag came to $47.7 billion. For all the investment, what are we left with?

Mine resistant ambush protected vehicles offloaded from the Military Sealift Command roll-on/roll-off ship USNS Pililaau in Kuwait in 2008. U.S. Navy Photo

Mine resistant ambush protected vehicles offloaded from the Military Sealift Command roll-on/roll-off ship USNS Pililaau in Kuwait in 2008. U.S. Navy Photo

The vehicle may be of use to the U.S. Army, but there is little place for the armored monstrosities in the Marine Corps. They are too heavy to be practical on the Navy’s amphibious warships. Marine Corps and Navy leaders rightly are concerned about the weight of the Marine Air-Ground Task Force, so the weight issue is a red line for integrating the trucks into permanent service. Any MRAPs remaining on the Marine Corps rolls will most likely be stripped of their radios and mothballed.

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