Tag Archives: Pentagon

Former under secretary of the Navy Bob Work. US Navy Photo

Bob Work’s Advice for the Pentagon

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Former under secretary of the Navy Bob Work. US Navy Photo

Former under secretary of the Navy Bob Work. US Navy Photo

Bob Work — the chief executive officer of Center for a New American Security and former under secretary of the Navy— gave Pentagon leaders advice on how the services should innovate in a time of austerity in Thursday remarks at the EAST: Joint Warfighting 2013 symposium in Virginia Beach, Va.

Work said the greatest threat to U.S. security would be not taking advantage of the current drawdown in resources to create a force structure that makes sense for security threats. The second greatest threat was the current climate of political indecision in Washington. Read More →

cocom_map

GAO: Cost of COCOM Staffs Doubled in Five Years

cocom_mapThe following is an excert from the executive summary of a May Government Accountability Office report on support personnel to the Department of Defense’s Unified Combatant Commands:

GAO’s analysis of resources devoted to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) geographic combatant commands shows that authorized military and civilian positions and mission and headquarters-support costs have grown considerably over the last decade due to the addition of two new commands and increases in authorized positions at theater special operations commands. Data provided by the commands shows that authorized military and civilian positions increased by about 50 percent from fiscal years 2001 through 2012, to about 10,100 authorized positions. In addition, mission and headquarters support-costs at the combatant commands more than doubled from fiscal years 2007 through 2012, to about $1.1 billion. Read More →

rank Kendall, the under secretary of defense, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics in 2012.

East: Pentagon Acquisition Chief Sees Tough Year Ahead

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rank Kendall, the under secretary of defense, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics in 2012.

rank Kendall, the under secretary of defense, Acquisition, Technology and Logistics in 2012.

The Pentagon’s top acquisition official apologized he “didn’t have better news” in discussing the Department of Defense’s fiscal outlook during his keynote address on Tuesday at the EAST: Joint Warfighting 2013 symposium in Virginia Beach, Va.

Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics warned the Department of Defense might have to again operate under a Continuing Resolution rather than a budget for Fiscal Year 2014.

“It’s starting to make me nervous,” he said. Read More →

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 →

marine_women

Pentagon: 6,000 New Military Jobs for Women

The following is an April, 11 2013 notification to Congress from the Pentagon from Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Jessica Wright. The notifications outlines more than 6,000 positionsin the U.S. Army and Marine Corps, including postions with 160th “Night Stalkers,” Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), U.S. Marine Corps Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Companies (ANGLICO) and positions in Army Brigade Combat Teams. Read More →

DoD Photo

CBO Report on DoD Reductions

From the March Congressional Budget Office report on Pentagon spending cuts: In 2013, the Department of Defense (DoD) faces an 11 percent reduction (after adjusting for inflation) in its base budget from the amount it received in 2012. (The base budget funds the department’s normal activi- ties but excludes overseas military operations like those in Afghanistan.) Under current law, the department’s bud- gets will increase by a cumulative total of 2 percent more than inflation between 2013 and 2021, still well below its funding in 2012 in real (inflation-adjusted) terms. Those limits are mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), which capped annual funding for defense and nondefense agencies during that period. Read More →

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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U.S. Navy photo

‘Never Forget’

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Proceedings, September 2011
A decade later, a former naval officer recalls the day he was working in the Pentagon when his life—and those of all Americans—changed forever.

The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 were the defining moments for our generation, a shockwave start to a turbulent decade. How best to mark that fateful day, and the ten years since?

Simple. Never forget.

U.S. Navy photo

U.S. Navy photo

While the memories of my 9/11 experiences are extreme, I believe our collective experiences from that day are relative and had as much impact on those who witnessed the attacks on television as they had on those of us who were in their fiery midst. What I mean by that is the event transformed us all, no matter our vantage. Wherever we were, our memories of that day cannot—should not—fade.

So let us first remember the day itself. It was a beautiful morning, to be sure. At least that’s how it started out.

It was nearly 0630, and I was commuting to the Pentagon. I recall my mind wandering back and forth from the pending work at hand and an upcoming family fishing trip. I missed my wife, an active-duty Navy lieutenant like myself; she was out of town on an assignment. I had been working for the Chief of Naval Operations staff for almost 13 months, busy with the rigors of being a very junior action officer with responsibility concerning naval strategy and warfighting concepts.

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