Defense

  • Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told The Federal Drive with Tom Temin and Emily Kopp that a large number of lawmakers from both parties support a plan that raises more revenues and recognizes that entitlement programs have got to be made viable over the long term.

    November 19, 2012
  • The military says it doesn't appear a failure of an F-22 fighter's oxygen system caused the $190 million jet to crash in Florida. The Associated Press is reporting, that Air Force Col. David Graff said in a statement Friday that an initial review of Thursday afternoon's crash found the life system did not play a role. The pilot ejected safely before the stealth fighter jet went down in a wooded area of Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle near Panama City. No one on the ground was injured. In 2008, F-22 pilots began reporting high altitude-like problems, forcing the Air Force to acknowledge concerns about the jet's oxygen supply system.

    November 19, 2012
  • Gen. Joseph Dunford, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, President Barack Obama's choice to be the top commander in Afghanistan said he envisions a U.S. presence in the country after American combat forces leave at the end of 2014. The Associated Press reports, "He also said the two main missions would be counterterrorism and assisting and advising Afghan security forces. Pressed on the size of the residual force, Dunford declined to provide specifics but did say 1,000 troops would be insufficient."

    November 16, 2012
  • Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg explains why his agency had a banner year, with a record number of transactions in fiscal 2012. And a professor at the Wharton School describes how private insurance companies are making money off the National Flood Insurance Program — but taxpayers are likely to pick up the slack when claims surpass premiums.

    November 16, 2012
  • A new gallery at the National Guard Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., opens Monday to commemorate the role of the National Guard since 9/11.

    November 16, 2012
  • A new report, called the Department of Everything, says DoD spending over the next 10 years will total almost $68 billion on non- military goods and services. Some recent examples include a smartphone app to help military members manage their caffeine intake and the sponsorship of a workshop by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency called the 100 Year Starship project, which included a session called, "Did Jesus die for Klingons too?"

    November 16, 2012
  • Citing a string of ethical lapses by senior military officers, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to review ethics training and to brainstorm on ways to steer officers away from trouble. The move is a reflection of the depth of concern triggered by a series of misconduct cases in a military that prides itself on integrity and honor but has suffered an unusual number of stumbles after a decade of war.

    November 15, 2012
  • Jennifer Norris, a victim advocate at the Military Rape Crisis Center in Maine, said the Air Force report released Wednesday investigating the widespread scandal at Lackland Air Base made recommendations but didn't address the military culture that allowed the sexual assaults to occur.

    November 15, 2012
  • The U.S. military says it will station an advanced radar in Australia to help track space junk threatening satellites and is working toward placement of a new, state-of-the-art deep-space telescope developed by the Pentagon's advanced research arm DARPA. Reuters is reporting, "The positioning of the advanced military equipment is another sign of deepening U.S. military ties with Australia and America's widely touted "pivot" to Asia. It follows an agreement last year for a rotating training presence of up to 2,500 Marines in Australia's northern tropical city of Darwin."

    November 15, 2012
  • The Pentagon releases Better Buying Power 2.0 with a new focus on professionalizing the procurement workforce. The updated program includes seven major focus areas with 36 initiatives. Ashton Carter, the deputy secretary of Defense, said version 2.0 takes the lessons learned and data from the last two years to further improve efficiency and cost savings of DoD procurement.

    November 14, 2012
  • Federal News Radio Executive Editor Jason Miller live-tweeted the remarks from Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall who unveiled the new acquisition strategy.

    November 13, 2012
  • The Department of Veterans Affairs awarded a five- year, $36 million contract to HP Enterprise Services to move 600,000 VA users to the cloud for email and calendar use.

    November 13, 2012
  • Has the CIA been using Benghazi as a base to detain Libyans? An allegation that came to light during a speech by Paul Broadwell, who had an affair with now former CIA director David Petraeus. A CIA spokesperson says, "The CIA has not had detention authority since January 2009, when Executive Order 13491 was issued. Any suggestion that the Agency is still in the detention business is uninformed and baseless."

    November 13, 2012
  • The Pentagon's Office of the Chief of Public Affairs is training the military's social media practitioners how to get information out quickly, securely and, most importantly, accurately during emergencies like the recent superstorm that hit the East Coast.

    November 13, 2012