Defense

  • The Department of Defense has announced the death today of a local female soldier who was supporting the war in Afghanistan. Army Staff Sgt. Jessica M. Wing, 42, of Alexandria, Va., died Monday Aug. 27, in Kuwait City, Kuwait in a non-combat related incident. She was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 126th Aviation Regiment, Bangor, Maine. No other details on the cause of death are available at this time.

    August 30, 2012
  • The Air Force is looking for fresh ways to attack enemies in cyberspace, specifically to destroy, deceive or corrupt their networks.

    August 30, 2012
  • Army General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, toured the venue and visited with athletes. Dempsey was accompanied by Kareem Dale, special assistant to President Barack Obama for disability policy.

    August 30, 2012
  • The Republican Party platform criticized President Barack Obama for not doing enough to avert automatic budget cuts set to hit the Defense Department in January. The plan, which was unveiled Tuesday, also called for greater public-private collaboration on cybersecurity and recommended an overhaul of the Veterans Affairs Department.

    August 29, 2012
  • DoD's path to a networking environment that serves the entire military with a single set of standards will start with the premise that 60-80 percent technology solutions are good enough for now. Pentagon wants to start with commercial technologies that can evolve in capability over time.

    August 29, 2012
  • The Marine Corps commandant says there may be some anxiety from male Marines as female officers work their way into infantry and other combat jobs that historically have been open only to men. The Associate Press reports Gen. James F. Amos told a National Press Club audience Tuesday that early steps have been successful, but some of the harder tests are yet to come. Two female Marine officers have volunteered to attend the grueling infantry officer school at the Marine Corps' Quantico, Va., base next month as military officials gauge whether women can handle the course's extreme physical and mental challenges.

    August 29, 2012
  • The conservative group Judicial Watch has published documents it got from the Pentagon and the CIA through a Freedom of Information Act request.

    August 29, 2012
  • The Veterans Affairs Department wants a contractor to review the agency's conference planning and conference acquisition policies, according to a request for information. The solicitation comes weeks after revelations that VA had spent $5 million two conferences last year.

    August 28, 2012
  • There are reports from Pakistan that the U.S. government is seeking some kind of truce with the Haqqani network. But the U.S. military denies there's any truth to it. Pakistan's Express tribune reports a "Senior American military official says the US would hand over the control of three Afghan provinces to the Haqqanis if they agreed to withdraw their support for the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan." This comes just days after the US allegedly killed Badruddin Haqanni in a drone strike. Brig. Gen. Stephen Twitty, a spokesman for United States Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement, "Assertions made in an article today in The Express Tribune that the United States is willing to cede Afghan territory as part of a rapprochement with the Haqqani network and that the U.S. sees the Haqqani Network playing an '...important role in the future political dispensation of Afghanistan,' are categorically false."

    August 28, 2012
  • Four Army soldiers have been charged with plotting anti-government attacks, including assassinating President Barack Obama.

    August 28, 2012
  • The Army will keep using the Army Physical Fitness Test to gauge readiness until a study into new methods is completed, the service announced. In 2011, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command introduced a new test to more than 10,000 soldiers to measure Warrior Task and Battle Drill readiness. However, until that study is fully concluded, TRADOC command said "longstanding and proven" systems of physical fitness will continue to be the standard.

    August 27, 2012
  • The Navy says a Virginia-based sailor has become the first black woman to earn a three-star-rank in the U.S. armed forces. Vice Adm. Michelle Janine Howard was promoted to deputy commander of U.S. Fleet Forces command in Norfolk on Friday. She's no stranger to making history. Howard was also the first black woman to command a U.S. Navy warship, the first female graduate of the Naval Academy to achieve the rank of rear admiral and the first black woman to command an expeditionary strike group at sea.

    August 27, 2012
  • A proposed rule would make contractors responsible for securing networks that store any type of government information. It defines key terms like information and "information system."

    August 27, 2012
  • The ships are supposed to be able to sail in shallow water and ward off various threats from submarines to pirates.

    August 27, 2012