Defense

  • Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called Japanese Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka to discuss developments related to North Korea's announcement that it plans to conduct a missile launch in mid-April. The Pentagon says both reiterated their view that such a missile launch would directly violate North Korea's international obligations and UN Security Council Resolutions. Both leaders agreed to continue close contact leading up to and following a potential missile launch.

    April 04, 2012
  • U.S. Special Forces Command awarded two big contracts to Arma Global Corporation and Thales Communications.

    April 04, 2012
  • Navy officials cut the ribbon on the$11.2 million Naval Operational Support Center Phoenix at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Ariz. on March 30.

    April 03, 2012
  • Lockheed Martin and Austal are currently building 55 Littoral Combat Ships for the Navy. Kevin Brancato, a defense analyst for BGov and author of the report, "'Real Competition' for The Littoral Combat Ship," discusses how the Navy's competition between the two contractors may serve as a model for future acquisitions.

    April 03, 2012
  • The Office of Personnel Management recently reminded federal agencies that the White House has \"zero tolerance\" for discriminating against veterans in hiring and promotions. But the federal government is still one of the biggest offenders. Patrick Boulay from the Office of Special Counsel told the Federal Drive about a new pilot program aimed at streamlining the complaint process for veterans in the federal government.

    April 03, 2012
  • The Naval Sea Systems Command—the division of the Navy responsible for the building, purchase and maintenance of ships—has won an award for its year-long program for new hires, which offers seminars, etiquette training and even tours of submarines. Emily Grauwiler, the manager of the program, told Federal News Radio that onboarding is about more than just getting a manual and a desk.

    April 03, 2012
  • Argentina\'s president has asked the International Red Cross to persuade Britain to let its DNA experts identify unknown soldiers buried in the Falkland Islands. Thirty years after Argentina and Britain went to war over the remote South Atlantic archipelago, Cristina Fernandez says universal human rights demand that both countries work together to give those remains back to their families. Her remarks came in a speech on the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War.

    April 03, 2012
  • Federal News Radio\'s Jared Serbu tagged along for a tour of the Navy\'s new Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research, where robots get to interact with the real world without going outside the Beltway.

    April 03, 2012
  • A group calling itself \"Lulzsec Reborn\" claims to have hacked into the private information of 170,000 members of a military dating website. However, the owner of the website disputed the claim, since the dating service has only 140,000 members.

    April 02, 2012
  • The Air Force is hoping that its USA Staffing Onboarding Manager tool can help it slash the time it takes to hire civilians.

    April 02, 2012
  • Agencies have to meet a series of milestones starting in June to eventually migrate two commodity IT functions to shared services or strategic sourcing contracts. VA, GSA, Interior and Patent and Trademark Office have tested the concept of managing by portfolios as well as vendor management organizations.

    April 02, 2012
  • The latest plan is to build nine ships a year for the next three decades — and then renovate the others, the Navy Times reports.

    March 30, 2012
  • The U.S. military is watching Mali very carefully. Five African presidents seeking to restore Mali\'s elected government are now meeting in Ivory Coast, after the planes carrying the heads of state to Bamako were forced to turn around because demonstrators supporting the military junta took over the tarmac, officials said. The presidents of Ivory Coast, Benin, Liberia, Niger and Burkina Faso were due to arrive in Mali on Thursday to press for the departure of the junior officers that grabbed power in a coup last week, reversing over two decades of democratic rule.

    March 30, 2012
  • Sequestration would kill hundreds of thousands of defense industry jobs, the Pentagon warns. Frank Kendall told senators during his nomination hearing to be the DoD acquisition chief that personnel accounts would be shielded so lower-tiered contractors would feel the brunt of cuts.

    March 30, 2012