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U.S. Transportation Command uses a lot of civilian businesses, but are their networks harming national security?
The Strategic Capabilities Office is one of the most lauded organizations in the Defense Department. The office is famous for taking military systems that do one thing and make them do something completely different. Its leader says his office doesn’t have to worry about acquisition requirements like the rest of the Pentagon establishment. Federal News Radio’s Scott Maucione fills in all the details on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.
The Air Force's problem lies not in pilot recruitment, but rather retention. Meanwhile, the major airlines are enjoying a financial boom.
When the hiring freeze started there were about 8,500 vacancies across the Air Force and the service was taking on about 1,300 each month.
The Navy is in the midst of a revamp of its Innovation Cell, the project it launched two years ago with the objective of speeding new technology through the acquisition process in under a year while living completely within the government’s existing acquisition policies.
The Air Force alone is dealing with a shortage of more than 600 pilots. The service is having trouble competing with airlines that can pay pilots more.
The Defense Department also weighed in with some Medal of Honor stories, including that of the only female recipient, a doctor in the Civil War.
Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discusses what a 10 percent increase in defense funding would actually buy.
Retired Gen. Keith Alexander, the former head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, told House Homeland Security Committee members they should go further than just creating a new cyber agency within DHS.
DoD analysts and former officials are recommending direct hiring and pay authority over civilian Pentagon workers.
According to the Government Accountability Office, Defense Department's planning to improve asset management don’t include adequate performance measures. That’s one reason DoD supply chain management is still on GAO’s High Risk List. Zina Merritt is director of Defense capability and management issues at GAO, told Federal Drive with Tom Temin about DoD’s ongoing asset visibility problems.
A new Bipartisan Policy Center report on military personnel reform wants to put more of the TRICARE cost burden on retirees. The organization’s most recent report on the issue stated DoD spent $52 billion in health care for service members, retirees and their families in 2012.
Three top Air Force generals told Congress that manpower issues were the greatest challenge to the organization’s readiness. While specific concerns varied between the USAF, the Reserves and the Air National Guard, each agreed that recruiting and retention is their top priority.
Top officials in two military branches say a yearlong continuing resolution would stop civilian hiring and flying hours.