Defense
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Over five years, Air Force has beat the independent cost estimates in its acquisition programs by a collective $2 billion, according to the service's assistant secretary for acquisition. Some of the savings have been returned to the Air Force's top line, but acquisition managers have been allowed to plow some of the money back into their own programs.
February 18, 2015 -
Air Force works to manage on-base utility costs through advanced metering initiative and privatization of aging infrastructure.
February 17, 2015 -
A task force assigned to take a holistic view of the Navy's cybersecurity posture catalogues security holes across the Navy enterprise, and concludes that plugging each one would cost an absurd amount of money.
February 16, 2015 -
The SES has lost its luster in recent years, in part because of constrained program budgets, increased scrutiny from Congress, and a sense among members that political appointees are assuming more of the leadership responsibilities once reserved for them. In part two of our special report, Fixing the SES, five Senior Executive Service members tell Federal News Radio why they choose to stay in the service, and why they believe the SES may have its faults, but it's not broken.
February 16, 2015 -
The Department of the Navy is taking a more corporate approach to meeting the ever-changing mission needs with technology, said Maura Sullivan, the Department of Navy's chief of strategy and innovation.
February 13, 2015 -
The USS Kauffman is now the last of its breed. The 453-foot Navy ship is on a six-month deployment that marks the final mission for any Navy frigate. All the rest have been decommissioned. Kauffmann will follow suit when it returns from Central America in September. Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, the Navy's director of Surface Warfare, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to explain the rationale behind the decommissioning, the policy behind it and how the Navy intends to replace the frigates.
February 13, 2015 -
The Air Force is campaigning to get rid of the A-10 aircraft program. But the numbers it's using to justify killing the A-10 aren't the real numbers, according to Mandy Smithberger. She's director of the CDI Straus Military Reform Project for the Project on Government Oversight. On In Depth with Francis Rose, she expained why that is.
February 12, 2015 -
A Navy scientist won the 2014 NATO Science and Technology Organization's Scientific Achievement Award. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to aerospace science and technology or aerospace systems applications. The winner was Steve Anderson, a Principal Scientist with the Naval Surface Warfare Center. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to detail how he won.
February 09, 2015 -
As part of a major public health campaign called the "performance triad" the Army wants its soldiers to have healthy exercise, nutrition and sleep routines.
February 09, 2015 -
The Army is revisiting its approach to mission command and leaning on improved IT networks as one way to make its forces more flexible.
February 06, 2015 -
The Army's budget request details a branch in transition, from both a military and financial perspective.
February 05, 2015 -
The Navy highlighted several of these applied research technologies at the conference, including the rail gun, the shipboard autonomous firefighting robot (SAFFiR), an autonomous swarmboat, and an autonomous flying wing underwater glider.
February 05, 2015 -
The Office of Naval Research has an update to its strategic plan and a new chief to help to put those priorities in place. Rear Adm. Mat Winter, the new chief of Naval Research, has been on the job for about four weeks. Federal News Radio's Lauren Larson spoke to the new ONR chief at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology expo. He tells her what ONR looks for when updating its strategic plan.
February 04, 2015 -
The Navy has a powerful software system that dramatically reduces the time it takes to plan safe submarine missions. That same software recently made its way above the surface and was installed on the guided missile cruiser, USS Mobile Bay. Dr. Kip Krebs, program officer in the Office of Naval Research's Warfighter Performance Department, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more on the app's uses.
January 30, 2015 -
The Air Force's decision comes after the Veterans Affairs IG found alleged procurement fraud, intimidation and threats against a federal official. FedBid says it's cooperating with the Air Force and believes it took the necessary steps to fix the problems.
January 28, 2015
