Defense

  • Active-duty and reserve soldiers with between 15 and 20 years of service could be eligible for early retirement, the Army announced this week. The service is offering temporary early retirement authority (TERA) to military officers who have not been selected to move on to the next grade as well as noncommissioned officers identified by selection boards for involuntary separation. The service aims to shed 80,000 soldiers from its active component by the end of 2017.

    October 17, 2012
  • The Defense Information Systems Agency sees itself as a safety valve for increasing pressure on military services' IT budgets. At a meeting of CIOs last week, DISA told the military services they could offload commodity IT services to their data centers.

    October 17, 2012
  • Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Darrel Issa (R-Calif.), wrote to the heads of 10 defense companies seeking information about the legal justification for not issuing notices of potential layoffs due to the across-the-board defense cuts set to go into effect Jan. 2. If contractors don't issue the notices and contracts are, in fact, terminated or modified, then agencies will pick up the contract-termination and employee compensation costs, the Office of Management and Budget stated in guidance issued late last month. But Republican lawmakers have argued the White House doesn't have the legal authority to ask companies to not comply with the law.

    October 12, 2012
  • Current definitions of cyberspace have led to confusion about roles, responsibilities, lanes in the road, a top Air Force general said Thursday. Senior leaders will convene a summit in November to zero-in on a common understanding of cyber.

    October 12, 2012
  • If your bathroom at work is only cleaned three times a week, instead of daily, does that constitute cruel and unusual punishment? Shore-based Navy civilian and military personnel are about to find out, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.

    October 12, 2012
  • Rudy Mazariegos, ARL's acting chief information officer, said he's implementing the ITIL framework to help bring more discipline to the organization's processes. October 4, 2012

    October 04, 2012
  • Former astronaut and Lockheed executive Rick Hieb describes the logistics involved in supporting missions in Antarctica. And a former State Department official the security situation at the consulate in Libya.

    October 04, 2012
  • As service transitions to Air Force and DoD enterprise IT models, defining what technology services should be shared is still on the to-do list. The service's AFNet program is the umbrella effort to centrally-manage many commodity IT functions.

    October 04, 2012
  • A massive contract awarded to Lockheed Martin in June to manage the Defense Information Systems Agency's Global Information Grid remains in place after the Government Accountability Office denied a bid protest from fellow contractor SAIC. Despite SAIC's allegations, GAO found DISA had reasonably evaluated Lockheed's proposal as well as claims of an organization conflict of interest.

    October 02, 2012
  • As of Monday, active-duty members of the Army, Navy and Air Force can now participate in the Roth Thrift Savings Plan option.

    October 02, 2012
  • Lockheed Martin will not issue layoff notices — known as Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices — if the automatic, across-the-board cuts known as sequestration take effect Jan. 2.

    October 02, 2012
  • Sarkis Tatigian enlisted in the Navy as a 17-year-old sailor in 1942. After the war, he continued his service to the department in various jobs in and out of uniform. Now, he is being recognized for his seven decades of dedication to the Navy.

    September 27, 2012
  • Officials held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday for the new Defense Health Headquarters in Virginia.

    September 19, 2012
  • Military's cyber leaders say job satisfaction has so far trumped salary concerns when it comes to building and retaining a workforce of elite cyber warriors. Building the capacity of that training pipeline is the next challenge.

    September 19, 2012

On DoD

On DoD

WEDNESDAYS, 11 A.M. & 2 P.M.

Each week, Defense Reporter Jared Serbu speaks with the managers of the federal government's largest department. Subscribe on PodcastOne or Apple Podcasts.