Defense
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Gordon Heddel of Booz Allen Hamilton talks about the challenges of creating a smarter but not bigger government. Aaron Miller of the Wilson Center discusses the hurdles awaiting new Secretary of State John Kerry. Bloomberg Government's Rob Barnett talks about President Obama's environmental policy. John Mahoney of Tully Rinckey says furloughed feds won't lose their rights.
February 18, 2013 -
As the Navy scours its IT systems to determine exactly what it owns, it's discovered it operates double the data centers and tens of thousands of servers and applications more than it previously thought. The findings come more than a decade after the Navy implemented its Navy-Marine Corps Intranet, which was supposed to reduce the number of disparate systems run by the agency and eliminate stovepipes. All told, Navy's IT budget could be as much as $4 billion more than it initially thought.
February 18, 2013 -
Roger Baker, VA's assistant secretary in the Office of Information and Technology, helped improve the agency's management of IT projects, implement mobile devices and continued to address cybersecurity.
February 15, 2013 -
The Afghan army is breaking new ground. It's training female special forces to take part in night raids against insurgents. Night raids have long been a divisive issue between Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who doesn't want foreign troops entering Afghan homes, and the U.S.-led coalition that says the raids are essential to capturing Taliban commanders.
February 15, 2013 -
James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, tells Federal News Radio he's concerned about the effects of sequestration on the intelligence community.
February 15, 2013 -
GAO adds two new areas to the list, NOAA's satellite programs and the federal government's financial risk because of climate change. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro said nearly every initiative on the list made progress in fixing their problems over the last two years.
February 15, 2013 -
The Department of Veterans Affairs' work to automate payments under the complicated Post-9/11 GI bill is coming to fruition. But schools and students complain about inability to track status of claims.
February 15, 2013 -
Bill Lynn, former deputy secretary of Defense and now chief executive officer of DRS Technologies, joins Pentagon Solutions with Francis Rose to discuss how the Pentagon has prepared for the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts.
February 14, 2013 -
In this week's edition of On DoD, Lt. Gen. Bill Phillips, the military deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology, talked with Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu about the Army's concern about automatic budget cuts, and the service's recently-unveiled 30-year modernization strategy.
February 13, 2013 -
Former Senator Chuck Hagel has been approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee to be the nation's defense secretary. His nomination has been sent to the full Senate where the Democrats, hold a 55-45 edge. More than a dozen Republicans oppose the nomination, and the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, is insisting that any confirmation be based on 60 votes rather than a majority of the Senate.
February 13, 2013 -
Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) talks about his plans as the new chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Greg Kutz of TIGTA discusses new progress being made by the IRS in recruitment and hiring. Jennifer Martinez, staff writer at The Hill newspaper, discusses the new Executive Order on cybersecurity. Don Kettl of the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy offers insight on the State of the Union speech.
February 13, 2013 -
Among the warnings the military's top uniformed officers delivered to the Senate Tuesday: Half of Marine Corps units will fall below readiness standards by the end of the year, the Army will have to curtail training for 80 percent of its ground forces and shipyards are already becoming short-staffed because of DoD's hiring freeze.
February 13, 2013 -
Senior administration officials say the Executive Order is not a replacement for comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, but the start of a new conversation for how best to protect the nation's critical infrastructure. NIST released an RFI Tuesday as part of its effort to create a voluntary, flexible framework. And DHS will expand the number of companies the government shares classified and unclassified cyber threat information with through the Defense Industrial Base pilot.
February 13, 2013 -
As sequestration draws nearer, contractor groups have pointed to alarming studies that show the 9 percent in across-the-board Defense cuts would throw at least 1 million people out of work and potentially cripple the defense and aerospace industries. But in a new report, the Center for International Policy, a nonprofit group which advocates reducing military spending, presented evidence that far fewer defense-sector jobs would be lost than industry has claimed and that defense companies would likely be able to absorb the defense cuts.
February 12, 2013 -
The head of Guinea's armed forces, was killed on Monday in a plane crash near the Liberian capital Monrovia. Investigators and United Nations peacekeepers found the wreckage in a grove of palm trees near Charlesville, about 25 miles southeast of the Liberian capital Monrovia. There were no survivors. General Souleymane Kelefa Diallo, who was on a security mission to Liberia.
February 12, 2013