Defense
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The Navy tried to ensure it properly addressed industry concerns as it developed its final solicitation for the $5.4 billion network contract. Some comments involved cost-reduction. Others related to fairness in competition.
May 21, 2012 -
Retired Air Force Gen. Lester Lyles said new legislation calling for diversity benchmarks in the military would codify the recommendations of the commission he led in 2011 and would make for a better armed forces.
May 21, 2012 -
Military bases tend to follow suburbia when it comes to development. While sprawl was in, it's now out of the latest Defense Department planning guidelines.
May 21, 2012 -
The Navy's top man in Europe said cyber is the threat that keeps him up at night.
May 21, 2012 -
During the last Defense drawdown, Congress and the White House pushed the Pentagon to make smarter buying decisions in the hopes that it would save a lot of money. The idea was to have the military buy many products the same way businesses do. A decade and a half later, DoD now spends tens of billions of dollars a year under the commercialized models Congress set up. In a two-part, exclusive report, Federal News Radio examines the debate underway over how well it has worked out.
May 21, 2012 -
Donjette Gilmore, director of Accounting and Finance Policy at the Under Secretary of Defense, joins host Derrick Dortch to talk about the inner financial workings at DoD. May 18, 2012
May 18, 2012 -
The U.N. Security Council on Friday imposed a travel ban on five leaders of an April 12 military coup in Guinea-Bissau and threatened an arms embargo and financial sanctions if the tiny West African coastal state does not return to civilian rule. The 15-member council "demands that the Military Command takes immediate steps to restore and respect constitutional order, including a democratic electoral process, by ensuring that all soldiers return to the barracks, and that members of the 'Military Command' relinquish their positions of authority."
May 18, 2012 -
House Republicans thwarted a plan by a few Democrats to cancel weapons programs. The moves and counter-moves came during debate on the 2013 Defense Authorization bill.
May 18, 2012 -
The U.S. military is going to give Israel an additional $70 million in the coming months for its short-range rocket shield, known as the "Iron Dome." The news came after U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met with his Israeli Ehud Barak counterpart on Thursday. So far, the United States has provided $205 million to support the Iron Dome, manufactured by Israel's state-owned Raphael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. The system uses small radar-guided missiles to blow up in midair Katyusha-style rockets with ranges of 5 km (3 miles) to 70 km (45 miles), as well as mortar bombs.
May 17, 2012 -
The Missile Defense Agency says a Raytheon Standard Missile-3 Block 1B interceptor successfully shot down a ballistic missile target during a flight test in Kauai, Hawaii. It was the missile system's 20th successful intercept, but the first for its newest, evolved variant, which will enable the defeat of sophisticated threats around the world. Essential to the Obama administration's phase two of the Phased Adaptive Approach to long-term missile defense in Europe, the SM-3 Block 1B will be deployed ashore and at sea on Navy cruisers and destroyers.
May 17, 2012 -
Germany may become one of the first nations to integrate Raytheon's Standard Missile-3 onto its naval vessels according to the German Chief of Naval Operations, Axel Schimpf. Though the German government has not made a decision on whether to adapt its fleet of frigates for ballistic missile defense, the enhancements would allow Germany to participate in the Obama administration's European Phased Adaptive Approach embraced by NATO. "Depending on the political decision and funding, the German Navy stands ready to provide sea-based capabilities," Schimpf said.
May 17, 2012 -
As cybersecurity-specific bills stall in Congress, Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I) has suggested amending the defense bill to get the biggest cyber initiatives passed.
May 17, 2012 -
Two senators have introduced a bill that they said addresses concerns raised by a recent Defense report.
May 17, 2012 -
A job-assistance program for veterans is taking its show on the road.
May 17, 2012 -
Army leaders say a combat brigade will be assigned to the Pentagon's Africa Command next year in a pilot program that will send small teams of soldiers to countries around the continent to do training and participate in military exercises. The Associated Press reports, Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army's chief of staff, says the plan is part of a new effort to provide U.S. commanders around the globe with troops on a rotational basis to meet the military needs of their regions.
May 17, 2012