National & World Headlines

• Obama nominates McKinsey consultant as deputy director for management

  If confirmed by the Senate, Beth Cobert would become the DDM and lead the second term management agenda. Obama nominated deputy secretaries at VA and Education, and senior officials at the Navy and State.

  Defense

  September 10, 2013
• Navy turns to online gaming to develop acquisition strategies

  On this week's edition of Agency of the Month, Nick Guertin, the Navy's director of Transformation in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, joins host Sean McCalley to discuss how online gaming is helping the Navy with its acquisition strategies.

  Defense

  September 10, 2013
• Intel Community offers first glimpse of future IT tools, network

  The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said the lead agencies under the IC IT Enterprise program launched a standard desktop, a secure community cloud and an apps store in mid-August. Al Tarasiuk, the assistant DNI and intelligence community chief information officer, said the key to this effort was having an ICwide agreed-upon security architecture and policies.

  Defense

  September 10, 2013
• How much would a strike on Syria cost?

  Tens of millions of dollars. That's what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel tells lawmakers a limited military strike in Syria would cost. It opens a window into how far or not the U.S. government could go in launching a strike. Tomahawk missiles are quite often the leading edge of military strikes in situations like these. Tomahawk cost more than $1 million apiece and radar-evading B-2 bombers which might another component cost approximately $60,000 an hour to operate.

  Defense

  September 09, 2013
• Asian defense leaders weigh in on U.S. rebalance

  So how do Asian military leaders feel about the U.S. rebalance to Asia? American Forces Press Service reports, they welcomed it. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spent nine days in the region recently and visited Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines during that time. He also participated in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations defense ministers conference in Brunei. Acting assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs Peter R. Lavoy.

  Defense

  September 06, 2013
• Replica Flying Fortress offers peek into WWII history

  Federal Drive's Tom Temin lives a life-long dream as he soars above the Maryland countryside in a B-17 bomber. The aircraft, operated by the Liberty Foundation, is one of the few such bombers still flying.

  Defense

  September 05, 2013
• For 2013, CFC focusing on the people behind the money

  Federal employees can start donating to the more than 4,000 charities under the Combined Federal Campaign. One of the goals of the CFC is to increase the number of people giving to charities, not just reaching a dollar threshold.

  Congress

  September 05, 2013
• Syria not the only chemical weapons concern

  The US military is focused on Syria right now, but there are other areas where chemical weapons are of great concern. "I've just returned from Asia, where I had a very serious and long conversation with South Korea's defense minister about the threat that North Korea's stockpile of chemical weapons presents to them," said Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. Referring to Syria's situation, he said the US must demonstrate through its actions that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable.

  Defense

  September 05, 2013
• DoD research, acquisition face double whammy from sequestration

  Like everything else, the Pentagon expects to cut procurement and research spending under a second year of sequestration. But DoD's acquisition chief said modernization programs will be a bill-payer for other areas of spending that are harder to reduce quickly.

  Budget

  September 05, 2013
• Cropsey calls ‘Mayday’ on Navy’s declining supremacy

  Seth Cropsey, the former Deputy Undersecretary of the Navy and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, talks about the basics of the Navy's struggles.

  Federal Drive

  September 04, 2013
• Navy tackles suicides, sex assaults head on

  On this week's edition of Agency of the Month, Navy Rear Admiral Sean Buck, director of the 21st Century Sailor Office, joins host Sean McCalley to discuss the prevention of sexual assaults and suicides within the Defense Department.

  Defense

  September 04, 2013
• Senate debating Syria decision

  What's the U.S. going to do about the use of chemical weapons in Syria? Our military objective in Syria would be to hold the Assad regime accountable, degrade its ability to carry out these kinds of attacks, and deter the regime from further use of chemical weapons," said Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. He told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday," the Department of Defense has developed military options to achieve these objectives, and we have positioned U.S. assets throughout the region to successfully execute this mission."

  Defense

  September 04, 2013
• DISA embraces new role as DoD’s sole provider of big data centers

  The Defense Information Systems Agency believes it can save the military services big bucks on data storage, processing and communications by becoming a one-stop-shop for IT in the continental U.S. Under a new Pentagon plan, it's the military's only provider for large data centers.

  Defense

  September 04, 2013
• The healthcare claims process

  Tom Romeo, president of MAXIMUS Federal explains how the appeals process works when a healthcare claim is rejected. September 3, 2013

  Federal Tech Talk

  September 04, 2013