Defense Department
-
He vows, "We will not do more with less. Those days are over." With the shadow of shutdown looming, the Commandant gave his State of the Coast Guard address this week. He said aging platforms and crumbling infrastructure threaten mission success. He also vowed to take decisive action to alleviate the strain. Adm. Paul Zukunft is the 25th Commandant of the Coast Guard, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to review the state of the Coast Guard.
February 27, 2015 -
Defense technology officials told House lawmakers that progress toward a Joint Information Environment would be delayed by two-to-three years if budget caps remain in place.
February 27, 2015 -
The Defense Department's top IT leaders tell Congress sequestration would set back DoD's plans to modernize its networks by two to three years. That would impact everything from cybersecurity upgrades to day-to-day training activities. Federal News Radio DoD Reporter Jared Serbu has the details.
February 26, 2015 -
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said he's open to considering changes to the retirement plans for members of the military. The military compensation and retirement modernization commission has submitted its recommendations to the the secretary's office. Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Jack Klimp is president and CEO of the National Association for Uniformed Services. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said the commission's work may be a good starting point for the discussion.
February 26, 2015 -
The Defense Business Board said the Pentagon can reduce its spending by $125 billion by getting rid of contracts, offering early retirements and modernizing its business operations. The Board is looking specifically at large commercial firms like Lockheed Martin and Pepsi Co. as inspiration for how to modernize DoD's business portfolio. Steve Grundman is M.A. and George Lund Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and former DoD assistant secretary for industrial affairs and installations. On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said the Pentagon should be wary of following examples from those large firms.
February 26, 2015 -
Cyber challenges are more prevalent than ever. That's driving the need for more people with the professional skills necessary to prevent and mitigate attacks. To that end, the Army Reserve has launched a new partnership to build its network of cyber warriors. The program is designed to train soldiers in cyber warfare — for both the Reserve and private sector employers. Lt. Col. Scott Nelson is the Army Reserve's Cyber P3 Program Manager. He joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin with more on how it all works.
February 26, 2015 -
Some members of Congress propose relying on special operations forces more as defense budgets shrink. But there is a reason special ops is called "special." Steve Bucci is director of the Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign and National Security Policy at the Heritage Foundation, former assistant deputy secretary of defense, and a retired Army Special Forces officer. He's one of the contributors to the new 2015 Index of U.S. Military Strength just out from the Heritage Foundation. His piece is titled "The Importance of Special Operations Forces Today and Going Forward." His piece includes five truths about special forces, and on In Depth with Francis Rose, he said he didn't make them up.
February 25, 2015 -
Chairman John McCain of the Senate Armed Services Committee says the Pentagon doesn't have a sequestration problem. Instead it has a spending problem. Bill Hartung is director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy and author of the report "Promising the Sky: Pork Barrell Politics and the F-35." On In Depth with Francis Rose, he said the F-35 program is the perfect starting point for defense acquisition reform.
February 25, 2015 -
The new Cyber Threat Intelligence Center will become the government's focal point for collecting and analyzing all it knows about current cyber threats. But the Homeland Security Department sees the CTIC as serving two more purposes: integrating cyber threat data with intelligence sources from the physical world and declassifying it so it can be shared outside the intelligence community. Federal News Radio DoD Reporter Jared Serbu has the story.
February 24, 2015 -
President Barack Obama's budget request included a small, $5 million item earmarked for a next-generation fighter. And while no one knows exactly what it'll be, it's meant to replace the F/A-18 Super Hornet and EA-18 Growler by 2030. Jerry Hendrix, a senior fellow and director of the Defense Strategies and Assessments Program at the Center for a New American Security, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with more on what exactly the new fighter will be capable of — and why it's needed.
February 23, 2015 -
Talent acquisition manager Mike Bruni will discuss job trends in the federal government, the kinds of workers that agencies need, and how to land a job in what is a competitive and challenging federal market. February 20, 2015
February 20, 2015 -
The Pentagon has been warning for years that the decade-long budget caps Congress set in place four years ago won't work -- at least if DoD hopes to execute the defense strategy that's on the books right now. With sequestration set to return this year, officials say they'll try to make things a bit less abstract. The Pentagon publishes a report that details exactly what would happen to individual bases and weapons systems with a $30 billion cut. Federal News Radio DoD Reporter Jared Serbu writes about DoD's sequestration messaging strategy as part of this week's edition of Inside the Reporter's Notebook.
February 20, 2015 -
The Defense Department will shut off its widely-used Defense Connect Online service in June, and is telling all of its users to transition to a new DISA-provided service before then. But the vendor behind DCO thinks users are hooked, and will continue to provide it for a fee.
February 20, 2015 -
The federal CIO Council's mobile technology tiger team is climbing a Defense Department tree. It's recommending the DoD standard for vetting mobile application security. The team's goal is to make it easier and safer for agencies to develop and deploy mission-critical apps. Federal News Radio's executive editor Jason Miller joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to discuss those recommendations, and why app vetting is the next great challenge in the mobile computing.
February 19, 2015 -
Students at three military academies reported fewer sexual assaults during the last school year. An anonymous Pentagon survey backs that up. It shows rates of "unwanted sexual contact" are also declining. While the military struggled last year with sexual assault cases, it seems there's progress on the academic front. Dr. Nate Galbreath, Senior Executive Advisor in DoD's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to explain what all this might mean for the military itself.
February 19, 2015