Defense Department
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WASHINGTON (AP) – A senior administration official says Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is resigning from President Barack Obama’s Cabinet. Hagel, a former Republican senator, has served as Pentagon chief since early 2013. Obama is…
November 24, 2014 -
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is calling for a fresh round of technology innovation to ensure America's military superiority. The push is part of what Hagel described as a "game-changing" strategy to sharpen the nation's military edge, even with tight budgets. Bob Martinage is former Navy under-secretary and technology aide to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. He's now a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to talk about the initiative.
November 21, 2014 -
Two early pilot programs have shown the Pentagon that it can reduce overhead spending by carefully studying its excess costs rather than cutting each office's budget by an arbitrary figure. Once expanded across DoD's support agencies, the savings could run into the billions.
November 21, 2014 -
The Pentagon will work to cut its administrative costs, but this time around, officials would like to do it much more surgically than they have in the past. Federal News Radio DoD Reporter Jared Serbu has more on DoD's plans for a "vertically integrated" approach to reductions at the Pentagon and it agencies.
November 20, 2014 -
The Defense Department already had telegraphed that it would request more money than sequestration allows for in 2016. But the military's top officer said Wednesday that new missions involving Ebola, the Islamic State and Russia likely will push DoD's funding request even higher.
November 20, 2014 -
Open architecture, where the Navy isn't locked into a particular vendor forever on a particular system, gets a huge boost from Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert. The Navy has a unique chance to reshape its fleet in the coming years. Bryan Clark, senior fellow of strategic studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and former Special Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations and Director of the CNO's Commander's Action Group, says the driving principle behind that reshaping should be the concept of "offensive sea control." He tells In Depth with Francis Rose about what that concept looks like.
November 19, 2014 -
The Defense Department's Better Buying Power principles are saving the Navy hundreds of millions of dollars. In one instance, the Better Buying Power approach allowed the Navy to acquire three new guided-missile destroyers because it saved a total of $300 million on the entire purchase. Nick Guertin, director of Transformation in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, tells In Depth with Francis Rose about the future of the Navy's acquisition policy and how the BBP strategy will play a role.
November 19, 2014 -
At Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base earlier this month, U.S. Cyber Command wrapped up its biggest exercise of the year.
November 19, 2014 -
Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, said his service needs to pivot away from large, proprietary shipbuilding programs, citing the need for more flexible, adaptable platforms.
November 19, 2014 -
The Navy secretary has spent more than a full year of his five-year tenure on overseas travel, racking up more than 930,000 miles on trips that cost taxpayers more than $4.7 million.
November 18, 2014 -
Budget pressures on the Defense Department have driven down spending on research and development. That gives the military less say in developments that might give battlefield superiority. But industry can help with a class of products known as non-developmental items. Retired Maj. Gen. Dennis Moran, now with Harris Corporation, joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive with details.
November 18, 2014 -
The pace of new Ebola infections appears to have leveled off, but its too early declare victory. A lot of work is going on behind the scenes, on the research front. Army scientists are working on a vaccine for Ebola. With troops being deployed to West Africa to help control and treat the outbreak, Army scientists are taking the most advanced vaccines forward as quickly as possible. Dr. John Dye is the viral immunology branch chief at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. He tells Tom Temin on the Federal Drive that for the Army, research into infectious diseases has a long history.
November 17, 2014 -
Leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs just found out that independent auditors have given their IT security program a failing grade for the 16th year in a row. Federal News Radio DoD Reporter Jared Serbu has details on the security shortcomings and what VA says it's doing to fix them.
November 14, 2014 -
The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency is helping with Ebola civilian relief efforts in Africa. The agency launches a new public website featuring maps showing power grids, roads and other infrastructure that might be useful to civilian workers. Tools will let users pinpoint Ebola cases by location. Tim Peplaw is director of NGA's Readiness, Response and Recovery group. Peplaw points out to Tom Temin on the Federal Drive that for the NGA, support for humanitarian causes is nothing new.
November 13, 2014 -
The Army Corps of Engineers' strategy for building more resilient civil works infrastructure involves planning for more unpredictable weather events, and treating watersheds as integrated systems instead of a collection of standalone projects.
November 13, 2014