The Pentagon just announced three contracts (above, click on it to enlarge) totaling up to $7 billion for Meals-Ready-to-Eat for troops – and victims of humanitarian disasters – to eat through 2016. Sure, MREs are getting tastier, but $7 billion? We just called the folks who bought them – Philadelphia’s Defense Logistics Agency …
Procurement
Ten Things to Know About the Coming Defense Cuts
If you haven’t been paying attention, this is where we stand on the Pentagon budget battle:
1. The Pentagon has already agreed to cut $450 billion over the coming decade from the roughly $7 trillion it had planned on getting. “These cuts are difficult and will require us to take some risks, but they are manageable,” Defense …
The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade
On 11 November, my friend Andrew Feinstein authored an op-ed in the New York Times entitled Arms and the Corrupt Man. Andrew gave the reader a tantalizing glimpse of the dynamite packed into his important new book, The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade. His is a sordid story of corruption, money, and the impulse toward
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How To Save $30 Billion
So who made up the loss in your retirement savings – assuming you have such an account – when the market tanked? Tanked is the right word here, because the answer is no one made you whole – unless you worked for a tank-maker or other defense contractors.
Gretchen Morgenson at the New York Times pulls back the curtain on how …
Navy Yard Sale
As we noted in June, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps now appear on the verge of buying all 74 of Britain’s aging AV-8 Harrier jump jets. Navy Times is reporting that a U.S. rear admiral has confirmed the deal.
How the mighty have fallen. It’s quite a comedown for the U.S. military to procure aircraft from something called the …
DCAA Whistleblower Wins After Long Struggle
A senior auditor with the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) was subjected to years of reprisal in violation of the Whistleblower Protection Act after she blew the whistle on flawed audits produced by DCAA, according to an April 2010 Office of Special Counsel (OSC) investigative report made available today by the Project On Government …
Is This Fair? Or a Cheap Shot (Across the Bow)?
Despite our best efforts, we keep hearing that we’re a year out from the next presidential election. Not sure if that means it’s time to start paying attention, but we’ll be citing some of what the candidates say about defense in the coming months. Last week, GOP candidate Mitt Romney went after the Navy:
Let me give you an
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What Is Whereismypov.com?
It’s costly sending troops all over the world. Especially when a lot of them aren’t riding around in tanks or armored personnel carriers. In years past, the U.S. military has shipped about 75,000 cars to and from the U.S. every year for its troops’ personal use when they, and often their families, are deployed to non-war zones. …
Pentagon Tester: JSF F-35 Program Risking a “Serious Mishap”
The Pentagon’s top official for weapons testing sent a sternly worded letter warning the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and the Air Force that their plans to start unmonitored flight training on the Air Force variant of the JSF F-35 this fall “risks the occurrence of a serious mishap,” according to an October 21 memo, first …
Conning The Currency
The Pentagon’s habit of concurrency – building a weapon before you’ve finished the blueprints for it – is rearing its ugly head once again. Frankly, having witnessed it for decades, the logic behind it is less than compelling. It’s often cited as necessary to keep up with the Russians or the Chinese or the Somebody Else, …
Pentagon Fraud: Business As Usual
You have to feel sorry for Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont lawmaker who keeps attacking the Pentagon for contracting with companies that have engaged in fraud. His latest salvo: the Pentagon has awarded more than $1 trillion in contracts over the past decade to such entities. “The ugly truth,” the Independent …
Panetta Tells Super Committee to “Do the Right Thing”
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee today, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta directly challenged the Congressional “Super Committee” to “do the right thing.” In Panetta’s view, the “right thing” is to solve the debt crisis by going after the drivers of America’s bulging debt. That would be the Big 3 …
“How Can We Avoid a `Hollow Military’ This Time Around?”
Old-timers recall with dread the so-called “hollow Army” the U.S. had following the Vietnam War, which crystallized in 1980’s failed rescue mission of the U.S. hostages held by Iran. Budget cuts are coming, so how can the U.S. avoid hollowing out its military forces once again? John Nagl, of the Center for a New American …