You hang around the Pentagon long enough, you stop seeing things in isolation. For example, take the military program that gives surplus gear — everything from armored vehicles to M-16s – to local police forces. Danger Room reported Tuesday that the Fairmount Police Department of Georgia, charged with protecting 7,000 folks, has …
Procurement
CREW
It’s a Marine program designed to protect leathernecks from IEDS. It stands for the corps’ Counter Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device Electronic Warfare – CREW. OK, so they cheated a little bit. This CREW contract just got bumped up to a half-billion dollars: 16.8% of it to be spent in Charleston, S.C., 5.5% to be …
Mongers
Sequestration continues to loom. That’s the law Congress passed last year, duly signed by the President, that requires $1.2 trillion in automatic deficit-reduction cuts over the coming decade. They’d come from discretionary spending if lawmakers and the President can’t come up with a better idea by Jan. 2.
Half of those cuts …
Costly Comms
$45,000,000
Golden Oldie: The Day the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty Died
OK, so it lacks Don McLean’s songcraft, but it was a decade ago Wednesday that the U.S. walked away from 1972’s ABM treaty with the Soviets. Despite predictions from arms controllers that the sky would fall, not much has happened.
Sure, the Treasury is lighter by $100 billion or so, but we did that to ourselves by building a …
Think-Tanked: Old Wine in Dark Bottles
Two of Washington D.C.’s most prestigious and well-funded think tanks recently published reports advising Congress and the Defense Department on how — and how much — to cut from the Pentagon’s coffers after November’s …
Some Egyptians Leery of U.S. Military Money’s Impact on Their Election
CAIRO — Behind the uncertainty swirling around the planned run-off election for Egypt’s new president lies serious domestic anger among some parts of its population towards Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. Widely …
Not A Silver Drone…
All this recent reporting on drones and robots might lead one to think the U.S. is nearing the sweet spot, where remote-control war clicks firmly from science fiction to reality. Not so fast, cautions Bill Roggio in an analysis …
“Cost Realism”?
Nasty little bit of CIA business spilled into public Wednesday when those green-eyeshaded meanies over at the Government Accountability Office rapped Langley’s knuckles for favoring one contractor over another.
It seems the agency, seeking accounting and financial services for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (is …
F-22 Pilots Can Breathe Easier Now
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Situation Normal: Afghanistan Fouled Up
A trifecta of trouble in three Pentagon inspector-general reports released Thursday concerning the U.S. military’s continuing struggle to build Afghan security forces so U.S. troops can come home.
Here is the first finding …