TODAY’S TOP 5
1. Pentagon Drops Plan to Mothball USS George Washington Aircraft Carrier
The Pentagon has dropped a plan to retire one of its nuclear-powered aircraft carriers after the White House intervened to head off a brewing political fight.
2. Afghan Taliban capture British military dog
(BBC) ISAF officials in Afghanistan have confirmed a military dog went missing during a mission in December last year.
3. Splitting Up Iraq: Yes, Biden Was Wrong
(Douglas Ollivant in War on the Rocks) The fact is that the division of Iraq is neither desirable nor likely. Those who propose otherwise, exemplified in James Kitfield’s article, tend to be historically misinformed about the origin of current borders, downplay the reasons that Iraq remains unified, overplay the grievances of minorities and the instability they generate, and fail to recognize the emergence of an uneven but genuine democratic culture in Iraq.
4. Is Obama’s Drone Program Legal? CIA’s Former Top Lawyer Isn’t Saying
(Intercepts) US President Barack Obama has been dubbed the “drone warrior” by The Atlantic magazine. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius provided a more-precise moniker, calling Obama “the covert commander in chief.” But is the targeted-killing program that earned him those labels legal? The CIA’s former top lawyer, in a new book, is largely mum on the ongoing and unresolved debate.
5. Defense Spending After 2015: It's Anyone's Guess
(National Defense Magazine) The powers-that-be must soon make a decision on how to cut military spending before sequestration returns in 2016.
INDUSTRY
Why Robot Trucks Could Be Headed To Afghanistan (And Everywhere Else)
(Popular Science) In Afghanistan, the shipments are about to hit the fan. Along with pulling all of its combat troops from the country by the end of this year, the Pentagon has to clean up after itself, hauling away most of the weapons, supplies and assorted infrastructure accumulated over 13 years of local war. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin is hoping that it can assist with the imminent scramble for the exit, by carrying a portion of that outgoing gear—some 20,000 containers’ worth, according to U.S. Central Command—aboard self-guided robot trucks.
India, Israel to Build Anti-Missile System
(Defense News) India and Israel will jointly build an integrated anti-missile system to be deployed against Chinese nuclear and conventional missiles.
Planemakers look to ink Asia deals despite emerging market worries
(Reuters) Aerospace firms will finalise billions of dollars of deals at next week's Singapore Airshow, hoping to ride out a storm in emerging markets whose prosperity is vital to their plans to keep producing record numbers of jets.
While Issues Remain, F-35 Tester Pleased With Block 2B Software Progress
(Inside The Air Force) With the F-35 test community approaching "the end of the middle" of Block 2B software testing, an Air Force test pilot said this week that he has seen significant progress in the maturity of that combat-capable software load, although some problems linger.
Tight Funding Pushes Indian Fighter Buy Further Out
(Aviation Week) India’s much-awaited purchase of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian air force from French firm Dassault Aviation will be further delayed as negotiations to calculate the life-cycle cost haven’t been settled and there is no money for any new buys, Defense Minister A. K. Antony says.
Indian MoD asks govt to fast-track VIP helo replacement plans
(IHS Jane's 360) India's Ministry of Defence (MoD) has asked the federal government to fast-track the purchase of helicopters for VIP transport duties. The request follows its 1 January termination of the contract for 12 AgustaWestland AW101s that were intended for the role.
Rheinmetall, Nexter Reveal Long-term Supply Agreement for Ammo Components
(Defense News) Nexter Munitions, part of France’s Nexter group, has placed its first order with Rheinmetall Nitrochemie under a new long-term supply agreement for ammunition components.
Turkey Government Puts Vehicle Maker BMC up for Sale
(Defense News) A fund administered by the Turkish government has put the troubled armored vehicles maker BMC up for sale.
CONGRESS
Lawmaker to Hagel: Bring Back 'Unfunded Priorities' Lists
(Defense News) A hawkish GOP lawmaker wants the Pentagon to resuscitate annual wish lists of weapon systems and other items it cannot afford, a practice stifled by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Senate sexual assault fight renewed
(The Hill) The Senate renewed its fight over sexual assaults in the military on Thursday, with Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) holding dueling press conferences over whether such cases should be stripped from the military command.
Adam Smith's lonely military pension fight
(The Hill) The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee is in an increasingly lonely position in Congress fighting against repealing the $6 billion cut to military pensions.
Rubio Signals Interventionist Foreign, National Security Policy
(Defense News) Potential GOP presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio offered a glimpse into how he would act as commander in chief, saying the US should “overtly” arm Syrian rebels.
Senators want say on keeping troops in Afghanistan
(The Hill) A bipartisan group of senators opposed to keeping a U.S. presence in Afghanistan after 2014 want President Obama to give Congress a say in whether the U.S. military should stay.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Meet the Man Who Will Be Slashing the Pentagon's Bloated Budget
(Foreign Policy) After months of feverish speculation about who would succeed Ash Carter as the Pentagon's No. 2, former Marine colonel and current think tank chief Bob Work appears to have won the job and gone into pre-nomination mode, declining invitations to give speeches or take part in other public events -- a sure sign in Washington that someone's about to get the nod.
Exclusive: Pentagon to boost missile defense spending by over $4 billion: sources
(Reuters) The U.S. Defense Department plans to ask Congress for $4.5 billion in extra missile defense funding over the next five years as part of the fiscal 2015 budget request, say congressional sources and an expert.
Pentagon cheating scandals: a breakdown in ethics or an outmoded system?
(Christian Science Monitor) When cheating within the nuclear forces surfaced, the Pentagon framed it as an ethical issue. But critics say it's the system and cold-war cultural expectations that need a fix.
DARPA wants hypersonic space drone with daily launches
(Stars and Stripes) The Defense Department is attempting to develop a new unmanned spacecraft that could enter low Earth orbit faster and with more frequency than ever before.
Pentagon agency tries to stop drug-resistant bacteria
(USA Today) The rise of drug-resistant bacteria and other biological threats has pushed the Pentagon to seek help developing small molecules that can stop some of the world's most dangerous pathogens.
DOD comptroller: Pentagon becoming more audit-ready
(The Hill) The Pentagon comptroller compared getting the department audit-ready to “pushing a heavy block across sandpaper,” but said the department was making major progress on getting there by 2017.
ARMY
MoH recipient Petry ponders future after retirement
(Army Times) In the almost three years since he was awarded the Medal of Honor, Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Petry has met three presidents, shared a photo with basketball star LeBron James and rapper Jay-Z, and hitched a ride with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Wartime expedient will stick around in peace
(Colorado Springs Gazette) Conceived as a wartime experiment, the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force will stick around in peace time, the Pentagon announced.
GAO Sustains Motorola Protest Of $2.5M Army Contract
(Law 360) The U.S. Government Accountability Office has sustained Motorola Solutions Inc.’s protest of a $2.5 million contract for a land mobile radio system for the Detroit Arsenal that had been awarded to Harris Corp., according to documents made public Wednesday.
NAVY
Seawolf's chief of the boat relieved for 'performance issue'
(Navy Times) The attack submarine Seawolf’s chief of the boat was fired Thursday due to unsatisfactory performance, the Navy said.
Relocation of two Oceana squadrons is delayed, again
(Virginian-Pilot; Norfolk, Va.) Two Navy jet squadrons slated to leave Oceana Naval Air Station this year as part of the military's strategic shift toward Asia are staying in place until at least 2016, the Navy has decided.
Navy ROTC returning to Princeton U. after more than 40 years
(The Star-Ledger; Newark, N.J.) After more than four decades, the Navy is returning to Princeton University.
McCain bids 'fair winds and following seas' to Ex-USS Forrestal
(Navy Times) The Ex-USS Forrestal will always be known as a ship that would not go down without a fight.
Navy SEAL admits selling stolen grenades, gas masks
(Virginian-Pilot; Norfolk, Va.) A Norfolk man admitted today that he sold stolen military smoke grenades, gas masks and 200 rounds of ammunition while he was an active duty Navy SEAL.
AIR FORCE
USAF to convert 38 Reaper UASs to Extended Range Capability configuration
(IHS Jane's 360) The US Air Force (USAF) is to convert 38 of its 104 General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) to the company's Extended Range Capability configuration, the Department of Defense (DoD) disclosed on 5 February.
Curl up with a book or movie: Gen. Welsh's picks
(Air Force Times) “Zero Dark Thirty,” the controversial 2012 film dramatizing the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, is one of seven films on Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh’s 2014 list of must-sees.
F-35A Cleared To Fly At Night, In Bad Weather
(Inside the Air Force) The Air Force's version of the Joint Strike Fighter has finally been cleared to fly at night and in poor weather, according to service officials from Air Combat Command and the F-35 program's training base in Florida.
Air Force major charged with distributing child pornography
(Air Force Times) An Air Force Reserve major stationed at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., was arrested on a child pornography charge while attending a national security course at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., officials said.
MARINE CORPS
Facebook features fallen Marine’s love story
(Battle Rattle) The love story between Kimmy Kirkwood and her fallen Marine boyfriend, Sgt. Will Stacey, will forever be preserved in a Facebook tribute of the two showing how their lives became intertwined on social media in honor of website’s 10th birthday.
Former Marine remembered by family
(The Daily News; Jacksonville, N.C.) April Bay-McManus is still coming to terms with the death of her husband, a Marine battling cancer, PTSD and TBI who died unexpectedly in what she called “a tragic accident.”
New research: Blast injury predicts PTSD
(San Diego Union-Tribune) Early results from a four-year study of Camp Pendleton Marines reveal that the strongest predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder — or PTSD, the “shell shock” acknowledged after World War I — is a blast injury to the brain.
VETERANS
VA still fighting paper war
(Politico Pro) On the battlefield, Washington is racing to equip its soldiers on the front lines with the most high-tech weapons and warplanes. But at home, the U.S. military’s system to care for veterans is only slowly emerging from the era of print files and paper clips.
Groups: Billions more needed to address veterans' health care, benefits issues
(Stars and Stripes) The federal government will fall well short of meeting veterans’ health care and benefits needs in the coming years, several leading veterans service organizations said this week, and tens of billions of dollars in additional spending will be needed to adequately address the issue.
Report notes more problems at Dorn VA Medical Center
(The State; Columbia, S.C.) The management of the Dorn VA Medical Center did a lousy job of keeping its operating rooms staffed and reacting to infection problems, according to a report from the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General.
Tennessee World War II vet granted disability benefits after 19-year fight
(The Tennessean; Nashville) Millard Sells saw some of the fiercest combat of his life in 1945 on Iwo Jima, but for most of the past two decades he’s been engaged in a different, more bureaucratic battle.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
OPM contracted USIS to review quality of its own work
(Federal Times) The contractor being sued by the Justice Department for allegedly submitting at least 665,000 flawed background investigations to the government has been under contract by the Office of Personnel Management to oversee its own work and that of other contractors, OPM revealed Thursday.
As new rules on federal giving show, public’s reaction to plans don’t always yield changes
(Washington Post) The trepidation concerns an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) plan to restructure the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). The plans are included in OPM’s “final rule,” which is not truly final until published by the government. Charity leaders expect that to happen soon.
Shooting lends urgency to new ID management initiative
(Federal Times) After Aaron Alexis opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard, Chris Grijalva got a message: Speed it up.
AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN
Former Islamist Warlord Kicks Off Campaign for Afghan Presidency
(Wall Street Journal) Former Islamist warlord Abdul Rasoul Sayyaf, who once hosted Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, kicked off his presidential campaign with a pledge to respect women's rights even as he promised to implement strict Islamic law.
Taliban condemn blacklisting of Haqqani Network leaders by US
(Khaama Press) The Taliban militants group in Afghanistan condemned the US act for designating three Haqqani Network leaders as global terrorists and freezing their assets.
US designates leader of Lashkar-e-Jhanghvi as global terrorist
(Long War Journal) The US State Department added Malik Ishaq, the leader of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, to the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists today. Ishaq's group, which is also a designated terrorist organization, has been linked to numerous attacks on Pakistani and US citizens over the years, and is closely tied to al Qaeda.
Taliban to Journalists: Cover Us and You're Dead
(Foreign Policy) On Jan. 17, gunmen on motorbikes fired 17 shots into the back of a TV van in Karachi, killing three employees of the Express News, one of Pakistan's most popular media outlets. At first glance, the event might seem unremarkable in Pakistan's increasingly violent political environment. Viewed against the backdrop of the Pakistani Taliban's (TTP) reinvigorated campaign against the media, however, it could mark a watershed moment for independent journalism in the country.
MIDDLE EAST
Iraqi security forces accused of raping, torturing women in detention (With Video)
(Los Angeles Times) The woman held at an Iraqi death row facility arrived for a meeting with a human rights group last year on crutches, the result, she said, of nine days of beatings and electric shocks.
Iraq signs arms agreement with Iran - ambassador
(The Voice of Russia) Iraq’s ambassador to Tehran announced that Baghdad has signed an arms agreement with Iran. Muhammad Majid al-Sheikh told the Iranian news agency: “Iraq has signed an agreement with Iran to purchase weapons and military equipment because Iraq's defense ministry trusts the effectiveness of the Iranian weapons.”
Syrian rebels free hundreds from prison
(Al Jazeera America) Syrian rebels launched a new push in the northern province of Aleppo on Thursday and stormed a major section of a prison there, freeing hundreds of prisoners in the process, activists said.
Syrian regime, rebels reach deal to aid besieged Homs
(Washington Post) The United Nations brokered a deal Thursday between the Syrian government and rebels in the city of Homs that will allow aid to reach hungry citizens, offering a first small sign that peace talks in Geneva are yielding results.
Amid Flow of Leaks, Turkey Moves to Crimp Internet
(New York Times) Shortly after an audio recording in which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is said to be heard talking about easing zoning laws for a construction tycoon in exchange for two villas for his family, SoundCloud, the file-sharing site where it was leaked last month, was suddenly unavailable to Internet users in Turkey.
ASIA-PACIFIC
US, S. Korea to use new strategy in exercise targeting North's nukes
(Stars and Stripes) The U.S. and South Korea will employ a new “tailored deterrence” strategy that targets the North Korean nuclear threat during annual military drills this spring, according to Korean defense officials.
It's No Game: Xbox-sensor Guards Korean Border
(Defense News) Microsoft’s movement-recognition Kinect software has morphed from virtual shooter gaming to the real-life challenge of guarding the world’s last Cold War border.
Abe Eyes Window for Biggest Military-Rule Change Since WWII
(Bloomberg) Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, pressed by China and seeking to strengthen ties with the U.S., is considering Japan’s biggest change in military engagement rules since World War II.
Singapore Voices Concern Over Naming of Indonesian Navy Ship
(Defense News) Singapore has voiced concerns over Indonesia’s reported plans to name a naval ship after marines who were executed for bombing an office complex in the city-state during a period of tense relations in the 1960s.
EUROPE
Russia Claims U.S. Meddling Over Ukraine
(New York Times) The tense Russian-American jockeying over the fate of Ukraine escalated on Thursday as a Kremlin official accused Washington of “crudely interfering” in the former Soviet republic, while the Obama administration blamed Moscow for spreading an intercepted private conversation between two American diplomats.
Russian adviser threatens Ukraine with military force
(USA Today) Ukrainian protesters said Thursday they have no doubt Russia will intervene militarily in the unrest here if the Moscow-aligned president gives in to demands for more freedoms and stronger ties to the West.
In recording of U.S. diplomat, blunt talk on Ukraine
(Washington Post) The top U.S. diplomat for Europe apologized Thursday for comments about the European Union that were — to put it lightly — undiplomatic.
Finnish Court Dismisses Bribery Charges Against Patria
(Defense News) A Finnish court has dismissed charges of aggravated bribery against five former Patria executives.
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The president has options on Syria. He should use them
(Washington Post Editorial Board) President Obama has adopted the position that any U.S. intervention in Syria would be ineffective, “short of us being willing to undertake an effort in size and scope similar to what we did in Iraq.” His aides regularly accuse those who critique U.S. policy — which currently consists of donations of humanitarian aid and a feckless attempt to promote peace negotiations — of favoring another Middle East war.
How to Understand the Not-So-Crazy Karzai
(Haroun Mir in the Wall Street Journal) Many Afghanistan observers are struggling to understand why President Hamid Karzai is refusing to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement between Afghanistan and the United States, which would ensure an American military presence in Afghanistan after 2014 to combat terrorism and train Afghan forces. The security agreement should be a closed case: Last year the agreement was finalized by both countries, and the Loya Jirga assembly overwhelmingly approved it. Yet Mr. Karzai, to the dismay of Washington, wants to renegotiate its terms. Why?
America Has No Answer to China's Salami-Slicing
(Robert Haddick in War on the Rocks) John Mearsheimer recently argued that China is pursuing in Asia what the United States has in Latin America: regional hegemony. In pursuit of that goal, China keeps trying to take territory, bit by bit, in the East and South China Seas. And the United States doesn’t know what to do about it.
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