TODAY’S TOP 5
1. Judge rules Army command interfered in Sinclair sex assault case
(Los Angeles Times) A military judge ruled Monday that the U.S. Army improperly interfered with a decision to reject an offer by Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair to plead guilty to lesser charges in his sexual assault case.
2. Former AFPC commander dies
(Air Force Times) Maj. Gen. Alfred Stewart, the former commander of Air Force Personnel Center who two years ago wrote openly about his battle with brain cancer, died Sunday.
3. Military Power Is Not a Foreign Policy Panacea
(Army Lt. Col. Daniel Davis in The American Conservative) Whether it’s a deteriorating situation in Venezuela, foreign troops in Crimea, warring tribes in Africa, or a deteriorating situation in Pakistan, the use of U.S. military power is often the worst response for both American interests and those of the foreign population. Highly complex and volatile situations frequently don’t require the application of violence to solve.
4. SEC has opened investigation into KBR, whistleblower’s lawyer says
(Washington Post) The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an investigation into one of the nation’s largest government contractors following claims that employees seeking to report fraud had to sign confidentiality statements barring them from disclosing the allegations to anyone, including federal prosecutors and investigators, according to lawyers in the case.
5. Exclusive: Chinese raw materials also found on U.S. B-1 bomber, F-16 jets
(Reuters) After discovering China-made components in the F-35 fighter jet, a Pentagon investigation has uncovered Chinese materials in other major U.S. weaponry, including Boeing Co's B-1B bomber and certain Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighters, the U.S. Defense Department said.
INDUSTRY
U.S. To Help Japan Develop Littoral Warship
(Aviation Week) While the Pentagon rethinks and restructures its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), the U.S. has agreed to help Japan develop its own coastal warship with similar attributes.
Firms Face Off in Israel's Mega-Artillery Contest
(Defense News) Israel’s Elbit Systems and a consortium of Israeli, German and US firms are facing off in a high-stakes bid to modernize Israel’s Artillery Corps with new self-propelled guns.
U.S. Navy confirms Boeing jets on 'unfunded' priority list
(Reuters) The U.S. Navy's top admiral on Monday confirmed that the Navy would include Boeing Co EA-18G electronic attack planes on a list of "unfunded" priorities requested by Congress, saying the Navy might need the jets for future missions.
Rafael Trainer Hones Precision Strike Ops
(Defense News) Rafael, Israel’s premier provider of tactical missiles, is expanding its niche in training and simulation with Spike Team Trainer (STT), a system designed to support international users of the firm’s Spike family of precision strike weapons.
Outside the U.S., Buyers in Hot Pursuit of Night Vision Goggles
(National Defense Magazine) Night vision goggle manufacturer Exelis quickly expanded its assembly line in Roanoke, Va., to meet massive Army orders during the buildup to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. U.S. military demand collapsed in recent years, and the company is now relying on foreign customers to keep its plant in operation.
India To Seek Home-built Replacement for Air Defense Guns
(Defense News) The Indian Army will replace its aging Swedish-built 40mm L/70 air defense guns with weapons from domestic companies, a Defence Ministry source said, after the cancellation of a global tender floated last year that failed to elicit any response from overseas defense companies.
CONGRESS
Senate approves McCaskill sex assault bill
(Military Times) The Senate on Monday finalized plans for broad reforms in how sexual assault cases are handled in the military, just days after a bitter floor fight over a larger overhaul of the entire military justice system.
Military rape survivor: Sen. McCaskill betrayed us (With Video)
(CNN) The U.S. Senate this week defeated an impassioned legislative push to reduce the growing problem of sex assault in the armed forces by overhauling the way the military prosecutes serious crimes.
GOP Senators: Obama Nominee Words on Alleged Russian Treaty Breach 'Misleading'
(National Journal) Two Republican senators charge they were misled by a senior Pentagon nominee over the handling of a reported arms-treaty breach by Russia.
Bill would speed progress on claims backlog
(Military Times) The backlog of benefits claims pending with the Veterans Affairs Department has dropped by almost half from this time last year, when it made headlines as a national embarrassment and an insult to the service of veterans.
US lawmakers urge inclusion of Sikhs in military
(Associated Press) A bipartisan group of 105 lawmakers urged the Defense Department on Monday to make it easier for practicing Sikh Americans who wear beards and turbans to serve in the military.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Pentagon Says Its Strategy Addresses Threat from Russia
(Defense One) The Pentagon sees no need to alter its long-term strategy despite the latest developments around the Russia-Ukraine border, a senior defense official said Monday.
Christine Wormuth Defends Her QDR: Strategy-based, Forward Looking
(Breaking Defense) “At a certain point, we’re going to have to ask ourselves what kind of nation we want to be and what role we want to play,” Christine Wormuth, soon to be the Pentagon’s top policy official, said this afternoon at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The, um, good news, is that “We’re not at that point, yet.”
Readiness Challenges Would Remain if Sequester Cuts Return
(Seapower) Should sequestration cuts return in fiscal 2016, the Department of Defense (DoD) would be strained to protect the homeland if the United States also was engaged in a conflict overseas, said Christine E. Wormuth, the deputy undersecretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans and Force Development.
Military retiree tapped as new DoDEA director
(Military Times) A retired Amy colonel with 12 years of experience in education administration in public schools has been named the new director of the Department of Defense Education Activity.
ARMY
How the Army plans to thin the ranks
(Army Times) If you’ve been hoping for a chance to voluntarily end your contract and collect a payout, don’t hold your breath.
How Big Will the US Army Be in 2019? Not Even the Army Knows
(Defense News) Just as the budgeting office of the US Army was preparing to submit its fiscal 2015 budget, last-minute word from the White House turned everything on its head.
Fort Knox gets first female commanding general
(Courier-Journal; Louisville, Ken.) For the first time in Fort Knox’s 96-year history, a female commanding general is taking charge of the military base near Louisville.
82nd soldier injured in training accident headed to Walter Reed
(Fayetteville Observer) An 82nd Airborne Division soldier injured in a training accident on Fort Bragg last month is headed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to recover.
US soldiers in Korea get 15 minutes of foreign fame on reality TV show
(Stars and Stripes) A handful of 2nd Infantry Division soldiers recently became mini-celebrities in South Korea after appearing on “Real Men,” a popular reality television show about the Korean military. Each episode features Korean celebrities — singers, actors, comedians and TV personalities — experiencing some aspect of military life while being embedded with the South Korean armed forces.
NAVY
CNO: Group Will Study New LCS Designs
(Defense News) Under orders to reexamine the Littoral Combat Ship program and begin the process of evaluating possible new designs, Adm. Jon Greenert, chief of naval operations, said Monday he was preparing to stand up a new task force to provide him with recommendations.
How the new military budget affects Navy warships
(Virginian-Pilot; Norfolk, Va.) President Barack Obama's proposed budget, rolled out on Tuesday, could have major long-term effects on the warships that call Norfolk home - and the shipyards that build and maintain them. The Navy today has 283 warships, about 60 of them homeported here.
USS Kidd joins USS Pinckney in search for missing jetliner
(Stars and Stripes) The U.S. has dispatched a second destroyer to assist with the search efforts for the missing Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 that disappeared somewhere over the waters between Malaysia and Vietnam early Saturday.
Rescue team from Bataan pulls Turkish mariners from damaged ship
(Stars and Stripes) A U.S. Navy search-and-rescue team from an amphibious ship in the Aegean Sea pulled two Turkish mariners from their damaged vessel on Saturday.
DDG's 1st classes pitch in to help mother of ship's namesake
(Navy Times) Dolia Gonzalez is more than a ship’s sponsor. She is a ship’s mother.
AIR FORCE
Air Force details fleet cuts, states hardest hit
(Air Force Times) The Air Force on Monday announced specifics on planned cuts to its fleet over the next five years, including 50 F-15Cs heading to retirement and multiple MQ-1 Predator units upgrading to the newer Reaper drone.
Money found for new Combat Rescue Helicopter
(Defense News) The Air Force will award a contract on its new Combat Rescue Helicopter before the end of June, despite the program not being included in the fiscal 2015 budget request, said Maj. Gen. James Martin, the service’s budget director.
Guard units to get new aircraft to replace A-10s
(Air Force Times) The Air Force plans to replace all National Guard A-10 units with new flying missions to make sure their states and bases will not lose positions, according to budget documents obtained by Air Force Times.
Airman gets 30-month prison sentence for possession of indecent child photos
(Stars and Stripes) British authorities have sentenced a U.S. Air Force staff sergeant stationed at RAF Alconbury, England, to 30 months in prison after he pressured a teenage girl to give him indecent photos, officials said.
Commander orders trial after rape case is reinvestigated
(Air Force Times) An airman whose sexual assault case was dismissed last September by former Third Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin will now face court-martial on rape charges.
MARINE CORPS
Kyle Carpenter's closest friends react to Medal of Honor news
(Marine Corps Times) When Blake Schreiber learned that William Kyle Carpenter would receive the military’s highest honor for bravery in Afghanistan, his response was visceral.'
U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Command prepares potential Marines for boot camp
(The Muskegon Chronicle; Mich.) Classes for boot camp preparation are designed to give "poolees," the term used referring to those awaiting their ship date to boot camp, a taste of the mental and physical aspects of boot camp training.
Spain OKs boost in crisis response force Marines
(Marine Corps Times) The Spanish government will allow an additional 300 Marines to be based at Morón Air Base to respond to crises in Africa, the Defense Department announced Monday.
Are Marine departures a taste of things to come in N.C.?
(Fayetteville Observer) As state leaders begin to build a virtual wall around our military against a possible future base realignment and closure, some Marines are already slipping through.
IEDs are the 'future of warfare'
(Marine Corps Times) Marines with 1st EOD Company, 7th Engineer Support Battalion, out of Camp Pendleton, Calif., won’t have much to do when they get to Afghanistan later this month, but that doesn’t mean the improvised explosive device has left the battlefield.
VETERANS
Best for Vets: Business Schools 2014
(Military Times) As service members and veterans have become bigger priorities for schools, some are starting to offer MBA degrees tailored to the military.
William Guarnere, one of the 'Band of Brothers', dies (With Video)
(Philadelphia Inquirer) William "Wild Bill" Guarnere of South Philadelphia, a member of the famed 101st Airborne Division whose World War II exploits were portrayed in the TV mini-series Band of Brothers, died Saturday, March 8, at Jefferson University Hospital of a ruptured aortic aneurysm. He was a month shy of 91.
Roger Hilsman, foreign policy adviser to JFK, dies at 94
(Washington Post) Roger Hilsman, a commando raider during World War II who later served a tumultuous stint as State Department intelligence chief during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the early stages of the Vietnam War in the Kennedy administration, died Feb. 23 at his home in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 94.
Navajo military veterans struggle with housing
(Los Angeles Times) Nearly 9,000 former service members live on the New Mexico-Arizona reservation, more than half of them in substandard conditions. Promised aid hasn't materialized.
Military veterans especially unhappy at federal agencies
(Washington Post) Morale problems for military veterans at federal agencies: The federal government’s annual employee-satisfaction survey shows that veterans’ perceptions of workplace fairness are more negative than their non-veteran counterparts, and they’re more likely to feel disengaged from their supervisors, according to a Federal News Radio article that explores some of the causes of those trends.
AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN
China to help Afghanistan fight 'terrorism'
(Al Jazeera) China has said that it will work with Afghanistan to fight "terrorism", after it blamed a deadly train station attack on "extremists" from its western Xinjiang region, which shares a short border with the war-torn nation.
Explosion targets gathering near Dr. Abdullah’s election office in Herat
(Khaama Press) At least two security guards of Dr. Abdullah Abdullah’s campaign office were killed and four election campaign workers were injured following an explosion in western Herat province of Afghanistan on Monday.
In Its Own War on Terror, Pakistan Piles Up Heavy Losses
(Wall Street Journal) Each day, Cpl. Hamid Raza helps strap Cpl. Mohammed Yakub to a physiotherapy bench, lifts it and wipes the sweat off his bewildered comrade's forehead. Eyes darting, Cpl. Yakub often screams and grunts through the procedure, flailing his hands.
MIDDLE EAST
In Iraq, Anbar Faces Extremists Stronger Than Those U.S. Fought
(National Public Radio) The extremists now committing a wave of attacks in Iraq's Anbar province are better trained, funded and equipped than the al-Qaida-linked groups American soldiers battled there, says Brett McGurk, one of the State Department's top officials for Iraq.
Israeli C4I Unit's Stealth Support Aids High-Seas Seizure
(Defense News) Israeli military officers are crediting a shadowy C4I unit as the unsung heroes of Operation Full Disclosure, a months-long mission that led to the high-seas capture of an Iranian arms cache some 1,500 kilometers from the Israeli coast.
Israel Watches Warily as Hezbollah Gains Battle Skills in Syria
(New York Times) Hezbollah’s distracting and costly engagement in the Syrian civil war has offered some practical benefit to Israelis. It has also been a source of foreboding.
Al Qaeda-affiliated groups claim credit for joint attack on Hezbollah
(The Long War Journal) The Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the Al Nusrah Front in Lebanon have claimed joint responsibility for rocket attacks on Hezbollah's "strongholds." On March 8, both groups published the same statement claiming credit for the attacks on their respective Twitter feeds.
Turkey Tests Long-Range Anti-Tank Missile
(Defense News) Turkey’s state-owned missile specialist Roketsan has successfully tested a long-range anti-tank missile it has been developing, the country’s procurement agency has announced.
EUROPE
NATO: AWACS aircraft to fly over Poland and Romania
(Air Force Times) NATO is sending Airborne Early Warning and Control System aircraft to conduct reconnaissance flights over Poland and Romania to “monitor the crisis in Ukraine,” a NATO spokesman said Monday.
Russia cites ‘chaos’ in eastern Ukraine; gunmen storm bases in Crimea (With Video)
(Washington Post) Russia and its sympathizers seized control of more Ukrainian military bases and facilities in Crimea on Monday while Moscow issued threatening statements about eastern Ukraine that signaled Russia’s intention to play a significant role in the country’s future.
Ukraine may have to go nuclear, says Kiev lawmaker (With Video)
(USA Today) Ukraine may have to arm itself with nuclear weapons if the United States and other world powers refuse to enforce a security pact that obligates them to reverse the Moscow-backed takeover of Crimea, a member of the Ukraine parliament told USA TODAY.
More European Nations Appointing Female Defense Chiefs
(Defense News) The naming of Roberta Pinotti as Italy’s new defense minister brings to five the number of female defense ministers representing countries that collectively account for more than one-third of Western Europe’s defense spending.
ASIA-PACIFIC
Japan, U.S. differ on China in talks on 'grey zone' military threats
(Reuters) As Japan and the United States start talks on how to respond to armed incidents that fall short of a full-scale attack on Japan, officials in Tokyo worry that their ally is reluctant to send China a strong message of deterrence.
The Black Box of China’s Military
(Foreign Policy) The People's Liberation Army does not have a website. There is China Military Online, which boasts that it's "approved by the Central Military Commission," (CMC) the 11-member body chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping, which oversees the PLA, and is the military's "only news portal website." There are other Chinese news sites, like Chinamil, which hosts Liberation Daily, a newspaper put out by the PLA's general political department, the shadowy department tasked with running the army's political activities. And there's a website for China's Ministry of National Defense, an organ which is subordinate to the CMC, and which is nominally the public face of the PLA. But the world's largest standing army, and the CMC which oversees it, has decided not to bother.
Indian Army To Upgrade T-90 Tanks With Domestic Help
(Defense News) The Indian Army will upgrade more than 600 Russian-built T-90 tanks by adding new features and replacing their thermal imaging sights, navigation systems and fire control systems at a cost of more than $250 million.
Cyber attack on Russia hits India, secret defense documents leaked
(Hindustan Times) A cyber attack on Russian communication systems by anonymous hackers on early Saturday morning has compromised India's defence dealings with Russia and raised serious concerns about a possible major security breach.
One Worker Killed in Indian Nuclear Sub Accident
(Defense News) One Indian worker was killed in an accident during construction of a nuclear submarine, a defense statement said Sunday, the latest in a string of deadly mishaps to hit the navy.
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
America's Navy Needs 12 Carriers & Three Hubs
(Mackenzie Eaglen and Bryan McGrath in Real Clear Defense) President Obama’s latest defense budget would shrink the US Navy’s fleet from 11 aircraft carriers to ten absent additional funding. But the truth is that America is currently a nine-carrier nation.
America Doesn’t Need a Big Army Any More
(Bill Sweetman in The Daily Beast) It was not surprising that the mass media response to the 2015 defense budget was that it would result in “the smallest Army since before World War II.” It would have been a shock had anyone continued: “and it’s a good thing.” But it is—and Russia’s current actions in the Crimea do not change that fact.
Defunding defense
(Robert J. Samuelson in the Washington Post) The crisis in Ukraine reminds us that the future is unpredictable, that wars routinely involve miscalculation and that brute force — boots on the ground, bombs in the air — counts. None of these obvious lessons seems to have made much impression in Washington, where the Obama administration and Congress continue their policy of defunding defense and reducing the United States’ military power.
China’s Disturbing Defense Budget
(New York Times) China is causing new anxieties in Asia with a defense budget for 2014 that totals $132 billion, up 12.2 percent over the previous year. These numbers should not be used as an excuse to ratchet up America’s military spending. But they do raise legitimate concerns about China’s motives that Beijing should seek to dispel, especially at a time when regional tensions are rising.
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