Congress should give Pentagon more flexibility in buying, budgeting, report urges

Congress should give Pentagon more flexibility in buying, budgeting, report urges
Congress should give Pentagon more flexibility in buying, budgeting, report urges

The report, co-chaired by former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, encourages reforms in other parts of the government to speed up defense acquisition.

US Should Push New Space Treaty: Atlantic Council

US Should Push New Space Treaty: Atlantic Council
US Should Push New Space Treaty: Atlantic Council

“If everybody we talk to is the enemy, and there’s a boogeyman behind every question and every opportunity, we’re not going to go anywhere,” retired Marine Corps Gen. Hoss Cartwright says. “We’re frozen.”

F-35s Likely Heading To Europe In 2017; Costs ‘Coming Down’: SecAf James

F-35s Likely Heading To Europe In 2017; Costs ‘Coming Down’: SecAf James
F-35s Likely Heading To Europe In 2017; Costs ‘Coming Down’: SecAf James

WASHINGTON: The Air Force’s F-35A will probably make its first operational deployment abroad “in the not too distant future… perhaps next summer,” heading to Europe to help NATO allies deter Russian aggression, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said yesterday. In her endorsement of the F-35 and NATO, and her wariness of Vladimir Putin, Obama’s…

Outbound SecAf James Warns Successor: ‘Beware The Unknown Unknowns’

Outbound SecAf James Warns Successor: ‘Beware The Unknown Unknowns’
Outbound SecAf James Warns Successor: ‘Beware The Unknown Unknowns’

PENTAGON: Deborah Lee James came to the Pentagon and faced a trial by fire. Within a month of her confirmation, a major scandal involving cheating by nuclear missile troops threatened to further tarnish the Air Force’s image and to raise fundamental questions among America’s allies about our ability to provide the nuclear umbrella they all depend on. The…

SecAF James: Lessons From The Pacific

SecAF James: Lessons From The Pacific
SecAF James: Lessons From The Pacific

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James traveled through Asia, visiting Indonesia, India, Singapore, and the Philippines at the end of the summer. We didn’t hear a great deal about the trip in the US at the time but her meetings with her defense counterparts clearly impressed. In this op-ed, James shares the lessons she learned. China…

Day One: Next Prez Must Be Ready For Crisis

Day One: Next Prez Must Be Ready For Crisis
Day One: Next Prez Must Be Ready For Crisis

WASHINGTON: Whoever is elected the next president of the United States must stand ready for crisis to strike “at 12:01 on January 20th,” the Secretary of the Navy warned today, lest America’s adversaries see a window of opportunity. What Ray Mabus and his fellow service secretaries didn’t say, at least out loud, speaks volumes. With Russia meddling in…

Raytheon’s OCX, As Expected, Gets OSD Nod

Raytheon’s OCX, As Expected, Gets OSD Nod
Raytheon’s OCX, As Expected, Gets OSD Nod

WASHINGTON: There was little doubt that the hack- and jam-proof GPS ground stations known as OCX would be resurrected after incurring a Nunn-McCurdy breach. Even though it was the most screwed up program in the Air Force, was behind schedule and had gone grossly over budget, OCX is a crucial program at an important time. America needs…

Airmen First, Weapons Second: SecAF James

Airmen First, Weapons Second: SecAF James
Airmen First, Weapons Second: SecAF James

 AFA: For the foreseeable future, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told me today, when push comes to shove, personnel funding should win and modernization must wait. “If you’re asking me if I have to choose between the two, then I vote for people,” she said. “I’m going to protect people.” Of course, the Air…

Guard Cheers Army Chief Milley: Budget Civil War Seems Over

Guard Cheers Army Chief Milley: Budget Civil War Seems Over
Guard Cheers Army Chief Milley: Budget Civil War Seems Over

BALTIMORE: Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley owned the room here at the annual conference of the National Guard Association of the US, a powerful group once bitterly at odds with his predecessor, Ray Odierno. Two years after an Army plan to disband Guard Apache gunship battalions started a Guard revolt, one year after the…

Chinese Threaten Japan, Australia Over South China Sea; Time For US FON Ops?

Chinese Threaten Japan, Australia Over South China Sea; Time For US FON Ops?
Chinese Threaten Japan, Australia Over South China Sea; Time For US FON Ops?

UPDATED: Adds Excellent CSIS Study On International Support For Chinese Claims WASHINGTON: What are China’s intentions in the South China Sea? It’s a question intelligence analysts, diplomats and the senior leadership of the United States and its Pacific allies are all asking in the wake of a range of increasingly belligerent and threatening comments and…

The Military’s Real Readiness Crisis; Petraeus & O’Hanlon Are Wrong

The Military’s Real Readiness Crisis; Petraeus & O’Hanlon Are Wrong
The Military’s Real Readiness Crisis; Petraeus & O’Hanlon Are Wrong

It’s no news to Breaking Defense readers that the U.S. military faces a readiness crisis. But retired Gen. David Petraeus apparently disagrees. Yes, the military’s budget has been cut by 25 percent in real terms since 2011—much of it coming from accounts used to maintain and build combat readiness. Yes, leaders from the Army, Navy,…

KC-46 Passes Milestone — Finally; Kendall OKs LRIP

KC-46 Passes Milestone — Finally; Kendall OKs LRIP
KC-46 Passes Milestone — Finally; Kendall OKs LRIP

WASHINGTON: After more than a decade of missteps by the Pentagon, the Air Force and Boeing, the airborne tanker program today took a major step forward as the KC-46 passed Milestone C. “The KC-46 is ready to take the next step,” Gen. Dave Goldfein, Air Force Chief of Staff, says in a statement announcing the approval…

China’s J-20 Vs. F-35? Meh, Says CSAF Goldfein; Pilot Crisis Noted

China’s J-20 Vs. F-35? Meh, Says CSAF Goldfein; Pilot Crisis Noted
China’s J-20 Vs. F-35? Meh, Says CSAF Goldfein; Pilot Crisis Noted

PENTAGON: I thought I could hear Air Force and allied F-35 pilots around the world smiling when the new Air Force Chief of Staff said today that comparing the F-35 to the Chinese J-20 “is almost an irrelevant comparison.” The F-35, said Gen. David Goldfein, is “about a family of systems and it’s about a network — that’s what…

SecAf James Defends GBSD, LRSO

SecAf James Defends GBSD, LRSO
SecAf James Defends GBSD, LRSO

WASHINGTON: One thing grew clear as Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James spoke this morning: the service has huge bills now and even bigger ones coming down the track, especially when you include nuclear modernization. If she could, Lee told the audience at the New America think tank, she would “rewrite history” so that the F-35A, which…