This newest temporary job could signal a new role for Guerts in the Austin Pentagon, given his deep knowledge of Navy and Special Operations modernization projects over the past decade
SecDef Lloyd Austin “is at this moment in the process of conducting a very very thorough review” of planning to move 12,000 troops out of Germany, EUCOM chief Gen. Wolters says.
“I am worried about the state of the readiness of the nuclear triad,” Deputy SecDef nominee Kath Hicks tells the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning, “and, if confirmed, that is an area I would want to get my team in place and start to look at right away.”
The Unmanned Campaign Plan, which has been in the works for months, promises to be the first time the Navy will wrap all of its unmanned efforts together into a coherent whole.
Biden’s order directs the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to include climate risk assessments in developing a new National Defense Strategy, due in 2022, along with the Defense Planning Guidance, the Chairman’s Risk Assessment, “and other relevant strategy, planning, and programming documents and processes.”
“In practical terms, [the delay] has almost zero impact because the LCS has, for the most part, not been deployed,” much in the past 15 years said Bryan Clark, an analyst at the Hudson Institute.
The confirmation of the first African American SecDef comes after Avril Haines was confirmed Wednesday as the first woman to serve as Director of National Intelligence
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith issued a statement this morning saying, “while we hoped to hold an open hearing with the Secretary-designate and he had agreed to do so, procedural issues have prevented a hearing,” since the HASC has yet to finalize its member roster.
A retired Air Force officer who also served as the top acquisition executive, for the Special Operations Command, Geurts has been at the forefront of the Navy’s push for unmanned ships. He has also championed the standup of 15 “tech bridges” across the country to spur innovation.
Navy officials said this week that the destroyer, which still hasn’t been deployed almost five years after she was christened, might find a place in the fleet after all.
