Friday Grand Finale & This Time Last Year
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. BRAC’ing Europe: an incremental end of an era. Contributor Charles Simmins reports, “Since 1945, generations of Americans have served their nation at military bases throughout Western Europe. Their children were born there, attended DoD schools and their families shopped in base commissaries. . . . With 67,000 troops stationed permanently in Europe, there is a great deal of real estate that the Department of Defense can release for other uses. On Jan. 8, the Pentagon briefed reporters on the changes. The changes should result in $500 million in annual savings at current levels and be implemented by the early 2020s.
2. Taxing problems with clearances. William Loveridge explains, “From time to time, the federal government has placed emphasis on closely scrutinizing anyone who owes delinquent federal or state obligations (income or other taxes, student loans, personal property tax, etc.) Such delinquent obligations reflect poorly on an individual’s compliance with established laws and failure to demonstrate financial responsibility.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Ending sequestration. Reuters’ Jeff Mason reports, “President Barack Obama will call for a 7 percent rise in U.S. domestic and military spending in his budget that would end caps known as ‘sequestration’ . . . setting up a new source of conflict with Republicans in Congress. . . The fiscal 2016 budget, which the administration plans to unveil on Monday, would fund a host of programs that Republicans are unlikely to support. It is the latest salvo by the Democratic president lobbed at a Congress controlled by the opposition party, and follows a defiant State of the Union address last week that critics said betrayed an unwillingness to seek compromise.” See also from Christian Science Monitor, “Pentagon wrestles with how to shield current veterans from budget cuts.”
2. ISIS on the march. The Atlantic’s Adam Chandler reports, “. . . [A]s ISIS fighters were being repelled from the last corners of Kobani, the group was announcing itself elsewhere. Earlier this week, fighters in Libya claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic State took credit for an attack on a hotel in Tripoli that killed 10 people, including an American and a French citizen. Over the weekend, news of ISIS’s execution of a Japanese hostage drew broad attention as the lives of a second Japanese hostage and a Jordanian pilot, both in ISIS custody, remain in jeopardy.” See also from AP, “Deadline passes with no swap” and “Popular Peshmerga commander killed.”
3. Pakistani offensive in North Waziristan. AP’s Lynne O’Donnell reports from Khost, “Tens of thousands of Pakistanis have sought shelter at a sprawling refugee camp in a volatile region of Afghanistan after crossing the mountainous border to escape a military onslaught against insurgents. . . . More than 210,000 Pakistanis have crossed into Afghanistan from the neighboring North Waziristan province since the Pakistani military launched a long-awaited offensive in June against Taliban and other foreign militants, who have long used the lawless tribal region as a launch-pad for attacks in both countries.”
4. Guard puckers-up to kiss Apaches goodbye. Defense News’ Joe Gould reports, “Key US Army aviation modernization plans — Future Vertical Lift, the Improved Engine Turbine program and digital cockpit upgrades for Black Hawks — all hinge on the service’s cost-cutting Aviation Restructure Initiative (ARI) . . . . The restructure calls for the service to divest its fleet of OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopters and use the AH-64 Apache to fill the Kiowa’s reconnaissance and scout role. It would pull Apaches from the Guard inventory to fill the gap, and, in turn, provide the Guard with UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. The Army would also cut three of its 13 combat aviation brigades, while the Guard retains all 10 of its brigades.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Navy’s sea-basing Mobile Landing Platforms. DoD Buzz’s Kris Osborn reports, “So far, the Navy has built and delivered two of five planned Mobile Landing Platforms, or MLPs — commercial oil ships re-engineered for military sea-basing and transport missions. In total, the service plans to build five MLPs with the last three termed Afloat Forward Staging Bases, or AFSBs – MLPs designed with a flight deck to support aviation operations. . . . MLP 3 is slated for delivery in the Fall of this year, Dransfield added. A deal for MLP 3, called USNS Lewis B. Puller, was signed in Feb., 2012, Navy officials said. The cost for MLP 3 was estimated by Navy officials to be about $623 million.”
2. Lockheed Martin’s $30 million Hellfire deal. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “Airborne weapons experts at Lockheed Martin Corp. are helping equip the military forces of four Asian with the Hellfire air-to-ground missile under terms of a multi-year contract announced earlier this month. Officials of the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., are awarding a $28.2 million contract to the Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control segment in Orlando, Fla., to provide M299 Hellfire missile launchers to the governments of Korea, Indonesia, Qatar, and Singapore.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. The Spider: CIA’s new director of the National Clandestine Service. The Wall Street Journal’s Damian Paletta reports, “The Central Intelligence Agency has selected a new top spy, tapping an undercover veteran who played a central role in developing personal relationships with Afghan leaders after the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. He remains undercover and is known within the agency as ‘Spider,’ a U.S. official said. His new role will be director of the National Clandestine Service, a position that effectively makes him responsible for all the CIA’s spying activities. Spider’s reputation within the agency is something of a legend.”
2. Future cyber threats. Venture Beat contributor Pedro Bustamante explains, “. . . [C]yber-criminals are investing heavily in software development, designing and deploying tools that can skirt even the strongest defenses. As more such strains emerge, many of the traditional anti-virus solutions currently in place will have to be improved or accompanied by tools that can detect these hard-to-spot infections. This means they’re increasingly difficult to get rid of.”
3. Lesson learned again and again: information sharing increases security. FierceGovernmentIT’s Dibya Sakar reports, “Technology and security experts told a Senate committee Jan. 28 that information sharing among and between the government and the private sector is critical to detect, respond to and prevent increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks from cyber criminals to nation states. While witnesses from the financial and technology sectors also said that information sharing should be balanced against privacy concerns, they said the problem has become particularly acute and alarming.”
4. Tech fashion: wearable boom. Wired’s Mat Honan reports, “. . . Well, wearables are about to explode into an array of novel, single-function devices. They will suit discrete situations rather than peeling off multiple functions from your phone—it’s use-case engineering. Think of activity-specific clothing, like Hexoskin, that monitors workouts. Or medical devices like Vital Connect, a patch that tracks your vital signs and lets doctors access the data. Or earbuds that aren’t quite hearing aids but which you can wear when there’s too much background noise.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Poverty card. “President Obama poked fun at former rival Mitt Romney and leading Republicans on Thursday, saying the GOP’s rhetoric on the economy was ‘starting to sound pretty Democratic.’ At the House Democratic Caucus retreat in Philadelphia, Obama noted that a ‘former Republican presidential candidate’ was ‘suddenly, deeply concerned about poverty.’ ‘That’s great! Let’s go do something about it!’ Obama added in a not-so-veiled jab at Romney, who is now testing the presidential waters and vowing to focus more on the issue of poverty this time around.”
2. Only 23 more to go. “The first month of 2015 hasn’t been easy on any of Capitol Hill’s leaders, with casualties ranging from Harry Reid’s broken facial bones to the GOP’s circular firing squad on abortion, immigration and border security. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell beat back Democratic tactics on the Keystone XL pipeline, only to pass a bill that is highly unlikely to become law. House Speaker John Boehner faces rebellions from both moderates and the right, and members of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s shrunken caucus are complaining that the party’s messaging stinks.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. GOOD READ: “Our Overreaction to Terrorist Attacks Like Paris Is Only Making Things Worse.” Defense One contributor Michael German argues, “The terrorists’ goal is to spread irrational fear and cause costly overreactions that divide society along the lines they choose. Our intelligence officials shouldn’t be helping them.”
2. “Transparency goes on holiday in Afghanistan.” Washington Post contributor Jonathan Carpenter argues, “By classifying once-available information about U.S. efforts in Afghan reconstruction, [Gen. John F. Campbell] has taken the issue of our presence there off the public agenda. As we painfully know, bad things can happen when you are kept in the dark.” See also from Khaama Press, “US military to keep secret the details of aid to Afghan forces.”
3. “Does Obama face the prospect of boots on the ground in Yemen?” Homeland Security News Wire contributor argues, “So far, the U.S. approach in Yemen has been almost entirely dependent on drones and training local forces, but now the pressure is on to extend this to the direct use of Special Forces.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Bipartisan
