Friday Finale & This Time Last Year
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Defense discrimination: gender. Editor Lindy Kyzer reports, “83% of female respondents had experienced discrimination or witnessed it firsthand. . . . 145 respondents provided written responses outlining examples of discrimination, from pay disparity to inappropriate comments about attire. Here is a sampling of just a few of the comments from women . . . .”
2. Back-to-work cleared moms. Contributor Ana Sherman offers, “In the cleared world, maternity leave is often non-existent or extremely short at best, so how do you throw yourself back into the working world when you’re pretty sure you haven’t had enough time to throw yourself together? It’s certainly not easy, but there are a few steps you can take to make the transition as painless as possible . . . .”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Ash Carter’s March madness. Defense Media Activity’s Jim Garamone reports, “Defense Secretary Ash Carter called for a ‘full-court press’ within government to tackle the pressing national security issues of the day. . . . The secretary stressed that most of the national security issues facing America require resources from a number of different agencies working together. Diplomatic, economic, information and military aspects must be fully integrated for U.S. policies to succeed, he said. Cuts in the State Department budget, for example, affect the Defense Department and vice versa . . . .”
2. Goldwater-Nichols under review. Breaking Defense’s Colin Clark reports, “Sen. John McCain plans a long-term review of the law underpinning the modern American military, the Goldwater-Nichols legislation . . . . ‘The Committee will be conducting a preliminary examination of the structure, roles, and missions of civilian and military organizations within the (Defense) Department. That will set the stage for a broader review of these issues starting after this year’s NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) and extending into next year, many of which are tied directly to Goldwater-Nichols Act’ . . . .”
3. Joint Arab military force. AP’s Hamza Hendawi reports, “Arab leaders meeting this weekend in this Egyptian Red Sea resort are moving closer than ever to creating a joint Arab military force, a sign of a new determination among Saudi Arabia, Egypt and their allies to intervene aggressively in regional hotspots, whether against Islamic militants or spreading Iranian power. Creation of such a force has been a longtime goal that has eluded Arab nations in the 65 years . . . .”
4. After the war. The Atlantic offers, “At the end of World War II, huge swaths of Europe and Asia had been reduced to ruins. Borders were redrawn and homecomings, expulsions, and burials were under way. But the massive efforts to rebuild had just begun. When the war began in the late 1930s, the world’s population was approximately 2 billion. In less than a decade, the war between the Axis the Allied powers had resulted in 80 million deaths – killing off about 4 percent of the whole world. . . .”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. General Dynamics’ T-100 crash and burn. Defense News’s Aaron Mehta reports, “General Dynamics Information Systems & Technology has withdrawn itself as the prime contractor on the T-100, the offering for the T-X trainer replacement program based on the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 design. The decision, revealed in a company statement to Defense News, calls into question the future viability of the T-100 bid just a week after the Air Force released its final program requirements.”
2. Navy targets Progeny Systems Corp. with turbo-defense proposal. Military & Aerospace Electronics Editor John Keller reports, “Navy undersea warfare experts are asking engineers at Progeny Systems Corp. in Manassas, Va., to build torpedo-defense systems for the Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine fleet under terms of a $6.8 million contract modification announced this month. Officials of the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington are asking Progeny Systems to provide the AN/WLY-1 system, AN/WSQ-9 interface kits, intercept and ranging systems, archival media center kits, and swinger kits systems and spares.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Clapper: Cyber vulnerabilities persist. FierceGovernmentIT’s Stephanie Kanowitz reports, “Although the possibility of a catastrophic cyberattack is remote, the unclassified information and communication technology networks that support government, military, commercial and social activities remain vulnerable despite efforts to protect them, the national intelligence director said. To that end, the chance for ongoing low- to moderate-level attacks from myriad sources is more likely, causing ‘cumulative costs on US economic competitiveness and national security’ . . . .” Read Clapper’s testimony.
2. Interceptor crop blossoming this spring. Venture Beat’s Barry Levine reports, “All of the mysterious cell phone towers in the U.S. can now be pinpointed. But most of them are not the U.S. government’s. . . . The towers are called IMSI catchers, for the International Mobile Subscriber Identity that is attached to every cell phone. They mimic legitimate cell towers and reroute nearby cell transmissions through them. But they’re not phone company equipment.”
3. DARPA’s cybersecurity competition. Nextgov’s Aliya Sternstein reports, “Next month, unmanned computers all over the globe will face off in a dress rehearsal for a Las Vegas hacking tournament run by the U.S. military. The $2 million ‘Cyber Grand Challenge’ pits hacker-fighting software against malicious code programmed by Pentagon personnel. During the 2016 finals in Vegas, the humans who built these cyberbots might as well go play blackjack.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. A bipartisan deal. “The House on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to repeal automatic payment cuts to doctors under Medicare, endorsing a rare bipartisan deal that Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) negotiated with Democrats. The bill, which passed by a vote of 392-37, puts Congress on the precipice of ending a fight nearly two decades old over a formula known as the sustainable growth rate (SGR).”
2. GOP infighting. “The 2016 Republican nomination contest spilled onto the Senate floor Thursday, turning a marathon budget debate into a battle over which candidate is prepared to lead the country at a time of war. Four GOP senators are trying to gain the upper hand on the commander-in-chief test — Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham — and their competition was on vivid display as the Senate took up a Rubio plan to pump tens of billions of dollars more into the Pentagon budget.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “A Dangerous Escalation in Iraq.” The New York Times’ Editorial Board argues, “Relief aid, including electricity and water, should be delivered immediately to Tikrit. The militias must be marginalized or their fighters integrated into Iraqi institutions like the army and the police so that they serve the state rather than a warlord or faction.”
2. “A new generation of Saudi leaders — and a new foreign policy.” Washington Post contributor Nawaf Obaid argues, “While this list of problems appears daunting, a new era is dawning in the Middle East. . . . The Saudi doctrine is premised on reinforcing these geo-economic realities while pushing Iran’s weakened ability to project power abroad to the point of breaking.”
3. “A New Day in US-Afghan Relations, But for How Long?” Defense One contributor Gayle Tzemach Lemmon argues, “So at the end of the week, while the symbolism ruled this visit, the substance did indeed sit just behind it. And so did the reality that try as some might want to turn a new page and truly end America’s longest war, on-the-ground realities are conspiring to intervene and stop that from happening.”
THE FUNNIES
2. Hard mouth.
3. The sequel.
