It’s finally over. The Senate has confirmed Chuck Hagel as the next Secretary of Defense, and now he can get down to the business of guiding the department through fiscal austerity, working with incoming CIA director to solidify control over paramilitary activities and deal with the aftermath of Wikileaks.
ON FORCE
DARPA is developing the X-Plane, a $150M handful of awesomeness that will be everything the Osprey isn’t.
The Joint Chiefs have begun laying out immediate and long-term effects of sequestration.
The White House is considering providing lethal aid to the Syrian rebels, including armored cars, 4WD vehicles and body armor.
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
Jake Sullivan, a former Clinton hand, will move to the White House to assume the duties of national security adviser to Vice President Biden.
The government of Washington, D.C. isn’t pleased the government of Fairfax County is making Springfield, Va. such an attractive location for the new FBI headquarters, and will launch an independent study.
ON TECH
The Pentagon has no idea what the hard stats are on Taliban membership, locations or attacks due to a clerical error that stated they were declining.
The Pentagon announced the release of the Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan.
DefenseNews, with more on DoD’s new secured commerical mobile programs:
The U.S. Defense Department on Tuesday released its plan for speeding departmentwide adoption of secure classified and unclassified mobile devices, mobile applications, and personal smartphones and tablet computers.
The plan provides a roadmap for carrying out DoD’s mobile strategy released in June. The goal is to establish wireless voice, video and data capabilities across DoD by October 2013.
“The Department of Defense is taking a leadership role in leveraging mobile device technology by ensuring its workforce is empowered with mobile devices,” Teri Takai, DoD’s chief information officer, said in a news release.
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) will play a prominent role in implementing the plan, which calls for a 90-day approval cycle for mobile devices and operating systems used across the department, guidance for the use of personally owned mobile devices within DoD’s environment, and the creation of a program office within DISA by fiscal 2014 to oversee procurement and operation of a mobile device management capability and mobile services to DoD, Takai said in a Feb. 15 memo released Tuesday.
“The goal is an operating system that we can use on the unclassified and leverage onto the classified with security built into it,” John Hickey, program manager for DoD mobility at DISA, said at a press conference for the plan Tuesday morning. “The biggest difference between the unclassified and the classified is that you have a second layer of encryption.”
ON SECRECY – OR LACK THEREOF
A member of Naval Special Warfare Development Group will testify against Bradley Manning and state that upon entering bin Ladin’s residence in Pakistan, they found documents Wikileaks helped facilitate the release of.
General Dynamics is testing a vehicle meant for both land and water travel near Charleston, S.C. Spokesman for General Dynamics, Tommy Pruitt, stated that the newly designed vehicle is not manufactured in General Dynamic’s Force Protection plant will be tested March 4 and April 20, in fresh water at a local boat landing. The exact location of the testing site will not be revealed.
Robert Caruso is a veteran of the United States Navy, and has worked for the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, Business Transformation Agency and the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
