It’s Friday! & Annoy your colleagues with a Black Friday
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Double dip demise. Contributor Jennifer Cary explains, “More than half of the DoD’s budget goes toward pay and benefits for its personnel, which makes it an easy target for budget cuts. According to the Office of Personnel Management, more than 134,000 military retirees held DoD civilian jobs as of last March, which means this change has the potential to save large sums of money.”
2. Contracting on the project-cost tight wire. Contributor Jillian Hamilton advises, “These days, project cost is a major factor. In fact, it’s often the standout factor for winning a contract or getting follow-on work. It’s a delicate balancing act between being competitive, and being profitable, however.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Red dawn in Crimea, maybe. Haaretz.Com reports, “Armed men took control of two airports in the Crimea region on Friday in what Ukraine’s government described as an invasion and occupation by Russian forces, stoking tension between Moscow and the West. But Russia’s Black Sea fleet, which is based in the region, denied its forces were involved in seizing one of the airports . . . .” Reuters says, “Interior Minister Arsen Avakov accused Russian naval forces of taking over a military airport near the port of Sevastopol, where the Black Sea fleet has its base . . . .” AP reports, “The Russian foreign ministry refused to comment while a spokesman for the Russian defense ministry also had no comment . . . .” And Time reports, “Former Ukrainian strongman President Viktor Yanukovych, who has been lying low since being ousted by protests last week, is reportedly preparing to give a press conference from inside Russia later today.”
2. al Qaeda poised for Afghanistan. AP’s Kimberly Dozier reports, “Al-Qaida’s Afghanistan leader is laying the groundwork to relaunch his war-shattered organization once the United States and international forces withdraw from the country, as they have warned they will do without a security agreement from the Afghan government, U.S. officials say. . . . The reports give added ammunition to a comprehensive intelligence analysis on Afghanistan completed in December. The report predicted the country will largely disintegrate along ethnic lines after the U.S. departs, with the central government controlling Kabul and a few other key cities.” Khaama.Com reports, “NATO planning all possible outcomes for troops pullout from Afghanistan.” And DefenseOne.Com’s Stephanie Gaskell reports, “Karzai Blasts Dempsey Over ‘Zero Option’ Remarks.”
3. DoD Budget cuts like a knife. DefenseNews.Com’s Michelle Tan reports, “A senior defense official says the US Army and Defense Department are being unfairly vilified in the media over military budget cuts when Congress is really to blame. ‘Congress is the one that passed the law that put sequestration into place,’ the senior official told Army Times. The official requested anonymity in order to speak candidly. ‘Sequestration is bad. We’ve got to get rid of sequestration. What the Army and DoD leadership is trying to do, within the constraints, is give you the best [military] we can. We don’t want to cut.’”
4. Military Sexual Assault, PTS-D, and Suicide. National Journal’s Stacy Kaper reports, “As Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand keeps hitting roadblocks in her effort to bring her military sexual-assault bill to a vote, she opened a new dimension in the debate Wednesday while continuing to apply pressure for her legislation. Gillibrand focused attention on the issue by convening a hearing on the relationship between military sexual assaults and suicide and post-traumatic stress disorder before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Personnel Subcommittee, which she chairs.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. More Small-Business contracts—GOP. GovExec.Com’s Charles S. Clark reports, “The federal goal for steering contracts to small businesses would rise from 23 percent to 25 percent of an agency’s awards under legislation introduced on Wednesday by the chairman of the House Small Business Committee. A related bill to require greater transparency in bundled contracts to help small businesses better compete with large contractors also was placed in the hopper. Both came days after the Government Accountability Office critiqued the Obama administration’s follow-up assessment on measuring progress toward set-aside contracts for qualified small businesses.”
2. F-35: good things come to those who wait, maybe. AviationWeek.Com’s Amy Butler reports, “F-35 activities planned to take place after the program’s development phase ends in 2016 could slip by up to six months, according to U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, program executive officer for the stealthy fighter. . . . A potential choke point in testing the software is what is concerning him. In the 3F package, Lockheed Martin is required to deliver an unprecedented level of fusion among various data feeds for the aircraft. Among them are inputs from offboard sensors, including other aircraft and satellites.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Sky Shield in Israel. Haaretz.Com contributor Gili Cohen reports, “Israel has successfully completed final testing on a system that protects commercial planes from missile attacks, the defense ministry announced on Wednesday. Testing of the Sky Shield system was ‘100 percent successful,’ according to Brig. Gen. Eitan Eshel, head of research and development at the ministry. The system integrates laser technology with a thermal camera to protect aircraft against missiles fired from the ground. It deflects missiles fired at aircraft by changing their direction.”
2. NSA IG – if you only knew. NextGov.Com’s Conor Friedersdorf reports that “it must be a tough time to be George Ellard, the NSA’s inspector general. The entity that he heads declares itself ‘the independent agent for individual and organizational integrity’ within the NSA. “Through professional inspections, audits, and investigations,’ its website adds, ‘we work to ensure that the Agency respects Constitutional rights, obeys laws and regulations, treats its employees and affiliates fairly, and uses public resources wisely.’ Since taking his post in 2007, Ellard has scarcely made a public statement. This week, however, he participated in a conference at Georgetown, and while efforts were reportedly made to keep his press exposure to a minimum, his remarks have been reported.”
3. Robots – at your service. VentureBeat.Com’s Barry Levine reports, “Knightscope said, K5 can ‘see, feel, hear, and smell.’ And scan for crime. The portly fellow can run 300 license plates in a minute, analyze social media for tips on nearby security threats, or recognize threatening gestures. Its arsenal includes day and night 360-degree video, infrared and thermal scanning, proximity sensors, radar for real-time 3D mapping, and optical character recognition.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Sticks and Stones: “Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told a gathering of Tea Party conservatives that those affiliated with the movement need to watch what they say, alluding to his recent criticism of right-wing rocker Ted Nugent. ‘In order for us to be a bigger party, we have to reach out to more people, not just those of us here. It has to be a bigger party, it has to be a bigger movement,’ Paul said at a Tea Party Patriots event in Washington, D.C. . . . ‘We can disagree with the president without calling him names,’ Paul said on Thursday. ‘I disagree almost all the time, but I don’t call him names and I am polite to him when I meet him.”
2. Sanctum sanctorum: “A protest group has posted surreptitious videos prepared inside the Supreme Court during oral arguments, one of them showing an audience member standing to denounce the court’s decision in the Citizens United campaign finance case. The videos, which are brief and shaky, represent a major breach of Supreme Court security. Visitors to the courtroom pass through metal detectors and are told they may not bring electronic devices into the courtroom. The court has never allowed camera coverage of its proceedings.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Al-Qaeda: The third generation?” Aljazeera.Com contributors Abdulaziz Alhies and Hamza Mustafa argue in Part II of their study, “With the passage of time, perhaps every phenomenon is likely to mutate and generate different copies of itself. This is precisely the case with al-Qaeda. In its third generation, one can clearly see two al-Qaeda mutants co-existing – one (al-Nusra) marginally better, the other (ISIS) much worse than the original al-Qaeda organisation.”
2. “Russia’s Options for Intervention in Ukraine.” Time contributor Dr. Andrew Foxall argues, “While the prospect of Moscow sending its tanks into Kiev remains distant, there are three primary options at Russia’s disposal if it wants to exert its influence in Ukraine. . . . Nobody stands to gain from an escalation of tensions in Ukraine, but that does not mean Russia will not push Ukraine to the precipice in an attempt to keep it within its sphere of influence. Should this occur, however, Europe and the West need to be prepared to match Russia each step of the way.”
3. “New Horizons For Aerospace Suppliers.” AviationWeek.Com contributor Kevin Michaels argues, “The fact that two of these four popular aerospace clusters are in high-labor-cost countries underscores the new realities of aerospace investment. A recent multi-industry survey concluded that 28% of new manufacturing investments in 2012-14 would be in high-labor-cost countries—up 15% from just a few years earlier. The new imperative for aerospace supply chains is not offshoring or reshoring, but ‘rightshoring.’”
THE FUNNIES
2. Sacred cows.
3. Gift horses.
