FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Cybersecurity – our new cold war. Contributor D. B. Grady explains, “These are early days yet in a looming game of defense cat-and-mouse, the likes of which the U.S. hasn’t seen since the Cold War. Whether it’s protecting our computers and our navy from electronic warfare, or protecting our domination of the global defense industry, it’s clear that China wants to cut off the United States at the knees. It’s going to fall to U.S. defense contractors make sure that doesn’t happen.”
2. A NRO reconnaissance. Contributor Ashely LaGanga peeks inside the National Reconnaissance Office’s budget request: “The ‘Basic Research’ subproject specifically solicits organizations not normally associated with the intelligence community for their cutting-edge methods and technologies. This includes grants to post-doctoral candidates researching relevant space technologies, and cooperative research contracts with industry, academia and laboratories. For those selected, it affords access to NRO’s revolutionary and classified R&D concepts.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Budget sinking a carrier and its air wing. DefenseNews.Com’s Christopher P. Cavas reports, “The reality of finalizing the fiscal 2015 budget submission is driving top US defense officials and the White House to quickly make major decisions, and indications are growing that the elimination of one carrier and one carrier air wing could be among the defense request’s key features. Pentagon officials would not confirm or deny the matter, citing the fluid nature of budget discussions. But numerous sources — in the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill, in the defense industry — agreed that the prospect is picking up steam.”
2. Geneva II – small steps forward for Syria. Aljazeera.Com reports, “The Syrian government has said women and children can leave besieged areas of the city of Homs in the centre of the country. The announcement came after negotiators from the warring sides discussed humanitarian gestures on a second day of face-to-face talks in the Swiss city of Geneva. The Syrian authorities also agreed to allow humanitarian aid convoys in – as soon as Monday.” AP’s Zeina Karam and Lori Hinnant report from Geneva, “The talks have yet to touch upon the issue of a possible transitional government – their purpose according to terms laid out when they were first conceived. But the government was unequivocal that Assad’s future was assured in the country led by his family since 1970.”
3. US strikes al Shabaab in Puntland. LongWarJournal.Org’s Bill Roggio and Zachary Elkaim report, “A US missile strike today reportedly killed Sahal Iskudhuq, a senior Shabaab commander who served as a high-ranking member of the Amniyat, Shabaab’s intelligence unit. The strike took place after security forces raided Shabaab camps in the northern, semiautonomous region of Puntland.” Reuters’ adds, “Al Shabaab has been weakened by African Union troops over the past two years, ushering in some stability in many parts of the Horn of Africa country after a campaign of cross-border raids and kidnappings of Westerners and security forces.”
4. Early elections in Egypt and taking on terrorism. Aljazeera.Com reports, “Egypt’s interim president, Adly Mansour has announced that Egypt will hold a presidential election before parliamentary polls, changing a political “road map” laid down after the army overthrew Mohamed Morsi last summer. . . . Mansour also said he would increase the number of courts dealing with terrorism charges, to ‘bring perpetrators to justice swiftly.’ Security in Egypt has deteriorated since Morsi’s removal, with bombings now a regular occurrence in Cairo and other major cities.”
5. SecDef’s nuke makeover. American Forces Press Service’s Nick Simeone reports, “A day after ordering an independent review of the military’s nuclear force amid allegations of cheating on proficiency exams by Air Force officers overseeing the nation’s ballistic nuclear missiles, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel today vowed to restore confidence in the Air Force’s nuclear mission. ‘. . . . the Department of Defense and the Air Force will do whatever it takes to continue to ensure the safety, security, reliability and effectiveness of our nuclear enterprise . . . .’”
6. Attacks in Afghanistan. Khaama.Com reports, “A member of the Afghan police opened fire on his fellow policemen and shot dead six of them in western Herat province of Afghanistan. . . . This was the latest insider attack by an Afghan police officer which was carried out almost two weeks after an Afghan local police (ALP) officer stabbed his three comrades to death in southern Uruzgan province of Afghanistan.” Also from Khaama.Com – Karzai’s jail break: “According to reports, the Afghan government has announced to release 37 out of 88 Bagram prisoners, who were marked as dangerous by United States. . . . The US forces in Afghanistan following a statement condemned the ordered release of the prisoners.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk wins. DefenseNews.Com’s Aaron Mehta reports, “The Global Hawk UAV looks to be a big winner in the US Air Force’s fiscal 2015 budget submission, an impressive turn of events for a program the service has spent years attempting to kill. The Global Hawk Block 30 will be funded when President Barack Obama’s budget arrives March 4, said two sources with knowledge of budget discussions. The sources confirmed that funding will come at the expense of the U-2 spy plane, which the Air Force had promoted as a cheaper alternative to the unmanned system. The news was first reported by Aviation Week.”
2. Oman pushes $1.3 billion Raytheon’s way. AZStarnet.Com reports, “Defense contractor Raytheon Co. has won a $1.28 billion contract to supply a missile-defense system to The Sultanate of Oman. The deal, a direct commercial sale of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), includes ground support equipment, a full training package, and technical assistance. Co-developed with Norway’s Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace, the NASAMS has been fielded in Norway for more than a decade and is deployed in the U.S. National Capital Region as well as in Spain, Finland, the Netherlands and Oman.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. A drop in drones, temporarily. NextGov.Com contributor Jordain Carney tallies it up: “the administration has scaled back its use of drones in recent years. Pakistan was the target of 28 drones strikes in 2013, down from a high of 117 in 2010, according to the Long War Journal. The president launched his first strike against Pakistan on Jan. 23, 2009 – his third day in office. . . . The imprecision on exactly how many drones strikes the United States has used, or how many people have been killed, underscores the lack of transparency surrounding the U.S. drone campaign.”
2. Affordable video collaboration: anybody, anywhere, anytime. VentureBeat.Com’s Dean Takahashi reports, “Logitech is launching a new conference camera that turns any meeting room into a video collaboration place. The Logitech ConferenceCam CC3000e will sell for $1,000, which is a lot more than your typical webcam but offers video conferencing capabilities that usually cost $7,000 or more. The company hopes to disrupt more expensive video conference solutions and make video collaboration more mobile across the enterprise.”
3. Artificial Intelligence – Google’s latest acquisition. Time’s Dan Kedmey reports, “Google has declined to comment on its latest acquisition: an obscure artificial intelligence company called DeepMind Technologies, for which it paid $400 million. A Google spokesperson confirmed the deal with technology news website Re/code on Sunday. DeepMind develops machine-learning algorithms for commercial use, a sweet spot for Google, given its growing stake in the likes of self-driving cars and smart thermostats.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. New bypass in the District: “President Barack Obama will work with Congress where he can and circumvent lawmakers where he must, his top advisers warned Sunday in previewing Tuesday’s State of the Union speech. . . . Absent legislative action, the White House is telling lawmakers that the president is ready to take unilateral action to close the gap between rich and poor Americans.”
2. Through the looking glass: “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who led the charge to tie a repeal of Obamacare to the bill to fund the government last year, on Sunday blamed the shutdown on Democrats. ‘Throughout the government shutdown, I opposed a government shutdown. I said we shouldn’t shut down the government . . . . I think it was a mistake that President Obama and the Democrats shut the government down this fall.’”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Time to Get Ready for War in the Robotic Age.” DefenseOne.Com contributors Shawn Brimley and Paul Scharre argue, “The U.S. must begin preparing now for this not-so-distant future. The U.S. must prepare for war in the robotic age. . . . The robotics revolution will happen. Whether U.S. defense policymakers choose to invest in it and compete for leadership in the emerging regime is an open question.”
2. “Not all is lost in Afghanistan.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Omar Samad argues, “It would be a much bigger loss than it already seems to be, as portrayed by the Taliban and their supporters, to discard Afghan goodwill, the spectacular gains made since 2012, the heavy sacrifices offered by many nations, including Afghans, and to ignore the obvious strategic value represented in an Afghan engagement that is properly re-calibrated.”
3. “The World Is Failing Failed States.” USNews.Com contributor Faris Alikhan argues, “While helping states end conflicts and restore political order is a vital first step, it is still just a first step. American policymakers tend to assume that a “transitional government” necessarily entails forward progress. That assumption needs to change. What happens with the bureaucracy is far more important than what happens at the ballot-box.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Dog fight.
3. Drug Wars.
