CAPITOL HILL: The vice-chiefs of the Army and Marine Corps warned legislators today that sequestration would force the military and the nation to break enlistment contracts with up to 225,000 troops who would have to be precipitately discharged to save money. “We would absolutely not be able to keep faith with our people,” said Gen.… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: The odds keep getting better that the Navy will get two Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines in 2014 instead of one, with senators of both parties chiming in this morning to support yesterday’s pro-sub action by the House, and the Navy’s top acquisition official pointedly did not say no. Congress never liked the plan… Keep reading →

The odds against base closures got a little longer today as a key Senate subcommitee raked Pentagon officials with skeptical questions about the Administration’s request for two more Base Reduction And Closure rounds in 2013 and 2015. Chaired by Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, who has publicly vowed to kill any new BRAC proposal, the Senate… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: The Obama administration’s defense budget raises the risks to American security to an “unacceptable” level, if you believe Sen. Joseph Lieberman and a number of Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. If you believe Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the risks are… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: House and Senate Republicans will team up on pending legislation to spare the Defense Department from a potential $1 trillion budget cut, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon said today. McKeon has been in contact with Senate counterparts who are pitching similar plan to clear the looming $600 billion budget cut off… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: A day after Senate Republicans announced their own plan to cut $1.2 trillion from the national deficit, House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon unveiled a plan of his own. The “Down Payment To Protect National Security Act” calls for a ten percent total cut to the federal workforce spread over 10 years,… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: A Republican plan to spare the Pentagon roughly $500 billion in spending cuts faces rough passage with no guarantee the department could avoid the spending reduction, two defense analysts say. Sens. Kelly Ayotte, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Joe Lieberman and John Kyl will roll out a “substitute” sequestration plan this week. Formal legislation will… Keep reading →

Washington: A bipartisan band of six senators — five of them members of the Senate Armed Services Committee — are questioning the Pentagon’s politically explosive $1 trillion cost estimate in an Aug. 1 letter to Ash Carter, the presumptive deputy secretary of defense. The was made on the last page of the Pentagon latest Selected… Keep reading →

Washington: Sometimes the Pentagon is just too easy to make fun of. While it is filled with Americans good and true who work their rear ends off to help keep us safe, it also has very little idea where the hundreds of billions that it gets from Congress is going. “I’m cautiously optimistic [they can… Keep reading →