A new national security team

Here are some quick comments on the national security moves:

It appears clear to me that Ryan Crocker will be an upgrade over Karl Eikenberry as ambassador to Afghanistan.

As to the other moves, in my mind, Secretary Gates is the finest Secretary of Defense in our history. Mr. Panetta, although talented, probably won't come close to Secretary Gates. Secretary Gates has been fighting the DoD bureaucracy since the beginning of his tenure asking for budget cuts and to spend money on "stuff" we need now, not 20 years from now; he was a visionary. Mr. Panetta, a Washington insider, is not a visionary.

With regards to the GEN Petraeus move, it seems like a lateral move that just allows him to collect his Army retirement check and a paycheck for being CIA Director, while keeping him in the United States with his family (most of the time). This move also keeps him off the ballot, an added benefit to career politicians that view him as a potential threat.

Finally, Lt. Gen. Allen will do a fine job in Afghanistan if his work in Iraq's MNF-W is any indicator.



Here is an excerpt from the article:

Perhaps the greatest risk of the reshuffle comes in Afghanistan, where the departure of Gen. Petraeus will remove America’s most skilled military commander from a campaign that appears to be teetering between success and failure. Lt. Gen. Allen, however, was a key contributor to the successful turnaround of the war in Iraq; and Mr. Crocker offers a major improvement over his predecessor, Karl Eikenberry, who contributed substantially to the souring of U.S. relations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

President Obama's Defense Cuts

I still think that the last thing that should be cut from the DoD budget is manpower. It takes years to build. We can quickly build more planes, bombs, and tanks, but we can't quickly build up end-strength. Unfortunately, both Secretary Gates, who I agree with frequently, and President Obama, feel otherwise. We have a force that is tired and weary; cutting 40,000 of them will only make them more tired as we ask them to do even more.

GEN Petraeus to CIA Director?

I don't quite understand this one... if GEN Petraeus ultimately wants the job of Secretary of Defense, why not just give it to him it when Secretary Gates (pbuh) resigns? Maybe his peer flag officers wouldn't like that? Boo hoo hoo.

Gates: The Pentagon's accountability cop

Too bad he is one of the few accountability cops. I think back to Mario Cuomo's speech in the 1984 Democratic National Convention often. To paraphrase he spoke about President Reagan giving tax breaks to millionaires and buying missiles we couldn't afford. If we are going to cut spending, both parties need to dismantle the military industrial complex as we know it. Not on the personnel front, but in the R&D front where waste is plentiful.

Sources of the DoD spending cuts

Pentagon push to phase out top brass causing much consternation

It's fun to kill Taliban

Good luck General Mattis.

State Dept. faces skyrocketing costs as it prepares to expand role in Iraq

Look at how hard it is to keep funding in place without DoD and the defense industrial complex taking the lead...

Pentagon to cut thousands of jobs

I heart Secretary Gates.

End the Defense Monopolies

How about cutting JSF because there won't be many air-to-air battles in the near future?

Keep Fighting!

"As recently as last month, the DoD [Department of Defense] F-35 team provided positive feedback on the technical and financial performance of the GE/Rolls Royce team,” Rice wrote. “This is not our opinion, but the judgment of the managers of the Joint Strike Fighter office.”

The Joint Strike Fighter Office is made up of colonels who will never be promoted to general and want to get a job along with their military retirement check after 30 years. I'm willing to bet the entire office goes to work for a defense contractor after "retiring" from their Pentagon desk job at colonel. Why would they oppose a program that justifies their existence in the private sector; a job that allows them to be "experts" and get paid $200,000 per year after military retirement. Who cares that ground pounders go through a pair of boots every two weeks in Afghanistan and only receive two pairs per year from the military, they think.

See also:
GE woos Pentagon

General Amos?

This article is right on in suggesting that Amos was chosen to kill the EFV. Sec. Gates (pbuh)!!! However, there is more to this story than meets the eye... plenty is not talked about in the article. ADM Mullen needs to be replaced soon... wouldn't it be nice to have a Chairman with actual ground combat experience relaying the service chiefs' views to the president and making recommendations? That could mean Mattis or Petraeus. This article suggests that Obama is terrified of Petraeus as a potential 2012 opponent - which I think is a rumor created solely by misinformed staffers that think Petraeus is a GOPper because he is a career military officer. Perhaps the president is terrified of him... as... dare I say it, an intellectual peer who is smarter than him? DADT doesn't play a part in this - let bozos like Odierno think that the administration actually cares about DADT... if they did Obama would have signed an executive order on January 20, 2009, ending it.

Gates' Red Carpet

GE and Rolls Royce woo the Pentagon

Once again, the military industrial complex and beholden politicians are making bad decisions. They don't seem to understand that when one door closes, another opens RE: killing this engine. There will be another project...

The GE-Rolls-Royce team is facing an uphill battle at the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Robert Gates has already threatened to recommend that the defense bills be vetoed if they contain funding for the secondary engine.

The fixed-price offer comes less than a month before congressional defense committees are expected to start considering the fiscal 2011 budget, renewing their tug-of-war with the administration over the benefits of having two engines for the Pentagon’s largest fighter jet purchase.

The defense committees have provided funding to develop the secondary engine despite the Pentagon’s efforts to kill it over the last four years.

Gates makes pitch for major reforms of U.S. controls on sensitive exports

Could this be an argument for a nationalization of the defense industry? Can anyone really expect the developed defense industrial complex to ever get together and put profits second to anything (e.g. a modern day Manhattan Project of some sorts for something important)?

Critics for years have made arguments similar to the ones presented by Gates on Tuesday: The present system does not always control the export of dangerous technologies, while restrictions on the trade of some goods that are now widely available in the commercial market only have the effect of hurting U.S. companies.

Each year the government reviews tens of thousands of license applications for export to European Union and NATO countries. In 95 percent of the cases the export is granted. Additionally, many components of a major piece of defense equipment — such as a combat vehicle or aircraft — require their own export licenses, Gates said.

Pratt and Whitney

Northrop Grumman pulls out of tanker deal

Boeing KC-767A

I love how the last paragraphs of the article allude to the most likely reason Northrop Grumman pulled out and Washington-based Boeing will win:

But with Northrop out of the competition, the Pentagon can now "move quickly to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of KC-135 tankers," said Washington Democratic Rep. Norm Dicks, who is in line to replace the late Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) as head of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee.

“I applaud the Northrop Grumman Corp. for its assessment and its decision not to delay the procurement by submitting a bid and requiring the government to conduct another lengthy competition,” Dicks said.

President Obama, Robert Gates not always eye-to-eye on new nukes

This is not surprising, especially since Gates was a big proponent of SDI during the Reagan administration, which, in my mind, is one of his, albeit few, faults.

Too bad they both don't have mustaches. Then they could do battle like this:

Gates orders Air Force and Navy to study joint weapons system

In the weapons field, the QDR talks of expanding the capability of a new Virginia-class nuclear submarine with long-range cruise missiles, and of pressing ahead with the Navy's unmanned combat aerial system, being worked on jointly with the Air Force. The latter is a fighter-size, carrier-launched unmanned vehicle that can be refueled in flight. It would provide intelligence and go on strike missions before returning to the carrier. The goal is to begin flight testing this year and get delivery of the first operational unit in 2015.
Studies are looking also at defensive and offensive advances in the electronic warfare field to protect U.S. weapons systems and disable those of enemies, in space, air or on land. The QDR says that "to counter the spread of advanced surveillance, air defense and strike systems, the department has directed increased investment in selected capabilities for electronic attack."

Borrow a flak vest, Mr. Secretary...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (pbuh) will give a speech to the Air Force Association on Wednesday going into the "lion's den" as Paul Bedard states in the article linked above.