Tag: Pentagon

James Mattis, fabled Marine general and newly appointed secretary of defense, wasted no time getting to work after being approved for the role in a near-unanimous 98-1 vote following President Trump’s inauguration on Friday. Mattis arrived at the Pentagon on Saturday morning, marking his first visit to the site under his authority, but would not […]

Pentagon test director Michael Gilmore reported to Congress that he expects the F-35 to slip months behind on initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E). The F-35 was originally supposed to begin IOT&E in August of 2017 but now it is forecast to not begin until late 2018 or even 2019. Gilmore stated that early production models of […]

This article previously published by SOFREP 12.09.2013 Retired General T. Michael “Buzz” Moseley, who, you will recall from my last post, jumped into the sequestration dialogue again, this time stating it’s time to give the A-10 the axe. The Air Force, considering “divesting” entire mission sets, has stated eliminating the A-10s would save approximately $3.5 […]

The Pentagon has established a “red team” to address considerable shortcomings with the F-35C, the carrier-based naval variant of the most expensive weapons project in history. The F-35, subject to cost overruns and delays throughout its production, reached an initial state of military readiness with its Air Force and Marine variants in 2016, but the Navy’s […]

Washington, D.C. – A leading Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee has requested a copy of a Pentagon report that identified $125 billion in administrative waste. The 2015 report, first identified in a report by The Washington Post, purportedly contains recommendations to streamline and reduce the Department of Defense’s administrative bureaucracy and to reinvest […]

Washington, D.C. – In what was billed as the final major national security address of his administration, President Barack Obama took a victory lap for his counterterrorism achievements in remarks made to Special Operations and Central Command officials at MacDill Air Force Base. The Dec. 6 speech also doubled a thinly veiled rebuttal to the […]

Washington, D.C. – A leading think tank told the Senate Armed Services Committee Dec. 6 that the incoming Trump Administration should undertake an assessment of special operations forces as part of any new counterterrorism strategy. The incoming Trump administration will have the burden to ensure SOF is enveloped into the Pentagon structure appropriately with new […]

It takes what feels like an eternity for the Pentagon to adopt new technology. Often a system is already outdated by the time it is ready for combat. “It takes us a really long time to build anything new, usually between five to eight years for new technology to get to our warfighters,” Col. Bruce […]

The Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) is the principal defense policy advisor to the President. Under the direction of the President, the Secretary exercises authority, direction, and control over the Department of Defense. The Secretary of Defense is not a Joint Chiefs of Staff on steroids. It’s a policy implementation role, final authority, and principal liaison to the […]

Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s new proposal to relax the military’s recruiting standards for fitness and body composition is fraught with potential problems both politically and practically, observers say. Carter floated the idea during a speech in New York on Tuesday, suggesting current recruiting standards may be “overly restrictive” and result in the military rejecting people […]

The Islamic State relies on religious precedence to absolve responsibility for the individual and group. As such, they’re finding authority to run from the battle. Nearly everything that the Islamic State does, in their view, has some kind of canonical precedent. They wish to create their own currency, based on the Quranic meaning of currency, […]

A great many of media reports have exposed a recent development in the military world, a develop that has many outraged. Because soldiers are being forced to repay their bonuses, with interest, that were awarded in wartime. The Pentagon is asking for its soldiers to repay them for wartime bonuses they originally gave. It’s unthinkable […]