The Latest Word On Trends And Developments In Aerospace And Defense
Cyber Redux. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, sponsored by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I/D-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), is not dead. The bill is stalled after the Senate rejected, by a six-vote margin, a procedural motion to advance it on the Senate floor on Nov. 14. Yet McConnell says Nov. 15 his “expectation” is that in December, after moving on from the defense and intelligence authorization bills, “we will then attempt to get an agreement on amendments to the cyber security bill.” The GOP is concerned the bill, which calls for creating voluntary standards for companies to follow to protect their networks, would burden businesses. McConnell says that Republicans want “a free and open debate” on the bill, “especially in the areas of information sharing, and providing some degree of liability protection to those companies that do share cyber threat information with one another and the federal government.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had agreed on Nov. 14 to allow debate only on a limited number of amendments. Now McConnell says he wants Reid to work with him to “reach agreement on allowing a debate on cyber security legislation with Republican amendments in order.”
…E-Ring Eyes. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “was disappointed to learn that the Senate failed to move forward on the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, which would have enhanced our nation’s ability to protect itself against cyber threats, which are growing at an alarming rate,” his press secretary, George Little, says in a statement. “Cyber attacks threaten to have crippling effects on America’s critical infrastructure, and on our government and private sector systems. The U.S. defense strategy calls for greater investments in cybersecurity measures, and we will continue to explore ways to defend the nation against cyber threats. New legislation would have enhanced those efforts. If the Congress neglects to address this security problem urgently, the consequences could be devastating.” SASC Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Ranking Member John McCain (R-Ariz.) both talked about offering Pentagon-related amendments to the Cybersecurity Act of 2012.
Cliff Calculation. Congressional leaders strike optimistic tones last Friday after meeting with President Barack Obama about the so-called fiscal cliff of year-end budget issues, including $1.2 trillion in “sequestration” cuts to long-term defense and non-defense spending. Senate Leaders Harry Reid (D-Nev.) tells reporters after the White House gathering that he feels “very good” about the talks. “We have the cornerstones of being able to work something out,” he says. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) references the “framework” he wants that includes tax reforms and savings in entitlement-program spending. “I believe that the framework that I’ve outlined is consistent with the president’s call for a fair and balanced approach,” Boehner says after leaving the White House. Obama insists tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans must expire, something Boehner and other Republicans have resisted. At the outset of the meeting, Obama says: “Our challenge is to make sure that we are able to cooperate together, work together, find some common ground, make some tough compromises, build some consensus to do the people’s business.”
Vets On Hill. At least one dozen newly elected House members are veterans, and a record number of them served in Iraq and Afghanistan, accordinbg to PBS NewsHour, which profiles some of them on Nov. 12. Next year, the House will have more than 100 veterans. The Senate, though, is losing some vets, and its tally of them will drop from 26 to 20 next year. Veterans often eye spots on the House Armed Services Committee.
DoD in Poland. The United States launches its first military presence in Poland, according to the Defense Department. An Air Force attachment will be based at Lask Air Force Base, about 100 miles southwest of Warsaw. F-16 and C-130 units will form the core of the U.S. presence. President Obama and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk agreed to the U.S. presence in Lask during the president’s visit to Poland last year. The detachment will make it easier for U.S. and Polish airmen to increase their interoperability and will enhance military-to-military ties at all levels, according to the Pentagon. Poland has extensive ranges and its airspace is far more open than countries further west, DoD says.
DoD NCR. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in October transfers its National Cyber Range (NCR) to the deputy assistant secretary of defense for developmental test and evaluation, according to a DARPA statement. The NCR provides a secure, self-contained facility where complex defense and commercial networks can be rapidly emulated for cost-effective and timely validation of cyber technologies. DARPA says several large-scale cyber experiments for multiple DoD organizations were executed on the range during a one-year beta operation phase that ended this month. The NCR provides a broad range of uses, such as advanced cyber research and development of new capabilities, analysis of malware, cyber training and exercises and secure cloud computing and storage architecture, among others.
Big Meeting. There’s been a lot of introspection by senior military leaders in the wake of revelations and allegations surrounding retired CIA Director and Army Gen. David Petraeus, says the Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert at the National Press Club Friday. This week the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and service leaders hold a “tank”–a meeting–where they’ll discuss what they know, what the facts are, what matters, and where weaknesses might be. They’ll be looking internally at the services.
…Emerging Challenges. Since Greenert took over as CNO 14 months ago, some challenges have emerged that have engaged his attention. At the luncheon, he says: sexual assault troubles him as a safety and readiness issue. The sea-service is working on a strategy to combat it and it will get “my full attention,” he says. Another concern is to stem a suicide rate that keeps increasing. Additionally the operational tempo is higher than planned and the service is looking into that as well as manning at sea, what he calls “itempo,” for individual tempo. Also, the Navy is looking into “taking care of electro-magnetic hygiene,” figuring out what frequencies it uses, how much energy it puts out, and how it is measured. Greenert says a lot of potential adversaries have systems that measure those sorts of things.
Big Target. Cuts will be coming in force structure, says Maren Leed, senior adviser, Harold Brown Chair in Defense Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), during a Friday live streaming Defense and Debt event on Internet. Leed says, “I think the Army’s the target,” since it has not made a lot of structure cuts. Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno has said in the past he’d rather maintain the balance between investment, readiness and manning rather than protect end strength, she says. Budget cuts will not be pretty for the land force, she says, “they are the big target.”
…Cuts Are Coming. David Berteau, director, International Security Program at CSIS, says even under any “escape” from sequestration, it is likely that there would be “a minimum, I think, of $30 billion to $40 billion dollars a year coming out of defense.”
…Bankable Savings. Considering force structure, there are two ways to put money in the bank, CSIS’ Clark Murdock, senior adviser and director, Defense and National Security Group, says at the event. “Stop paying people” and let them go, or cut acquisition programs. There’s a tradeoff between “treating people decently and the amount of money you save,” he says. Cutting people saves the most money but it’s “not a good way to treat high quality people” in an all-volunteer force, he says.
New Board Member. Jamestown Foundation says retired Adm. Timothy Keating joins the board of the independent, non-partisan research institution. Keating serves several organizations as an international consultant, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a board member of a number of corporate and nonprofit entities.