Posts Tagged ‘dod’

DoD spokesman: The sky is not falling in Afghanistan

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

During a press breifing at the Pentagon, Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell says that the situation in Afghanistan is “not precarious, not urgent; the sky is not falling in Afghanistan,” and says that the strategic combat reserves will not be deployed to supplement troops in Afghanistan. (0:37)

 
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Gates: troops in Afghanistan sooner rather than later

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

During a press conference at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says that the Defense Department is working hard to find opportunities to send more troops to Afghanistan “sooner rather than later.” (0:50)

 
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Mullen: Afghanistan and Pakistan secruity linked

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says that there can’t be discssion on the security of Afghanistan withou talking about Pakistan. He calls for a plan and strategy to deal with Pakistan. (0:33)

 
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Commander in Iraq: U.S. forces in Iraq doing more with less

Monday, June 23rd, 2008

Gen. Lloyd Austin, Commander of Multinational Corps Iraq and second in command of U.S. forces there says that the coalition has been trying to fight currently battles while reducing the size of the force there as surge brigades leave. (0:46)

 
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DOD has “failed the war fighter”

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

At a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting to discuss the acquisition of major weapons systems by the Department of Defense, Katherine Schinasi of the Government Accountability Office says that the DOD has “failed the war fighter” by delivering capability late and in fewer quantities than planned. She also said that when equipment is delivered, it is not what is needed for current operations. (0:18)

 
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Senator explains why DOD programs continue to fail

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

At a Senate Armed Services Committee meeting to discuss the acquisition of major weapons systems by the Department of Defense, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) says that DOD cost overruns happen because of “fundamental flaws that are built into our acquisitions system.” He said that DOD acquisition programs fail because of unreasonable cost and schedule estimates, unrealistic performance expectations, immature technologies, and costly changes to program requirements while they are in progress. (0:32)

 
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Defense Department may be wasting your tax dollars

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

The Senate Armed Services Committee held a meeting to discuss weapon acquisition programs in the U.S. Department of Defense. Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said that immature weapon expenditures have led to cost inefficiencies, and cited that nearly half of DOD’s 95 acquisition programs surpassed Congress’s cost growth standards and have exceeded their budgets by an average of 40 percent. He called for an independent cost assessment director in the DOD in order to ensure that budget decisions are “fair, unbiased, and reliable.”
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Allan Shaffer says there is still much to accomplish with our non-conventional warfare methods

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

At the House Armed Services Committee Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee hearing on “The FY2009 National Defense Authorization Budget Request – Department of Defense Science and Technology: Responding to the 21st Century Irregular Warfare Threat Environment,” Allan Shaffer, principle deputy director of Defense Research and Engineering at the Defense Department, says over the last two years we have begun to reshape the investment of the department to work on programs in non-conventional areas, such as biometrics, human social modeling, locating tagging and tracking, surveillance, and cyber protection. While we are currently well positioned to support the force, he says, there is still much to accomplish. (:45)

 
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House Armed Services Committee hearing on Irregular Warfare

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

At the House Armed Services Committee Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee hearing on “The FY2009 National Defense Authorization Budget Request – Department of Defense Science and Technology: Responding to the 21st Century Irregular Warfare Threat Environment,” Congressman William Thornberry (R-TX) said tomorrow’s national security depends on the technology of today. He said he was not pleased with a 4% increase in the budget request because of the rate of change in the world, which he called “extraordinary.” To keep up with and do something about the technological changes requires a significant investment in science and technology. (more…)

Senator Dorgan Outraged by the Denial of KRB and The Pentagon

Monday, March 10th, 2008

At the press conference today. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) talks about the KRB and its failure to provide the soldiers with clean water in Iraq. He is outraged, yet remains curious, by the fact that the military and the contractors denied the allegations. He seems to seek for answers as to why the military lied about the allegations, when they already were aware of the facts, at a hearing last year. (0:48)

 
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