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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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)
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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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)
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…)
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)
