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KABUL -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was feared to have been the target of a suicide attack at Camp Bastion on Wednesday as he arrived in Afghanistan. A vehicle got on to the runway and burst into flames as Panetta's plane landed at the sprawling British base. Panetta was flying into Afghanistan just days after a US soldier went on the rampage in the country, killing 16 Afghan civilians. But as his plane was landing a vehicle appeared on the runway and subsequently caught fire. Sources at the scene claim it was a suicide attack -- but those allegations have...

The USS Medgar Evers? The USS John Murtha? The USS Cesar Chavez? Our Navy Secretary, Ray Mabus, has this diversity thing down cold. Each one of those ships was in a class that previous names of their sister ships had nothing to do with civil rights, or corrupt Democratic politicians. Ships are usually named after states, cities, even famous explorers and war heroes. But Mabus has injected partisanship into this tradition, naming another ship for Democrat Gabriel Giffords, who has shown courage in her recovery from an assassination attempt but had expressed little interest in the military during her career...

..WASHINGTON (AP) — The Navy has named a ship for Gabrielle Giffords, the recently retired congresswoman from Arizona who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the head received in January 2011. In a ceremony at the Pentagon, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus unveiled an artist's rendering of the USS Gabrielle Giffords. The littoral combat ship is among the Navy's most versatile and can operate in shallower coastal waters than larger ships. Mabus said: "God bless the USS Gabrielle Giffords and all who sail in her." Mabus also announced that the ship's "sponsor" is Roxanna Green. She's the mother of Christina-Taylor...

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Marine Gen. James F. Amos, the face of opposition in the military to lifting the ban on gays serving openly, now acknowledges his concern has proven unfounded that repeal would undermine the war effort. In fact, he says, Marines have embraced the change. In an Associated Press interview, Amos called the repeal in September "a non-event."

<p>PENSACOLA NAVAL AIR STATION, Fla. — The Navy's Blue Angels have been thrilling audiences for more than six decades with their acrobatic flying in fighter planes, but a new era of federal budget worries and proposed deficit cutting has some inside and outside the military raising questions about the millions it costs to produce their shows.</p>

According to an explosive document, investigators from the U.S. military’s top investigative office found evidence that a Pentagon survey pivotal to the [DADT] repeal was engineered months prior to its release, and was deliberately skewed in later media leaks, with the intention of swaying Congress towards repeal despite opposition from combat troops. An unredacted version of the April 2011 report by the Defense department’s Inspector General was leaked to the conservative Center for Military Readiness, and a slightly redacted version was confirmed as authentic by a Defense spokesperson to LifeSiteNews.com. The authors found that Jeh Johnson, a co-chair of the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pentagon chief Leon Panetta has decided to end the ban on gays serving openly in the armed services and certify that repealing the 17-year-old prohibition will not hurt the military's ability to fight, officials said Thursday. His decision, which was expected, comes two weeks after the chiefs of the military services told Panetta that ending the ban would not affect military readiness.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to certify that gays can serve openly in the armed services

(Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates bluntly told Marines on Sunday that they won't be able to opt out of their enlistment just because they disagree with a government decision to end a ban on gays serving openly in the military. Gates, who is on a tour of Afghanistan to bid farewell to the troops before stepping down at the end of the month, was quizzed by a Marine sergeant about the controversial policy during a question and answer session at a base in southwestern Helmand Province.

On Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates released a long-awaited Pentagon working-group report on the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy enacted under President Bill Clinton. Most troops, the review found, would not object to a repeal. Some troops made strong arguments in favor of repeal. As one service member noted, "We need all available men and women who are willing to serve their country, no matter what their sexual orientation is." Another said, "We shouldn't turn people away because of things they do in their private life." One gay service member noted that a repeal would "take a...

Signaling the growing seriousness of the Obama administration's commitment this year to ending the military's ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces, the Defense Department said Sunday that it will release a long-awaited report on the matter earlier than planned because senators are eager to vote on whether to repeal the policy. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has ordered the report to be released on Nov. 30, one day earlier than planned, "to support Congress's wish to consider repeal before they adjourn," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Sunday. The Senate is slated to vote again on a defense...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has no plans to stay on at the Pentagon through the end of President Obama’s first term in office. Gates, whose service now spans one Republican and one Democratic administration, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday that he has already made up his mind about his departure date, but refused to disclose any more details. Gates told Foreign Policy magazine earlier this year that the logical point for his departure would be in 2011 to give the president enough time to pick the appropriate successor before the 2012 reelection season starts in earnest. “Having a...

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell confirmed to the Pentagon press corps that Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Florida pastor Terry Jones this afternoon to express his “grave concerns” about a planned Koran burning because it could place US military lives at risk. Morrell said Gates placed a call between 4 and 4:30 p.m. today and engaged the pastor in a “very brief conversation." "The Secretary expressed his grave concerns to the pastor that going forward with the Koran burning would put the lives of American servicemembers at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan and he urged him not to proceed...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates frequently makes the point that Congress funds Defense Department personnel far more easily than it does State Department employees. "There are about 6,000 FSOs," or Foreign Service officers, he told an audience in San Francisco this month. He drew laughter when he added that former secretary of state "Condi Rice used to say, 'We have more people in military bands than they have in the Foreign Service.' She was not far wrong." Well, maybe Gates should take a closer look at those military bands during his campaign to trim defense spending. My interest was triggered...

Sec. Gates's exit sparks talk of Hillary Clinton taking over at the Pentagon. Speculation in the nation's capital on who will replace Robert Gates at the Pentagon has centered on an intriguing possibility: Hillary Clinton. Gates told Foreign Policy magazine that he wants to step down as secretary of Defense sometime in 2011. A Republican, Gates was the only member of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet to stay on under Obama. “It would be a mistake to wait until January 2012 [to leave],” Gates said. “This is not the kind of job you want to fill in the spring of...

Virginia officials reacted with bipartisan dismay on Monday to Defense Department budget shifts that will cost the state thousands of jobs in coming years and will dramatically impact the economies of the Norfolk area and Northern Virginia. Most of the immediate reaction revolved around Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's proposal to close the U.S. Joint Forces Command. It is a major employer in Hampton Roads, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach, whose elimination could translate into the loss of 6,100 military, civilian and contractor jobs in the region. But a proposal to slash the Pentagon's budget for military contractors over the...

WASHINGTON -- Officials briefed on the decision say Defense Secretary Robert Gates plans to eliminate a major military command in Norfolk, Va., and try to cut the Pentagon's use of outside contractors by 10 percent next year. The plan was to be announced at a Pentagon press conference on Monday. It is part of a broader effort to trim $100 billion from the military's mammoth budget in the next five years, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin to wind down and Congress turns its attention more to domestic priorities.

All that mattered Wednesday was the mission. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal deserved to be fired for the contemptuous remarks that he and members of his staff made to a reporter about President Obama and his national security team. But Obama would have been justified in sticking with McChrystal if, in the president's estimation, firing General Loose Lips would have done significant harm to the mission -- achieving our nation's goals in Afghanistan. Fortunately, Obama struck on a way to do what's best for the United States -- reaffirm the primacy of civilian command over the military -- without compromising the...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates will recommend that Gen. James Amos become the next commandant of the Marine Corps, according to a report in Tuesday's Washington Post. The newspaper quoted an anonymous military source saying that Gates passed over former Camp Pendleton Gen. James Mattis as well as Lt. Gen. Joseph Dunford, head of the base's I Marine Expeditionary Force. The newspaper said that Gates would submit the Amos nomination to President Barack Obama in a few days, and that he also will recommend that Dunford be elevated to assistant commandant. Amos, currently assistant commandant, would be the first commandant to...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signaled that the long-awaited and seriously over-budget Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV) may be the next high-profile project scrapped — the latest in a series of moves meant to streamline the Pentagon’s budget and refocus the military on future challenges. The EFV, an amphibious armored troop transport, was designed to replace the tired AAV-7A1, a 1970s-era vehicle that has had its service life extended several times as the Marine Corps has sought a replacement. Both vehicles occupy a specific niche that few vehicles in the world can (or try) to match. They are purpose-designed to transport...

In his first speech to the Navy League, Defense Secretary Robert Gates laid out a grim portrait of a smaller fleet, one with fewer aircraft carriers, few or no new submarines and a sharply curtailed expeditionary capability for the Marines. Gates told a somber audience today that he did “not foresee any significant top-line increases in the shipbuilding budget beyond current assumptions. At the end of the day, we have to ask whether the nation can really afford a Navy that relies on $3 to $6 billion destroyers, $7 billion submarines, and $11 billion carriers.” On top of that, as...

It was one of the most significant developments in the Obama presidency. We refer to the leak last week of an explosive top secret memo sent in January by the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to President Obama's national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, deploring the lack of planning concerning Iranian nuclear aspirations should the administration's much ballyhooed outreach approach fail. In itself, the memo's conclusion is nothing less than stunning - a senior official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, characterized the document as "a wake-up call." Yet the very fact that this highly classified analysis was leaked...

CSPAN video featuring Defense Secretary Gates on revamping the US Export Control System in a very big way. The video may be viewed Here

WASHINGTON, March 2, 2010 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates today released the guidelines and parameters of a Defense Department review of the so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law in preparation for its potential repeal. The 10-month review should include input from service chiefs and all levels of the force and their families, Gates said in a memo to Army Gen. Carter F. Ham, commander of U.S. Army Europe, who was chosen to head the effort along with Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon’s top lawyer. Gates established the review Feb. 2, saying it would be critical to ensuring a smooth transition...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2010 – Female sailors will begin serving on submarines by the end of next year, with Naval Academy graduates leading the way, Navy leaders told a Senate committee yesterday. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Navy is in a good position to move forward with integrating women onto submarines. “We think we learned a lot about integrating women in the services years ago, and those lessons are relevant today,” Mabus said. Those lessons, he said, include having a “critical mass” of female candidates, having senior women to serve as mentors, and...

Women to Serve on Subs, Gates Tells Congress By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Feb. 23, 2010 - The Navy plans to repeal its ban on women serving on submarines, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has informed Congress. Gates signed a letter Feb. 19 informing Congress of the Navy's plan to lift the policy, which it intends to do through the phased-in assignment of women to submarines, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell confirmed today. The secretary endorsed the plan, the brainchild of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Morrell said. No change can take effect until Congress has been in...

Obama's Outreach to Iran Unprecedented, Gates Says The Obama White House has gone further than any administration to reach out to Iran, and is disappointed with the response, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday. The Islamic Republic announced Tuesday that it began enriching uranium to 20 percent purity level in defiance of world powers but under the supervision of inspectors from the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Iranian state media reported. Gates on Tuesday called the move "disappointing" and said Tehran is violating a Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is refusing to sign off on an IAEA-brokered deal that would allow Tehran to...

As the Military begins to move from “Don’t ask, don’t tell” to take your Christian White Anglo-Saxon American values and go to hell. One thing that becomes quite apparent, and that is president Soetoro is right; we are no longer a Christian nation. (see 17sec. video) President Soetoro has pressed the reset button on a classic cultural war in America. Sensing that his domestic policies are in serious jeopardy Soetoro fell back to a stock Liberal ideology which is meant to stir up his base—homosexuality. It is absolutely fascinating to see the big lumbering politically correct ...

Related Story: Mention of gay troops in State of the Union offers little clarity to path ahead WASHINGTON — Military commanders will look for ways to stop enforcing the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” law but could still take years to fully get rid of it, according to a plan outlined by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday. In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates said he will establish a panel to examine how to repeal the military’s ban on openly gay troops, with a goal of creating an implementation plan by the end of the year. The...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Adm. Mike Mullen will testify next week on the repeal of a controversial law preventing openly gay people from serving in the military. The Senate Armed Services Committee announced Thursday that Gates and Mullen will testify Tuesday on repealing the 1993 law, commonly known “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” President Barack Obama on Wednesday renewed his commitment to repeal the law, but supporters say the real test will come this spring with the Pentagon budget.

Pentagon to detail new "don't ask, don't tell" steps 6:33pm EST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon will unveil initial steps next week to lay the ground for an eventual repeal of its "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which permits gays to serve in uniform as long they hide their sexual orientation, officials said on Thursday. President Barack Obama has called for action this year, increasing pressure on a reluctant U.S. military to begin taking steps in advance of any repeal that could include sensitivity training for troops to reduce resistance to gays serving openly in the future. But Pentagon officials...

Pentagon Whitewash [Bill Bennett] There are devastating and important things happening in the news. Lest we forget, though: We are still in a war against Islamic Terrorism. And it still happens in America. November is not so far away that it deserves forgetting or whitewashing: An Arab terrorist named Nidal Hasan went to a health-care center, in a fort — at an Army base — in Texas, and opened fire killing 14 people while he shouted "Allahu Akbar." But you would not know this if you read the Pentagon Report on the massacre released Friday. Titled, "Protecting the Force: Lessons...

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently indicated the U.S. Air Force is likely going to receive funding set aside for a new long-range bomber, according to media reports. In April, Gates cut several high-profile projects, which led to Air Force officials being disappointed that funding for the bomber could have vanished. However, the bomber program is expected to receive at least $1 billion, with the number expected to significantly increase in the years to come. "We are probably going to proceed with a long-range strike initiative coming out of the Quadrennial Defense Review and various other reviews going on," Gates...

ARLINGTON, Va. — Top defense officials have ruled out airdropping food, water and medical supplies over Haiti, fearing that chaos would be the unintended result. “It seems to me that without having any structure on the ground, in terms of distribution, that an airdrop is simply going to lead to riots as people try and go after that stuff,” said Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday. On Thursday, an Air Force official said that a lack of fuel and equipment was slowing air operations at the Port-au-Prince airport. The first of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson’s 19 helicopters have...

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's most prominent holdover from the Bush administration—Defense Secretary Robert Gates—is staying on for at least another year. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told The Associated Press late Thursday that Gates and Obama agreed last month that Gates would stay on as Pentagon chief. The commitment is open-ended, but would be for at least the rest of 2010.

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday announced a temporary increase in the size of the U.S. Army that would boost the force by up to 22,000 troops for three years. He told reporters at a news briefing that the increase, intended to cope with strains from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, would raise the total strength of the Army to 569,000 soldiers. "The Army faces a period where its ability to deploy combat units at acceptable fill rates is at risk," Gates told reporters. "This is a temporary challenge which will peak in...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates strongly hinted on Sunday that Iran may be concealing other nuclear facilities in the country, beyond the uranium enrichment facility disclosed Friday by President Barack Obama and other leaders at the G-20 Summit. This Week host George Stephanopoulos asked Gates if the newly discovered site is "the only secret site that we know of." After a pause, Gates said, "I'm not going to get into that. I would just say that we are watching closely." Gates told Stephanopoulos there is "not a chance" the United States will heed the request of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and...

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon presented a grim portrait of the Afghanistan war Thursday, offering no assurances about how long Americans will be fighting there or how many U.S. combat troops it will take to win. Defeating the Taliban and al-Qaida will take "a few years," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, with success on a larger scale in the desperately poor country a much longer proposition. He acknowledged that the Taliban has a firm hold on parts of the country President Barack Obama has called vital to U.S. security.

Many connect US Defense Secretary’s sudden visit to Iraq with a new problem which has appeared in the US administration. The Pentagon has recently announced that the United States would accelerate the withdrawal of US troops from the war-torn nation, although the situation in Iraq is far from being stable. The US administration is particularly concerned about the Kurds’ claims for Iraqi oil wells. It is an open secret that Iraq’s Kurdish minority has been a staunch ally of the United States during the nation’s incursion in the country to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime. On the one hand, Gates had...

The most remarkable thing happened in Washington this past Tuesday. Congress scrapped the F-22 stealth fighter jet, killing off a 30-year-old Pentagon hardware program that employs 25,000 people in 46 states. It was a dogfight almost to the end over $1.75 billion and the need to remake military readiness. Threats and promises, blunt talk and grand gestures -- all were deployed to support an appeal to common sense and for urgent change, according to principals involved. The White House coordinated the ultimately successful vote-wrangling, and its specific tactics may show up again in another epic battle now unfolding: getting Congress...

The Senate on Thursday voted to scuttle money for a second engine powering the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, handing President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates a second victory on Pentagon priorities. In a voice vote, the Senate struck $438.9 million in funding from the 2010 defense authorization bill for the second engine, which is produced by General Electric and Rolls-Royce. Senators specifically approved an amendment sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) that bars spending on an alternative engine until the Defense secretary certifies that such a program would reduce the fighter program’s costs, improve the planes’ readiness and...

House appropriators are handing Defense Secretary Robert Gates a dilemma: Buy aerial refueling tankers from two companies or hold a competition to select only one. Sounds like an easy choice for a competitive bid. But a House Appropriations Committee bill funding defense in fiscal year 2010 orders Gates — who says it’s unnecessary to have two tankers built by two companies — to run the terms of the competition by Congress, a task intended to boost oversight but one that adds the potential for more politicking. The competition is sure to provoke massive lobbying and posturing by supporters of Boeing...

Israel shouldn't attack Iran, because that could worsen turmoil in the Mideast and harm U.S. interests, a senior U.S. defense official tells The Jerusalem Post. U.S. officials have offered mixed views on that issue in recent months. It becomes more relevant as Defense Secretary Robert Gates visits Israel next week to discuss Iran's nuclear threat. Gates has called that threat the greatest existing to global security.

US/EasternWASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates has announced that the size of the Army is being increased by 22,000 to help meet deployment needs around the world. Gates made the disclosure Monday at a news conference at the Pentagon where he was joined by the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen. The Army currently has a total troop strength of 547,000. Gates said the military, with President Barack Obama's backing, decided that because of the continuing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and political turmoil in Pakistan, the Pentagon's ability to fill vacancies was "at...

ashington, D.C. (AHN) - Defense Sec. Robert Gates on Monday said he was increasing the size of the U.S. Army by 22,000 soldiers over the next three years to help U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, wars he described as "faster-paced against an even more adaptive enemy."In a press conference, Gates said he will add to the active-duty end strength of the Army from the current authoroized end-strength of 547,000, to a temporary 569,000. "These additional forces will be used to ensure that our deploying units are properly manned, and not to create new combat formations," he said. The increase...

ABOARD A MILITARY AIRCRAFT, June 30, 2009 – Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today he’s heartened that al-Qaida hasn’t been able to reignite sectarian violence in Iraq despite its acts of violence leading up to today’s deadline for U.S. troops to leave Iraqi cities. Commanders on the ground anticipated for weeks that al-Qaida and other extremists would take advantage of the U.S. troops’ compliance with the U.S.-Iraq status of forces agreement to launch attacks, Gates told reporters returning to Washington with him after a change-of-command ceremony at U.S. European Command headquarters in Germany. While capitalizing on what they perceive...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday that the Pentagon is looking into “more humane” ways to comply with a law that bans openly gay people from serving in the military. Gates said that the Pentagon’s general counsel is exploring ways of making the law, known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” more flexible until it is eventually changed, according to the Pentagon’s news service. Gates' remarks, made aboard a military plane on the way to Germany on Tuesday, come one day after President Obama reiterated his support for repealing the 1993 ban during a reception with gay and lesbian advocacy...

The Pentagon is considering how it might ease the "don't ask, don't tell" law requiring gays to keep quiet about their sexual identity or face expulsion from the military, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday. "One of the things we're looking at is, is there flexibility in how we apply this law," Gates told reporters aboard a military plane. The Pentagon boss said he discussed the issue last week with US President Barack Obama and that there also has been discussion among senior military and legal counsel about possible changes in how they apply the law, which he described as...

The United States has concerns about a possible North Korean missile launch towards Hawaii and has taken steps to ensure the protection of US territory, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday. "We do have some concerns if they were to launch a missile to the west in the direction of Hawaii," Gates told a news conference.

House defense authorizers are pressing Defense Secretary Robert Gates to consider buying existing fighter jets instead of the next-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to curtail a severe fighter jet shortfall in the Air Force National Guard. During a House Armed Services Committee markup of the 2010 defense authorization bill on Tuesday, lawmakers raised alarm that aircraft shortfalls could present significant challenges to the Air Force’s ability to protect domestic airspace. At press time, lawmakers had included an amendment sponsored by Reps. Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) and Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) that would force Gates to consider buying F-15, F-16 and F-18 aircraft...