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Delays in U.S. and international orders for Lockheed Martin Corp's new F-35 fighter jet will increase its total cost, Lockheed and U.S. officials said on Tuesday, as Italy announced a cut in spending on the warplane. On Monday, the Pentagon confirmed plans to put off orders for 179 F-35s over the next five years to save $15.1 billion and allow more time for testing, a third restructuring in recent years. U.S. officials insist they have not changed their plans to develop and buy 2,443 jets at a cost of $382 billion over the next few decades. Continued schedule delays and...

The Department of Defense is reviewing the Air Force's investigation into a deadly F-22 jet crash that claimed the life of fighter pilot Capt. Jeff Haney -- a crash that the Air Force blamed on Haney, despite a malfunction that caused his oxygen system to shut off mid-flight. Launched by the Pentagon's Inspector General, the assessment aims to make sure the Air Force adhered to proper procedures during their investigation of the 2010 crash in the Alaskan wilderness and "will also verify that [the Air Force's] conclusions are supported by evidence of record consistent with standards of proof," according to...

If you are not prepared to go to war, you cannot threaten that “nothing is off the table” as you search for diplomatic solutions. Thus there are completed plans, updated daily, at Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv and at the Pentagon for carrying out attacks on Iranian facilities in a last-ditch effort to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Israel has a plan to go it alone. So does the United States. And there may even be a plan for the two countries to collaborate. On Dec. 20, the Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, told CNN: “We...

The Pentagon doesn’t know what happened to more than $100 million in cash held at Saddam Hussein’s palace in Baghdad during the Iraq war, according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.What’s more, the Pentagon can’t find documents to explain what it spent as much as $1.7 billion on from funds held on behalf of the Iraqi government by the New York Federal Reserve, the report says. The missing records raise new questions about how the US government handled billions of dollars in Iraqi funds during the war. The new report, the latest in a...

Pentagon Unveils New Plan for Conventional Submarine-Based Ballistic Missiles The U.S. Defense Department plans to develop a new conventional ballistic missile for fielding on attack submarines, according to major budget decisions announced on Thursday at the Pentagon (see GSN, Dec. 23, 2011). “The Navy will invest in a design that will allow new Virginia-class submarines to be modified to carry more cruise missiles and develop an undersea conventional prompt strike option,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said at a press conference. Obama administration national security leaders -- like their Bush administration predecessors -- have touted the idea of developing conventional military...

Pentagon budget: top 3 winners and losers As the Pentagon rolled out its budget preview Thursday, it stressed the tough work involved in cutting $487 billion over the next decade. But in Pentagon parlance, the word “cut” is a relative term. While the Defense Department’s base budget initially decreases from $553 billion this year to $525 billion in fiscal year 2013, it is still more than its $480 billion base budget in 2008, when US troops were in the midst of two wars. The budget will then rebound steadily to $567 billion in fiscal year 2017. With this in mind,...

-excerpt- "We Germans fought for the Russians to go, now we are fighting for the Americans to stay," jokes Brunner, chairman of the German-American contact club in Grafenwoehr, whose lifeblood is its U.S. military base. -excerpt- News that the 172nd infantry brigade, with its 3,500 soldiers and 8,000 family members, is being pulled from Grafenwoehr to return to the United States has hit this town hard. After 67 years of living together, locals in Bavaria say the Americans are not just their employers and customers, but also close friends. -excerpt- Under the new strategy, two combat brigades, one in Grafenwoehr,...

Following his long-awaited announcement detailing a proposal for massive defense spending cuts and an overall reduction in military personnel, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta revealed his list of the risks and the most pressing threats to America's security. "This is going to be tough," Panetta told reporters Thursday. "Obviously it will be a smaller force, and when you have a smaller force there are risks associated with that in terms of our capability to respond." So in the near future where will the world’s strongest military need to respond? Panetta says there's a long list of potential problems. Among his top...

Drive-by jihadi pleads guilty to shooting at PentagonBy Warren Richey, Staff writer / January 26, 2012 An Alexandria, Va., man admitted in federal court Thursday that he fired live rounds into the Pentagon and three other government buildings and planned to desecrate graves at Arlington National Cemetery in support of Islamic militants overseas. Yonathan Melaku pleaded guilty to damaging government property, discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, and attempting to damage a veterans’ memorial. Under the terms of a plea agreement, prosecutors will request a 25-year prison sentence. In addition, Mr. Melaku faces up to $750,000 in fines...

SIERRA VISTA — At noon, Arizona time, the Secretary of Defense and the chairman of the Joint Chefs of Staff, the top uniform officer in America’s armed forces will be holding a press conference to discuss proposals to reduce the military budget. Part of the proposals include the potential of having two Base Realignment and Closure rounds, one starting in 2013 and the other in 2015 Pentagon sources said. The Defense Department has to reduce its budget, as part of the overall reduction of federal spending to lower the nation’s growing deficit, which currently exceeds $15 trillion. There have been...

Pentagon to take F-35B off "probation": sources WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is expected on Friday to remove the threat of termination that has been looming over the Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet, according to multiple sources. Panetta will announce on Friday that he is taking the B-model of the stealthy F-35 fighter off "probation" a year ahead of schedule, given the plane's progress on resolving technical issues, the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly, told Reuters. The announcement will come during Panetta's visit on Friday to Naval Air Station...

Pentagon-supported physicists on Wednesday said they had devised a "time cloak" that briefly makes an event undetectable. The laboratory device manipulates the flow of light in such a way that for the merest fraction of a second an event cannot be seen, according to a paper published in the science journal Nature. It adds to experimental work in creating next-generation camouflage -- a so-called invisibility cloak in which specific colours cannot be perceived by the human eye. "Our results represent a significant step towards obtaining a complete spatio-temporal cloaking device," says the study, headed by Moti Fridman of Cornell University...

With the Iraq war over and troops in Afghanistan on their way home, the U.S. military is getting down to brass tacks: culling generals and admirals from its top-heavy ranks. Pentagon officials said they have eliminated 27 jobs for generals and admirals since March, the first time the Defense Department has imposed such a reduction since the aftermath of the Cold War, when the collapse of the Soviet Union prompted the military to downsize. The cuts are part of a broader plan to shrink the upper ranks by 10 percent over five years, restoring them

Keeping American vehicles rolling in Afghanistan while avoiding the perils of hauling in fuel via ground transportation is costing the military big time. Frosty relations between the U.S. and Pakistan - which led to Pakistan closing its border to Afghanistan-bound truck traffic- haven't helped, either. The Pentagon is increasingly relying on parachute drops of fuel and other supplies to bases in remote parts of Afghanistan, and as Nathan Hodge of the Wall Street Journal reports, the military estimates such deliveries are spiking the ultimate price of a gallon of fuel to as much as $400 per gallon.

As Defense Secretary Leon Panetta prepares his recommendations for Pentagon budget cuts, he is likely to reduce the military's resources for future, large-scale counterinsurgency operations of the sort that were ballyhooed just a few years ago in Iraq and Afghanistan. The boom in "COIN," as these operations are known, has proved to be something of a bubble. Budget pressures have curbed the appetite for the ambitious, "protect-the-population" missions that were promoted with such enthusiasm by Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The focus increasingly is on raids by the tighter, more kinetic Special Operations Forces, which are seen as...

Pentagon budget cuts almost certain to affect F-35 By Bob Cox rcox@star-telegram.com The stealth design of the F-35 joint strike fighter is supposed to make it nearly invisible to enemy radar, but the super high-tech combat aircraft may not be able to avoid the bull's-eye of Pentagon budget-cutters. Congress' failure last month to agree on $1.2 billion in additional deficit reduction measures means the Defense Department is facing enormous funding cuts mandated by law. Without new congressional action to restore funding, experts say, the Pentagon will be forced to make big cuts in spending on new weapons. And the F-35...

How dependent has the United States government under President Barack Obama become upon borrowing money from foreign sources to support its spending? Would you believe the answer is: "enough to exclude a long-time U.S. manufacturer from consideration for a defense contract in favor of a foreign-based manufacturer, despite the U.S. manufacturer having invested considerable time and profits earned from their other products to develop a product that specifically satisfies the government's needs?" AINonline's Chris Pocock reports: The U.S. Air Force has apparently chosen the Embraer Super Tucano to meet the Light Air Support (LAS) requirement. Hawker Beechcraft's AT-6 was the...

UK defence industry faces squeeze as US debt failure triggers Pentagon cuts Britain's defence industry faces a squeeze from across the Atlantic, as renewed gridlock in Washington over the US deficit looks set to trigger automatic cuts in military spending. The failure on Monday of the Congressional super-committee - established in August as part of the deal that raised America's debt ceiling - to agree on how to axe $1.2trillion (£766bn) from the country's deficit means that a similar amount will now be automatically cut from US government spending. As part of the original deal in August, the Pentagon is...

US Air Forces have received super-heavy bunker buster bombs, a spokesman with Pentagon lieutenant-colonel Jack Miller told reporters Tuesday. He said that Boeing, had begun to supply the bombs to the Air Force Global Strike Command in September. The bombs will be carried by B-2 bombers. Each bomb weights 13.6 tons and has a built in satellite navigation system. Some experts note that this type of bomb which is capable of breaking a 18 meter thick concrete walls, is perfect weapon for attacking nuclear facilities in Iran. (TASS)

Once again, the real news in France is conveniently not being reported as it should. To give you an idea of what’s going on in France where there are now between 5 and 6 million Muslims and about 600,000 Jews, here is an email that came from a Jew living in France. Will the world say nothing – again – as it did in Hitler’s time? “I am a Jew — therefore I am forwarding this to everyone on all my e-mail lists. I will not sit back and do nothing. Nowhere have the flames of anti-Semitism burned more furiously...

The high-tech researchers at the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) say they're reviewing two "feasible" designs for a flying Humvee vehicle called the "Transformer." The tank-like machine is supposed to be able to take off and land vertically. The plan is for it to be operated by a person without flight training--or by no one at all, Aviation Week reports. AAI and Lockheed Martin have each submitted potential designs, in tandem with Piasecki Aircraft. AAI's prototype would weigh 7,500 pounds and combine traditional plane wings with a helicopter rotor on top. Lockheed Martin's design, above, is 500 pounds...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2011 – In his signature baseball cap and wearing a shirt with the sleeves cut off, the comedian known as Larry the Cable Guy gave a shout-out to the troops today while on location at the Pentagon to shoot an upcoming segment of his History Channel show, “Only in America.” Comedian Daniel Lawrence Whitney -- known as Larry the Cable Guy -- steps up to the podium in the press briefing room during a Pentagon tour for an upcoming segment of his History Channel show, “Only in America,” Oct. 21, 2011. DOD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo  (Click...

Pentagon counternarcotics and counterterrorism operations around the world were abruptly suspended this month when the Defense Department officials overseeing the programs failed to ensure they were funded by congressional authorizations, according to documents obtained by The Washington Examiner. The lapse has caused serious national security and diplomatic problems for the U.S. military, according to Defense Department officials. The authorizations cover joint counternarcotics operations with foreign governments, as well as federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in the U.S. The mix-up occurred when the anti-narcotics programs were not included on a list provided to Congress of operations that needed to...

Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty. (AP Photo.) (CNSNews.com) – A national group representing more than 2,000 military chaplains from evangelical Christian and Orthodox backgrounds said on Wednesday that the Pentagon has launched a “direct assault” on marriage, and the chaplains they endorse will not be allowed to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies under any circumstances.Dr. Ron Crews, executive director of the newly formed Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, said his 2,000-plus membership is concerned about a Sept. 30 Pentagon memorandum that authorizes chaplains and military chapel facilities to be used for “any private ceremony,”...

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said the Obama administration was "bordering on lawlessness" with Friday’s Pentagon announcement that military chaplains may officiate in same-sex wedding ceremonies of service members in states where gay marriage is legal. “One of the things that’s increasingly alarming to many Americans is the nature of various agencies of the federal government that either make up their own laws or try to create their own law when they do not have law-making authority,” Akin told CNSNews.com on Friday. “In this case, it appears that the Department of Defense under Obama – and probably at Obama’s...

Justice for USS ColeBut why did it take so long? Last Updated: 3:48 AM, September 30, 2011 Before 9/11, there was USS Cole. On Oct. 12, 2000 terrorists loaded a small boat with explosives and set it off next to the US Navy destroyer as it sat peacefully in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 American sailors and wounding 39 more. The alleged mastermind of the attack, Saudi-born Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, was captured in 2002. Since 2006, he’s been sitting in Gitmo, untried and unpunished. Now, more than a decade after the crime, the families of the Cole...

Pentagon makes provisions for same-sex marriage mug.cnn By: CNN Wire Staff (CNN) - Ten days after the military dumped its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays and lesbians in the military, the Pentagon has issued new rules allowing military chaplains to perform same-sex marriages....

A 26-year-old Massachusetts man was arrested and charged today in connection with a plot to attack the Pentagon and the Capitol, the Justice Department announced.  Rezwan Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen, is accused of planning to use a remote-controlled aircraft filled with explosives to attack the buildings. He was also charged with attempting to provide support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization — specifically al-Qaida, the organization behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I know what you're thinking, PC police: "That's unfair, you Islamophobe!  Just because his name is Rezwan doesn't mean he's a Muslim, or that his planned attacks were...

ASHLAND (CBS) – Rezwan Ferdaus had run into some minor trouble in the past, but neighbors in his quiet Ashland neighborhood are terrified to hear the disturbing accusations he’s currently facing. The 26-year-old Ferdaus was arrested on Wednesday and charged with plotting to crash explosive-laden remote control planes into the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol. According to neighbors, the home that federal agents raided belongs to Ferdaus’ parents. They moved in 14 years ago and Rezwan still lived with them.

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man was arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting to destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol by attacking the buildings with large, remote-controlled aircraft armed with lethal amounts of explosives.... According to a federal affidavit, Ferdaus said he wanted to deal a psychological blow to Americans, the "enemies of Allah," by hitting the Pentagon, which he called "head and heart of the snake."

On Fox. Man arrested for trying to bomb Pentagon with a UAV. US citizen. Not identified. Was going to pack model F-86 RC model with explosives and hit Pentagon. Also bought six AK-47s (this sounds wrong as machine guns cannot be purchased witout a special license and someone buying six at a time would send up red flares). Developing.

A three-year government investigation has found no wrongdoing by Bush-era Pentagon officials when they gave war briefings to retired military analysts who served as TV and radio commentators. The probe by the Pentagon inspector general was a response to a 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning article in the New York Times that implied the former military officers, some of whom worked for or were defense contractors, received financial favors in return for their commentary and that they were tools in a propaganda campaign. Sources familiar with the IG’s final report said it will say officials broke no rules or laws when they...

The tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks saddens us, inspires us, and steels our collective national resolve. The Daily Caller invites you to share in a gripping portrait of reflections on this somber and universally stirring occasion. Created by Daily Caller multimedia producer Sean W. Malone, this documentary film short captures the essence of the American character: the courage to emerge from tragedy, the strength to maintain focus through ten years of recovery, and the resolve to make sure 9/11 never happens again. The film features Tucker Carlson, Angela Keaton, Christopher Preble, James Carafano, Benjamin Friedman and Congressman Allen West....

The Air Force’s sky-high hopes for the F-35 By Philip Ewing Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 Newspaper editorial boards, white-paperists and blue-ribbon panels all have called for the F-35 to be cancelled, but as we’ve seen many times, it’s so big and expensive it stands a very good chance of surviving in Austerity America. Here’s another reason to throw on the pile: If you cancelled it, you’d be canceling a lot of the Air Force. The service’s almost complete dependence on its F-35A Lightning II was driven home again last weekend when Gen. Edward Rice, head of Air Education and Training...

WASHINGTON (AP) — When the top echelons of the U.S. and Chinese military get together, they exchange smiles, handshakes and photographs. Behind the scenes, lower-ranking officers are planning for possible conflict. A laborious Pentagon translation of hundreds of books and journal articles by mid-level Chinese military officers shows that Beijing's future military leadership sees U.S. military power as waning and plans to exploit weaknesses in U.S. weaponry and supply lines should conflict occur. The Pentagon analysis of Chinese military writings was disclosed Thursday[, September 18 1997,] to the Senate Intelligence Committee in a hearing on intelligence challenges posed by China....

China's state news agency on Thursday condemned a Pentagon report on China's growing military might, calling its account of Beijing's weapons modernization drive an alarmist "cock-and-bull story." The Pentagon's annual assessment of China's military strength, which was released on Wednesday, said Beijing appeared to be on track to forge a modern military by 2020, a build-up that could destabilize the Asia-Pacific region. The Chinese government has yet to give its official response, which is likely to be tersely dismissive, but the state-run Xinhua news agency made a starting shot. "The allegation is an utterly cock-and-bull story about the Chinese military...

A Pentagon task force is proposing the largest overhaul of the military retirement system in 50 years that will do away with a traditional pension system, opting instead for a 401(k)-style contribution program. Under the newly proposed Defense Business Board plan, all troops would receive yearly retirement contributions if they served at least 20 years -- a stipulation of the existing system. The money, however, would not vest until service reached at least three to five years and would then be payable at retirement age. If personnel left before that three- to five-year mark, the time served would be rolled...

A Pentagon task force is proposing the largest overhaul of the military retirement system in 50 years that will do away with a traditional pension system, opting instead for a 401(k)-style contribution program. Under the newly proposed Defense Business Board plan, all troops would receive yearly retirement contributions if they served at least 20 years -- a stipulation of the existing system. The money, however, would not vest until service reached at least three to five years and would then be payable at retirement age. If personnel left before that three- to five-year mark, the time served would be rolled...

A Pentagon task force is proposing the largest overhaul of the military retirement system in 50 years that will do away with a traditional pension system, opting instead for a 401(k)-style contribution program

The United States military budget accounts for over 40% of the world's annual military expenditures and, at around $700 billion per year, more than 20% of the federal budget. The Federal government wants to curb that spending as part of deficit reduction.

Two main concerns (and there are many more): 1) If 535 people in Congress are given the task of running the country under the Constitution, why is the abdication of those duties and powers over to a "Gang of 12" considered Constitutional? 2) There is a not-so-concealed dirty joke to the 50/50 cut guidelines of the Super Committee. If cuts can't be derived from their smoky back room chin-wagging, "automatic cuts" are imposed. Cuts will come from the Pentagon and from entitlements. * As for the Pentagon, cuts would be "real". * As for entitlements, Washington has already proven that...

After a delay of more than two days, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has "decided to follow the law" and release the names, ranks, hometowns and units of those killed in the Aug. 6 Chinook helicopter crash in Afghanistan, Pentagon spokesman Col. Dave Lapan said Wednesday. The names will be released in the next 24 hours. Panetta "never intended not to release the names," Lapan said, explaining that a delay in their release was the result of a request from military commanders in the Special Operations community who wanted to review the policy of releasing names "because of possible (security) implications

Cuts to Pentagon spending won’t be done in a “hasty, ill-conceived way,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a letter to reassure to his department’s staff Wednesday. Acknowledging that defense cuts “must be” part of the solution to trim the national debt, Panetta said military leaders will be able to make $350 billion in cuts over the next decade that were laid out in the compromise bill to raise the debt ceiling “while maintaining the excellence of our military.”

The Pentagon and its supporters are bracing for the likelihood of much deeper reductions in the U.S. military's budget, as budget negotiators now eye defense cuts of $800 billion or more over the next decade. With talks intensifying ahead of an August 2 deadline to raise the debt limit, lawmakers hoping to shape an overall budget deal have advanced proposals that would cut defense spending by more than double the $400 billion President Barack Obama proposed just three months ago. Some proposals call for as much as $1 trillion in cuts over the next decade.

The courtiers in the Hall of Mirrors that is Versailles on the Potomac are lining up to give Leon Panetta advice on how to manage the Pentagon in the coming era of budget “constraints.” Most of this wisdom takes the form of platitudes of how important it is to have a strategy and to make the hard choices needed to budget for that strategy. Duh! My current favorite is Dr. Daniel Goure's recent blog on the web page of the Lexington Institute, a pro-defense “think tank.” Goure starts his advisory by saying: Let's be honest. The current U.S. defense program...

Security: The Pentagon has disclosed perhaps the largest theft of sensitive data by an unnamed foreign government. The threat to our electronic infrastructure is real, growing and as dangerous as a North Korean missile. In outlining America's cyberwarfare strategy last Thursday at the National Defense University, Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn disclosed that 24,000 sensitive files containing Pentagon data at a defense company were accessed in a cyberattack in March, likely by a foreign government. He didn't disclose the identity of that government, but in a bit of an understatement he acknowledged, "We have a pretty good idea." So...

The Pentagon has disclosed that it suffered one of its largest ever losses of sensitive data in March when 24,000 files were stolen in a cyber-attack by a foreign government. William Lynn, the US deputy secretary of defence, said the data was taken from the computers of a corporate defence contractor. He said the US government had a "pretty good idea" who was responsible but did not elaborate. Many cyber-attacks in the past have been blamed on China or Russia, and one of the Pentagon's fears is that eventually a terrorist group will acquire the ability to steal data. Mr...

On Friday President Barack Hussein Obama informed the US Congress that he intended to sell 125 M-1A1 Abrams Tanks to the Egyptian Military. With the nation of Egypt in turmoil, and the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is poised to assume total control over Egypt, why would any sane and rational person sell tanks (or any weapon) to a nation bent on not only destroying its neighbor, but who would turn the same weapons on the US to destroy it. From the Jerusalem Post: The US signaled last week that it plans to continue business as usual when it comes...

"President Barack Obama's decision to order a bigger and speedier reduction in troop numbers than advised by his top military commanders will increase American casualties during the pull-out, Pentagon planners fear." *** "On the ground, US commanders believe the announcement means it will now be necessary to abandon plans to take their fight against the Taliban to the violent eastern mountains bordering Pakistan where the Afghan war was born. They had wanted to try and repeat the successes since Mr Obama's "surge" was begun in 2009 during fierce fighting in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand."

Federal authorities on Thursday formally charged a Marine reservist in connection with 2010 shootings at the Pentagon and the National Museum of the Marine Corps. According to a criminal complaint, law enforcement officers searched the residence of Yonathan Melaku and found numerous documents concerning bomb-making and explosives. Melaku was arrested last week after he was found trespassing in Arlington National Cemetery before dawn. A car he pointed authorities to set off a bomb scare near the Pentagon. Officials said they seized a digital videotape in Melaku's bedroom desk. According to the criminal complaint, a review of the videotape showed Melaku...