Pentagon officials will roll out a plan today that will give the services about three months to train troops on the new law allowing gays to serve openly. Three levels of training will usher in changes to everything from personnel regs and recruiting, officials said. One level will be for administrators and leadership. The second will be for senior commanders who will have to enforce the policies. The third will be the general training for the troops. Once the training is complete, the president must certify that lifting the ban won’t hurt troops’ ability to fight. Sixty days after certification,…
Browsing: Congress
Some funding for the Ground Combat Vehicle remains on hold after the Army failed to provide a detailed report on the costly program by Jan. 15, a deadline required by the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act. The Army on Jan. 13 submitted an interim report to Congress, stating the report was not complete and would be submitted in late March, said Army spokeswoman Lt. Col. Alayne Conway. The report will include an analysis of alternatives with technical data and an explanation of any plans to adjust the program requirements during the technology development phase. The authorization act puts a hold…
Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, said last week that half of combat-ready troops will not be headed for Iraq or the ‘Stan, but instead will be ready to deploy wherever needed. That’s why you’re soon to get new ACUs and in-depth training in full spectrum operations. So, where might this push take you? China and North Korea are always a hot topic. Defense Secretary is in China right now, and this morning described North Korea as a “direct threat” due to “the combination of their continuing nuclear programs but also the progress that they’re making in the development…
Army Times will publish a complete breakdown of the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act in the Jan. 17 edition, which hits newsstands Monday. In the meantime, here are some facts and figures from the stateside and Afghanistan military construction budgets we found interesting: Only five of the 165 stateside requests were shot down. They include a $30-million request for a Aviation Task Force Complex at Fort Wainwright, Ala., and a $19-million commissary for the garrison in Miami, Fla. It also was a bad year for museum operations support buildings, which got the thumbs-down for a combined $74.8 million requested for…
The number of reported sexual harassment and assaults at the three service academies is up 61 percent from last year, according to this story. Pentagon officials say the rise could be due to an increase in education and training. There were 41 incidents reported for the 2009-2010 school year, up from 25 last year, according to this annual report required by Congress. In the year before the survey, 12.9 percent of women and 1.9 percent of men indicated experiencing unwanted sexual contact, and 56 percent of women and 12 percent of men indicated experiencing sexual harassment. According to the survey…
The MK 20 Sniper Support Rifle has been approved for full-rate production. The FN rifle is a variant of the Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR) family. Fielding is expected to start in mid-May 2011. Three variants of the Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle, or SCAR, were approved July 30 for full-rate production. They were:
The Pentagon says the defense budget must grow roughly 3 percent above inflation each year to sustain the military at current levels. As a result of the nation’s fiscal fallout, military spending will grow only 1.8 percent in 2012, and 1 percent in following years. That means the Pentagon must cut tens of billions from its budget to make up the difference. How will this happen? Let’s first consider Iraq, where there are some interesting numbers floating around as that nation beefs up its military in the wake of U.S. troops departing.
Iran’s latest attempts to bring its nuclear power plants online reads something like a Tom Clancy novel. Parts are coming in from a defiant Russia. A key scientist – a specialist in nuclear isotope separation – was killed today by bomb-wielding motorcyclists. And more than 30,000 computers in the system were crippled late last week by a computer worm called Stuxnet, which experts say was calibrated to destroy uranium-enrichment centrifuges by sending them spinning out of control. Iran blames everything on the West and Israel. No one has taken responsibility for any of the attacks. But everyone should play close…
Katherine Miller, who quit West Point in August, said she would come back in the Army – if “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is repealed. The admitted lesbian told the Associated Press that she left the U.S. Military Academy to fight the policy and because she couldn’t keep lying about her sexuality. Miller, who is now attending Yale University, said the end of DADT would help the military by opening it up to more qualified candidates. At the time of her departure, Miller was the ninth-ranked Cadet in her class of 1,157, and boasted a grade point average of 3.829. She…
Frank Buckles turned 109 in February. And he is spending this Veteran’s Day fighting an injustice nearly 100 years in the making. Buckles, the nation’s last living World War I vet, said today that he wants Congress to create a memorial that honors the 5 million Americans who served in the First Great War. More than 116,000 were killed and another 205,000 wounded. Anyone with a better-than-average knowledge of Washington D.C. knows a memorial already exists. But look at it next to the World War II memorial, and see if you think the earlier vets got the shaft:
