Last month the Washington Post reported that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates required senior defense officials throughout the department to sign non-disclosure on defense budget deliberations. Today Congressman Randy Forbes (VA-04) along with other House Armed Services Subcommittee Ranking Members sent a letter to Secretary Gates calling this policy a “gag order” that prevents transparency in the defense budget process. From the letter: I understand that you recently asked senior officials in the Department to sign a Non-disclosure Agreements as it relates to the President’s FY20 Budget proposal. While I …
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates refused to grant permission to U.S. Northern Command to use the nation’s most powerful sea-based radar to monitor North Korea’s recent missile launch. Why is this significant? Because the $900 million dollar system, known as SBX, is capable of detecting a baseball hit out of a ballpark from more than 3,000 miles away and provides unparalleled details of missile capabilities. The system is three to four times more powerful than all other radars in the missile defense inventory. If any system should have been used …
Today, President Barack Obama will visit the Pentagon where Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will introduce Obama to all the key players in formulating strategies for Iraq and Afghanistan. Yesterday, Secretary Gates testified before the House Armed Services committees on budgetary pressures facing the Pentagon. Commenting on Gates’ testimony at Politico, Heritage Senior Fellow James Carafano writes: In his draft testimony, Gates wailed he’ll have to make “hard choices” on weapons spending. Since he rightly points out five Pentagon programs “account for half of total cost growth in weapons spending,” …
Americans would do well to ponder the unrelieved strains on the nation’s military readiness on this Veterans Day, one short week after the election of a new president and Congress. The Army’s readiness is particularly low. Seven years of combat overseas have exacted a grinding toll on all our military services, including the National Guard and Reserves. Among the symptoms: compromised training, shortfalls in deploying personnel and equipment, less maintenance for worn-out weapons, and truncated downtime at home before troops must redeploy. Despite the economy’s woes, President-elect Barack Obama and …
Guns, boots, helmets and…social science? It’s not been used much since the Cold War, but the Department of Defense believes an increase in cultural understanding could play an important role in national security. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Minerva as a new approach. Minerva will award $50 million over five years to evolutionary psychologists, demographers, sociologists, historians and anthropologists for security research. Despite significant skepticism within the academic community, namely by a group that calls itself the Network of Concerned Anthropologists, Gates says this is an important first step towards repairing …
Defense Secretary Robert Gates addressed journalists today on the state of the American military at a conference sponsored by Heritage and the El Pomar Foundation in Colorado Springs. (Full text of Gates’ remarks are available at the Pentagon website.) Gates has maintained a consistent focus since his first day on the job: Taking care of men and women in uniform and winning the Long War. He cited the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) as one such example. Although it many complained about the Pentagon’s $20 billion price tag, it has …
The Associated Press reports, “In unusually blunt terms, Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday challenged the Air Force, whose leaders are under fire on several fronts, to contribute more to immediate wartime needs and to promote new thinking.” The secretary made the remarks at the Air Force’s Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. On the one hand, Gates’ concern is understandable. Losing in Iraq is not an option, and bringing stability and security to that nation is not just the Army’s job. The Air Force’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), for …
