Wings Over Iraq

The Pentagon will ask Congress to approve about $79.5 billion for combat operations, the least since 2005, as U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan, according to administration officials. – Bloomberg

44 on Thursday ruled out unilateral U.S. military action in Syria even if proof emerges that Syrian forces have used lethal chemical weapons. – Los Angeles Times

The Pentagon has cyberattack capabilities that allow the U.S. military to help blind Syrian air defenses without firing a shot, according to military analysts. – USA Today

An end to the slaughter in Syria is greatly to be desired. But unless the US and its allies can gain some negotiating leverage by giving serious backing to moderate forces in the opposition – something which is becoming nearly impossible the longer the US delays – even an imperfect peace will remain out of reach. – AEI’s Ideas

Faced with a new budget reality, industry and the Pentagon are looking for ways to streamline contracting and pursue new innovations, a panel of CEOs said [yesterday] – Defense News

Precisely because the president’s budget request is largely overtaken by events, Congress has a historic opportunity to reassert its role defining Pentagon programs, [Rep. Randy] Forbes told me in an interview in his Capitol Hill office this morning. – Breaking Defense

Rear. Adm. Richard Breckenridge…states simply and clearly that unnamed people who believe that patrol records for the nuclear fleet show we can make deep cuts to the number of nuclear boats afloat are wrong. – Breaking Defense

Maybe she’s lost that loving feeling, but Christine Fox, head of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s much-anticipated strategic review and the Pentagon’s top “costing” official, is leaving her post next month, the E-Ring has learned. – The E-Ring

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) on Thursday blamed the Obama administration for failing to come up with an answer to the sequester, which he said is forcing people at a major Air Force base to work in buildings with no lights on. – The Hill’s Floor Action Blog

Adm. Jonathan Greenert (USN) and Gen. Mark Welsh (USAF) write: Through our combined efforts, Air-Sea Battle will assure continued U.S. freedom of action and with it our ability to deter aggression, maintain regional stability, dampen crisis, and assure our allies and partners. – Foreign Policy

The War

A senior Defense Department official said Thursday that the Pentagon sees no need to change the broad congressional authorization under which the military conducts lethal drone strikes against terrorist targets and estimated the war with al-Qaeda could continue for up to two decades. – Washington Post

An investigation of the Justice Department’s witness protection program uncovered glaring security problems that allowed terrorists who had been given new identities after cooperating with U.S. prosecutors to board commercial flights in the United States. – Washington Post

A purported new issue of an English-language al Qaeda magazine linked to the Boston terrorist attacks was posted on an al Qaeda web forum earlier this week, but its content beyond its cover page was scrambled, suggesting the possibility the forum was hacked by Western intelligence agencies. – CNN’s Security Clearance

Lawmakers claim the  administration’s wide-ranging authority to target terror groups worldwide gives the White House a legal loophole to wage war without congressional consent. – DEFCON Hill

Missile Defense

After failing its first test back in 2011, the Raytheon-built SM-3 Block IB missile looks like it’s back on track, with yesterday marking the third successful test in a row, each against increasingly difficult targets launched from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai island in Hawaii. – Breaking Defense

44 has reportedly proposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin that their two governments work toward a formal accord on sharing antimissile data, ITAR-Tass reported on Wednesday. – Global Security Newswire

Nonproliferation

A half-dozen former U.S. national security leaders last month implored 44 to avoid tightening restrictions on foreign nuclear cooperation in the interest of nonproliferation. – Global Security Newswire

Intelligence

Effective spycraft has long called for cover—a job, family or routine that would keep a government agent from drawing undue attention. Now, that calculation extends to spies’ use of social media. – Wall Street Journal

Disclosure of a highly classified intelligence operation in Yemen last year compromised an exceedingly rare and valuable espionage achievement: an informant who had earned the trust of hardened terrorists, according to U.S. officials. – Los Angeles Times

Foreign Armies East

As China commissioned its first-ever aircraft carrier aviation unit, Asia’s other rising power, India, gave its carrier aviators a serious equipment upgrade with the introduction of 16 brand-new Russian-made MiG-29K and four MiG-29KUB carrier-borne fighters earlier this week. – Foreign Policy’s Killer Apps

Russia has shipped advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said Thursday. – New York Times

The U.S. military is exploring the idea of using the Pacific island of Pagan to practice dropping bombs and other training maneuvers. – Associated Press

Hopefully we will never again have to send American ground forces to assist a friendly government to resist the onslaught of a determined insurgency. But with so many important countries in such a state of turmoil, there is no way to be certain. If we ever do face such a situation, we should remember the importance of political legitimacy for our local allies. – World Affairs Journal

Pentagon spending reductions are hurting the US economy more than other spending cuts mandated under sequestration, say House Democrats, who appear poised to inject such effects into the 2014 midterm election narrative. – Defense News

A bipartisan group of more than two-dozen lawmakers say Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel should “change course” and allow the Navy to avoid furloughing its civilian employees. – DEFCON Hill

“I don’t have the exact number yet,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Edward Bolton said Tuesday, but to pay the bill for sequestration, the service might have to cut its fiscal 2013 procurements by “two, three, four, maybe even five F-35s.” – Breaking Defense

The Pentagon’s plans to put most of its 800,000 civilian employees on unpaid leave for 11 days could lead to delays on Lockheed Martin Corp’s (LMT.N) F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and other weapons programs, a top company official said on Tuesday. – Aviation Week

Unmanned aircraft are relatively easy to fly. Landing one without crashing is hard. Getting one to take off from the narrow, pitching deck of an aircraft carrier is harder still. Landing on a carrier? That’s hard enough to give human pilots nervous breakdowns. Soon, it will be the final test of the Navy’s prototype carrier-based drone, the X-47B. – Breaking Defense

And those workhorse Chinooks are going to have to shoulder quite a burden for decades to come. SOF aviators won’t be able to replace the MH-47 Chinook until the 2030s or even the 2040s when the joint Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program is planned to come on line, Bentley said. – Defense News

Interview w/Rear Admiral Bill Moran (USN): While the new carrier can still perform its traditional role as the centerpiece of a mobile island of concentrated naval force, Moran said, the Ford class, the evolving air wing, and an array of other new capabilities will allow the carrier to play a much more flexible and distributed role. – Breaking Defense

James Jay Carafano and Rachel Kleinfeld discussed defense spending in a symposium for Breaking Defense

The War

The administration has floated the idea of putting the CIA’s controversial targeted killing operations under the control of the uniformed armed services. But sources familiar with the still-classified program…the shift would be difficult to implement and would make little difference. – Defense News

Three of al Qaeda’s major websites for recruiting terrorists and communicating propaganda were shut down recently in an apparent case of counterterrorism hacking or possibly as a result of internal disputes among terrorists. – Washington Times’ Inside the Ring

Countering the jihadists with intelligence and law enforcement tools manifestly failed before Sept. 11, 2001. Congress would be wise to ensure that this president and his successors have the authority they need to defend the country. – Washington Post

Benghazi

One hundred pages of e-mails released by the White House on Wednesday reveal intensive jostling among top intelligence and diplomatic officials over the government’s “talking points” in the aftermath of last September’s attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. – New York Times

Emails and documents released by the White House Wednesday reveal an editing process that valued caution over comprehensiveness as officials worked to remove language that would have assigned blame for the attack or suggested ways the incident could have been prevented. – Politico

U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who died with three other Americans in last year’s attack in Benghazi, Libya, turned down offers of additional security from military personnel on two occasions, according to a report released late Tuesday from McClatchy newspapers. – The Hill’s Blog Briefing Room

Behind the scenes, a loose network has been lobbying House and Senate Republicans for months to investigate the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya. – Politico

Italy on Wednesday said the United States was transferring 200 Marines and two planes to its base at Sigonella in Sicily to deploy in Libya in case US diplomats come under attack as they did last year. – AFP

Four days after the attacks on 9/11 anniversary attacks in Benghazi, Libya, the U.S. intelligence community knew very little about who did it, how it happened, and whether it was planned or not, according to 100 pages of internal emails released Wednesday afternoon by the White House. – The Daily Beast

In the battle to shape the American public’s perception of what happened in Benghazi, logistics is everything. On Wednesday, the two emerging rivals in this struggle, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and retired Amb. Thomas Pickering, co-chair of the Accountability Review Board (ARB) for the incident, clashed over the appropriate venue to discuss the U.S. government’s response to last September’s terrorist attack. – The Cable

Foreign Armies East

China is trying to strengthen its claim on tiny, uninhabited, Japanese-controlled islands by raising questions about the much larger Okinawa chain that is home to more than a million Japanese along with major U.S. military installations. The tactic, however, appears to have done little but harden Tokyo’s stance. – Associated Press

A Chinese military unit that a private U.S. computer security company accused of launching more than 115 cyber attacks against American companies over seven years has resumed hacking after a three-month hiatus, the firm’s chief security officer said Wednesday. – LA Times’ World Now

The U.S. government believes a Chinese missile launch this week was the first test of a new interceptor that could be used to destroy a satellite in orbit, one U.S. defense official told Reuters on Wednesday. – Reuters

NATO

At least four NATO service members and six Afghan civilians, including school children, were killed when a suicide car bomber rammed a two-vehicle NATO convoy in the Afghan capital during Thursday morning’s rush hour, government officials said. – Washington Post

Foreign Aid

Congress and the administration should work together to make specific and quantifiable progress on democracy and human rights matters a core condition for U.S. aid to authoritarian governments, as in places like Egypt, Sri Lanka, and Burma. And if the established goals are not met, the United States must follow through on the consequences. – Freedom House’s Freedom at Issue

Nonproliferation

A senior Defense Department official on Wednesday said he was guardedly hopeful that the United States and Russia would be able to reach agreement to maintain some areas of WMD threat reduction cooperation after the current bilateral legal agreement expires next month. – Global Security Newswire

The Defense Department plans to furlough at least 600,000 civilian employees for up to 11 days by the end of September as the result of sequester-related budget cuts. – Military Times

Tracking the winners and losers of this year’s House authorization markup — the draft bill produced by the House Armed Services Committee — is one of Washington’s most exhausitng pastimes. – Breaking Defense

Navy leaders got their wish when Pentagon leaders absolved the service’s civilian shipbuilding cadre from mandatory furloughs. – DEFCON Hill

The Marine Corps is looking to send a forward-deployed crisis-response force — like the one it just stood up for Africa — to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. – Military Times

The three land services have been talking about the task force for months, but the paper, dramatically titled, “Strategic Landpower: Winning The Clash of Wills,” is the first concrete product it has produced in an effort to remind a fickle Congress that land power still matters, even as naval and air assets are receiving most of the attention in the “rebalance” to Asia. – Defense News

In his strongest statement to date about the psychological health of his operators, McRaven said that under the crushing operational tempo of the past 12 years “the force is frying at a rate that I’m not comfortable with at all.” As a consequence, taking care of his troops and their families are his highest priority. – Defense News

A group of 71 members of the U.S. House of Representatives is pressing the Defense Department to avoid transferring funding from a battlefield communications network to pay for more urgent needs. – DoD Buzz

U.S. Marine Corps officials told lawmakers that speed is a top requirement for its new Amphibious Combat Vehicle even if it means trading troop capacity to get it. – DoD Buzz

In the Asia-Pacific region, the U.S. Army will not cut spending on military diplomacy, the senior-level exchanges, exercises and other face-to-face interactions that commanders say they must continue to maintain the trust of U.S. allies. – The E-Ring

As other troops are withdrawn, Special Operations forces are expected to make up almost one-third of the American military presence in Afghanistan by next February. Their specialty — advising local military units on the front lines and hunting down top insurgent or terrorist leaders — will become the major focus of the alliance’s effort here either until American troops are withdrawn by the target date of December 2014 or the Afghan government asks them to stay past then.  – New York Times

The US Navy launched an unmanned jet off an aircraft carrier Tuesday morning. – Defense News

44 will announce in the coming weeks the number of combat troops that will be withdrawn from Afghanistan next year, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday in Stockholm. – DEFCON Hill

Four American soldiers were killed in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday as U.S. and coalition forces dig in for the final fighting season of the over decade-long war. – DEFCON Hill

Defense giant Lockheed Martin is looking outside the United States for new business as it scrambles to make up millions of dollars in lost sales from sequestration. – DEFCON Hill

The War

Lawyers for a detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who is scheduled to be transferred out of the prison in December under a 2011 plea deal have asked a judge to order the Pentagon to live up to its agreement, recently unsealed tribunal papers show. – New York Times

The justification that U.S. officials cite in international law for killing terrorism suspects with drones is not accepted outside the United States, not even by America’s allies, the U.N. official investigating the program said Tuesday. – Washington Times

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) is weighing possible amendments to the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2014 budget plan as a vehicle to change the rules governing U.S. counterterrorism operations. – DEFCON Hill

Rumsfeld, in a wide-ranging interview with POLITICO, said he’s more convinced than ever that America has dropped the ball when it comes to what he describes as the potentially decisive “competition of ideas” in the fight against Islamic fanaticism – and he lays blame for that not only at 44’s door, but also at 43″s. – Politico

Nonproliferation

Years of international efforts to lock down nuclear material that could be exploited by terrorists risk failing to deal with hundreds of tons of plutonium dispersed across the globe, according to an international coalition of nongovernmental organizations. – Global Security Newswire

To govern is to choose one’s priorities, and the president says securing and reducing stockpiles of nuclear weapons material are top national priorities. A bipartisan consensus agrees with him. At least on this point, so vital to national security, the president and Congress should come together and provide the funds necessary to secure or to dispose of dangerous nuclear material. – Politico

Cybersecurity

The top U.S. general in charge of cyber security warned on Tuesday that the United States is increasingly vulnerable to attacks like those that destroyed data on tens of thousands of computers in Saudi Arabia and South Korea in the past year. – Reuters

Foreign Armies East

China launched a large missile on Monday that reached 6,200 miles above the earth, its highest suborbital launch since 1976, according to a U.S. scientist at Harvard University. – Reuters

Addressing the top commanders of the Indian Navy on Tuesday, Defence Minister A.K. Antony announced that additional naval bases and air stations are required to extend the Navy’s reach. – Defense News

This week, 21-year-old 2nd Lieutenant Niloofar Rhmani became the Afghan Air Force’s first female pilot to be trained to fly in 30 years. – Washington Times

The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor said on Tuesday she would open a preliminary examination into events surrounding the 2010 Israeli raid on a humanitarian aid flotilla bound for the Gaza strip, in which nine Turkish activists were killed. – Reuters

Austria will resist British-led efforts to lift or dilute a European Union arms embargo on Syrian rebels, Chancellor Werner Faymann said on Tuesday, arguing that more weapons would only fan the fighting and may snuff out chances for peace talks. – Reuters

Syrian opposition activists are warning of an imminent assault by President Bashar Assad’s forces and Lebanese Hezbollah militants on a rebel-held town near the border with Lebanon. – Washington Times

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel praised the “cooperative defense network” being constructed by the Pentagon across the Middle East as a way to keep Iran’s nuclear ambitions in check. – Defense News

Pentagon contracts tumbled 52 percent in April from a month earlier as across-the-board federal budget cuts took hold. – Washington Post

There are no good options to secure Syria’s chemical weapon stockpiles without putting troops on the ground, the No. 2 Republican on the House Armed Services Committee said Friday. – DEFCON Hill

Vice Admiral John Miller, commander of the US Fifth Fleet, said on Sunday that a massive naval minesweeping exercise involving 41 countries was not directed at Iran. – AFP

Five more coastal patrol ships are moving to Bahrain starting this summer. The Tempest, Squall and Thunderbolt are scheduled to move from Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Va., and begin operations in the Persian Gulf this year, Navy officials announced Friday. – Military Times

The onetime target of early August for passing sweeping fiscal legislation that once filled US Senate corridors is slowly being replaced by a consensus that striking a “grand bargain” could prove difficult. – Defense News

The U.S. Navy’s full 30-year shipbuilding plan dropped on Capitol Hill Friday afternoon, providing Congress with an annual update of the service’s strategies for the future size of the fleet, the types of vessels that will make up the force, and the number of ships to be bought each year. – Defense News

SOCOM is moving ahead with a range of new acquisition programs while embarking on a plan to reconstitute its rotary and fixed-wing fleets. – Defense News

The future of Special Operations Forces…builds on the last ten years of raids and advisor missions, then adds solo operators in foreign lands, proxy wars with nuclear-armed rogue states, and stealth aircraft infiltrating commando teams to sabotage high-tech defenses. – Breaking Defense

Boeing could keep building its Super Hornet fighter jet and a modified electronic attack version through 2020, the company said, given prospects for over 200 foreign sales and what it sees as up to 150 more sales to the U.S. Navy. – Reuters

It is hard to cut the defense budget. It can be done, but it requires lots of specific changes that come with some degree of associated strategic risk. To be sure, my suggestions reflect subjective judgment, and perhaps we can reduce further. Those who think so need to start explaining how they would do so — and budget dealmakers need to stop treating defense funds like chips in a deficit-reduction poker game. – Washington Post

Benghazi

The State Department board that reviewed last year’s attack on a diplomatic outpost in Libya never questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton, the secretary of state at the time, because it had already decided responsibility lay below her level, the board’s chairman said Sunday. – New York Times

A top Senate Republican is questioning whether senior Pentagon officials were upfront with lawmakers in disclosing all the department knew about last year’s terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. – DEFCON Hill

Gunmen have ended a siege of Libya’s foreign and justice ministries but the two-week standoff has left many unresolved questions about the government’s ability to impose its authority in the capital, let alone the restive east of the country. – Reuters

CIA officers at the Benghazi mission’s annex had responsibility for vetting the Libyan militia that they counted on, but failed to arrive, as one of the first responders on the night of the 9-11 anniversary attacks last September, according to U.S. intelligence officers and U.S. diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity – The Daily Beast

The newly-revealed Benghazi emails obtained by ABC News reflect a bureaucratic turf war between the CIA and the State Department, according to administration officials with access to the emails. – The Cable

Did the well-known White House desire to retreat from Libya influence the ability and willingness of military officials to respond in real time? The lives of Americans around the world could hang on the answer. – Wall Street Journal

Two weeks ago, Secretary of State John Kerry said it was time to “move on” from Benghazi. More recently, Jay Carney suggested the same thing, explaining that Benghazi had happened “a long time ago.” But it’s increasingly clear that congressional Republicans, and many Americans, will not move on until the outstanding questions about Benghazi are answered. – TWS

Missile Defense

The Pentagon held internal talks on declassifying sensitive missile defense technology that it plans to share with Russia as part of the  administration’s efforts to assuage Moscow’s opposition to European defenses. – Washington Free Beacon

The eastern United States is already “well protected” against long-range missile threats without a new interceptor site pushed by some GOP lawmakers, a senior Defense Department official said on Thursday. – Global Security Newswire

Aggressive testing allows us to improve our missile defenses as quickly as possible, advances that are needed now more than ever. So let’s have some more test “failures,” because we want our defenses prepared for success if North Korea or some other bad actor decides to attack a U.S. or allied city. – Washington Times

Cybersecurity

A new wave of cyberattacks is striking American corporations, prompting warnings from federal officials, including a vague one issued last week by the Department of Homeland Security. This time, officials say, the attackers’ aim is not espionage but sabotage, and the source seems to be somewhere in the Middle East. – New York Times

Foreign Aid

Perhaps it’s true that funding for foreign aid, always politically tenuous, has depended on greasing interest groups. But it’s also true that foreign aid depends on persuading taxpayers in general that their funds are being well spent. And there are more taxpayers than special interests. – Washington Post

Foreign Armies East

Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are beginning to turn the tide of the country’s war, bolstered by a new strategy, the support of Iran and Russia and the assistance of fighters with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement. – Washington Post

Moscow plans to deliver already contracted ground-to-air missile systems to Syria, Russian officials said Friday, pressing ahead with an arms transfer that U.S. officials say could significantly strengthen Damascus’s ability to ward off an attack. – Wall Street Journal (subscription requirement)

The army is not the answer to Egypt’s political problems, the army chief said on Saturday, urging Egyptians to find a way to get along in comments that appeared to rule out any military intervention in the country’s political standoff. – Reuters

As it prepares for peacetime budget cuts, the Army must shrink. But Pentagon officials say reducing ground forces too much would leave the U.S. vulnerable to threats by such countries as North Korea or Iran. That means continuing to train with tanks, heavy weaponry and big formations—and, in the view of some military analysts, pulling the Army back to its roots and away from its promised future. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

The joint US Army/Marine Corps Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) program may see its testing schedule pushed back by as much as four months by the end of this fiscal year, top Army leadership testified on Capitol Hill on May 8. – Defense News

A top U.S. military commander on Thursday warned that Syria would descend into a spiral of sectarian violence that would likely tear the country apart if President Bashar Assad were to fall from power. –DEFCON Hill

The War

House members introduced legislation Thursday that would require the administration to provide advance notice to defense lawmakers of any so-called “kill/capture” counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda and other Islamic militant groups. – DEFCON Hill

The Obama administration is ignoring the link between radical Islam and terrorism, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Thursday. – Hill Tube

Cybersecurity

The U.S. government on Thursday warned of a heightened risk of a cyberattack that could disrupt the control systems of U.S. companies providing critical services such as electricity and water. –Washington Post

Missile Defense

The head of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency on Wednesday turned down a Republican proposal to supply an extra $250 million for use in establishing a third ballistic missile interceptor site in the United States. – Global Security Newswire

Nuclear Weapons

The general who commands the nation’s nuclear forces said Thursday he has ordered further review of failings discovered among Air Force officers who operate nuclear missiles. But he told Congress he was not alarmed by their shortcomings. – Associated Press

Foreign Armies East

Taiwan and mainland China reacted with anger Friday over the killing of a Taiwanese fisherman who died after his boat was fired on by a Philippine government ship. The Philippines said the Taiwanese boat had tried to ram the Philippine vessel. – New York Times

South Korea reaffirmed on Thursday that it has no intention of joining a regional antimissile framework headed by the United States, the Yonhap News Agency reported. – Global Security Newswire
Philippines aims to pull out 342 soldiers on peacekeeping duties in the Golan Heights, nearly half the number of its U.N. peacekeepers worldwide, after the abduction of four Filipinos near the Syrian border, the foreign minister said on Friday. - Reuters

Under the radar, U.S. defense and military officials were confident that Beijing understood Washington’s intentions, having steadily increased the stream of communications and contact with the People’s Liberation Army over the past few years. – The E-Ring

Israel has asked Russia not to sell Syria an advanced air defense system which would help President Bashar al-Assad fend off foreign military intervention as he battles a more than two-year-old rebellion, Israeli officials said on Thursday. - Reuters

The leader of Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese militant group, escalated tensions with Israel on Thursday over the recent Israeli airstrikes near Damascus, suggesting that the Syrian government would respond by providing Hezbollah fighters with the same weapons that Israel wants to keep out of their hands. – New York Times

It’s been a rough 48 hours for the US Navy. Yesterday, the Littoral Combat Ship was battered by House appropriators and questioned by a leaked report. Today it was the Senate Armed Service seapower subcommittee’s turn to grill the Navy about its aircraft carrier and submarine programs. – Breaking Defense

In a hastily convened conference call with journalists, the Navy pushed back [yesterday] against recent congressional criticisms of its Littoral Combat Ship. – Breaking Defense

Navy leaders are pushing to get the service’s shipbuilding workforce off the hook from looming furloughs. – DEFCON Hill

A new industry report warns of a coming U.S. national security crisis that could be spawned by a “growing and dangerous” reliance on combat system components and raw materials purchased from foreign sources. – Defense News

A decision on which bases will host the US Air Force’s new tanker program is coming before the end of May. – Defense News

The War

In an interview with The New York Times, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the supreme military commander in Afghanistan, discussed the readiness of the Afghan security forces, his optimism that the Afghan Army will be a unifying force for the country, the Taliban’s tactics this summer and winning over the Afghan people. Following are extended excerpts from the interview. – NYT’s At War

A former legal adviser to the State Department has sharply criticized the secrecy surrounding the administration’s use of drones for the targeted killing of terrorism suspects, saying it is unnecessary and has backfired. – New York Times

A leading House Republican said Wednesday that he wants to require the U.S. military to “promptly” inform Congress about every drone strike it conducts outside Afghanistan as well as other military operations to kill or capture suspected terrorists outside declared war zones. – Washington Post

Leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Wednesday that the Boston bombings underscore the need to monitor how the Internet facilitates terrorism. - Politico

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said 44 has used drone technology in the “most effective” way of any president. – Hill Tube

Missile Defense

Even congressional Democrats, typically less hawkish than their GOP cohorts, are beginning to talk about a proposed East Coast missile shield as if it’s a done deal. – Defense News

The head of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency says that the Obama administration has discussed declassifying key data on U.S. missile defense in order to provide it to Russia. – Associated Press

NATO

NATO leaders are launching an inquiry into allegations of misconduct by the alliance’s special forces in southern Afghanistan. – DEFCON Hill

Nuclear Weapons

US senators questioned top Air Force officials on whether the service can handle the responsibilities of safeguarding America’s nuclear arsenal, following the reassignment of 17 USAF officers who would launch warheads upon presidential order. – Defense News

Foreign Armies East

The incident has again soured relations between the world’s two most populous nations, stirring memories of the humiliating defeat India suffered in a 1962 border war. But it has also renewed fears over China’s wider territorial ambitions across Asia. – Financial Times

Afghan security forces remain unprepared to defend Afghanistan despite U.S. expenditures of more than $54 billion on training and equipment, the  administration’s top oversight official in Afghanistan warned on Wednesday afternoon. – Washington Free Beacon

Kurdish rebels began withdrawing from Turkey to their stronghold in northern Iraq on Wednesday, the latest step in the six-month bid to end a three-decades long conflict that has left tens of thousands dead. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Iranian officials are believed to be encouraging the Syrian army, Palestinians, and its terror proxy Hezbollah to launch an attack on the Golan Heights, Israeli territory that borders war-torn Syria. –Washington Free Beacon

The United States, which is trying to bring Syrian rebels and the Syrian government to the negotiating table, is now increasingly worried that Russia plans to sell a sophisticated air defense system to Syria, American officials said Wednesday. – New York Times

Hyperpuissance

American strategic interests may not warrant a major intervention — indeed, the U.S. cannot police the entire world — but there are times when our outrage must be turned into action, limited as it may be. – Los Angeles Times

Pentagon is stepping up plans to deal with a dangerous regional spillover from Syria’s possible collapse—a scenario it had recently seen as remote—drawing up proposals including a Jordanian buffer zone for refugees secured by Arab troops, said U.S. officials familiar with the discussion. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Pentagon’s funding request for the final years of the Afghan war will arrive on Capitol Hill by the end of this month, according to the department’s No. 2 official. – DEFCON Hill

The U.S. Defense Department’s deputy secretary on Tuesday renewed the Pentagon’s commitment to keep forces ready for possible hostilities on the Korean Peninsula, but said deep budget cuts to military training accounts could harm long-term preparedness. – Global Security Newswire

The Pentagon’s review of its overall military strategy, designed to address huge budget cuts under sequestration, is nearly complete. – DEFCON Hill

Plans to expand the American naval presence in the Pacific with new ships and hi-tech weaponry will go ahead despite steep budget cuts, the US Navy’s top officer said before a trip to the region. – AFP

The White House and senior Republican lawmakers acknowledge they remain far apart on a “grand bargain” fiscal deal to address the defense sequester cuts. But a recurring Washington issue could further complicate striking such a deal: a pending partisan fight over the nation’s borrowing limit. – Defense News

The Pentagon wants Congress to give it more freedom to transfer money between accounts as it grapples with the fallout from federal spending cuts. – Defense News

The sequester is causing the Army plenty of problems but retention is not one of them, according to the chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno. Not yet, at least. – The E-Ring

Congress isn’t likely to make politically painful cuts in fiscal 2014, especially when there are other areas of the military budget that lack powerful constituencies to defend them, and some lawmakers are not convinced that the Department of Defense has done enough overseas. – Roll Call

The chief of naval operations told Congress on Tuesday that he is vigilant of, but not worried by, China’s large-scale naval buildup, including the Pentagon’s disclosure on Monday that Beijing is building two new classes of missile submarines. – Washington Free Beacon

The Navy is 90 percent sure its current estimated cost to operate and maintain the controversial Littoral Combat Ship is off target, according to a draft Government Accountability Office report obtained by BreakingDefense. – Breaking Defense

The US Air Force has requested $841 million in the fiscal 2014 budget for tactical missiles, a jump of nearly $200 million from proposed 2013 levels. – Defense News

The U.S. Army’s top officer said that force readiness is “degrading significantly” enough that if 44 decides to put boots on the ground in Syria, soldiers may not be fully prepared for the job if they don’t move out by the end of this summer. – The E-Ring

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps continue to develop military options for the White House in light of increased tensions in Syria and North Korea all while progressing with the strategic pivot to the Pacific, senior service leaders told lawmakers May 8 during House Appropriations Defense subcommittee hearing. – DOD Buzz

Durbin, No. 2 in the Senate Democratic leadership and a 26-year member of both the House and Senate Appropriations panels, has spent the past three months in a crash course on defense issues – Politico

Interview: Congressman J. Randy Forbes R-VA, chairman of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee and Co-Chairman of the Navy-Marine Corps Caucus. – The Diplomat

Intelligence

John O. Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has replaced the acting head of the agency’s clandestine service, a woman who was at the center of the agency’s detention and interrogation program and played a central role in the destruction of interrogation videotapes, American officials said on Tuesday. – New York Times

The War

Top senators in both parties have begun talks to revise the congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to lawmakers and aides involved in the discussions. – Politico
NATO

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called for European countries to firmly commit to invest in security and defense or risk losing credibility and influence. – Defense News

Missile Defense

The Defense Department wants congressional approval to reallocate nearly $160 million for a number of antimissile activities including a live interception trial for the troubled Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, Inside Defense reported on Monday. – Global Security Newswire

Foreign Aid

The problem is USAID…also spends about $2.8 billion a year teaching campaign skills to political groups, encouraging independent media, organizing fair elections and funding other grass-roots activities intended to promote democracy and human rights. Some foreign leaders view those American efforts as thinly veiled attempts to weaken the status quo or even engineer a change of governments. – Los Angeles Times

Foreign Armies East

Japan’s main movements on precision strike involve upgrading its Mitsubishi F-2 fighter jet fleet with Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) capability, and working on a more accurate surface-to-surface missile. Taiwan, meanwhile, is pushing forward on a variety of secret missile programs designed to punish mainland China for daring to cross the center line of the Taiwan Strait. – Defense News

India has agreed to a Chinese demand to demolish a remote army position near their de facto border in the Himalayas, Indian sources said, as part of a deal to end a standoff that threatened to scupper slowly improving relations. – Reuters

Afghanistan’s fledgling air force is scrambling to prepare to take control of the country’s airspace. But while expectations are high, the force is having trouble getting off the ground. – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

The Tunisian army and police were hunting more than 30 suspected al-Qaeda linked militants close to the border with Algeria on Tuesday, and President Moncef Marzouki traveled to the area to oversee the operation in a signal of its importance – Reuters

The Syrian army captured a strategic southern town from rebel fighters on Wednesday after a ferocious two-month bombardment, in an advance likely to result in President Bashar al-Assad’s forces regaining control of an international transit route, opposition sources said. – Reuters

The weekend airstrikes near the Syrian capital reportedly carried out by Israel have heightened concerns about terrorist attacks on Israeli tourists and other civilian targets in the coming weeks, U.S. officials and experts say, as Damascus and its allies vow to respond to what Syria has called an “act of war.” – Washington Post

US Lawmakers are expected to battle over armed drones, softening the blow of military budget cuts and a controversial missile defense shield as they craft Pentagon policy legislation for fiscal 2014. – Defense News

Under Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the new commander of international forces here, the American-led military coalition is no longer aiming to change Afghanistan. Its focus now is on a far more narrow goal: readying Afghan forces to withstand the Taliban regardless of the country’s looming political and economic troubles. – New York Times

Office of Management and Budget has implemented technical adjustments called for by law that reduce the $85 billion indiscriminate sequester spending cuts to about $80 billion, administration and congressional sources said Monday. – The Hill’s On the Money

Heavily armored vehicles, unmanned aircraft and even Army end-strength increases have all been funded in part or wholly through the overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget. Under pressure from Congress, the US Defense Department has been shifting funding for these institutionalized efforts into the base budget, leaving the true downrange operational funding in OCO. But that’s now being put on hold. – Defense News

U.S. Navy leaders were warned last year that a $37 billion program to build Littoral Combat Ships can’t meet its promised mission because the vessels are too lightly manned and armed, according to a confidential report. – Bloomberg

The launch of the US aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford has been moved back from July to November, a consequence of production delays identified two years ago. – Defense News

An usually public disagreement between senior Pentagon officials on the per-hour flying cost of the F-35 underscores the continuing uncertainty in the U.S., by far the largest F-35 customer, about total ownership price tag of the stealthy fighter. – Aviation Week

It looks like the U.S. Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) dodged a fatal budget cut, thanks to a delaying strategy that extends the program’s technical development phase by six months while trimming the number of contractors. – Aviation Week

Interview: With the uncertainty surrounding the US Defense Department’s budget, it’s no wonder Robert Hale, the Pentagon comptroller, has worked just about every day since January. – Defense News

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) writes: The President’s vision for our defense, as seen in the Administration’s budget, is troubling. On the surface I believe President Obama is using our debt and deficit crisis to cut deeply into the Defense budget. – RealClearDefense

Seems doubtful that Pentagon planners truly believe that Syria’s air defenses are a formidable hurdle to intervening in Syria’s civil war. More likely, the argument reflects the U.S. military’s reading of what the White House would like it to say and, in a time of declining budgets and potential conflict in the Persian Gulf, a desire to avoid another resource-draining operation. – The American

The War

The Ansar al Sharia Brigade, the Islamist terror group linked to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, continues to operate freely in that Libyan city, according to U.S. military officials. – Washington Free Beacon

A new jihadi magazine set up by militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan has appealed to Muslims around the world to come up with technology to hack into or manipulate drones, describing this as one of their most important priorities. – Reuters

New START

Secretary of State John Kerry published the administration’s best case for the success of the treaty, titled “Time to Face Facts.” In it, he urges us to “relentlessly” follow the facts about the treaty. We agree, but by doing so, we are led to very different conclusions from his about the treaty’s purported accomplishments. – Foreign Policy

Cybersecurity

Hackers based in the Middle East and North Africa are preparing cyberattacks this week against the websites of high-profile U.S. government agencies, banks and other companies, according to the Department of Homeland Security. – Washington Times

Foreign Armies East

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has few good options for military retaliation after Israel’s air strikes over the weekend but the attacks could redouble support from his regional allies Iran and Hezbollah. – Reuters

Turkish military launched a 10-day exercise at a base near the border with Syria on Monday, where fears of a spillover of violence and of the fallout of any chemical weapons use have escalated in recent weeks. – Reuters

China continues to rapidly modernize and expand its military and has deployed an anti-ship missile that could attack vessels more than 1,500 kilometers away, according to a new Pentagon report. – Defense News

China is building two new classes of missile submarines in addition to the eight nuclear missile submarines and six attack submarines being deployed as part of an arms buildup that analysts say appears to put Beijing on a war footing. – Washington Free Beacon

Download a copy of the Pentagon’s 2013 Annual Report to Congress on Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China – Department of Defense (PDF)

North Korea has taken two Musudan missiles off launch-ready status and moved them from their position on the country’s east coast, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, after weeks of concern that Pyongyang had been poised for a test-launch. – Reuters

Sharp cuts in Pentagon spending are beginning to crimp U.S. military operations in Asia, fueling worries among allies over the American commitment to security in the region at a time when North Korea nuclear threats and China’s military expansion are rattling nerves. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Two prominent US senators say there is “no sign” Congress will pass the kind of sweeping fiscal bill that would void or lessen $500 billion in Pentagon cuts already being implemented. – Defense News

As the Marine Corps winds down ten years of land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and more fully returns to its amphibious and expeditionary origins, service planners are vigorously  preparing the service for more sea basing and operations spread across wide swaths of ocean, senior Corps leaders explained. – DOD Buzz

44 Friday virtually ruled out the use of troops in Syria, saying he does not see a situation in which deploying ground forces would make sense for the United States or for the Syrian people. – Washington Pos

An internal US Air Force office tasked with finding a way to unify the three branches of the service is going full speed to provide their final recommendations this summer. – Defense News

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus talked up the controversial Littoral Combat Ship days before departing for Asia to visit the first LCS, USS Freedom, which recently arrived in Singapore – AOL Defense

In a draft budget reprogramming document leaked Friday and first reported by Inside Defense, the Army wants $1.34 billion more in operations and maintenance funding to make up for “increased fuel costs and increased use of multi-modal transportation methods for equipment movement and retrograde operations.” – Defense News

The War

“Everybody in the mission” in Benghazi, Libya, thought the attack on a U.S. consulate there last Sept. 11 was an act of terror “from the get-go,” according to excerpts of an interview investigators conducted with the No. 2 official in Libya at the time, obtained by CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” – CBS News

The life of al Qaeda propagandist Anwar al-Awlaki was brought to a definitive end in September 2011 when he was killed by a U.S. drone strike. The same doesn’t appear to be true of his influence, which lives on in cyberspace. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

Analysis: Aware that intensified American counterterrorism efforts have made an ambitious Sept. 11-style plot a long shot, Al Qaeda propagandists for several years have called on their devotees in the United States to carry out smaller-scale solo attacks and provided the online education to teach them how. – New York Times

Nonproliferation

Delegates from the United States and dozens of partner nations will gather later this month in Poland to help chart the future of a multilateral program intended to catch attempts to smuggle weapons of mass destruction and their components. – Global Security Newswire

Foreign Armies East

Before reports of chemical weapons use surfaced earlier this year in Syria, Rolf Ekeus, a prominent Swedish arms control specialist who headed up the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in the 1990s, had been exploring ways to learn more about the chemical stockpiles in Syria and several other countries that were beyond the reach of the world’s chemical weapons watchdog. – Turtle Bay

The North Korean regime is doing whatever it can to survive, according to a new Pentagon assessment which predicts that, despite international efforts, Pyongyang’s leadership will continue to build more nuclear weapons and asymmetric warfare capabilities. – The E-Ring

The U.S. and South Korea launched a five-day anti-submarine drill Monday in the West Sea, site of past clashes between the two Koreas, according to South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense. – Stars and Stripes

Syrian rebels shot down a military helicopter in the country’s east, killing eight government troops on board as President Bashar Assad’s troops battled opposition forces inside a sprawling military air base in the north for the second straight day, activists said Monday. – Associated Press

Any major U.S. force reduction in the Asia-Pacific could prompt Japan to build its own nuclear weapons to ward off aggression from an ascendant China, independent experts and former U.S. government analysts warned in a report published on Friday. – Global Security Newswire

Pakistani Taliban has vowed to target the ANP and two other secular parties…The attacks have draped a pall of fear over what was supposed to be a momentous event: an election that marks the first transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another – Los Angeles Times

The twin airstrikes in Damascus on Friday and Sunday attributed to Israel appear to be more about Jerusalem’s broad, mostly covert battle with Iran and Hezbollah than about the bloody civil war raging in Syria. – New York Times

A new bout of fighting erupted on Monday in a border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the latest indication of a sharp deterioration in relations between the important U.S. allies. – Reuters

India and China simultaneously withdrew troops from camps a few meters apart in a Himalayan desert on Sunday, apparently ending a three-week standoff on a freezing plateau where the border is disputed and the Asian giants fought a war 50 years ago. – Reuters

The battle by Syria’s Sunni majority against the Shiite-linked Assad regime has drawn more men from Saudi Arabia to Syria than any country except Libya and Tunisia, said analyst Aaron Zelin of the Washington Institute, a think tank. But for Saudi Arabia’s monarchy, Syria’s pull to jihad is creating tensions and risks linked to its recent past. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)

On the two-year anniversary of the daring U.S. special operations raid that killed Osama bin Laden, America’s cadre of elite troops are starting to buckle after more than a decade of constant combat. – DEFCON Hill

U.S. Special Operations Command chief Adm. William McRaven warned Thursday that special operations forces are at risk of being hit by the budget cuts under sequestration. – DEFCON Hill

McRaven made it clear that if you want to know what he’s really thinking about the future of SOCOM, you’d better pay attention to the panelist who sat two chairs down: former Central Command advisor and bestselling David Petraeus biographer Linda Robinson. – AOL Defense

Defense spending cuts are starting to take a toll on the economy, further slowing a sluggish jobs recovery. – USA Today

FlightSafety has won the contract to provide the training system for the Air Force’s new tanker, the service announced Wednesday. – Military Times

Technological progress tends to be incremental, but the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) hopes to make significant advances with its “Lighten the Load” initiative to reduce the burden on U.S. Marines. Body armor is a critical target, as it is the single largest element of the load. – Aviation Week

The Navy on Thursday inaugurated its first squadron with both manned and unmanned aircraft. – Associated Press

The War

44′s renewed call to close the Guantanamo Bay prison faces its first Capitol Hill test this month, as lawmakers take up a bill expected to include restrictions on repatriating detainees or resettling them in third countries. – Wall Street Journal

The strike has not only energized rights activists who have long campaigned for the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, but also compelled the  administration to grapple with an issue that had been effectively abandoned. – Washington Post

Afghan President Hamid Karzai weighed in on the Guantánamo prison debate Thursday, urging 44 to close the facility at Guantánamo Bay. – DEFCON Hill

The number of names on a highly classified U.S. central database used to track suspected terrorists has jumped to 875,000 from 540,000 only five years ago, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said. – Reuters

Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) writes: I understand the national discomfort with Guantanamo. Most Americans view terrorist detainees in the abstract. The classified nature of their offenses permit few the ability to understand the very real danger they pose to our security. But they are dangerous. They do mean us harm. And until a better solution is offered, at Guantanamo they must stay. – USA Today
The nature of this conflict, it bears emphasis, involves actual war—not war as a metaphor for policy seriousness, but armed conflict in the strict legal sense. This is the US government’s position even though the enemy is not a state. – Hoover Institution’s Defining Ideas

If we in the West wish to stand in the way of this malevolent terror, we must first understand its vision, its true nature, and its goals. Only then can it be conquered. Sadly, at present, we are not even on the same battlefield. – Foreign Policy

Missile Defense

Canada’s potential participation in the US military’s continental missile defense system is once again under consideration, sparking a debate in Canada on whether it makes sense to take part in the ground-based interceptor shield. – Defense News