Defense
The Marine Corps, the most male of the armed services, is taking its first steps toward integrating women into war-fighting units, starting with its infantry officer school at Quantico, Va., and ground combat battalions that had once been closed to women. – New York Times
Despite the U.S. Army’s insistence that its tank fleet is in good shape, congressional support for additional funding for the M1 Abrams tank is growing, with 173 members of the House of Representatives asking Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to sustain tank production in the 2013 budget. – Defense News
A group of Senate Republicans is pressing the Pentagon to submit “wish lists” to Congress, arguing lawmakers cannot determine the military’s budgetary needs without them. – DEFCON Hill
A lawmaker will move to require the U.S. military services services to prepare “wish lists” of unfunded priorities each year to be delivered to the U.S. Congress no later than one month after release of the formal Defense Department budget. – Defense News
Anyone who’s attended a hearing on the F-35 since Bob Gates first put the plane in his sights, with costs spinning upwards and schedule bulging outwards, knows that the Pentagon senior leadership is pushing hard to contain costs of the largest conventional acquisition program in U.S. history. That push may have led to a strike at Lockheed Martin’s F-35 factory in Fort Worth. – AOL Defense
A lobbying campaign in Congress and from state governors led the Pentagon to restore $400 million in planned cuts to the Air National Guard and 24 C-130 planes. – DEFCON Hill
Seth Cropsey and Arthur Milikh write: Mahan saw correctly that American greatness depends on dominant sea power. He understood the close connection between domestic prosperity and maritime preeminence. The acceptance of his ideas at the beginning of the twentieth century helped immeasurably in encouraging both, the condition of which is the only one in the memory of Americans alive today. But perpetual permanence is indeed the illusion of every age, as the possibility of a much diminished US Navy raised by ongoing budget negotiations should be a reminder. – World Affairs Journal
The War
A British man who trained to be a shoe bomber a decade ago says Osama bin Laden told him shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks that he believed a follow-up terrorism attack could doom the American economy. – Associated Press
Cybersecurity
Reported cybersecurity incidents at federal agencies have risen 680 percent in six years, the Government Accountability Organization testified [yesterday] — and note that key word “reported,” which means that’s just the ones we know about. – AOL Defense
The United States would use cyber weapons against an adversary’s computer networks only after officials at the highest levels of government approved of the operation because of the risks of collateral damage, a senior U.S. military official said Tuesday. – Associated Press
Eli Lake reports: By almost any standard, Shawn Henry has been a successful lawman. As the FBI’s top cyber cop, he has racked up a string of busts against hackers affiliated with notorious underground groups: In just the past eight months, according to two knowledgeable sources, the FBI and its foreign partners have arrested 80 hackers affiliated with Anonymous, AntiSec, and LulzSec. Despite those successes, however, Henry says the government is losing its battle against hackers. – The Daily Beast
Michael Powell writes: Cyberthreats will be with us forever. The country needs bold and innovative solutions implemented by companies, government and consumers working together. Good information is the key — because this is one area where what you don’t know can hurt you. – Politico
NATO
The U.S. State Department announced on Monday there will be no meeting between Russia and NATO during next month’s high-level alliance meeting in Chicago, RIA Novosti reported – Global Security Newswire
