Defense
The Pentagon could hold on to its crown-jewel weapon systems even though looming automatic federal spending cuts would inflict a $54 billion gash in the 2013 defense budget, military budget analysts say. – Washington Times
As the Pentagon and Congress argue over how to shrink the military to fit smaller federal budgets, no debate over matching money to mission is more heartfelt than the order to shut down the premier overseas hospital for grievously wounded troops and replace it with a new one. – New York Times
A bipartisan group of roughly 30 senators have been meeting behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, busily discussing possible funding alternatives that could be formulated into a compromise sequestration plan, according to members of a new debt reduction task force sponsored by the Bipartisan Policy Center. – DEFCON Hill
After raising eyebrows by initially voicing support for federal tax hikes to stave off more national defense cuts, a key pro-military senator now says he favors raising the needed revenue “without raising taxes.” – DOTMIL
The Defense Department has a grand vision for the U.S. military’s energy future, including “green”-powered fleets, jets and trucks. But members of Congress are hung up on the dollar signs that come with going green. – CNN’s Security Clearance
Cybersecurity
The revelation that the United States used a computer virus to damage Iranian nuclear facilities has added urgency to a push in Congress for cybersecurity legislation. – Hillicon Valley
Just as details of the covert American/Israeli collaboration in the delivery of the famed Stuxnet bug surface, the U.S. Defense Department has created a formal structure for cyber operations that places increased capability in the hands of geographic combatant commanders. – Defense News
If 44″s team is going to boast about the president’s cyber prowess, it really should try to do more to warn our enemies and reassure our friends—and perhaps inform Congress—what rules it thinks will apply to this new weapon. There are serious and still quite contentious policy issues in the emerging field of cyber strategy. A president preoccupied with personal preening makes it much harder to mobilize support for reasonable policies. – The Weekly Standard
Law of the Sea Treaty
Donald Rumsfeld is returning to Capitol Hill [this] week to testify against the United States joining the United Nations’s Law of the Sea treaty, pitting him squarely against the military brass that he used to command as former President George W. Bush’s secretary of Defense. – The Hill’s Global Affairs
