Defense
The Navy’s top officer said Thursday that the service will continue stationing two aircraft carriers in 5th Fleet through March, a standing requirement that has pushed the fleet’s pace and one that officials are tracking closely. – Military Times
National security advisors to the Romney campaign, fenced with skeptical reporters this morning about what their candidate would actually do differently from 44. – AOL Defense
U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to immediately restore the Pentagon’s base budget to levels proposed by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates in 2012 before last year’s Budget Control Act slashed $259 billion from planned spending, according to campaign advisers. – Defense News
With the Iraq war over, Afghanistan (slowly) winding down, and a new strategy that emphasizes Navy and Marine Corps operations in the Pacific, the Army is painfully aware it’s going to shrink. The service increasingly focuses on how to make it through the coming long, lean years to the decades beyond. – AOL Defense
To train for the future, U.S. Army Europe is looking to the past. This month’s Exercise Saber Junction is part of the Army’s return to force-on-force preparation, which has for a decade played second fiddle to counterinsurgency training. – Defense News
Cybersecurity
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta warned Thursday that the United States was facing the possibility of a “cyber-Pearl Harbor” and was increasingly vulnerable to foreign computer hackers who could dismantle the nation’s power grid, transportation system, financial networks and government. – New York Times
A computer virus that wiped crucial business data from tens of thousands of computers at Middle Eastern energy companies over the summer marked the most destructive cyberattack on the private sector to date, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Thursday night in a major speech intended to warn of the growing perils in cyberspace. – Washington Post
Arms Control
The White House is attempting to put a positive spin on Russia’s decision to pull out from a long-standing arms reduction deal with the United States, while GOP critics claim it’s another misstep by Obama administration on the international stage. – DEFCON Hill
Russia’s announcement this week that it is not willing to extend the agreement with the United States that enables joint WMD security work under the Cooperative Threat Reduction initiative does not necessarily mean the two countries could not work out a revised deal allowing the program to survive, issue experts say. – Global Security Newswire
The United States has launched discussions with the four other recognized nuclear powers as well as other states on moving toward establishment of a potential international ban on the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons, Washington’s delegate to the U.N. First Committee said on Wednesday in remarks published by the United Nations. – Global Security Newswire
Josh Rogin reports: Russia’s announcement Wednesday that it will not participate in the Nunn-Lugar program to reduce the threat of loose nuclear materials is a slap in the face to 44′s effort to make arms control a feature of his “reset” policy with Russia, two top advisors to Mitt Romney said Thursday. – The Cable
The War
Next week, al-Nashiri’s case and that of the alleged 9/11 attack planners will inch toward trial, with another round of pretrial hearings that will determine how the eventual trials will be deliberated. In the meantime, congressional Republicans have expressed suspicions that the 44th administration intends to move Guantanamo detainees to the Thomson Correctional Center, a currently unused detention facility in northwest Illinois. – Washington Times
44′s statement brings into focus just how much he benefited politically from a tactical decision by SEALs on the ground to kill bin Laden. Just think: If things had gone differently, Joe Biden’s tag line at this summer’s Democratic National Convention would have been: “General Motors is still alive…and so is Osama bin Laden!” – Shadow Government
Missile Defense
NATO says it has successfully tested an Italian radar system as part of its efforts to build a ballistic missile defense architecture, according to a press release issued Oct. 10. – Defense News
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said relations between his nation and NATO are threatened by the military alliance’s program to construct a European ballistic missile shield, the Associated Press reported. – Global Security Newswire
