Friday Defense Briefing

A retired Air Force general said Thursday the military should have reacted more aggressively to the September 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, bolstering Republicans’ efforts to portray the administration’s response to the assault as feckless. – Washington Post

U.S. soldiers preparing to fight in Afghanistan have encountered some of the same flaws with the Army’s vaunted intelligence computer network that they endured two years ago in their efforts to identify terrorists and locate roadside bombs in the war zone. – Washington Times

A key US House Democrat on Thursday urged his colleagues to embrace some of the  administration’s proposed weapon program cuts, arguing the savings will allow the military to buy new platforms and remain ready for war. – Defense News

The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee said he expects a defense bill amendment to close excess military bases will get “crushed” by his colleagues, but he intends to propose it anyway. – The Hill

Congressional auditors say the Pentagon is not giving Congress adequate information about its plan for testing a troubled strategic missile defense system. – Global Security Newswire

A federal judge temporarily barred the Pentagon from making new deals with the main supplier of rocket engines used to send U.S. military and intelligence satellites into space, citing the Obama administration’s expanded sanctions regime against Russia over Ukraine. – Wall Street Journal

Up to five Philippine military bases will be made available for U.S. forces to rotate aircraft, ships, equipment and troops, Manila’s chief negotiator of a new security pact said on Friday, as the Philippines looks to counter China’s rising power in the region. – Reuters

Foreign Armies East

North Korea has recently conducted engine tests for an intercontinental ballistic missile that could potentially deliver a nuclear warhead to the United States, a U.S. think tank said on Friday. – Reuters

Ukraine ordered the expulsion of Russia’s military attaché, saying it had caught him “red-handed” receiving classified information on the country’s cooperation with NATO during an armed uprising Kiev says is directed from Moscow. – Reuters

The War

Yemeni armed forces killed an al Qaeda commander from Uzbekistan and at least 12 other militants in fighting in south Yemen on Thursday, the third day of an offensive against the Islamist group, local military and security sources said. – Reuters

Five people were killed and up to 15 wounded when suspected Islamist militants tried to storm Libyan government security headquarters in Benghazi on Friday, army officials said, setting off a firefight that lasted more than an hour. – Reuters

Suicide bombers attacked a security checkpoint and a civilian bus in the south of the Sinai Peninsula on Friday, killing one police officer and wounding at least seven people, according to Egypt’s Interior Ministry. – New York Times

Two car bombs in Syria’s central province of Hama killed 18 people, including 11 children, and wounded 50 others on Friday, state television said. – Reuters

That suicide-bomb attack on February 6 by the Pakistani-born Majeed, appeared to be part of a resurgence of such attacks that represented a disturbing shift in tactics among radical jihadists in the sectarian killing grounds of Syria and Iraq. Many of them have been carried out by foreigners drawn to the conflicts from across the region and from Europe, U.S. and European security and intelligence officials say. – Reuters

France said it had deported on Thursday an Algerian national suspected of recruiting young French Muslims to join the Syrian civil war, the first such case since Paris unveiled a raft of policies to stop its citizens from becoming radicalized. – Reuters

NATO

NATO leaders plan to push European countries to increase defense spending at September’s meeting of alliance members in Wales, amid Russia’s military buildup on its border with Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. – Defense News

In the wake of its continued aggression against Ukraine and bellicose rhetoric toward the West, NATO and its allies must begin to consider Russia as an adversary, the alliance’s top diplomat said on Thursday. – The Hill

NATO said on Thursday it was looking at ways to bring Georgia “even closer” to the military alliance, in the latest signal of support for the former Soviet republic as tension mounts between Russia and the West over Ukraine. – Reuters