DOD Backs Down on NSPS: Pentagon officials have scaled back their timeline for the new performance-based payroll system, reducing the number of employees sought for the program’s first phase to 11,000. DOD originally scheduled the first phase of the National Security Personnel System to debut in February, but now has set the unveiling for April 30, according to the NSPS Web site. Officials had already put some training ventures on hold to provide more time to simplify the system.
In a nighttime ceremony contrived to continue concealment of many of its features, the new B-21 bomber rolled out of Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, Calif. plant Dec. 2. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the aircraft's advanced technology represents "deterrence, the American way."