Daily Report

Proper attention must be paid to funding the nuclear triad if the nation is to avoid having a “hollow nuclear force,” said US Strategic Command chief Gen. Robert Kehler Tuesday. Kehler told defense writers in Washington, D.C., that if the...

Some parts of the nuclear triad can be extended in service, and some cannot, said Gen. Robert Kehler, US Strategic Command boss, Tuesday. “We’ve had great success” extending the service lives of the bomber platforms, he told defense reporters in...

The Air Force likely would lose "more than 10 percent" of its fighters, strategic bombers, and airlift, if the 2011 Budget Control Act's sequestration mechanism kicks in and the Pentagon faces additional severe spending cuts over the next 10 years, said Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.), House Armed Services Committee chairman. That would mean the Air Force would drop down to about 1,500 fighters, 100 bombers, and less than 500 airlifters, according to his Oct. 14 letter to the leadership of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. Already the act has cut some $482 billion from DOD from Fiscal 2012 to Fiscal 2021, according to a chart in McKeon's letter. If the joint committee members cannot agree where to shed more than $1 trillion in additional federal spending, the sequestration mechanism would freeze DOD spending levels at the Fiscal 2003 level—meaning about $480 billion annually—from Fiscal 2013 through Fiscal 2021, according to McKeon. That would mean an additional $439 billion in cuts, according to his chart, meaning DOD would stand to lose some $921 billion in total. (See also Unsustainable Cuts from the Daily Report archives.)

Much was made recently about malware that made its way onto computers supporting remotely piloted aircraft operators at Creech AFB, Nev. But the issue wasn’t really that serious, according to US Strategic Command Commander Gen. Robert Kehler. The so-called attack...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Tripoli Tuesday to meet with Libya’s Transitional National Council President Mustafa Abdel-Jalil and pledge additional US support as Libyans form a new government. She is the most senior US official to visit the war-torn...

The United States and its NATO allies continue to make progress on the European Phased Adaptive Approach plan and hope to declare initial NATO missile defense capability by May 2012, said Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control and...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a “crowd-sourcing competition,” in which anyone from aircraft enthusiasts to citizen scientists may pitch their ideas for a “rucksack-portable” remotely piloted aircraft. Jim McCormick, DARPA program manager, said the goal is to...