TOLOnews
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a letter to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered proposals to accelerate the peace process, including convening a UN-facilitated conference with international stakeholders, facilitating discussion between the two sides to form a negotiated settlement and ceasefire, holding a meeting in Turkey between both sides to finalize a peace agreement, and revising the proposal for a 90-day reduction in violence. However, Blinken also made it clear the United States is considering all options regarding Afghanistan, including the May 1st deadline for full withdrawal.
POLITICO
U.S. and Iraqi officials believe that an Iran-backed group with a history of targeting Americans in Iraq was responsible for a March 3 attack on an Iraqi air base that hosts U.S. troops. While the investigation into the attack on Al-Asad air base in the western province of Anbar is still ongoing, officials believe that Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed paramilitary force, or an affiliated group, was responsible, according to two defense officials familiar with early intelligence.
The Associated Press
The United States and South Korea have reached agreement in principle on a new arrangement for sharing the cost of the American troop presence, which is intended as a bulwark against the threat of North Korean aggression, both countries announced. The State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs said on March 7 that the deal includes a “negotiated increase” in Seoul’s share of the cost, but it provided no details.
Breaking Defense
The cyberespionage campaign is said to be affecting the U.S. defense industrial base, think tanks, and "hundreds of thousands" of organizations globally. Microsoft is implicating China.
Nextgov
The expansion of the Embedded Entrepreneurship Initiative also marks its transition to a formalized program.
Santa Maria Times
More missile, satellite, and rocket launches are planned at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in 2021 than last year, and the installation will also officially change its name to Vandenberg Space Force Base. At least 12 launches are planned this year, including three Falcon-9 rockets and a Missile Defense Agency test, Col. David Rickards of the 30th Space Wing said March 4, as he delivered the annual State of Vandenberg Air Force Base address via Zoom.
SpaceNews
The contract is for “tradespace analysis support” for the Space Acquisition Management Directorate, at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
Federal News Network
The Pentagon may have overpaid two of its biggest contractors by nearly $100 million because contract administrators failed to heed to the Defense Department’s own auditors’ warnings about potentially improper reimbursement claims, according to a new review by the Pentagon’s inspector general.
Defense One
Two of former President Donald J. Trump’s top national security officials called for a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Mark T. Esper, one of Trump’s Defense Secretaries, and H.R. McMaster, one of his national security advisors, joined Leon E. Panetta, an Obama administration Defense Secretary and Central Intelligence Agency director, in calling for the panel during a virtual Reagan Institute event.
The Associated Press
While the Wyoming National Guard was sending more than 100 troops to Washington, D.C., to help with security around President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January, Gov. Mark Gordon quietly mobilized dozens of Guard troops and others in case of violence at the state Capitol in Cheyenne.
One More Thing
The Aviationist
An elephant walk at Neuburg Air Base, Germany, involved 18 Eurofighters that were parked on the runway, rather than taxiing on it.
