Defense budget plan could be pushed to May

Senior Defense Department officials earlier this year set a mid-April target for finalizing President Barack Obama's first defense spending request. Earlier this month, the delivery date was pushed back to late April.  http://federaltimes.com/index.php?S=4015838

Raytheon quietly underwrites publicity effort for Navy's DDG-1000 destroyer program

With a big stake in the DDG-1000 Zumwalt-class destroyer program, Raytheon Company is bankrolling a campaign aimed at building support to keep the futuristic ship in production, a spokeswoman confirmed today.  http://blog.al.com/live/2009/03/raytheon_quietly_underwrites_d.html

Senator: Expect painful cuts in Pentagon budget

A Senate defense committee chairman says Pentagon budget will include large, painful cuts. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/03/31/national/w094706D43.DTL

***Obama, Russia's Medvedev to reopen talks on nuclear arms

The U.S. and Russian presidents, in a sidebar meeting at the G-20 summit, agree to renew discussions on reducing the nations' warheads. Obama also spends time bonding with Britain's Gordon Brown.  http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-g20-obama2-2009apr02,0,1798275.story

Spend More Wisely on National Security

Some say the country is spending what it must to protect itself in dangerous times. But this is simply false.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lt-general-robert-g-gard-jr-/spend-more-wisely-on-nati_b_181266.html

*****Defense Ministry eyes possible lift of US ban on foreign sales of F-22 fighter

The Defense Ministry will closely follow discussions in Congress next month over the United States' 2010 fiscal defense budget amid growing speculation that a ban on foreign sales of the stealth F-22 fighter jet may be lifted to keep the threatened production line alive.  http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237727563436&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

GAO: Weapons programs remain far over budget

Many of the Pentagon's biggest weapons programs remain well over budget as problems with the weapons buying process leads to higher price tags than originally planned for fighter jets, missiles, warships and other equipment, according to a report released Monday.  http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/30/ap6230473.html

Nearly 7 in 10 major U.S. arms programs over budget

Nearly 70 percent of the Pentagon's 96 major weapons-buying programs were over budget in 2008 for combined cost growth of $296 billion above original estimates, congressional auditors said in an annual report released on Monday.  http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE52T6UE20090330

Wana bankrupt warmaking???? ACT TODAY (Tues): Congress votes on global warming budget this week!

	Dear Start,	March 30, 2009
	Thanks to your efforts this week, both the House and Senate Budget Committees managed to fight back a serious lobbying push to strip global warming from the President's budget. This was a major hurdle, but the fight is far from over! The budget will head to the floor for a vote this week, and we have to act now. This is such a critical vote, because without budget funding, we won't likely see global warming legislation pass this year. We can't procrastinate about global warming any longer. We MUST take bold action THIS YEAR. We don't have much time - Congress will be voting any day now on the President's budget, including action on global warming - we have to act NOW. Call Congress right now and tell your Representative to pass a budget that includes limits on global warming pollution. Making a call is easy, fast, and extremely effective. Simply follow the steps below: 1) Call (202) 224-3121 . 2) Ask the operator to put you through to your Representative's office. If you don't know who your Representative is, then give the operator your zip code and they will let you know and put you through. 3) Someone will either answer the phone or you will be able to leave a message. Here's what you can say: "I urge the Representative to support the President's budget, including action to cap global warming pollution." 4) Let us know that you made the call by clicking the button below. Greenpeace activists just like you have already sent more than 34,500 letters to Congress urging them to keep action on global warming pollution in the budget. With the vote coming up any day now, we need you to go a step further and call now. Please make your voice heard today. For our future, Samantha Rodgers Greenpeace Field Organizing Director 702 H Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20001 (800) 326-0959 You received this mailing because Start_Loving@yahoo.com is subscribed to our mailing list. If you prefer not to receive these mailings in the future click here. We value your privacy. If you have any questions about how we use your information please read our privacy policy.

***U.S. Defense Spending vs. Global Defense Spending

The United States is far and away the global leader in defense spending. In 2007, the most recent year for which complete data is available, the United States approved $660 billion in defense budget authority (FY09 dollars). This figure includes funding for DOD's base budget, DOE-administered nuclear weapons activities, and supplemental appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan. http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/022609_fy10_topline_global_defense_spending/

US and Iran open Afghanistan peace talks

As Obama unveiled his new strategy on Afghanistan, his officials attended a historic meeting with an old enemy - Iran.  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5993094.ece

Senator seeks to ratify nuclear test ban pact

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, said on Friday he had begun laying the groundwork for Senate ratification of a global pact banning nuclear tests.  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090327/pl_nm/us_nuclear_usa_kerry;_ylt=AlSEbn.WKUIy3BVLqjC4fjayFz4D

F22 Raptor $350 million per copy

$64.5 billion has bought a grand total of 184 aircraft.  Do the arithmetic: $64.540/184 = $350.1.  Total program unit price for one F-22, what approximates the "sticker price," is $350 million per copy.  http://original.antiwar.com/wheeler/2009/03/27/what-does-an-f-22-cost/

GAO: Army Fut. Combat Sys FCS Immature, untested, over budget

GAO says FCS technology has not yet reached appropriate levels of maturity, that not enough product testing has been demonstrated and that the program is over budget.  http://www.fortgordonsignal.com/news/2009/0327/news_update/021.html

Harvard defense expert aims to fight Pentagon cost overruns

President Barack Obama's nominee to fix Pentagon purchasing problems vowed Thursday to root out cost overruns in major arms programs, fearing the $150 billion arms-procurement budget may be on its way to becoming unaffordable.  http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssIndustryMaterialsUtilitiesNews/idUSN2649458720090326

"Job One" - weapons and services programs that are failing troops because they are too costly or unnecessary.

Ashton Carter, President Obama's pick to be the official in charge of the Pentagon's $400 billion acquisition process, said at a confirmation hearing today that "Job One" would be to "get under control" the department's many weapons and services programs that are failing troops because they are too costly or unnecessary. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/26/AR2009032603252.html

U.S. Army can't afford to pay for its current size and the Future Combat Systems program

"For the Army, the fundamental choice appears to be keeping the new, larger Army we have today, or pursuing the massive list of Army acquisition programs" including the $159 billion Future Combat Systems, Abercrombie, a Hawai'i Democrat and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's panel on air and land forces, said yesterday.  http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090327/NEWS08/903270352/1018

Obama administration to take aim at trouble-plagued US Navy surface ship programs?

The Obama administration, looking for potential budget cuts, may take aim at the trouble-plagued US Navy surface ship programs.  http://blog.marport.com/2009/03/26/617/

Obama Afghan strategy not just about bullets, bombs

The new Afghan war strategy unveiled Friday by US President Barack Obama goes beyond "bullets and bombs" to a plan to overhaul international aid to Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

Dismissing past aid efforts as ill-organized and underfunded, it calls for a civilian surge in Afghanistan to match the military one as well as for a 7.5 billion dollar development plan and special economic zones for Pakistan.  http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gin0xXv_8ynP2n3Q3aQeamSyqYQw

Progress on Cluster Bombs

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5995
President Barack Obama signed the omnibus spending bill, he also made strict rules on cluster munitions exports permanent.

International leaders urge Obama to back nuke ban

http://wire.antiwar.com/2009/03/26/international-leaders-urge-obama-to-back-nuke-ban/

President Barack Obama's first meeting next week with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is a historic opportunity to set a course for the elimination of nuclear weapons worldwide, a group of some 100 international leaders said Thursday.

Obama and Medvedev, who will meet in London on the eve of a summit on the world economic crisis, should begin by agreeing on dramatic reductions of U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, the Global Zero group said in a letter delivered to the White House.

The group includes former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., former U.S. negotiator Richard Burt, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Thomas Pickering and former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

Barack Obama's pledges in peril as Blue Dogs take a bite at budget

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5977433.ece

President Obama was huddled in talks yesterday with congressional Democrats over proposals that would pare his $3.6 trillion budget, raising question marks over how he would fund promises on healthcare, climate change and tax cuts.

Although the President was braced for ferocious opposition from Republicans, who warn that his spending plans will bankrupt America, he also faces growing hostility from a group of fiscally conservative Democrats alarmed by forecasts of a $9.3 trillion (£6.3 trillion) deficit over ten years.

House Budget Committee Cuts Obama Foreign Affairs Budget Request

http://budgetinsight.wordpress.com/2009/03/25/house-budget-committee-cuts-obama-foreign-affairs-budget-request/

The House Budget Committee is marking up today a recommended budget resolution for FY 2010 that would cut 5.35 b. from the Obama Administration's international affairs budget request of $53.8 b. Chairman John Spratt's (D-NC) "mark" for the International Affairs budget does not describe any details related to that cut, which provides a budget nearly 10% below what the President had asked for.

The Administration's FY 2009 International Affairs appropriation, including supplemental funding, was $42.7 b., making the Budget Committee's FY 2010 funding level an increase over FY 2009 of $5.8 b., or 13.6%.

Senators Raise Concerns about Defense Cuts in Letter to Gates

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/03/senators_raise_concerns_about.asp

Today, 14 U.S. Senators sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Gates raising concerns about cuts in the defense budget (see the full letter after the jump). Although Obama's baseline budget seems to reflect an increase from Bush's, the senators point out that with changes in supplemental funding taken into account, the fact is programs will be cut. In the March 9 issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Tom Donnelly crunched the numbers:

In 2009, the Bush administration's baseline budget was $513 billion, and the plan was to spend $523 billion in 2010. The Obama administration announced this week that it would "boost" the 2010 figure to $533 billion. So the Obama budget is bigger than the Bush budget, right?

Liberals want more defense spending left behind

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/left-fires-back-on-budget-2009-03-25.html

President Obama is facing mounting pressure from his party's left flank to cut defense spending so more money can be spent on social programs.

A letter obtained by The Hill shows that liberal advocacy groups and lawmakers want Obama to seize a moment when Democrats control both Congress and the White House and scrap costly weapons programs they say have drained domestic coffers.

F-22 Fighter Jet Crashes on Test Flight in California

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123802321736442009.html

An Air Force F-22 Raptor, the service's most advanced and expensive fighter, crashed Wednesday morning in the desert near Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California, killing the pilot.

The pilot, David Cooley, 49, worked for Lockheed Martin Corp., the plane's manufacturer. He was a 21-year veteran of the Air Force and had been with Lockheed since 2003. The cause of the crash is being investigated by the Air Force.

Contractors Defend Their Programs as Pentagon Cuts Loom

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/24/AR2009032403332.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Missile defense went on the offensive yesterday, as two major contractors set out to justify their costly programs in anticipation of budget cuts from the Pentagon.

It's a sharp turnaround from recent years of plenty for Boeing and Northrop Grumman, which have joined other big defense companies in benefiting from increased defense spending and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the Obama administration has promised new priorities in spending, spurring the companies to try to protect their major programs.

******The potential catastrophe that global climate change could unleash on America makes every other foreign policy crisis pale in comparison.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090324_obamas_plan_to_save_the_world/?ln
Scott Ritter:  The potential catastrophe that global climate change could unleash on America makes every other foreign policy crisis pale in comparison. Recognizing the importance of proactive, as opposed to reactive, policy to head off these looming problems, President Obama has crafted a national policy designed to address the principal underlying cause of global climate change: greenhouse gas emissions.

Insight: How do you dissuade Iran?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7958862.stm

But anticipation also hovers over another policy realm - nuclear security and the chance of a thaw in US-Iranian relations.

The focus is on President Barack Obama and the policy review he has ordered. Although Tehran insists its nuclear aims are peaceful, the US and its partners suspect a secret plan to develop nuclear weapons - with the potential to shake the Middle East and reawaken a global nuclear arms race.

Lawmakers, officials see cuts to U.S. missile defense

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE52M6W520090323
U.S. lawmakers and top military officers on Monday predicted cuts in missile defense spending, now running at nearly $10 billion a year, and said the focus would shift increasingly to cooperative efforts with other nations and networking current weapons.

Marine Corps General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscored the importance of linking existing missile-warning systems, and said Washington could no longer afford weapons designed to address a single threat.

Snowe, Collins champion destroyer

http://www.timesrecord.com/website/main.nsf/news.nsf/0/153BBAC458F320C3852575820058401F?Opendocument
Less than a week after a Defense Department spokesman said that job losses would not be taken into consideration as the Pentagon makes cuts in its 2010 budget, Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins wrote a letter to President Obama urging continued funding for the DDG-1000 destroyer.

***Gates has the credentials to lead the battle against entrenched interests of the military-industrial complex.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/03/23/gates_against_the_complex/
EVER SINCE President Eisenhower's farewell warning about the unaccountable "military-industrial complex," America has been caught in a web of extravagant spending, woven by defense contractors, lobbyists, retired generals, and legislators seeking to protect jobs and businesses in their districts. Today, that extravagance is no longer affordable, if it ever was. Confronted with soaring deficits, the country cannot go on lavishing money on advanced weapons systems with little utility, or on foreign military bases dating from a Cold War that ended 20 years ago.

Start L. has been quite ill - slowing the rate of posting. Health returning. Rate of posts should improve now.

The War Supplemental is Coming Soon

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gordon-adams/the-war-supplemental-is-c_b_177399.html

During his campaign, President Barack Obama promised to end funding national security programs, including the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, through emergency budget requests. He was especially critical of supplemental requests for programs and activities unrelated to Iraq or Afghanistan or that clearly belonged in the regular defense and foreign affairs budgets.

With Obama's first emergency supplemental budget request coming later this week, now is the time to see whether he'll keep his promise. We clearly need such discipline. For the past eight years, both the Defense Department and the State Department have abused the emergency supplemental budget process to add to their base budgets. Supplementals, you see, don't receive the same scrutiny the appropriators in Congress normally give the basic agency budgets. As a result, by fiscal year 2009, roughly one-quarter of Defense's total budget and one-fifth of State's total budget came through emergency supplemental funds.

Russian Defense Cuts Could Affect Space

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/RUSCUT031909.xml&headline=Russian%20Defense%20Cuts%20Could%20Affect%20Space

A reduction in defense spending being considered under a revised federal budget plan threatens key Russian launcher and satellite navigation projects, even though space budgets are not expected to be impacted by the new plan.

President Vladimir Putin has assured government and industry space officials that the revised 2009 draft budget, intended to take into account the worsening economic downturn, contemplates no reduction in allotments for the development of new space projects. Almost 82 billion rubles ($2.4 billion) is to be allocated for three programs, Putin said, without saying which ones. However, he said the new Angara launcher would be among the priority programs, along with communication, navigation and remote Earth sensing spacecraft development.

National Missile Defense: A Status Report

http://www.cfr.org/publication/18792/reconsidering_missile_defense.html?breadcrumb=%2F
Since the election of President Barack Obama, however, the future of anti-missile defense has grown less certain (Arms Control Association). The Obama administration has framed its national missile defense strategy with the caveat that continued support will be contingent on pragmatic and cost-effective technological advances and will "not divert resources from other national security priorities until we are positive the technology will protect the American public." Missile defense experts interpret these statements to suggest the pace of development will slow, since the technologies have repeatedly failed in field tests.

Why America’s defence industry is in for some lean years

http://www.economist.com/business/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13337918
So far this year the S&P 500 index has fallen by 14%, but defence shares have fallen by 22%. The cloud hanging over the industry is the gloomy conviction that after eight years of George Bush, during which the Pentagon's budget more than doubled to $666 billion, Barack Obama is determined to change things.

The reduction in spending is not exactly imminent. The budget for 2010, which will be announced next month, was largely set by the outgoing administration and will be close to 2009's $654 billion. Because of the winding down of operations in Iraq, the Office of Management and Budget currently expects a 4% increase in base funding over 2009—not exactly short rations. It is what will happen in the subsequent years that is worrying the industry.

China ends naval stand-off and credits Barack Obama

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5942562.ece
"It is time to call an end to it. It might be that the US military wanted to flex its muscles, but the Barack Obama administration managed to bring the situation under control for the good of both countries."

Earlier this month, the Pentagon revealed that one of its unarmed maritime surveillance ships had been harassed by five Chinese naval boats in waters some 75 miles off the southern Chinese island of Hainan. China said the US ship was engaged in spying. The Pentagon then raised the stakes by sending in a destroyer to protect the USNS Impeccable as it carries out its surveys in the region.

These thousand bases constitute 95 percent of all the military bases any country in the world maintains

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12785

Before reading this article, try to answer this question: How many military bases does the United States have in other countries: a) 100; b) 300; c) 700; or d) 1,000.

According to the Pentagon's own list PDF, the answer is around 865, but if you include the new bases in Iraq and Afghanistan it is over a thousand. These thousand bases constitute 95 percent of all the military bases any country in the world maintains on any other country's territory. In other words, the United States is to military bases as Heinz is to ketchup.

The old way of doing colonialism, practiced by the Europeans, was to take over entire countries and administer them. But this was clumsy. The United States has pioneered a leaner approach to global empire. As historian Chalmers Johnson says, "America's version of the colony is the military base." The United States, says Johnson, has an "empire of bases."

Pentagon may sink plans for destroyer scheduled for BIW

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/6086722.html

A new generation of Navy destroyers that Bath Iron Works hoped would support thousands of jobs may be abandoned under the budget Defense Secretary Robert Gates will submit in April.

That's the opinion of defense industry analysts who are familiar with the DDG-1000, a Cold War-era design with a price tag estimated at more than $3 billion each.

Two Obama administration proposals that could face difficulties in Congress include missile defense funding.

http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/policy/nuclearweapons/articles/031809_congress_and_obamas_agenda

A key bellwether vote in the new Congress came on February 13 when only three Senate Republicans broke ranks from their party and voted with Democrats for President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus bill.

If support from three Senate Republicans seems sparse, try comparing it to the House of Representatives, where not a single Republican voted in favor of the stimulus. This opening salvo was followed by subsequent unified Republican opposition to an expansion of health care for children, an employment discrimination measure, and a housing foreclosure bill.

Pentagon in "intense review" of Europe missile shield

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE52H7GL20090318
A plan to expand a controversial U.S. ballistic-missile shield into Eastern Europe is being scrutinized as part of a 2010 budget request to be sent to Congress next month, the Pentagon's chief financial officer told Congress on Wednesday.

"I can tell you that issue is under intense review," Robert Hale, the Defense Department's comptroller, told the House of Representatives' Budget Committee.

Defense spending has more than doubled in the last eight years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/18/AR2009031801167.html?hpid=topnews

A top Pentagon budget official told a congressional panel yesterday that the military is reexamining how it uses contractors and how it spends money on large, costly weapons programs.

Testifying before the House Budget Committee, Robert F. Hale, undersecretary of defense-comptroller and chief financial officer at the Pentagon, noted that more jobs that had been done by government employees over the last decade are now outsourced to contractors.

$159 billion Future Combat Systems program

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20090317/OPINION01/903170305/1014/OPINION
Americans generally are supportive of using innovative - and expensive - technology to create weapons systems to defend our country.

U.S. Army, GAO Feud Over FCS Status

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=defense&id=news/FCS031609.xml&headline=U.S.%20Army,%20GAO%20Feud%20Over%20FCS%20Status
U.S. Army officials and congressional auditors have reignited a lively debate over the status of the land service's Future Combat Systems modernization program.

Government Accountability Office found $295 billion in cost overruns in 95 major defense projects.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29715233/
President Barack Obama's pledge to end waste in federal contracting will face an early test when agencies dish out around $100 billion for projects funded by the economic stimulus package.

****Department of Defense's $1 trillion-plus oint Strike Force (JSF) aircraft

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13639_3-10196641-42.html

The Department of Defense's $1 trillion-plus plan to build and deliver multiple versions of the Joint Strike Force (JSF) aircraft to multiple customers is behind schedule, over budget, and upside down, according to a report from the Government Accounting Office (PDF).

Upside down because the military is accelerating procurement of operational aircraft before it has even taken delivery of test units, according to the non-partisan GAO.

"Procuring large numbers of production jets while still working to deliver test jets and mature manufacturing processes does not seem prudent," the report states.

Obama's defense budget offsets will ring hollow

http://www.dcexaminer.com/opinion/columns/jamescarafano/Obama-and-the-defense-budget-41290637.html

But when Carter came to the White Houses in 1977, rather than simply invest in rebuilding America's military, he promised America one better. He endorsed Defense Secretary Harold Brown's "offset" strategy.

 

Instead of fixing the equipment on hand or buying new stuff, the Pentagon would invest in "next generation" technology that would offset the fact that the Soviets had a lot more ships, planes, and people. Brown planned to provide the American military with an overwhelming technological competitive advantage.

 

Crippled without Laptop - Sorry. Getting wwwaaayyy behind on Posting.

Congress [is] "notoriously reluctant to cut weapons funding,"

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN1053586020090311
Top Pentagon and military service leaders, under orders from President Barack Obama to crack down on cost overruns and waste in weapons programs, will meet early on Wednesday to discuss possible cuts, according to a source who works closely with officials involved in the meeting.