The Pentagon’s push to protect its installations from disruptions to the commercial grid has spawned a revolution in how the military looks at energy. The drive to reach “energy security” has changed how the military services consider acquiring new sources of energy and how they finance new supplies, and also defined new roles for host communities and utilities …
Officials from Havelock, N.C., and Craven County emerged from a presentation Tuesday from the county’s Washington lobbyist with a new to-do list to help preserve the long-term future of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. Shawn Edwards, vice president of Cassidy and Associates, told the officials to launch an effort to secure a major project at Cherry Point within the next five years that would be vital to the Pentagon, reported Havelock News. Edwards also emphasized the need to ensure the installation’s bombing ranges in Carteret County remain free of encroachment. The meeting reinforced the need for Havelock and Craven County to work more closely. “I think it kind of opens eyes,” Craven County Commissioner Lee Allen said. “If we don’t work together, we all lose together.”
Calling the current budget situation “a mess,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little blasted Congress on Tuesday for leaving planning officials as well as front-line troops in Afghanistan uncertain about the department’s future resources after it failed to reverse automatic spending cuts to the department’s fiscal 2013 budget. “This is very serious business, the sequester. And even though we may be able to still carry out the fight in Afghanistan, and we may be able to protect some programs, overall, our mission as a department could be devastated, at least for a short period of time, and that’s not a prospect that any of us relish …
The Navy last month conveyed two parcels totaling 2,036 acres at the former Naval Station Roosevelt Roads to the commonwealth of Puerto Rico via an economic development conveyance, marking the final property transfer at the base located on the island’s eastern tip. The Navy had conducted public auctions for those parcels on two previous occasions, but neither attempt resulted in a suitable bid …
Concerns about the noise generated by the F-35 Lightning II are weighing on the minds of residents in several defense communities as the Air Force and Navy consider where to base units of the next-generation stealth fighter. The host community of the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing is opposing the Air Force’s plan to base 18 to 24 of the aircraft at Burlington International Airport, raising the question as to whether the Air Force will stick to its preferred alternative …
In the eyes of many, the failure of the White House and congressional leaders to reach a long-term solution to defuse $500 billion in automatic defense cuts as part of last week’s fiscal cliff agreement very likely raises the prospect for at least some portion of the defense sequester to remain in place through fiscal 2021. Congressional Republicans have indicated they will not entertain any further increases in tax revenue, a stance that will make it increasingly difficult to strike a bipartisan agreement to replace the across-the-board spending reductions without further cuts in the defense budget and elsewhere …
President Obama praised former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel for his dedication to service members and their families in announcing his nomination Monday to be the next defense secretary. The two-term Republican senator served as an Army sergeant in the Vietnam War and earned two Purple Hearts as an infantry squad leader there. Hagel also served as deputy administrator for the Veterans Administration and as CEO and president of the USO …
Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale said Monday that “some delay is almost inevitable” in releasing the department’s fiscal 2014 budget request in early February as a result of the recent agreement to avert the fiscal cliff. Last week’s deal inserts uncertainty into planning DOD’s budget in two ways. It delays the trigger of sequestration by two months until the beginning of March, leaving unanswered whether the defense budget will be forced to absorb about $45 billion in further cuts during the current fiscal year. The agreement also trims the discretionary spending cap for defense in FY 2014 by approximately $4 billion …
Erin Conaton, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, announced her intention last week to resign after assuming DOD’s top personnel and readiness post last June. Conaton has been on medical leave since October. Jessica Wright, a retired Army major general and former adjutant general of Pennsylvania and commander of the state’s National Guard, will be acting undersecretary until the president names a replacement …
House and Senate appropriators continue to make progress on individual spending bills in an attempt to construct an omnibus package to fund the federal government for the last six months of fiscal 2013. A decision as to whether Congress will take up an omnibus spending bill to keep the government open past March 27 will be made by party leaders, though, and almost certainly hinges on how negotiations to avert sequestration and raise the nation’s debt limit unfold …