Posts Tagged ‘Pentagon strategic review’

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is asking the Senate Armed Services Committee to limit proposed reductions in the Army’s end strength along with other changes to DOD’s fiscal 2013 budget request when it marks up next year’s defense authorization bill. In a letter to Committee Chairman Carl Levin and Ranking Member John McCain, Lieberman concludes that the department’s budget request would “create unacceptable risks to our national security …

Despite recent announcements about cuts in active-duty and civilian positions throughout the Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, is poised to thrive amid the military’s shift to a leaner, more technologically capable force. Wright-Patterson is home to a variety of missions DOD plans to emphasize as it moves away from large-scale ground operations. The base hosts R&D, intelligence assessment …

The last BRAC round trimmed only three to five percent of DOD’s excess infrastructure, leaving the department with roughly 20 percent excess capacity, Dorothy Robyn, deputy undersecretary of defense for installations and environment, told the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee Thursday. Her calculation was based on a 2004 analysis which determined the department had 24 percent excess capacity relative to force structure …

Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman are looking into the possibility of securing a follow-on mission for the 179th Airlift Wing at Mansfield Air National Guard Base, after the Air Force announced last week it planned to retire its fleet of C-27J multipurpose cargo aircraft. The move would eliminate the four C-27Js based at Mansfield and raise the prospect that the 179th would be eliminated …

Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich on Tuesday criticized the Air Force’s proposal to relocate a squadron of F-16s from Eielson AFB outside of the formal base closure process, stating that BRAC is recognized as the best way to address property management and readiness. If the Air Force intends to use the permanent statute for closing bases outside of a BRAC round to carry out the realignment, DOD must notify lawmakers so they can review the proposed action …

Proposed changes to the Air Force’s inventory of aircraft would affect more than 60 installations, according to a paper officials released Friday that focused primarily on impacts to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. One facility would close under the changes, the Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station. Seven others would have been left without an Air Force presence following the adjustments …

The Navy is preparing a force structure study over the next several months that will be based on the new strategic guidance the Pentagon released in January, Adm. John Harvey, commander of Fleet Forces Command, told reporters Tuesday. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert has “a strategic view now from the commander in chief. He’s got a budget that is coming from the Congress. Okay, let’s figure out what kind of Navy matches those two together …

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said they oppose holding another round of base closures, as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta proposed last week, with most highlighting the need to assess the nation’s overseas basing before launching a new BRAC. The joint statement released by the Senate delegations for Maine and New Hampshire was typical: “The department is in the midst of decisions on our posture overseas, including the possibility of withdrawing forces and closing bases in Europe …

Pentagon officials Thursday outlined an array of changes to the military’s force structure, weapons systems and equipment, overhead, and personnel and retiree costs needed to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from the budget through 2021. The military will shrink in a number of ways under the fiscal 2013 budget request …

President Obama will request Congress authorize use of the BRAC process, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said during a Pentagon news briefing held Thursday to preview DOD’s fiscal 2013 budget request, confirming speculation that had been swirling around Washington for much of the past year. While some news reports have said DOD plans to request BRAC rounds in 2013 and 2015, Panetta did not say how many rounds the administration will request or what years it wants to select bases …