It is remarkable that defense leaders, who acknowledge an inability to forecast future conflicts, claim to hold a remarkable prescience about what weapons will be required to fight unidentifiable foes.He focuses in on the primary cause of the issue we have raised here as well.
What is perhaps most unsettling the Pentagon's defense planning process is not only the absence of budget predictability from Congress, but also the lack of an updated National Security Strategy from the White House. That document serves as the reference point for national security priorities for all U.S. government agencies. Spend time with military officials and their staffs and they can all quote from memory those sections that guide the offices where they work.The big takeaway reminder I get from the read is this; if we want respect for our advice, and for people to take us at our word, we need to first set all things we do on a sound foundation of serious observations based on fact. Not feelings, thoughts, or beliefs; but facts. Otherwise some smart guy is going to find the facts and beat you over the head with them.
...see what is on the top row of the "Navy Reading" rack at the NAS Whidbey exchange. Stacked above trivial books like the guide to naval writing, etc.
Two U.S. admirals — including the director of naval intelligence — are under investigation as part of a major bribery scandal involving a foreign defense contractor, Navy officials announced Friday night.For the sake of the Navy - and the two Flag Officers - I hope this has all been a mistake. But ...
Vice Adm. Ted “Twig” Branch, the service’s top intelligence officer, and Rear Adm. Bruce F. Loveless, the Navy’s director of intelligence operations, were placed on leave Friday, and their access to classified material was suspended, the Navy said in a statement.
Both admirals are being investigated for their ties to a Singapore-based defense contractor, Glenn Defense Marine Asia, whose chief executive was arrested in September on charges that he bribed other Navy officers into giving him classified or privileged information in exchange for prostitutes and cash.
None of the three Navy civilian intelligence officials has been charged in the investigation, which is ongoing. Their names are redacted in most of the court documents, which refer to them as “Conspirator #1,” “Conspirator #2” and “Conspirator #3.”The Federal government cannot even redact things correctly - but they are going to protect my medical privacy? OK, I won't change the subject.
But in one affidavit, federal investigators neglected to black out the name of Conspirator #2, identifying him as Lee Hall of Virginia. Hall is a longtime defense intelligence official who now works for the Navy. An attorney for Hall, Danny Onorato, declined to comment.
The same affidavit identifies Conspirator #1 by his first name, David. Three people familiar with the case said that person is David W. Landersman, the senior director for intelligence in the Navy’s directorate for plans, policy, oversight and integration intelligence.
Court records describe Mark Landersman as a down-on-his-luck mechanic who struggled to keep his Temecula repair shop in business. He and his wife declared personal bankruptcy in July 2012.1. You are not the only one saying that Mr. Landersman ... and, ohhhh,
A month later, according to charging documents, Mark Landersman received a series of e-mails from his brother at the Pentagon about firearm silencers, including a link to a Web site with do-it-yourself instructions for building a certain model.
“Wow! Very simple,” Mark Landersman replied in an e-mail on Aug. 14, 2012, according to the charging documents.
The next day, Navy finance officials informed David Landersman that they had approved a $2 million budget supplement he had requested for “studies, assessments and research.”
Two days after that, Landersman’s office transferred almost all of the money to a preexisting Navy intelligence contract with CACI, a major contractor. According to court documents, Hall and Conspirator #3 then directed CACI to buy the silencers from a California company newly incorporated by Mark Landersman.
Hall also told CACI to award the business without seeking a lower bid, according to investigators. In e-mails, Hall said that Landersman’s fledgling company was “the only responsible source for the engineering expertise sought” and that “their product is first that incorporates a unique design that significantly reduces the decibel ratings to near background noise levels.”
To manufacture the silencers, Landersman turned to Carlos C. Robles, a machinist who used to work in his auto repair shop. He gave Robles blueprints for what he called “a small-engine muffler” and asked him to make 349 of them, according to charging documents.
Robles later told agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he built the mufflers and that Landersman paid him $8,000 to cover parts and labor. He acknowledged to the agents that the mufflers closely resembled silencers.
ATF firearm examiners tested the devices and concluded they were functioning silencers.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Robles said he was stunned to learn that Landersman had resold the silencers to CACI and the Navy for $1.6 million.
“Are you kidding me?” he said.
Littoral Combat Ship (LCS-1) USS Freedom is in need of yet another set of repairs in order to leave its Singapore pier and get to sea, U.S. Navy officials say.Explain how we are impressing anyone with this ship again?
The ship has been plagued by problems during its first Western Pacific deployment.
Speaking Nov. 11 about the most recent incident, Lt. Cmdr. Clayton Doss says that “while USS Freedom (LCS-1) was pierside in Singapore on Nov. 10 conducting steering checks in preparation for the next day’s underway, the port steerable waterjet feedback cable stopped sending signals to indicate the waterjet’s position. Until repairs are accomplished, the crew cannot steer the port waterjet remotely from the bridge.”
“These checks were conducted two days earlier without any issues,” he says. “The system appeared to be working properly up until this problem occurred. The ship has requested technical assistance to replace the damaged feedback cable.”
