Defense Dept.

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Panetta Feels Bad About $800K in Flights He's Taken

Defense secretary is open to 'alternatives'

(Newser) - Leon Panetta has taken at least 27 trips home to California since becoming secretary of defense in July, which have cost taxpayers more than $800,000 in all—but he does feel bad about it. The Pentagon chief expressed his regrets at a Pentagon briefing yesterday and said he is...

Pentagon Opens More Jobs to Women

Females will still not be able to serve as infantry, however: sources

(Newser) - Defense Department rules are entering the 21st century. The Pentagon will recommend to Congress today that women in the military should be allowed to serve in a greater number of positions close to front lines. The AP notes that the rule shift would formalize a practice that has already been...

Pentagon: We're Not Planning for Spending Cuts

Says it'll instead pressure Congress to change course

(Newser) - The Pentagon has no plans in place to deal with the $500 billion in spending cuts theoretically heading its way thanks to the supercommittee’s failure —and it refuses to make any now. “We are not planning for the” cuts, a Pentagon spokesman tells the New York Times...

Pentagon: Army Didn't Properly Test Body Armor

Army rushed through plates, can't prove they meet standards

(Newser) - The Army didn’t properly test much of the body armor deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and can’t prove that it meets military standards, the Pentagon’s inspector general declared in a scathing new report. Because of the demands of the conflict, the army rushed some bullet-blocking plates into...

Pentagon Investing $1B in Spy Blimps

Two huge contracts are in the works

(Newser) - Between Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, the US military will pay out nearly a billion dollars to get spy blimps in the air over tactical areas. Northrop (with a $517 million contract) is due to produce three seven-story blimps, each the length of a football field and able to stay...

Gates, Russian Counterpart Look to Downsize Militaries

Full-day meeting seeks ways to cut waste

(Newser) - Robert Gates today becomes the first US defense secretary to show his Russian counterpart around in almost six years, devoting an entire day to Anatoly Serdyukov, the New York Times reports. The two men are looking for common ground on a topic that would have been unthinkable during the Cold...

What Is the Air Force Doing With This Spaceship?

Unmanned X-37 will be launched this month for indefinite time in orbit

(Newser) - This month the Air Force will send the X-37—a sort of unmanned mini-space shuttle salvaged from a scrapped NASA project—into orbit, but its intentions, what the X-37 is designed to do, and why it rescued a project NASA planned to ax in 2006 remain mysteriously unclear. The Air...

Defense Dept. Opposed Anti-Rape Rule for Contractors

But lefties ripped GOP senators for nay votes

(Newser) - When 30 Republicans voted against an Al Franken amendment prohibiting defense contractors from forcing their employees to agree not to sue if they’re raped, Jon Stewart and liberals everywhere went ballistic. But those 30 Republicans weren’t alone, the Huffington Post reports; the Defense Department opposed the amendment as...

Economy Sparks Record Military Recruitment

Bleak employment, bonuses boost numbers to highest level since draft ended

(Newser) - The recession has helped boost the US military to its best recruitment year since the post-Vietnam switch to an all-volunteer force. Recruiters hit or exceeded all their targets for the first time since 1973, surprising even Pentagon officials. In addition to rising unemployment, recruiting was helped by bonuses, a recruiting...

Pentagon Drops Ball on Contractor Oversight: Report

Says tens of billions in contracts lack decent US supervision

(Newser) - Though US defense contracting has reached “unprecedented proportions” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department isn’t adequately monitoring the contracts, according to an independent watchdog. A report to be presented to Congress tomorrow says the government lacks central records showing the identities, activities, and pay of some 240,...

Supreme Court Quashes 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Case

(Newser) - The Supreme Court has turned down a challenge to the Defense Department policy forbidding gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military, granting a request by the Obama administration. The court won't hear an appeal from Army Capt. James Pietrangelo II, who was dismissed under the "don't ask,...

Gates' Laser Focus on Wars Reshapes Pentagon

(Newser) - Bush-holdover Robert Gates is using his position in the Obama administration to try to remake Washington’s biggest bureaucracy, refocusing it on the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Washington Post reports. Gates has pushed the Pentagon to shift from preparing for high-tech conventional wars of the future to...

Navy Ship Prepares to Shoot Down Spy Satellite

Attempt will be made Thursday from ship

(Newser) - The US Navy will attempt to shoot down a rogue American spy satellite Thursday, just days before it re-enters the earth's atmosphere, reports CNN. Officials plan to bring down the satellite from an Aegis cruiser at sea while it is still 150 miles above the earth, leaving enough time for...

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