CROSSING FINGERS - The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization is bracing for
the first flight test of the multibillion-dollar national missile defense program
in the upcoming days. Officials said the technology to ram a missile with another
missile does not present major problems. But the "biggest risk" in
the program is the tight schedule, said a program official who briefed reporters.
By Pentagon standards, this is a fast-track project. Three flight tests are
scheduled for the next nine months and, the source predicted, "I bet at
least one will miss. "We've never done this before," he said. "I'm
trying to manage the expectations" about this test.
SECRETS AND LIES? Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said that he personally
will make the decision on what information will be declassified if the case
involving Wen Ho Lee-a Chinese American accused, but not charged for allegedly
sharing U.S. nuclear secrets with China-goes before a grand jury. Richardson
told a group of defense writers at breakfast in Washington, D.C., that he is
in the process of determining what information can go public.
LET'S ALL PLAY - On tap for 2000 could be the first large-scale war-fighting
tryout including all U.S. military services, according to the Air Force experimentation
office, which sponsors the so-called Expeditionary Force Experiment. The EFX
aims to bring about technological innovation and new war-fighting practices.
Next year, the U.S. Atlantic Command, based in Norfolk, Va., is expected to
host an experiment that will merge the Air Force EFX with other trials already
under way by the Army, the Navy and the Marine Corps. It potentially could be
as large as 8,000 participants, sources said.
AMMO FOR THE 21ST CENTURY - Late last month, the key leaders of the ammunition
industrial base gathered to map out a strategy for how the United States will
produce ammunition through the year 2020. Naturally, the subject of "globalization"
was heavily debated, said one industry insider who participated in the meeting.
The consensus among Army officials and private sector executives was that globalization
"can't work for every item" in the ammunition inventory, said the
source. "Every item has to be considered separately" before a decision
is made on whether to produce it domestically or buy from overseas suppliers.
SHAKEUP AHEAD FOR AMC - Gen. John G. Coburn, the new commanding general
(CG) of the Army Material Command, is talking about reorganizing the AMC. Coburn
plans to name two three-star deputy commanding generals (DCGs), replacing the
one DCG that the AMC now has. Under Coburn's plan, there would be one DCG for
material readiness and another for research, development and acquisition (RDA).
The current DCG, Lt. Gen. James M. Link, reportedly is in line to become the
DCG for Material Readiness. The DCG for RDA has not been named, sources said.
Maj. Gen. John S. Caldwell, AMC's former deputy chief of staff for RDA, has
been appointed CG of the Tank-Automotive and Armament Command (TACOM). One well-informed
insider speculated that this reorganization primarily aims to enhance AMC's
credibility with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research,
Development and Acquisition.
EUROPEAN DEFENSE - In the aftermath of the NATO war against Yugoslavia, there
has been a lot of the talk about the need for Europe to strengthen its own defense
capability. But retired Adm. Leighton Smith, former U.S. Navy commander in Europe,
doesn't expect to see much action. "I don't think the Europeans can do
much more than they are already doing, given their current defense postures,"
he told a seminar in Washington, D.C. "If you think we're gearing down,
you ought to see what the Europeans are doing."
FIGHT FOR AN IDEA? Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre was startled, he said
recently, by the uniformity of post-action assessments of the Kosovo air war
by the governments of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He told a seminar
at the University of Chicago. "They all said it exactly the same way: this
is the first time in history that we went to war for an idea ... In other words,
it is not noble to go to war for national interest any longer; you have to have
a superceding human rights agenda to justify military action."
SERBIAN CHEMICAL AGENTS - A United Nations toxicologist reports increasing
evidence of Serbian use of chemical agents against the Kosovo Liberation Army
(KLA) and ethnic Albanians in the province. The U.S. Defense Department won't
comment on the report, but a department spokesman notes that there were similar,
unconfirmed reports earlier from the KLA, refugees and doctors from relief agencies
on the scene.
UNEXPECTED RECOVERY - There has been one unexpected result of improved relations
between the United States and Albania-the country that served as a key base
of allied operations against Yugoslavia, according to a new report by the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA). A search and recovery team recovered the remains
of a U.S. airman who had been shot down over Albania during World War II after
a raid on Ploesti, Romania. Such recoveries had not been possible during Albania's
communist era.