Budget Requests - The Joint Chiefs of Staff request for a $20 billion plus
up-versus the administration's $12 billion plus-up-may be closer to the truth
than the White House and Congress realize. Just $5 billion to $10 billion will
be required to cover readiness and contingency issues in Fiscal Year 2000. There
are still requirements for pay increases, retirement, and force modernization.
Pass, Go, Collect - The Defense Department is requesting incremental funding
for the next budget. Under the plan, large multi-year expenditures such as construction
of a military hospital will receive annual allowances, rather than full funding
upfront. Budget hawks warn that such practice may lead to more padding in the
budget with fewer projects completed.
Naval Fleet Size - Navy officials have repeatedly said they want to maintain
a 300-ship force. But Undersecretary Jerry M. Hultin does not believe ship quantities
necessarily translate into naval clout.
"We are trying more and more to look at capability versus platforms,"
Hultin told Washington Pulse. "We have continued to view 300 ships as a
good litmus test for what's the strength of the Navy. [But] we'll always ask,
'how capable are the ships we've got?"
Missile Threat - North Korea's staying power may be surprising, but Army Gen.
John H. Tilelli, Jr., commander in chief of U.S. forces in South Korea, doubts
that the North Korean military will be able to sustain a long campaign-the kind
necessary to conquer South Korea. He is concerned, however, about the North's
growing missile capability. The North recently tested a three-stage rocket,
which may be capable of hitting the United States and is still two or three
years away from deployment. But Tilelli noted that the communist nation has
finished testing and is building shorter range missiles that "pose a very
real threat to the Republic of Korea."
North Korea's Resilience - Although North Korea's economy is "very sick,"
Tilleli is not ready to predict the regime's collapse any time soon. "The
North Korean regime is very resilient," he said. The North Korean military
has been largely protected from the food shortages and other desperate economic
problems plaguing the country, Tilelli said, adding: "We see Kim Jung Il
in charge. The military is loyal to him. I guess that's the bottom line."
Management Problems - The high-risk problems identified in the annual General
Accounting Office's review of the Defense Department include catch phrases such
as Y2K and price-based acquisition. It also calls for the removal of untested
and emerging technology from acquisition plans, citing the exponential cost
increase they can impose.
The long-term problems will probably get worse before they get better, say observers,
because the antiquated processes being used now will be further strained by
reform before they are replaced.
Star Wars by 2010 - Acting Air Force Secretary F. Whitten Peters vowed the
Air Force will move forward to deploy a space-based laser around 2010.
He told the Defense Writers Group in Washington, D.C., that "2010 would
be the launch of something closer to what a future program might look like than
what we had planned a year ago."
Future Rounds - Short term savings will not be coming from BRAC activity, says
George Shaw, director of planning for Raytheon Training and Service Company,
Arlington, Virginia. The earliest BRAC could start is 2001 with 2005 being a
more realistic date, he thinks. Real dollar savings will be seven to 10 years
later.
The Next Chief - With Army Gen. Hugh Shelton's term as Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff coming to an end this summer, no specific names have come out
on top for a potential successor. The job is not as attractive now as it once
was because the next chief has to deal with the 2000 Quadrennial Defense Review,
say Pentagon insiders.
Legislation Bundling - Civil/military integration is on stage to be a packaged
issue on Capitol Hill this session, according to Ella Schiralli, a government
contracts advisor with Manatt, Phelp & Phillips, Washington, D.C. The legislation
will target barriers that prevent commercial leaders from doing business with
the government and could include price standardization and more freedom for
program managers.
Association Merger - In a move that portends future synergies between unmanned
aerial vehicles and smart munitions, the Precision Strike Association (PSA)
and the Association for Unmanned Systems International plan to merge their operations
by January 1, 2000, according to PSA Chairman Dick Rumpf.