washington pulse

June 2006

Special Operators No Longer Travel Light

By Sandra I. Erwin and Stew Magnuson

Special operations forces are not what they used to be. Case in point is the growing use of heavy armored vehicles by SOF units, relates John G. Grimes, the Defense Department’s chief information officer. The rapid spread of concealed roadside bombs and remotely detonated explosives as weapons of choice against U.S. forces means SOF troops can no longer deploy with just their suitcases, Grimes says. Now, they want Bradley and Stryker armored personnel carriers. “We are shocked at how the SOF community is looking for these hardened vehicles. Before they just would go out there and integrate with society. The whole structure is changing.”

Navy Fleet: What’s the Bottom Line?

Since he became chief of naval operations last summer, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, has consistently identified as his top priority the rebuilding of the fleet, which has dramatically shrunk by more than half since the end of the Cold War. His goal is to increase the number of Navy ships from 281 to 313 within the next three decades. But in a recent speech in Washington, D.C., Mullen said he was determined to not allow the fleet to go below 281.

By stating his absolute bottom line, Mullen may have given away too much information, especially at a time when he is trying to rally political support for the 313-ship fleet, says Owen R. Cote Jr., associate director of the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Usually, when you identify a floor, things very rapidly get to the floor,” Cote said. “It’s not a good idea to identify the floor for that reason.”

Qualifying Homeland Defense Analysts

When the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act was being written, the idea of a national university for homeland security professionals was bandied about, but didn’t make the final draft.

Almost two years later, the office of the director of national intelligence is seeking to rejuvenate the idea, said John Cohen, a senior government advisor. The goal will be for federal, state and local professionals to be able to “speak the same language,” he said.

About 75 universities across the nation are now offering homeland security degrees, but not all are aligning their standards with federal requirements, said Allan Berg, assistant dean at Capitol College in Laurel, Md. The National Security Agency recently issued standards to define who exactly qualifies as a “risk analyst” and what courses would be mandated. How academia will react to these standards remains to be seen, Berg said.

Air Force Cautiously Confident on New Fighter

Only months before the Air Force is scheduled to fly the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the service’s top officer gave a less-than-glowing assessment of the program. Of most concern are the aircraft’s intricate software systems, says Gen. T. Michael Moseley, Air Force chief of staff. “The primary challenge is software integration. Not the hardware side,” he told reporters. But he said he remains confident that the contractor, Lockheed Martin, will make it work. “We are asking a lot,” Moseley said. According to Eric Branyan, avionics engineer at Lockheed, the F-35 is the most software-intensive combat airplane ever built, with 5.3 million lines of code. He said the company is on track to finish software development by 2011.

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