After a reorganization that eliminated 7,500 positions in the U.S. Postal Service, only 31 employees have been laid off, according to a spokesman for the USPS this week. FederalTimes.com reported about 5,600 positions were either moved into vacant positions or employees left on their own terms. It was also reported that 1,800 employees took advantage [...]

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and retired Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright are among five new members of the Defense Policy Board, a panel advising top Pentagon officials on matters of defense policy. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also named Jamie Gorelick, former deputy attorney general and member of the 9/11 Commission, former U.S. congresswoman Jane [...]

Defense budget cuts will likely shrink the Army below 520,000 active duty soldiers, the Army chief of staff said Monday. At the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting, Gen. Raymond Odierno also said the service should prepare for a wide range of missions as force numbers reduce. The Army plans to shrink from 570,000 [...]

The military service branches should not make budget decisions based on parochialism and instead work together as a team, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday. During remarks at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual convention, Panetta gave few specifics on how the Pentagon would implement $450 billion in cuts over the next two years. [...]

NASA’s seven-seat space taxi could take flight next summer as part of a test, according to a story from Reuters. The launch site will either be from the Edwards Air Force base in California’s Mojave Desert or from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. There are four space taxis being manufactured by the [...]

The Government Accountability Office has recently evaluated six-data mining systems from Homeland Security and its component organizations including Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration office and found a lack of proper oversight and privacy risks. Information Week reported on the data and mining system of the [...]

Coast Guard officials are concerned that a three-year budget appropriation approved Oct. 3  by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee may interfere with an ongoing 15-year capital upgrade program. Coast Guard Commandant Robert Papp told a House subcommittee Oct. 4 that the Government Accountability Office reached conclusions about the branch’s required capital expenditures using year-old data. The GAO said the Coast Guard needs $1.9 [...]

The Army wants to stage a demonstration next April of armed light helicopters already available, the Army’s top helicopter buyer said Monday. At the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference, Maj. Gen. Tim Crosby said companies must be ready to show what they have at the demonstration. Only companies with existing helicopters are invited [...]

Cybersecurity is still a major worry of government IT personnel, presenting an opportunity for data protection vendors, according to two recent surveys by Cisco and MeriTalk. In the Cisco-sponsored study,  71 percent of the federal IT managers surveyed said that the top threat scenario was the “increased sophistication of cyberattacks.” A survey conducted by MeriTalk, an online [...]

The U.S. can easily grow the Army and Marine Corps quickly but it takes years to build new planes and ships for the Navy and Air Force, the Center for a New American Security said in a report. That, along with the growing strategic importance of the Western Pacific and Middle East, are why CNAS recommends [...]