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Ashton Carter: US to Offer $415M in Funds to Kurdish Peshmerga for Anti-Islamic State Campaign in Iraq
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Ashton Carter: US to Offer $415M in Funds to Kurdish Peshmerga for Anti-Islamic State Campaign in Iraq


Ashton Carter
Ashton Carter

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said the U.S. will provide Kurdish peshmerga forces up to $415 million in funds and allow advisers to join Iraqi troops as part of its campaign against the Islamic State militant organization, DoD News reported Thursday.

Jim Garamone writes Carter said in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday the U.S. will support Iraqi forces’ land-based offensive operations in Mosul, Iraq, through the deployment of its artillery units and Apache helicopters.

He noted that the U.S. will field 250 more uniformed personnel in Syria and that coalition forces will continue to provide logistics, sustainment and firepower support to defeat the organization’s control in Mosul and Raqqa in Syria.

Carter also cited the role of local forces in the campaign against the Islamic State group.

“Enabling local forces — not substituting for them — is necessary to ensure a lasting defeat [of ISIL],” he added.

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Bob Work Talks Regional Security, Technology Dev’t With Sweden’s Leaders
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Bob Work Talks Regional Security, Technology Dev’t With Sweden’s Leaders


Robert Work
Bob Work

Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work has visited Sweden to discuss regional security and the development of technologies in efforts to address the activities of potential adversaries in the Baltic Sea, DoD News reported Wednesday.

Cheryl Pellerin writes that Work toured military facilities in Sweden including the Ronneby Air Base to talk about military-to-military cooperation, NATO partnership programs and security and defense priorities in the region.

He also updated the country’s leaders regarding the development of DoD’s Third Offset Strategy and toured the facilities of Swedish defense company Saab, the report said.

Work, alongside U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Azita Raji and Swedish State Secretary Jan Salestrand, also spoke at a news conference to answer questions from local reporters, including concerns regarding Russian activities in the Baltic Sea.

“[It’s] important that we maintain the Baltic sea as free and open to all the Nordic and Baltic countries in the region,” said Work.

He will conclude this multiday trip with a visit to Belgium, Pellerin reports.

Jet, Chopper, Ship Procurement Featured in HASC-Approved 2017 Defense Authorization Bill
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Jet, Chopper, Ship Procurement Featured in HASC-Approved 2017 Defense Authorization Bill


PentagonThe House Armed Services Committee voted 60-2 Thursday to pass a $583 billion defense policy bill, Defense News reported Thursday.

Joe Gould writes HASC’s version of the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act would shift $18 billion from the overseas contingency operations funding to the Defense Department’s base budget.

Such a proposal would leave the OCO budget with $36 billion in funds authorized only through April 30, 2017, which the report said would require the next president to file a supplemental bill for the war funds.

The 2017 NDAA would also allocate $2.9 billion to allow the U.S. Navy to procure 14 additional Boeing-built F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet aircraft and 11 more Lockheed Martin-produced F-35 jets.

Gould reports that the U.S. Army would receive an additional $440 million for more Sikorsky-built UH-60M Black Hawks, $162 million for Boeing-made AH-64 Apache helicopters, $95 million for the Northrop Grumman-developed MQ-4C Triton and $150 million for two additional Bell/Boeing-built V-22 Ospreys.

The proposed legislation also calls for a budgetary review of plans to resume the operations of Lockheed’s F-22 fighter jets.

The bill would also authorize a $20.6 billion increase in shipbuilding funds and set aside funds for the construction of three destroyers, an amphibious ship and a littoral combat ship.

The U.S. Air Force would be required to sustain a minimum number of 171 A-10 planes until Congress receives the results of F-35’s initial operational test and evaluation and another report that compares the functions of A-10C with that of F-35A, the report said.

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Marine Corps Sets Next Year’s F-35B Fighter Jet Deployment for Western Pacific; Scott Swift Comments
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Marine Corps Sets Next Year’s F-35B Fighter Jet Deployment for Western Pacific; Scott Swift Comments


F-35The U.S. Marine Corps plans to deploy its version of the F-35 fighter jet in the late part of next year to the Western Pacific region, Navy Times reported Thursday.

Adm. Scott Swift, chief of Pacific Fleet, said the Navy will station the F-35B variant will be stationed onboard an amphibious ship with a support escort force, David Larter reports.

A surface action group will also act to protect the amphibious assault ship, according to the report.

F-35B achieved initial operational capability in July 2015 and is going through tests prior to the 2017 deployment, the report says.

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Steve Walker: Chicago Museum to Exhibit DARPA Tech Projects
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Steve Walker: Chicago Museum to Exhibit DARPA Tech Projects


DARPAThe Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago will host an exhibit of various technology platforms developed or funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency from May 5 through Sept. 5.

Titled “DARPA: Redefining Possible,” the event will feature interactive displays and activities for students and adults, DARPA said Thursday.

“We hope the exhibit will serve as a reminder that some of the most exciting work going on today in fields as diverse as chemistry, engineering, cyber defense and synthetic biology are happening with federal support, in furtherance of pressing national priorities,” noted Steve Walker, deputy director of DARPA.

DARPA plans to display a large-scale model of the Sea Hunter autonomous ship, the Atlas humanoid robot, a robotic dog known as Spot, small implantable electrode arrays and an “air legs” exoskeleton in the Museum of Science and Industry for the four-month agency exhibit.

The agency will also present an immersive program about DARPA-backed technologies such as x-planes, unmanned aerial vehicles, chip-scale atomic clocks, tobacco plant-based Ebola vaccine and manmade lightning.

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Army to Evaluate Counter-UAS System Prototype in May; Michael Cochran Comments
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Army to Evaluate Counter-UAS System Prototype in May; Michael Cochran Comments


ArmyHunterUASThe U.S. Army is scheduled to test in May a prototype that works to counter unmanned aerial systems through its Network Integration Evaluation process, Defense News reported Thursday.

Jen Judson writes the service branch will conduct the NIE on the C-UAS Mobile Integrated Capability prototype at Fort Bliss in Texas for a period of two weeks to evaluate how to integrate the system with its tactical network.

The C-UAS CMIC prototype is linked to the military branch’s command-and-control systems and consists of the Northrop Grumman-built Venom mast, Lightweight Laser Designator Rangefinder and the Q-50 Counterfire Radar System.

Northrop’s Venom Mast works to transmit Q-50 radar-derived data to the LLDR to help counter threats posed by UAS and other aerial vehicles.

“We can put a capability in soldiers’ hands using existing equipment that they have, so really what we are doing is we are taking existing programs of record and repurposing it to give the ability to counter those UAS,” Michael Cochran, Fires liaison officer at Fort Bliss, told Defense News.

DoD CIO Terry Halvorsen’s ‘Windows 10’ Remarks Draw Criticism From Software Trade Group
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DoD CIO Terry Halvorsen’s ‘Windows 10’ Remarks Draw Criticism From Software Trade Group


softwareThe Software and Information Industry Association has reacted to comments Defense Department Chief Information Officer Terry Halvorsen made about the Microsoft-developed operating system Windows 10 on April 8 per a Fedscoop report.

According to Fedscoop, Halvorsen said DoD plans to issue general guidance to department employees on the potential application of Windows 10 on their personal computers.

SIIA President Ken Wasch told Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in a letter Wednesday the association believes Halvorsen’s remarks amount to a commercial product endorsement.

Wasch pointed to the DOD Joint Ethics Regulation and the Code of Federal Regulations that prohibit federal officials and employees from endorsing non-federal products and services.

SIIA urges Halvorsen to publicly clarify that “DoD is not advocating for, or against, personal use of any vendor’s product,” Wasch noted.

NASA, NCAR Scientists Design Risk Map to Forecast Zika Virus Spread
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NASA, NCAR Scientists Design Risk Map to Forecast Zika Virus Spread


medical health doctorA team of scientists from NASA, the National Center for Atmospheric Research and other institutions have developed a risk map that works to forecast the potential spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus in the U.S. from South America.

The National Institutes of Health also supported the team in efforts to design a tool that examines factors such as temperature, rainfall and socioeconomic aspects that may affect the spread of the virus in an effort to predict the time and scope of a potential outbreak, NASA said Wednesday.

“Knowledge is one of the most effective barriers to disease transmission and can alleviate unnecessary concern,” said Cory Morin, a NASA postdoctoral program fellow at the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Earth Science Office.

Morin said transmission officials can create strategies that work to limit the spread of Zika through identification of risk factors.

The scientists believethe Aedes aegypti mosquito that spreads the virus will multiply across the southern and eastern U.S. in the coming months as warmer temperatures arrive during the summer months along the Atlantic coast and southern tier out to Phoenix and Los Angeles.

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Matt Gorham Takes Charge of FBI’s Washington-Based Counterterrorism Division
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Matt Gorham Takes Charge of FBI’s Washington-Based Counterterrorism Division


FBIMatt Gorham, formerly deputy assistant director for FBI’s Critical Incident Response Group, will serve as the special agent in charge of the law enforcement agency’s counterterrorism division at the Washington field office.

He will assume his new duties in May, the bureau said Thursday.

Gorham joined FBI in 1995 and was assigned to handle violent crime and drug investigations within the Pittsburgh division prior to his work in the area of counterterrorism.

He also directed FBI’s operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the international operations division.

Gorham has also held several leadership roles within the bureau’s criminal investigative division, Richmond division and the cyber division.

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Library of Congress to Shut Down Legislative Database THOMAS.gov on July 5
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Library of Congress to Shut Down Legislative Database THOMAS.gov on July 5


Library of Congress to Shut Down Legislative Database THOMAS.gov on July 5The Library of Congress will take down the online legislative information database THOMAS.gov on July 5 and transition the system to the Congress.gov domain.

The Library said Thursday THOMAS.gov’s two-decade old infrastructure can no longer support updates that would meet the needs of users.

The website was launched in 1995 and named after Thomas Jefferson through a bipartisan initiative.

Congress.gov went live in beta form in 2012 and is designed to provide data sets on bill status, summary and text; the Congressional Record; Congressional Record Index and committee reports; executive actions and archives that date back to 1973, the Library said.

The new website also contains Senate and House committee and member profiles, videos of legislative process and committee hearings, glossary of terms and direct links from bills to Congressional Budget Office cost estimates.

Congress.gov is a joint project between the Library, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Government Publishing Office.

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