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Transforming Satellite Communications in an Era of Austerity
The United States should adapt its military satellite communications architecture to the new strategic environment where US dominance of space is far from assured, said Todd Harrison, senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. In a forthcoming study, Harrison argues that the United States should transition from a "two tier" MILSATCOM approach that focuses on protected and unprotected assets to a three-tier setup that includes a middle level that provides a lower level of protection for more tactical users. This could include using hosted protected payloads to expand capacity at a low cost, he told reporters during a briefing in Washington, D.C., on July 23. The lowest tier in this arrangement would encompass non-essential communications that the Pentagon could purchase via service agreements rather than maintaining as an organic capability, he said. The Defense Department should also consolidate the management of its MILSATCOM programs to cut back on costs and avoid requirements creep, said Harrison.
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Pentagon Chief Can’t Offer Hope In Budget Cuts
The audience gasped in surprise and gave a few low whistles as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered the news that furloughs, which have forced a 20 percent pay cut on most of the military's civilian workforce, probably will continue next year, and it might get worse/.../
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Squeezing the Pentagon: The wrong way to cut America’s military budget
Some attacks come out of nowhere. Others arrive with plenty of warning. The 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA), also known as the sequester, was one of the latter. But for a long time the Pentagon ignored it, assuming that the cuts to defence spending it contained would never happen.
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China’s Naval Aspirations: A ‘Blue-Water’ Force
Today, fueled by a booming economy, Chinese naval power is on the rise again.
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Analyst: 2014 Defense Review Offers Opportunity for Real Reform
Instead of shoehorning its current force structure within a confined budget, the U.S. military should decide what it wants to be able to accomplish in the future and then design an affordable force to achieve those goals, a new study on the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review contends.
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Air Force Chief: Time to Stop Talking and Start Making Strategy, Budget Choices
Mark Gunzinger, a retired Air Force colonel and now senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the Pentagon no longer has the luxury of indulging in institutional inertia as generals and admirals seek to preserve their programs.