Former DefSec Slams Obama’s & Trump’s Russian Response

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Former DefSec Ash Carter offered a plea, a mea culpa, and a warning, during an interview with Politico, about what he sees as an escalating  war with Russia that the US is failing to fight, not even executing the Pentagon’s plan to counter Russia at the time it seized Crimea, years before the Kremlin began its suspected stealth campaign to interfere in American elections.

From the Munich Security Conference, Bloomberg reports three things worry the global security establishment, the Middle East, the Korean peninsula, and cyberspace. Also, the “unusually sober” assembly is concerned that US and Russian nuclear arms control agreements are at risk.

New rules requiring military members to get out if they aren’t able to deploy are to ensure e fairness in deployment rates, says DefSec Jim Mattis, reports Military Times. The new rules will separate military members non-deployable for the past 12 months which amounts to 11 percent, roughly 235,000, of the 2.1 million personnel serving on active duty, in the reserves or National Guard.

The Navy is still taking hits for its fitful fight against cockpit oxygen loss, reports Navy Times, still unable to unravel the causes behind the spike in episodes that have spiked across the past decade.

It’s not just the Navy looking to up pay to keep aviators. Aviation Week reports a pilot shortage throughout the aviation industry is prompting commercial airlines to bump up pay as well.

After ISIS, America’s next battle will be in Syria, reports Defense One. The final stages of the Syrian civil war will be messy and protracted, and continued US engagement essential to the outcome.

Customer feedback led commissary leaders to test no-bagger checkout lanes  at 121 stores worldwide, reports Military Times. Cashiers collect the payment, then customers bag the goods and take them to their vehicles.

The Gerald R. Ford is now officially an aircraft carrier, the first with first Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System. Navy Times reports it could be some time before $12.9 billion carrier’s EMAL system will successfully replace traditional steam-based carrier launch systems. A Navy report continues to question if the technology is up to the task.

To boost seamanship skills, the Navy seeks to reduce the time surface warfare officers spend on shore, reports Navy Times. The action is as part of the effort to address a pair of reviews, reported here by Defense News, that resulted from last summer’s fatal collisions in Asia.

A White House funding proposal would cut the amount of food aid given to most recipients, including many military families, and replace it with a subscription-style box of delivered foods, reports Military.com.

In America’s opioid crisis, the military has the resources to interdict only 25 percent of drug shipments, reports Defense News.