March 28, 2024

Morning Coffee: Pentagon Cyber Budget Gets Boost

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River economic community. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Leader’s owners or staff.Morning Coffee logo

DefSec Chuck Hagel said Tuesday that the Pentagon’s cyber budget will be increased in the DOD’s fiscal 2015 budget request, reports Nextgov.  The increased spending will be aimed at improving cyber capabilities including cyber security, intelligence gathering, and reconnaissance. Mr. Hagel stated that the department already has a “tremendous capacity” to counter the growing cyber threat but, “One of the complications we have is there’s a line … between the private sector and the Defense Department.” The budget request will be released Mar. 4.

Lockheed Martin’s lead test pilot, William Gigliotti, asserts that the US should develop a longer range AIM-120 air-to-air missile to complement the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the F-22 Raptor’s advanced radar systems, reports Defense Tech. Mr. Gigliotti detailed recent Chinese advances in the range of their missile defenses and fighter aircraft and said, “When we war game it out, [the AIM-120 is] the Achilles heel of the US fighter fleet.” The AIM-120 is carried by most American fighters including the F-15, F-16 and F/A-18.

A new Gallup poll concludes that nearly 50 percent of Americans now believe the war in Afghanistan was a mistake, according to The Hill. Two months after the invasion less than 10 percent said the war was a mistake, which was the most positive rating the public has given a war since the Korean War. The Afghanistan conflict has become America’s longest war and has lasted over 12 years. The Obama administration’s goal is to withdraw a majority of troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year.

Peter Westmacott, British Ambassador to the US, believes that the US military should use British-designed Dual-Mode Brimstone missiles on its Reaper UAVs, according to Defense One. Recent tests demonstrated that the Brimstone, the most accurate weapon of its kind currently available, is compatible with the US drone. The ambassador contends that buying already developed technology from allies rather than spending large amounts of taxpayer money to duplicate it makes even more sense in these times of shrinking defense budgets. Mr. Westmacott elaborated, “New technology is changing the face of warfare. In the future, air missions will increasingly be remotely piloted, and battles will increasingly have a space or cyber component. With these emerging technologies, we have a golden opportunity to build cooperation into our strategies right from the beginning – an opportunity we should be sure to take.”

The Navy reported Tuesday that the USS Taylor, which was deployed to the Black Sea for the Sochi Winter Olympics, ran aground in Turkey Feb. 12, according to The Hill. The frigate’s propeller sustained damage and it remains in port while the damage is assessed. The vessel was on standby to evacuate Americans if terrorists strike the international sports event.

Saildrone, a 19 foot sailing drone, completed a 2,248 nautical mile, 34 day trip between California and Hawaii last year and has an eventual mission to sail unmanned around the world, reports Wired. The craft’s designers see scientific and security uses for the craft and believe that industrial operations including oil and gas exploration, gold mining, diamond mining, fisheries and shipping could all benefit from the technology.

The USS Forrestal completed its final sail when it arrived at a South Texas scrapyard Tuesday, reports the Navy Times. The US Navy’s first supercarrier was decommissioned in 1993 after more than 38 years of service. The ship survived a flight deck fire in 1967 that killed 132 crewmen and injured 62 others.

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