Biden Transition Team Decries Lack of DoD Cooperation
President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team has criticized the Pentagon for the abrupt halt in meetings and information sharing. “A failure to work together can have consequences well beyond January,” a spokesman for the team said.
DoD Ups Estimates for Contractors’ COVID Relief
The Pentagon acquisition chief estimates $20 billion is needed to help the defense industry cover COVID-19 costs.
MD Sites on List of Locations Where Agent Orange Was Stored, Tested
A new list released by the Defense Department shows locations outside Vietnam where herbicides like Agent Orange were tested and stored. Five sites in Maryland were on the list.
DoD F-35 Report: Hundreds of Deficiencies, 13 ‘Must-Fix’ Problems
A DoD annual report says the F-35 has hundreds of unresolved deficiencies and new problems are being discovered regularly. There’s a long list of issues that should be resolved, including 13 described as Category 1 “must-fix” items.
US Wants to Resume North Korean Talks
Trump’s White House asks Chairman Kim to come back to the table for more North Korean talks about denuclearization.
DoD Under-Utilizing Talent, Experts Say
DoD is under-utilizing existing talent and losing workers to civilian jobs. It needs to take a serious look at how it trains and assigns troops for high-tech jobs, says the Defense Innovation Board.
VADM: F-35 Program Could Be Hurt If Plan With Turkey Is Nixed
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 reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff. F-35 program manager VADM Mathias Winter tells Capitol Hill lawmakers that if Turkey is ejected from the F-35 program, it would deal an immediate blow to the production rate for new planes and place fresh stress on an already strained supply chain, reports Breaking Defense. NAWCAD Lakehurst has adapted weapons loaders for the F-35B, reports dcmilitary.com. The modified support equipment gives the Lightning II more…
US Moves to Halt F-35 Sale to Turkey
US takes first step in halting sale of F35 fighter jets to Turkey in retaliation for Ankara’s decision to purchase a Russian surface-to-air missile system.
Analysis: Initial Estimate for Space Force Too High
A top defense budget analyst has crunched the numbers and believes the new Space Force military branch may cost a fraction of the original estimate from the Air Force.
DefSec: No Surprise DoD Fails Audit
The Department of Defense failed its first-ever audit, but officials aren’t surprised. “We never thought we were going to pass an audit, right? Everyone was betting against us that we wouldn’t even do the audit,” Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told reporters.
