PARIS AIR SHOW: Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James came out swinging today here, forcefully telling reporters that she was here and traveling throughout Europe tp deliver a message of reassurance in the face of a “resurgent Russia.” “I would say, the biggest threat on my mind [is] the activities of Russia,” she said when asked by… Keep reading →
CAPITOL HILL: Tensions within the GOP over the mandatory budget caps set by the Budget Control Act burst into the open recently. The chairman of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee repeatedly warned colleagues and the leaders of the Air Force this morning that they had no choice and must live within the Budget Control Act’s spending limits. Then,… Keep reading →
The Defense Department has awarded a first of its kind joint enterprise licensing agreement for Microsoft collaboration, mobility, productivity and security tools. Valued at $617 million, the three-year agreement will allow the Army, Air Force and the Defense Information Systems Agency to begin using the latest versions of the company’s products.
The agreement creates a single framework providing all three organizations with a single, standardized way to access new Microsoft technologies. The contract also supports top DOD IT goals for data center consolidation, collaboration, cybersecurity, mobility, cloud computing and big data, company officials said in a statement. Keep reading →
America’s weapons seem to always cost more than the Pentagon expects or the American taxpayer hopes. For much of the last decade the Air Force in particular has been the poster boy for soaring costs, badly managed programs and the odd bit of corruption or incompetence. Tanker, F-35, Space-based Infrared System, NPOESS, Light Air Support planes for Afghanistan. The list is long and depressing.
__________________________________________________
This article was originally published by our colleagues on AOL Defense.
__________________________________________________ Keep reading →
“We’re long past the point of doing more with less,” said the blunt-spoken Under Secretary of the Navy, Robert Work. “We are going to be doing less with less in the future.”
But with a continuing resolution, sequestration in three weeks, and to-be-determined defense cuts a likely part of any “grand bargain” to avert the fiscal cliff, how much less is maddeningly unclear. So it’s impossible to make intelligent plans or choices. Keep reading →
The uncertainty of 2012 has many pondering how to plan their federal Architecture, Engineering and Construction pipeline for the coming year. By getting back to basics, companies can balance trends found in three sources – historic federal spending , budget requests, and what potential opportunities are to be released in the next 12 to 18 months – to develop a business development plan for 2013. Keep reading →
With the savings on real estate, energy costs and travel expenses along with improved productivity and worker satisfaction, some might think managers and employees would embrace the transition to a telework culture. But that hasn’t been the case for many in the federal workforce.
Still, telework comes with too many benefits to ignore, said panelists at the Telework Exchange Town Hall meeting Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Strong business cases, capable technology, improved employee performance (see GSA performance tracking dashboard video, above) and mandates to reduce greenhouse gases and federal real estate space make telework worth the culture change effort. Keep reading →
The Army’s migration to an enterprise-wide email system, after years of false starts and execution detours, is gaining significant momentum and appears on track to hit the 1.4 million user mark by March 31, Army program officials told AOL Government.
While enterprise email and communications systems are taken for granted at most organizations, Army soldiers and civilians – and most military personnel – have had to get by without the convenience of having a single globally-accessible email account, capable of communicating sensitive information securely anywhere in the world. Keep reading →
Army Maj.Gen. Mark Bowman, Joint Chiefs of Staff CIO.
The U.S. military operates many of the world’s largest and most complex computer and communications networks, giving the Defense Department extraordinary capability and flexibility to conduct a vast assortment of global operations, from direct combat to humanitarian missions. Keep reading →
When it comes to budget cutting, there comes a time when some programs simply have to be dumped. Keep reading →