Tag Archives: Pentagon

Pentagon to hike spending request to fund fight versus Islamic State

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s administration will seek a significant increase in funding for the fight against Islamic State as part of its 2017 defense budget request, U.S. officials say, in another possible sign of U.S. efforts to intensify the campaign.

The fiscal year 2017 Pentagon budget will call for more than $7 billion for the fight against Islamic State, a roughly 35 percent increase compared with the previous year’s request to Congress, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is due to disclose his spending priorities for the $583 billion 2017 defense budget on Tuesday in an address to the Economic Club of Washington. The White House plans to release Obama’s full budget proposal for fiscal 2017, which begins Oct. 1, on Feb. 9.

Carter in his speech is expected to cite his intent to increase the administration’s request for funds to battle Islamic State, officials say, although it was unclear how much detail he would offer.

He was also expected to touch on other budget priorities, including plans to increase spending to reassure European allies following Russia’s intervention in Ukraine, and the need for the United States to maintain its military edge over China and Russia.

Carter’s budget will underscore the need for Washington to fund a new Air Force bomber awarded last year to Northrop Grumman Corp, a replacement for the Ohio-class submarines that carry nuclear weapons, and to start replacing a fleet of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, according to a source briefed on the plans.

The proposed budget will also seek to boost spending for several key priorities, including increased cybersecurity, electronic warfare and increased security for crucial U.S. satellites, the source said.

Lockheed Martin Corp, maker of the F-35 fighter jet, Boeing Co and other big weapons makers are anxiously awaiting details about the budget and how it will affect their programs.

Senior defense officials have said that $15 billion in cuts required under a two-year budget agreement with Congress last year would largely come from procurement accounts since personnel costs and operations costs were harder to cut.

One official noted that spending on the Islamic State fight was expected to be drawn from the roughly $59 billion Overseas Contingency Operations account, or OCO, a separate budget that supplements the larger, $524 billion base budget for fiscal year 2017.

Still, key details on the more than $7 billion request were unclear, including whether the funding applied to operations outside Iraq and Syria.

The disclosure about plans for an increased spending request to combat Islamic State came as the Obama administration seeks to intensify its campaign, looking to capitalize on recent battlefield gains against the militants in Iraq.

Carter has called a meeting later this month in Brussels with defense ministers from all 26 military members of the anti-Islamic State coalition, as well as Iraq. He is asking them to come prepared to discuss further contributions to the fight.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Andrea Shalal; Editing by James Dalgleish)

White House announces major background checks overhaul following data breach

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government will set up a new agency to do background checks on employees and contractors, the White House said on Friday, after a massive breach of U.S. government files exposed the personal data of millions of people last year.

As a part of a sweeping overhaul, the Obama administration said it will establish a National Background Investigations Bureau. It will replace the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Federal Investigative Services (FIS), which currently conducts investigations for over 100 Federal agencies.

The move, a stiff rebuke for FIS and OPM, comes after last year’s disclosure that a hack of OPM computers exposed the names, addresses, Social Security numbers and other sensitive information of roughly 22 million current and former federal employees and contractors, as well as applicants for federal jobs and individuals listed on background check forms.

Unlike FIS, the new agency’s information systems will be handled by the Defense Department, making it even more central to Washington’s effort to bolster its cyber defenses against constant intrusion attempts by hackers and foreign nationals.

“We can substantially reduce the risk of future cyber incidents” by applying lessons learned in recent years, said Michael Daniel, White House cyber security policy coordinator, on a conference call with reporters.

The White House gave no timeline for implementing the changes, but said some would begin this year. It will seek $95 million more in its upcoming fiscal 2017 budget for information technology development, according to a White House fact sheet.

‘NOT THERE YET’

Officials have privately blamed the OPM data breach on China, though security researchers and officials have said there is no evidence Beijing has maliciously used the data trove.

Controversy generated by the hack prompted several congressional committees to investigate whether OPM was negligent in its cyber security practices. OPM Director Katherine Archuleta resigned last July as the government intensified a broad push to improve cyber defenses and modernize systems.

“Clearly we’re not there yet,” Admiral Mike Rogers, head of the National Security Agency, said at a cyber security event in Washington this week when asked about U.S. preparedness against hacks. The damage done by cyber attacks, he added, “is going to get worse before it gets better.”

OPM has been plagued by a large backlog of security clearance files, prompting it to rely on outside contractors for assistance, possibly compromising cyber security.

The Defense Department and OPM did not respond when asked if the government will still rely on support from contractors.

Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of a House of Representatives panel that has been looking into the issue, said Friday’s announcement fell short.

“Protecting this information should be a core competency of OPM,” Chaffetz said in a statement. “Today’s announcement seems aimed only at solving a perception problem rather than tackling the reforms needed to fix a broken security clearance process.”

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Andrea Shalal; editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Susan Heavey and Alan Crosby)

U.S. gives troops broader order to strike ISIS in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. military commanders have been given the authority to target Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan, the Pentagon said on Thursday, the first such order beyond Iraq and Syria, where the militants control parts of both countries.

The U.S. State Department said last week that it had designated Islamic State’s offshoot in Afghanistan, known as Islamic State-Khorasan, as a foreign terrorist organization.

U.S. forces could previously strike Islamic State in Afghanistan but it was under more narrow circumstances, such as for protection of troops.

Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Republican who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the administration of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, “seems to be waking up to the fact that more than a year into the U.S. military campaign, ISIL’s reach is global and growing.”

McCain told a hearing on Thursday that the authorization given by the White House was much needed and “many of us may be interested to know that we confined our attacks on ISIL to Iraq and Syria.”

ISIL is another name for the Islamist militant group, which has supporters and sympathizers around the world who have carried out bombings and gun attacks on civilians, notably in Paris in November and San Bernardino, California, in December.

A Pentagon spokesman, Capt. Jeff Davis, said there had been an adjustment to the authorization for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, but he did not give details on when exactly it was given.

“As part of this mission, we will take action against any terrorist group that poses a threat to U.S. interests or the homeland, including members of ISIL-Khorasan,” Davis said.

Davis said there had been “some” strikes on the group in recent days.

The change in the authorization was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to the State Department, Islamic State-Khorasan was formed in January 2015, based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, made up of former members of the Pakistani Taliban and Afghan Taliban.

U.S. Army General John Campbell, who leads international forces in Afghanistan, has said Islamic State had coalesced over the last five or six months in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces and had been fighting the Taliban for several months.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali; editing by Grant McCool)

In Paris, military chiefs vow to intensify Islamic State fight

PARIS (Reuters) – Defense chiefs from the United States, France, Britain and four other countries pledged on Wednesday to intensify their fight against Islamic State, in an effort to capitalize on recent battlefield gains against the militants.

Islamic State lost control of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi last month, in a sorely needed victory for U.S.-backed Iraqi forces. But critics, including some in the U.S. Congress, say the U.S. strategy is still far too weak and lacks sufficient military support from Sunni Arab allies.

“We agreed that we all must do more,” U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told a news conference after talks in Paris among the “core” military coalition members, which also included Germany, Italy, Australia and the Netherlands.

A joint statement by the Western ministers re-committed their governments to work with the U.S.-led coalition “to accelerate and intensify the campaign.”

The Paris setting for the talks itself sent a message, coming just over two months after the city was struck by deadly shooting and bombing attacks claimed by Islamic State.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian sounded an upbeat tone about the campaign, saying Islamic State was in retreat.

“Because Daesh is retreating on the ground and … because we have been able to hit its resources, it’s now time to increase our collective effort by putting in place a coherent military strategy,” he said.

British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said the goal was now to “tighten the noose around the head of the snake in Syria in Raqqa.”

Carter forecast that the coalition would need to ramp up the number of police and military trainers. He also emphasized preparations to eventually recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from Islamic State and the expanding role of U.S. special operations forces in Iraq and Syria.

COALITION NOT “WINNING”

Still, U.S. Senator John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and other critics of U.S. President Barack Obama’s approach to the war effort say Islamic State still poses a potent threat.

“ISIL has lost some territory on the margin, but has consolidated power in its core territories in both Iraq and Syria,” McCain said at a Wednesday hearing on U.S. war strategy, using another acronym for Islamic State.

“Meanwhile, ISIL continues to metastasize across the region in places like Afghanistan, Libya, Lebanon, Yemen, and Egypt. Its attacks are now global, as we saw in Paris.”

Carter has sought to lay out a strategy to confront Islamic State, both by wiping out its strongholds in Iraq and Syria and by addressing its spread beyond its self-declared caliphate.

But U.S. officials have declined to set a timeline for what could be a long-term campaign that also requires political reconciliation to ultimately succeed.

Carter announced a meeting next month of defense ministers from all 26 military members of the anti-Islamic State coalition, as well as Iraq, in what he described as the first face-to-face meeting of its kind.

“Every nation must come prepared to discuss further contributions to the fight,” he said. “And I will not hesitate to engage and challenge current and prospective members of the coalition as we go forward.”

(Additional reporting by Marine Pennetier, editing by Larry King)

Special anti-ISIS targeting force ‘now in place’ in Iraq, U.S. says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A new U.S. force of special operations troops has arrived in Iraq and is preparing to work with Iraqi forces to go after Islamic State targets, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Wednesday.

Carter disclosed the deployment in a broad speech to U.S. soldiers that sought to underscore American efforts to accelerate the campaign against Islamic State, both in Iraq and Syria.

“The specialized expeditionary targeting force I announced in December is now in place and is preparing to work with the Iraqis to begin going after ISIL’s fighters and commanders,” Carter said at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

While the force was expected to number only about 200, its deployment marks the latest expansion of U.S. military pressure on Islamic State. It also exposes American forces to greater risk, something President Barack Obama has done only sparingly.

The force is separate from another deployment last year of up to 50 U.S. special operations troops in Syria to coordinate on the ground with U.S.-backed rebels fighting in a civil war raging since 2011.

Carter said that smaller group of forces had already established contact with rebels, as well as new targets for airstrikes and “strikes of all kinds.”

“These operators have helped focus the efforts of the local, capable forces against key ISIL vulnerabilities, including their lines of communication,” Carter said.

Republicans have sought to portray U.S. President Barack Obama’s strategy to defeat Islamic State as flawed and insufficient, as the militants plot or inspire attacks far beyond their self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria.

Obama, in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, warned against overstating the fight against Islamic State militants, but said his administration is focused on destroying the extremist group.

Carter’s speech emphasized advances by Iraqi forces — including retaking control of the city of Ramadi — and by U.S.-backed rebels in Syria.

“President Obama is committed to doing what it takes – as opportunities arise, as we see what works, and as the enemy adapts – until ISIL is delivered a lasting defeat,” he said.

Carter was addressing soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, 1,800 of whom will deploy to Iraq in the coming months, largely to train local forces.

Carter also flagged a meeting next week in Paris with defense ministers from six nations — France, Britain, Australia, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Alan Crosby)

U.S. Soldier Killed in Firefight in Afghanistan

A member of the United States military was killed and two others suffered injuries during a firefight on Tuesday in Afghanistan, Department of Defense officials announced.

Speaking at a news briefing in Washington, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said the soldiers were conducting a mission with Afghanistan forces in Marjah when the group came under fire.

Cook told reporters that “a number of Afghan forces” were also injured during the mission.

The spokesman said a pair of medevac helicopters were dispatched to the location in Helmand Province. One landed safely despite striking a wall, but damaged its rotor blades and remained grounded. The other came under fire and safely returned to its base without landing.

Cook didn’t offer much additional information about the circumstances of the soldier’s death or what the mission entailed, saying “there’s still a fight going on in the immediate surroundings.”

He did say the United States soldiers were on a “train, advise and assist” mission. The 9,800 or so soldiers that remain in Afghanistan are supporting the country’s military as it battles with a variety of armed insurgents, according to a Pentagon report released last month.

“There are dangerous parts of Afghanistan where the fight is still underway, and Helmand Province is one of those places,” Cook told reporters at the news briefing. “The U.S. forces that are there are doing what they can to provide support, training, advice (and) assistance to the Afghan forces as they take the lead in this fight.”

The Pentagon report also said the security situation had “deteriorated” in the second half of 2015 as terrorist groups like the Taliban and a branch of the Islamic State staged more “effective insurgent attacks” against Afghanistan forces, resulting in an increase in casualties.

Speaking at the news conference, Cook said the Afghanistan forces were improving at securing their country, but they weren’t yet at a point where they were able to fully defend it on their own. He said there wasn’t any plan to change the role the United States is playing in the region.

“The situation in Helmand and throughout Afghanistan remains challenging, but we are confident that Afghan National Security and Defense Forces are continuing to develop the capabilities and capacity to secure the country against a persistent insurgent threat,” Cook said.

Pentagon Opens All Military Positions to Women

Women will be allowed to hold any job in the United States military — including those in combat units — following a historic announcement by Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday.

Carter said at a news conference that for the first time ever, women in the U.S. military will be allowed to do jobs from which they were previously barred, given they meet specific standards.

“They’ll be allowed to drive tanks, fire mortars and lead infantry soldiers into combat,” Carter reportedly said, according to a recap posted on the Department of Defense’s official website. “They’ll be able to serve as Army Rangers and Green Berets, Navy SEALs, Marine Corps infantry, Air Force parajumpers and everything else that was previously open only to men.”

The jobs will formally become available to women next month, according to the Department of Defense posting, though Carter acknowledged that it will take some time for full integration.

Carter said at the news conference that leaders from all branches of the military had spent the past three years studying the assimilation of women into the previously men-only positions, according to the Department of Defense. Leaders from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Special Operations Command didn’t indicate that women should be barred from any job.

While the Marine Corps reportedly asked that certain jobs be kept men-only, like machine gunner and fire support reconnaissance, the Department of Defense quoted Carter as saying “we are a joint force and I have decided to make a decision which applies to the entire force.”

The news wasn’t immediately welcomed by everyone.

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), the chairmen of the Armed Services Committees in their respective legislative houses, released a joint statement in which they said Carter’s decision “will have a consequential impact on our servicemembers and our military’s warfighting capabilities.” They said they want time to review the materials that played into Carter’s decision, including a 1,000-page report from the Marine Integrated Task Force.

One of the findings of that report, according to a September 2015 news release, was that all-male units generally outperformed integrated units in tests designed to simulate combat situations.

“We expect the Department to send over its implementation plans as quickly as possible to ensure our Committees have all the information necessary to conduct proper and rigorous oversight,” McCain and Thornberry said in the statement, adding that they also wanted to see the department’s stance on if changes to the Selective Service Act might now be required.

U.S. Officials: Special Operations Forces to be Sent to Syria

According to U.S. officials, the White House will announce Friday that the Pentagon is sending a small number of special operations forces to Syria to help advise Syrian opposition in the fight against ISIS.

This will be the first time U.S. special operations forces have been on the ground in Syria. NBC News reports that President Obama has ordered around 50 special operations forces to be deployed and work with the rebel group named the Syrian Arab Coalition. The U.S. troops will not be on the frontlines, but instead will be providing assistance, advice, and training. A strategy similar to the one the U.S. is currently using in Iraq.

“We have been focused on intensifying elements of our strategy that have been working, while also moving away from elements of our approach that have proven less effective,” the official explained.

The Obama administration has been continuously criticized on their various strategies to try and combat ISIS. The current airstrikes strategy has yielded mixed results, and recently, the Pentagon decided to abandon a failed program that was training and equipping Syrian rebels.

While the change in strategy has seen a lot of speculation, a source told ABC News that the administration has stated that “we have no intention of engaging in long-term, large-scale combat operations the likes of which we previously saw in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

U.S. concerned by Russian operations near undersea cables: NY Times

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The presence of Russian submarines and spy ships near undersea cables carrying most global Internet communications has U.S. officials concerned that Russia could be planning to sever the lines in periods of conflict, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

The Times said there was no evidence of cable cutting but that the concerns reflected increased wariness among U.S. and allied officials over growing Russian military activity around the world.

The newspaper quoted naval commanders and intelligence officials as saying they were monitoring significantly greater Russian activity along the cables’ known routes from the North Sea to Northeast Asia and waters closer to the United States.

“It would be a concern to hear any country was tampering with communication cables; however, due to the classified nature of submarine operations, we do not discuss specifics,”

U.S. Navy spokesman Commander William Marks told the Times.

Last month, the United States closely monitored the Russian spy ship Yantar, which equipped with two self-propelled deep-sea submersible craft, cruised off the U.S. East Coast toward Cuba, where one cable lands near the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, according to the Times.

Naval officials said the ship and the submersible craft were capable of cutting cables miles (km) deep beneath the sea, the Times said.

While cables are frequently cut by ship anchors or natural disasters and then quickly repaired, Pentagon officials are concerned that the Russians seem to be looking for vulnerabilities at much greater depths where cable breaks are harder to locate and repair, the paper said.

It said the cables carried more than $10 trillion daily in global business and more than 95 percent of daily communications.

(Reporting by Peter Cooney; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Russia Denies Missiles Landed in Iran, Despite Pentagon Reports

Pentagon officials reported Friday that the 4 of the 26 missiles fired by Russian warships in the Caspian Sea landed in a rural area of northern Iran.

Both Iran and Russia deny the claims, saying that it’s propaganda. Russia states that all 26 missiles hit ISIS targets in north and northwest Syria. The Russian defense ministry posted this on Facebook: “No matter how unpleasant and unexpected it is for our colleagues in the Pentagon and Langley, our strike yesterday with precision-guided weapons at Isis infrastructure in Syria hit its targets.”

Reports on Iranian TV indicated that an “unidentified flying object” had crashed and exploded in a village, killing a number of cows. At this time it’s still unclear if that object was a Russian missile, but social media posts showed missiles flying overhead at low altitudes.

A U.S. defense official said that the missiles used by Russia to attack Syrian targets are typically used to attack heavy air defenses, which the Syrian rebel groups do not have. They speculate that the use of the cruise missile is a sign of Russia’s power to the rest of the world.

The Pentagon report comes days after Russian forces coordinated attacks with the Syrian military to attack Syrian rebel groups. Russia continues to claim that their presence in Syria is to fight ISIS, despite their continuous attacks on groups that are against the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime.