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Oh, that's messed up...
The news that the Department of Defense is shuttering the Joint Forces Command was just broken to JFCOM's public affairs officer ... by a reporter. Ouch.
Rumors of JFCOM's demise have been floating around for some time, though, so this cannot be completely unexpected. One of the wisest military analysts I know remarked, upon hearing the rumors, that JFCOM does three valuable things that either the joint staff or another command will now have to pick up:
- Writing joint doctrine.
- Monitoring force readiness and modernization across the services.
- Coordinating U.S. and NATO modernization efforts.
Other than that, I myself am unsure of what else we're losing.
Well for one we're losing
Well for one we're losing "Contractor" COM. The DBB Report noted that JFCOM has more contractors than mil/civ staff. Same is also true of TRANSCOM. CENTCOM almost has parity but that is to be expected since we outsourced a lot of previous military functions like chow halls and transportation to contractors as a cost savings measure (which would have worked just fine had we not decided to remain embroiled in combat operations for almost a decade in two theaters) and some of those contractors are indigenous personnel in theater, who are probably cheaper than US contractors by a long shot.
As to the Joint Staff picking up the slack, where do you think all those AD folks at JFCOM are going to go? Some AD folks will probably be returned to operational slots (per the DBB they are the most expensive of DoD's people and should not be overly tied up in staff slots) and some will be moved to DC, the civilians will either move to DC or find employment elsewhere, the contractors, well, they're pretty much hosed in the deal.
Look at the savings (which is the entire purpose of this cut drill): A four star + staff. Quite a few leased properties. Contractor dollars. O&M.
Gen Mattis got off the boat just before the deck chairs started to slide...
Anyone have a guess where
Anyone have a guess where Odierno will go now when he changes command? Perhaps the closure of JiffyCOM will take a few months and Odierno will oversee that? Odierno has some experience closing things down after all.
Also, when does Casey's term end? How about move Chiarelli up to Army CoS and make Odierno his Vice (which is what he was for a little while before he took command of the artist formerly known as MNF-I). Both were on Christiane Amanpour's show this weekend: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/coming-exclusive-gen-ray-odierno-gen-pete...
DC is a jobs program for
DC is a jobs program for people with degrees.
That's it.
Frankly they could shutter the entire thing, and our lives would be going on just fine.
The puzzle palace should have been shuttered in the 90's, we have regional Commands that do the actual work.
And "doctrine" like most exercises in academics that become social experiments in the real world (FAIL) is most highly overrated, possibly even harmful.
"When You've Lost the
"When You've Lost the Pretentious Marin County Microbrewers..."
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2010/08/when-youve-lost-the-pretent...
Elf -- You don't know what
Elf -- You don't know what you're talking about.
That's it.
Have a nice day!
@Gulliver, I don't know what
@Gulliver,
I don't know what you're talking about either....but I guess you are taking issue with my last post. I had 4 points:
DC is ripping us off (us = America) . You are either blind or can see the obvious. If you can't = your paychex.
DC is running a giant jobs program for academic types/think tanks/Beltway mob.
Say again: You are either blind or can see the obvious. If you can't = your paychex.
We don't need the Pentagon anymore, shutter it and let the Regional Commands run with their sector. Well you either like massive duplication of efforts, multiple and confusing huge bureaucracies, and maybe think it's a good idea to emulate the USSR's economy or you don't. I suppose it's a matter of philosophy.
Lemme ask you this - does Gates not know what he is talking about either?
Elf, I work in the Pentagon,
Elf,
I work in the Pentagon, take the subway to work, wear camouflage to work, and live in a nice suburban setting with very little black people.
I love the Pentagon and I love working in DC. I want to retire here and eventually work for the many "solutions" companies based here. I got it made. Don't you rock the boat for me.
G.I. Joe
First signs of the Empire
First signs of the Empire receding.
Can't cut welfare, free school breakfast and lunch programs, Social Security, etc..... The cuts gotta come from somewhere and Defense is the fatted calf.
It will be slow, but it will be sure. A Welfare State can not long be a Warfare State.
The Chicoms gotta be eyeing up Taiwan, no way could afford a tussle over there right now.
Here's the budget,
Here's the budget, pre-cut:
USJFCOM Military/Civilian Salary: More than $188 million
• USJFCOM Contracts: More than $476 million
• USJFCOM Operating Budget: More than $621 million
Academic partners of USJFCOM:
Partners include: Old Dominion University, Johns Hopkins University and MIT's Lincoln Laboratories, George Washington University, Purdue University, University of Southern California, the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center, George Mason University, and the University of Central Florida, among others.
I assume those contracts are mostly for private sector contractor salaries, and the operating budget? Hard to say how much of that operating budget also goes to contractors, for non-labor costs, etc. In any case, a lot of money - good for paying off Congress!
"Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia junior senator and the state's former governor, said he saw "no rational basis" for dismantling Joint Forces Command because its mission was to impose "greater cooperation and savings among the military services."
Warner's #3 donor is Covington&Burlington - a top contractor law firm. (Politicians are often much closer to law firms than to industry - BakerBotts(R), Wilmerhale(D), the flavor of the day. Big law firms that are top political donors get lots of big corporate clients.) You guessed it:
In 2003 Halliburton hired the firm to lobby Washington on behalf of its KBR Government Operations division, the same division being pummeled by the media, the Pentagon and Congress for its handling of Iraq contracts. Covington & Burling was paid $520,000 to handle "inquiries concerning company's construction and service contracts in Iraq," the firm said in a filing...
In April 2010, The Hill newspaper reported that Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, hired Covington & Burling to lobby on “government contracts,” according to a lobbying disclosure filing
Let's see: $7 billion to Halliburton, $520,000 to Covington, $109,000 to our Virginia Congressperson - just the cost of doing business in the trickle-down economy.
Now, that's truly messed up - but that's how the Congressional-private contractor money train works - a billion dollars is to be stripped from the private contractor, but they've already made contact with the properly connected law firm - the one that gave $150,000 to the Congressmember, who then tries to block the new policy from taking effect, even if it is a good policy.
Note that despite the "increased efficiency of the private sector" many soldiers in Afghanistan haven't had adequate equipment for much of that time. Maybe if they - or their quartermaster corps, say - could requisition their own gear direct-from-manufacturer without going through some ripoff contractor?
Well, #3 on the list of
Well, #3 on the list of important functions can hopefully be lopped off soon. NATO shouldn't have a 'future' per se. Maybe the EU will get smart, disband NATO, and focus on things important for the EU. National armies and a rapid reaction force managed and tasked out of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. All NATO is now is a money club anyway. And a good stick to unnecessarily poke the Russians in the eye with.
"The only thing amazing
"The only thing amazing about this story is the fact that it doesn't happen more often. http://nyti.ms/9H2FnQ Steven Slater, kind of a hero"
This is something Dr. Josh Foust would do, very theatrical.
Mr Slater was just all OMG
Mr Slater was just all OMG upset after he officially lost his boy-toy Josh to Mohammed in that gansta marraige ceremony between Mr and Mr Bacha Bazi.
Who wouldn't lash out against a cruel society that limits a man to only one legal husband, as opposed to four, five, or six? Maybe that new lower Manhatten mosque can pull off some cross-cultural gay-sharia marraige synergy so that the vows of dancing queens like Josh don't cause so much grief and disruption.
Secretary Gates also
Secretary Gates also announced that DoD will be reducing contractor numbers by 30% over the next 3 years, but the only problem was, last year alone....DoD hired / increased their numbers of DoD contractors by around 36%!!!
What a flim - flam! Total BS!
All contractors in J-2 should be let-go, not just JFCOM and while their at it, MacDill AFB should be shut down and run out of Charleston, S.C..
JFCOM demised was known over a year ago Ex. This isn't breaking news... they are only trimming the fat! Getting rid of the pork!
Ex, it's interesting to see, your primary funding agency to CNAS - Lockheed Martin, sold PAE because they saw these cuts coming a long time ago. I bet you your annual salary, if the FBI dug a little, they would find insider trading going on in Lockheed Martin - private illegal discussions concerning these cuts, with L-M- quick sale and dumping of PAE.
The reality of the situation, everyone will keep their mouth shut and business will go on as usual.
The quickest and most
The quickest and most cost-effective chops from the military defense budget would be to eliminate the following:
1) All Star Wars ballistic missile defense programs.
2) All nuclear weapon R&D and production programs.
3) All biological warfare programs, including anthrax vaccine contracts.
This isn't just Pentagon money - much is distributed through other federal agencies, such as DHS, HHS, DOE, etc. - and then you have the private intelligence sector's involvement.
However, maintaining the technological edge in aerospace is a key matter. The U.S. has idiotically outsourced key technologies to other countries like China, and R&D follows manufacturing, as anyone could tell you. Doing the same with aerospace would be a huge mistake.
Hence, they should increase NASA's budget for space-based systems, even model moon and Mars installations. The key thing here is to remove private contractors from system, however - while sending enough business to private manufacturing to keep them afloat. Hiring private contractors to requisition supplies, however, is just a recipe for massive corruption.
I know Lockheed has spent a lot of money on ground-based SDI, but it's a joke - a huge waste of money, technologically implausible, tactically useless for any nuclear terrorism scenario - and who the hell is going to be launching ballistic nuclear weapons anytime soon? Nevertheless, you can see the major recipients of SDI cash still stumping for it.
Pharma lobby politicians are doing the same thing for Project Bioshield. Since much of the work is shrouded in secrecy, no one even knows what they're actually doing - and of course vaccine development is a key step in bioweapons development; if you have can vaccinate your own troops against Ebola, the thinking goes, you can use it against anyone with no worries. Hence the effort to develop an Ebola vaccine? On the other hand, if there is a natural outbreak of a disease like Ebola, a vaccine might help fight it - but public health infrastructure is far more important. If they're not funding public health infrastructure, but are funding vaccine development under top secret classifications, then any idiot can put two and two together. Since the 9/18 and 10/9 anthrax attacks, $50 billion plus has been poured into this crap - a complete waste of money. The anthrax vaccine program - the Pentagon and the domestic stockpiles - was due to be shut down in 2001, and has never served any purpose, other than to feed the vaccine manufacturers federal dollars. The Ames strain, incidentally, is the one the vaccine manufacturers use to test their vaccines, out at places like Dugway, and, coincidentally, Battelle, Ohio - Turner's district is right next door.
That's why people despise Congress - the bribery, the craven bootlicking, the blatant lies on behalf of some fucked-up private interest, the waste and fraud and bull.
Nuclear weapons lobby politicians, like Michael R. Turner of Ohio, are also working in tandem with the private contractors in the nuclear weapons sector to block cuts, with the backing of the directors of the three national nuclear weapons labs.
The nuanced statements from the lab directors could complicate the administration’s efforts to publicly reconcile the views of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, both of whom have long taken strong stands against new nuclear weapons designs, with those of Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said as recently as last September that the U.S. probably needed one or two newly designed warheads.
Most ridiculous is the following:
The issues involved in upgrading the arsenal go beyond science to dollars and cents. Creating and building brand-new weapons designs would produce work for thousands of scientists at the nuclear labs.
http://republicans.armedservices.house.gov/News/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=962
Revamping those labs to support modern energy technology, modern microelectronics technology, modern biotechnology for industrial synthesis - etc.- is the right thing to do, and would create thousands of real jobs - productive jobs, too. The resistance to doing this comes from certain academic, Congressional, Pentagon and private sector interests, all tied at the hip... they want to do Star Wars, Biological Warfare, and Nuclear Warfare instead.
The Cold War is FUCKING OVER, tired old dinos - get off the money train and use the remaining cash for something USEFUL, for Christ's sake. Or maybe you need to go take business lessons from the Chinese - is that it?
"And "doctrine" like most
"And "doctrine" like most exercises in academics that become social experiments in the real world (FAIL) is most highly overrated, possibly even harmful."
COIN, as currently practiced in Iraq and Afghanistan, is a fine example of an exercise in academics that became a social experiment in the real world with extremely harmful (as well as expensive) effects. FAIL, indeed. Let's roll up those big giant wastes of money as well.
@Visitor 2:30 PM I believe
@Visitor 2:30 PM
I believe Gates estimated the length of Odierno's wind-down command as about a year.
Doesn't look like anyone
Doesn't look like anyone took your advice on #1.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Reconnaissance Systems Group, LEO Division, San Diego, Calif., was awarded on July 28 a $5,453,564 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the High Efficiency Solid-State Electric Laser Program to advance the state-of-the-art for high-power, high-efficiency, compact, lightweight, electrically-driven laser technologies suitable for future military applications. Work is to be performed in San Diego, Calif. (76 percent); Tucson, Ariz. (18 percent); and Charlotte, N.C. (6 percent), with an estimated completion date of Jan. 22, 2016. U.S. Army Space & Missile Defense Command/ARSTRAT, Huntsville, Ala., is the contracting activity (W91133-10-C-0023).
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