Center for a New American Security

From Inside Defense:

June 17, 2009 -- Defense Secretary Robert Gates is considering options to reshape the military that could squeeze up to $75 billion from current budget plans to pay for new capabilities and units designed to deal with high-end asymmetric threats and irregular operations, according to Pentagon officials. Three previously unreported proposals -- prepared by David Ochmanek, deputy assistant secretary of defense for force development, and presented to Gates during a June 5 meeting on the Quadrennial Defense Review -- set forth low-, medium- and high-cost options for buying new capabilities and units over the next five years, these officials say.

More good news from Inside the Pentagon?

The Air Force's top officials in charge of irregular warfare were briefed yesterday on new details of the service's sweeping plan to assert its role in such operations by bolstering ties with foreign militaries and buying new light attack aircraft, according to internal documents reviewed by Inside the Pentagon.

The previously undisclosed details concerning the proposed organization, force mix and personnel requirements to support the service's overarching IW effort were unveiled during a senior-level service powwow held at Air Combat Command headquarters at Langley Air Force Base, VA.

The specific requirements rolled out at yesterday's meeting were the result of analysis work conducted by "tiger team" officials led by the Air Staff's plans and programs directorate (A5), according the documents. ITP first reported Air Force efforts to bolster its IW capabilities in February.

A lot of people think the U.S. military is wasting Marine Corps General James Mattis and his many talents at the Joint Forces Command. I am not so sure. Great men find a way to have an effect. From Inside the Pentagon:

The military’s top officer is preparing to update Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the status of an influential general’s ideas for institutionalizing irregular warfare as a core competency, according to internal documents reviewed by Inside the Pentagon.

Marine Gen. James Mattis, the head of U.S. Joint Forces Command, proposed seven “anchor points” for institutionalizing irregular warfare (IW) in a March 11 memo to Gates. During a meeting in February, Gates asked Mattis for thoughts on how to accomplish the goal while “maintaining a balance with other required capabilities and without negating our conventional and nuclear superiority,” the memo notes. Mattis -- who Gates described during a hearing last week as one of the military’s most “creative and thoughtful” minds -- kept the list short to avoid the appearance of going overboard.

Now the office of Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is drafting a memo to update Gates on the issues raised by Mattis. The unsigned draft -- which is subject to change -- says Mullen will form an IW working group to monitor these issues and provide Gates with periodic updates. But a military official said the group has not been created yet and that the Pentagon is exploring whether it might piggyback on an existing IW group of some kind, rather than establish a new organization.

In accordance with the DOD directive on irregular warfare, JFCOM has the overall responsibility for exploring new concepts and capabilities so that the U.S. armed forces are as effective in IW as they are in traditional warfare, recommending mechanisms and capabilities for increasing interoperability and integration in IW-related activities, and leading the collaborative development of joint standards for IW relevant training and readiness for individuals and units of the general purpose forces, said Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Almarah Belk.