USA - UFO'S : Pentagon to study UFO sightings in restricted US airspace

US defence officials have announced the launch of a task force to investigate reports of unidentified flying objects in restricted airspace.

The group will assess objects of interest and "mitigate any associated threats", the Pentagon said on Tuesday.

A highly anticipated military report in June failed to explain dozens of reported UFO sightings and warned of possible national security risks.

read more at: Pentagon to study UFO sightings in restricted US airspace - BBC News

USA: White House yanks Pentagon nominee who suggested Trump’s Ukraine scheme was illegal - by Matthew Chapman

This scheme, facilitated by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and a handful of now-indicted associates, formed the basis of the first article of impeachment against Trump at the end of last year. Senate Republicans ultimately mustered the votes to quash these allegations in an impeachment trial where additional witnesses were prohibited from coming forward.

The Pentagon has not yet stated whether McCusker will remain in the comptroller position on an acting basis

Read more at: White House yanks Pentagon nominee who suggested Trump’s Ukraine scheme was illegal – Raw Story

USA - the Trump Administration: Donald Trump Military Border Mission Could Cost U.S. $470 Million In 2019 Alone

President Donald Trump's deployment of active duty U.S. troops and National Guard forces to the U.S.-Mexico border could cost the country as much as $470 million during the 2019 fiscal year alone, now that the Pentagon has extended the border mission until the end of September. That's according to the latest estimates.

Earlier this week, the Pentagon announced it would be extending the deployment of active-duty troops until September 30, adding 289 days to the ongoing border mission.

Read more: ICE, other agencies, see transparency take major hit during government shutdown
Estimates sent to Newsweek by the Center for Strategic Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), an independent and nonpartisan policy research institute, suggest that the extension could add about $170 million in additional costs beyond what the Pentagon had previously announced.

"Altogether, the deployments of both active-duty and National Guard troops to the border could cost in the neighborhood of $410 million to $470 million during fiscal year 2019," Travis Sharp, CSBA researcher for defense budget studies, told Newsweek. 

Sharp said that the number could be significantly higher, however, if the Trump administration decided to boost the number of troops at the border over the coming months.

The U.S. leader had initially ordered more than 5,000 active-duty forces to be deployed to the southern border in late October as a caravan of Central American asylum seekers made its way toward the U.S. Since then, the number of troops stationed along the border has dropped to about 2,350, according to The Associated Press.

 Read more at: Donald Trump Military Border Mission Could Cost U.S. $470 Million In 2019 Alone

USA: Pentagon, Citing Russian Patrols, Bolsters US, NATO Presence In North Atlantic – by RFE RL

The Pentagon has launched a new naval command to bolster the U.S. and NATO presence in the northern Atlantic Ocean, citing an increased Russian presence in those waters.

“The return to great power competition and a resurgent Russia demands that NATO refocus on the Atlantic to ensure dedicated reinforcement of the continent and demonstrate a capable and credible deterrence effect,” Johnny Michael, a Pentagon spokesman, said on May 4.

The new NATO command “will be the linchpin of trans-Atlantic security,” he said. Outlines of the plan were approved at a February meeting of NATO defense ministers as part of a broader effort to ensure the security of the sea lanes and lines of communication between Europe and North America.

The Pentagon’s decision reflects growing worries across Europe and within NATO about Russia’s increased military presence and patrols in the Atlantic region.

Russia has increased its patrols in the Baltic Sea, the North Atlantic, and the Arctic, NATO officials say, although the size of its navy is smaller now than during the Cold War era.

Despite evidence that Russia’s weak economy forced Moscow to slash military spending by 20 percent last year, Czech Army General Petr Pavel, the chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, told RFE/RL in an interview that NATO still must build up its defenses.

Read more: Pentagon, Citing Russian Patrols, Bolsters US, NATO Presence In North Atlantic – Eurasia Review

USA Military: Not to be outdone by Kim Jong-un Trump’s ‘marching orders’ to the Pentagon: Plan a grand military parade - by G.Jaffe, P..Rucker

Trump wants bigger and better parade than that of Kim Jong-un

Not to be outdone by the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong=un and other countries which organize military parades Donald Trump has ordered his military to also organize a multi-million military parade in Washington DC.. 

President Trump’s vision of soldiers marching and tanks rolling down the boulevards of Washington is moving closer to reality in the Pentagon and White House, where officials say they have begun to plan a grand military parade later this year showcasing the might of America’s armed forces.

Trump has long mused publicly and privately about wanting such a parade, but a Jan. 18 meeting between Trump and top generals in the Pentagon’s tank — a room reserved for top-secret discussions — marked a tipping point, according to two officials briefed on the planning.

Surrounded by the military’s highest-ranking officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Trump’s seemingly abstract desire for a parade was suddenly heard as a presidential directive, the officials said.

“The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” said a military official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the planning discussions are supposed to remain confidential. “This is being worked at the highest levels of the military.”

Shows of military strength are not typical in the United States — and they don’t come cheap. The cost of shipping Abrams tanks and high-tech hardware to Washington could run in the millions, and military officials said it was unclear how they would pay for it.

A White House official familiar with the planning described the discussions as “brainstorming” and said nothing was settled. “Right now, there’s really no meat on the bones,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions.

After The Washington Post first published this story, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement confirming that plans are underway.


Read more: Trump’s ‘marching orders’ to the Pentagon: Plan a grand military parade

USA - Killer Poison On The Loose: ‘No risk’ says Pentagon after anthrax error

A US military laboratory based in Utah is under investigation after mistakenly sending live anthrax bacteria to nine commercial labs and an air base in South Korea.

The shipments which were part of a military research project continued for a full year before the error was noticed.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims no one was at risk although four people have been started on preventative measures.

When anthrax becomes airborne, it can cause a deadly illness.That occurred in 2001, when anthrax sent through the US mail to government and media targets killed five people.

The mishap comes 11 months after scores of CDC employees were potentially exposed to live anthrax spores when the Center similarly mishandled samples.

Note EU-Digest: this is not only extremely incompetent but also dangerous to people around the world, not withstanding the assurances the Pentagon has been giving to the contrary, which do not have a record of always being accurate.  

Read more: ‘No risk’ says Pentagon after anthrax error | euronews, world news

Aircraft Industry: while austerity strapped European countries forced to buy costly F35 Pentagon considers cancelling program

Leaked documents from a Pentagon budget review suggest that the agency is tired of its costly F-35 fighter jets, and has thoughts about cancelling the $391.2 billion program that has already expanded into 10 foreign countries.

Pentagon officials held a briefing on Wednesday in which they mapped out ways to manage the $500 billion in automated budget cuts required over the next decade. A slideshow laid out a number of suggestions and exposed the Pentagon’s frustration with its F-35 jets, which are designed and manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp. based out of Bethesda, Md.  The agency also suggested scrapping plans for a new stealthy, long-range bomber, attendees of the briefing told Reuters. 

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke to reporters on Wednesday and indicated that the Pentagon might have to decide between a "much smaller force" and a decade-long "holiday" from modernizing weapons systems and technology. 

Pentagon briefing slides indicated that a decision to maintain a larger military "could result in the cancellation of the $392 billion Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 program and a new stealthy, long-range bomber," Reuters reports. 

Read more: Pentagon considers cancelling F-35 program, leaked documents suggest — RT USA

US Financial Cliff - nine more days: Pentagon notifies civilian employees of impending furloughs barring budget deal - Ernesto Londoño

The Defense Department officially notified its 800,000 civilian employees on Wednesday that they are likely to be placed on periods of unpaid leave, and Secretary of State John F. Kerry warned against “retreating” from global diplomacy, as the Obama administration scrambled to deal with congressionally mandated budget cuts set to kick in next week.

“There is no mistaking that the rigid nature of the cuts forced upon this department, and their scale, will result in a serious erosion of readiness across the force,” Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta said to employees in a memo issued Wednesday.

Kerry, in a speech at the University of Virginia, separately made the case for retaining or expanding the State Department’s budget, arguing that the costs of pulling back from the world would be huge. “Deploying diplomats today is much cheaper than deploying troops tomorrow,” he said to applause in his first address outside the department as secretary of state.

The Pentagon, faced with $46 billion in cuts, is required to notify Congress at least 45 days before furloughing employees, and officials told lawmakers Wednesday that the move is likely. Panetta said in his memo to the Pentagon’s workforce that affected employees would be notified of the terms of their leave at least 30 days before their furloughs begin. The Pentagon’s tentative plan is to put civilian employees on leave one day per week for 22 weeks.

Read more: Pentagon notifies civilian employees of impending furloughs barring budget deal - The Washington Post

USA: the Pentagon, a global NRA? - by Tom Engelhardt

Given these last weeks, who doesn’t know what an AR-15 is?  Who hasn’t seen the mind-boggling stats on the way assault rifles have flooded this country, or tabulations of accumulating

Newtown-style mass killings, or noted that there are barely more gas stations nationwide than federally licensed firearms dealers, or heard the renewed debates over the Second Amendment, or been struck by the rapid shifts in public opinion on gun control, or checked out the disputes over how effective an assault-rifle ban was the last time around?  Who doesn’t know about the NRA’s suggestion to weaponize schools, or about the price poor neighborhoods may be paying in gun deaths for the present expansive interpretation of the Second Amendment?  Who hasn’t seen the legions of stories about how, in the wake of the Newtown slaughter, sales of guns, especially AR-15 assault rifles, have soared, ammunition sales have surged, background checks for future gun purchases have risen sharply, and gun shows have been besieged with customers?

If you haven’t stumbled across figures on gun violence in America or on suicide-by-gun, you’ve been hiding under a rock.  If you haven’t heard about Chicago’s soaring and Washington D.C.'s plunging gun-death stats (and that both towns have relatively strict gun laws), where have you been?

Has there, in fact, been any aspect of the weaponization of the United States that, since the Newtown massacre, hasn’t been discussed?  Are you the only person in the country, for instance, who doesn’t know that Vice President Joe Biden has been assigned the task of coming up with an administration gun-control agenda before Barack Obama is inaugurated for his second term?  And can you honestly tell me that you haven’t seen global comparisons of killing rates in countries that have tight gun laws and the U.S., or read at least one discussion about life in countries like Colombia or Guatemala, where armed guards are omnipresent?

Read more: The Pentagon: A Global NRA | The Nation

Pentagon says China building aircraft carriers

China may have started work on it first domestically built aircraft carrier and is likely to produce a number of carriers over the next decade as part of an aggressive effort to modernize its military, the Pentagon said Friday.

In its annual report to Congress appraising China's military strength, the Pentagon also cited concern about China's targeting of U.S. and other foreign computer networks as a means of collecting strategic intelligence. It based this conclusion on unspecified "authoritative writings" and China's "persistent cyber intrusions."

More broadly, the report described an ambitious Chinese military program aimed at transforming the People's Liberation Army into a modern force, fueled by years of double-digit increases in defense spending. Its main goals include preserving Communist Party rule and preparing for possible hostilities in the Taiwan Strait, the report said.

Read more: PressTV - Pentagon says China building aircraft carriers

Cizens Times: US economy - The Pentagon is as bloated as Wall Street - by Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan

For the complete report from the Citizen-Times click on this link

US economy - The Pentagon is as bloated as Wall Street - by Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan

The U.S. defense establishment is in dire need of a rescue. But unlike Wall Street, where the taxpayer threw billions of dollars at the problem, a Pentagon bailout requires taking money away—and fast. Late in September, when America’s attention was consumed by the presidential election and the collapse of the financial sector, the House of Representatives passed a defense authorization bill totaling $612 billion. US overall defense spending, factoring in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, has been stretching toward the $700 billion mark for some time now, the highest level since the end of World War II.

One whistle blower at the audit agency summed it up this way: “We have been basically on the trust system for years…It did not work on Wall Street and it is not working for federal contracts.” With national defense, however, lives as well as livelihoods are on the line, and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars during an economic crisis puts both at risk. The result of years of mismanagement has been smaller forces; fewer planes, tanks and ships; and all at greater expense. Pentagon watchdogs and defense experts have been warning about the runaway train in defense spending for years. But now that the economic crisis threatens the entire federal budget, even voices within the Pentagon are sounding the alarm. According to the “Boston Globe” on Nov. 10, a recent report by the Defense Business Board, an official government oversight group, concluded that current Pentagon spending is simply “not sustainable” and urged the incoming president to make sweeping cuts across major programs.