Double Leadership Hit Leaves U.S. Army Scrambling

The U.S. Army's reclamation project to fix its broken acquisition system took a major hit when it lost both Army Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey and Army acquisition chief Malcolm O'Neill in the same week, defense analysts said.

THE U.S. ARMY has been weakened by this week’s loss of acquisition chief Malcolm O’Neill, left, and Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey. (Staff file photos)

O'Neill caught many by surprise when he told his staff June 1 in an email he would resign for "personal reasons" just more than a year into the job. His resignation came two days after President Barack Obama announced his nomination of Dempsey to take over as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff just one month after he became Army chief.

"There's a very good chance the Army will take a 45-degree turn here in the fact that Dempsey and the acquisition chief are leaving at the same time. I think a lot of the directions that Dempsey put in place at [Training and Doctrine Command] and then continued in his short stint as chief are in question right now," said retired Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, who worked closely with Dempsey as an outside senior adviser when Dempsey was TRADOC commander.

Dempsey, seemingly not on the president's list to succeed Adm. Mike Mullen since he took over the Army in April, rocketed up to the top job after other potential nominees, namely Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fell out of favor.

Losing both leaders at a time when a recent Army review of the service's acquisition system said it required "major surgery" will leave the Army looking for direction all over again.

Obama announced his nomination of Gen. Ray Odierno, head of Joint Forces Command, to take over for Dempsey at the same Memorial Day White House news conference. However, many Pentagon insiders and defense analysts struggled to come up with potential successors for O'Neill outside his key deputies, including Marilyn Freeman, deputy assistant secretary for research and technology, and Scott Fish, the Army's chief scientist.

"The silver lining in this might be that O'Neill had a time in place so it's not like there will be no adult supervision. He put together a good leadership team, but it is still a question of who will take over and whether they will follow through on his vision," said Jim Carafano, a defense analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a Washington think tank.

Dempsey's service as the head of TRADOC before taking the Army's top position allowed him to spend three years reviewing the Army from a "big picture" perspective, Barno said. By comparison, Odierno has spent his last assignments either in operational billets leading the war in Iraq or closing Joint Forces Command.

"The guy who really understands this who has been working these requirements as the TRADOC commander and now the Army chief is going to be vaulted into the chairman's position and General Odierno isn't coming from that type of background. He's been out in the operating force and the joint world," Barno said.

Odierno hasn't served in a senior Army-specific billet since 2004, when he spent three months as a special assistant to the Army vice chief of staff. Peter Singer, a defense analyst with the Brookings Institute, is eager to see what Odierno lists as his priorities and how they might match up with Dempsey's.

"There's a potential the Army will lose some momentum as they go through the leadership transition … but you really can't answer the impact until you get a sense of Odierno's priorities and operating style. A very accomplished general and commander, but there are a lot of open questions of what he is going to set as his key priorities in terms of acquisition and how he runs the process."

Although the timing is odd since Dempsey had just released his commander's intent and started to dig his heels into the job, Carafano said it might be even tougher to replace O'Neill since he's had a year in the job.

"O'Neill is a little bit more disruptive to the Army because he was moving out and had some definite ideas. He was strong on using outside advisory boards and his red teams," Carafano said.

O'Neill retired as a lieutenant general after 34 years in the Army that included a stint as director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, now the Missile Defense Agency. After his Army career, he turned to industry, working for Lockheed Martin from 1996 to 2006. More recently, he served as chairman of the board on Army Science and Technology for the National Academies and the National Research Council.

Two sources said he is leaving for a health-related issue; the resignation has nothing to do with his work. The Army would not confirm if a health concern caused his resignation, however, in a recent speech, O'Neill spoke about an injury he sustained in the Vietnam War, which still plagues him today, and serves as motivation for him to help soldiers in today's fight.

"I'm still suffering the consequences of that. If I don't take my medicine every day, it's goodbye," O'Neill said.

O'Neill quickly put his mark on the Army's largest weapon programs, forming a red team to investigate the Army's Ground Combat Vehicle's (GCV) weaknesses. After soliciting bids for the vehicle, the Army withdrew its request for proposals in August 2010, revised the program's requirements to prevent cost from spiraling out of control.

Major questions remain for the program; Army Vice Chief Gen. Peter Chiarelli listed it as the service's second priority behind the Army network. The red teams, which O'Neill formed to look at GCV, questioned the urgency of the need for the vehicle in the next seven years.

"The funds that have migrated from the FCS program were driving the events and activities of the program versus a true capabilities gap," according to a Government Accountabilities Office report on the "Army's ground force modernization initiatives."

Barno said the transition in leadership will force the Army to "take another serious look" at each one of its modernization programs. When the Army looks again at the cost versus the capability the GCV provides, Barno said he's not confident the service will continue with the program.

Dempsey and O'Neill had directed industry to focus its efforts on soldier technology, dismounted operations and the squad. The Army chief wanted the Army to take a bottom-up approach versus the top-down review the service traditionally used when looking at modernization.

O'Neill also worked closely with Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter on the Defense Department's drive to find efficiencies and reduce overhead costs. The Army will have the challenge of balancing the coming reset from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with modernization programs like the GCV while defense spending continues to shrink, Carafano said.

"The cost of resetting the force is going to be huge, so they are going to have to make some really big tradeoffs here," Barno said.

Dempsey seemed to be the perfect fit to usher the Army through this transition set up by his time at TRADOC, Barno said. However, the Army's loss is the Pentagon's gain.

"It's really unfortunate for the Army but great news for the nation because I think Dempsey is a terrific pick," Barno said.

Gates: New Weapons For 'Robust' US Role In Asia

SINGAPORE - Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Saturday vowed the U.S. military would maintain a "robust" presence across Asia backed up with new high-tech weaponry to protect allies and safeguard shipping lanes.

Seeking to reassure Asian allies mindful of China's growing power and Washington's fiscal troubles, Gates told a security conference in Singapore that Washington's commitment to the region would not be scaled back.

Instead, the U.S. military will expand its presence in Southeast Asia, sharing facilities with Australia in the Indian Ocean and deploying new littoral combat ships (LCS) to Singapore, where it has access to naval facilities, he said.

The LCS is a speedy, lighter ship designed to operate in shallow coastal waters.

Gates, who steps down at the end of the month after more than four years as Pentagon chief, said the U.S. military planned to deepen its engagement with countries across the Pacific, with more port calls and training programs.

The U.S. military will be positioned in a way "that maintains our presence in Northeast Asia while enhancing our presence in Southeast Asia and into the Indian Ocean," Gates said.

The speech came as countries facing a rising China watch the United States for signs of its long-term security plans in Asia, amid mounting disputes over territorial rights in the potentially resource-rich South China Sea.

"The U.S. position on maritime security remains clear: we have a national interest in freedom of navigation; in unimpeded economic development and commerce; and in respect for international law," Gates said.

Citing investments in new radar-evading aircraft, surveillance drones, warships and space and cyber weapons, Gates said the United Sates is "putting our money where our mouth is with respect to this part of the world - and will continue to do so."

The planned weapons programs represented "capabilities most relevant to preserving the security, sovereignty, and freedom of our allies and partners in the region," he said.

The programs also include maintaining America's nuclear "deterrence" amid continuing concern over North Korea's atomic weapons.

Senior U.S. officers have long pointed to China's military buildup, saying Beijing's pursuit of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles as well as cyber warfare capabilities pose a potential threat to US naval power in the region.

Without naming China, Gates said the new hardware was a response to "the prospect that new and disruptive technologies and weapons could be employed to deny US forces access to key sea routes and lines of communications."

Although the Pentagon's budget would come under growing scrutiny and military spending in some areas would be cut back, Gates predicted that investments in the key "modernization" programs would be left untouched.

"These programs are on track to grow and evolve further in the future, even in the face of new threats abroad and fiscal challenges at home."

This would ensure "that we will continue to meet our commitments as a 21st century Asia-Pacific nation - with appropriate forces, posture, and presence", he said.

Looking back on US policy in Asia since he took over at the Pentagon in 2006, Gates said the military had bolstered ties with old allies, such as Japan and South Korea, as well with new partners, including India and Vietnam.

The speech reflected how Washington has sought to strike a delicate balance between countering a more assertive Chinese military with a bigger presence in the region while seeking to defuse tensions through dialogue and exchanges.

Gates, who held talks with his Chinese counterpart Liang Guanglie on Friday, said efforts to promote a security dialogue with China had borne fruit and that military relations had "steadily improved in recent months."

Petraeus Preparing for Afghanistan Drawdown

KABUL, Afghanistan - Planning is underway for the initial withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and the details are being closely guarded by the officer overseeing the process, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus.

U.S. ARMY GEN. David Petraeus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, speaks June 3 during an interview at his office in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Thomas Brown / Staff)

"The ground-truth is there's one action officer on this effort," Petraeus, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, said June 3 during an interview at his office inside NATO's headquarters here. "You're looking at him."

Petraeus expects his options will be delivered to the White House before the end of June, around the time he is likely to testify before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on his nomination to become director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He dismissed recent media reports suggesting the initial drawdown would include between 5,000 and 10,000 troops, saying nobody could have that information because he has not shared it with anyone.

Neither Petraeus' commander's initiatives group nor his executive staff has participated in the development of options for the president, the general said. The effort has taken place in his office, behind his own desk.

"There may be one or two folks on the staff who think they know something about it; they might be deceiving themselves because there are misdirection plays out there," Petraeus said. "I want to assure everybody above me that this is not going to leak, that there will be no kinds of atmospherics as a result of leaks."

Before they're presented to President Obama, Petraeus' plans will be shared only with Marine Gen. James Mattis, commander of U.S. Central Command; Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Gates and Mullen, he said, will most likely be the ones who take it to the Oval Office.

Petraeus is likely hoping to avoid a repeat of late 2009, when his recommendation for a troop surge in Afghanistan - a proposal meant only for the president - was leaked to the media, fueling pre-decisional speculation for weeks. Upon announcing the surge of 30,000 U.S. troops, Obama made it clear those forces would begin to leave in July 2011.

"What a commander in my position should do is to provide the chain of command and president with options to implement the policy … at a pace determined by conditions on the ground," said Petraeus, who led CENTCOM during deliberations over the troop surge.

The recommendations for the president, Petraeus said, are informed by visits to ground commanders across Afghanistan, including the volatile southern provinces where Marines and soldiers continue to battle Taliban fighters in what used to be their exclusive stronghold.

Important considerations also include the purview of Mattis, whose context is the entire theater, not just Afghanistan, and by Gates and Mullen, who must consider broader global context. At the top is Obama, who faces difficult fiscal challenges and an atmosphere in Congress where there is waning support for the war.

"Every level above me has a broader purview," he said.

Pakistan Raises Annual Defense Spending 11 Percent

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's government jacked up defense spending and government employees' pensions in a new budget June 3 that set a deficit of 4 percent of GDP.

The budget for the fiscal year 2011-2012 starting July 1 came as pressure mounts on Pakistan to launch a military offensive in the restive North Waziristan region, known as the hub of Taliban and Al Qaeda linked militants.

It earmarked 495 billion rupees ($5.7 billion) for defense, an 11 percent increase on the current year.

"We stand by our valiant men, who are laying down their lives to safeguard our country," finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh told parliament. "The country has constantly been suffering because of the existing security situation," but the government was determined to improve the economy and provide security to the people, he said.

More than 4,410 people have been killed across Pakistan in bomb blasts and suicide attacks blamed in Taliban- and Al-Qaeda-linked militants since July 2007.

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for a string of recent attacks against government security forces and has vowed to launch even larger ones to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden, shot dead in a U.S. raid last month.

The total budget for the next year was fixed at 2,504 billion rupees ($29.1 billion), with a budget deficit of 850 billion rupees ($9.9 billion), or four percent of gross domestic product (GDP), Shaikh said.

The budget also provides rises of up to 20 percent in government employees' pensions and promises to bring at least 2.3 million new taxpayers into the tax net.

Pakistan has long defied Western pressure to end giant tax-dodging in a country where barely 1 percent of the population pays at all, as a corrupt bureaucracy starves energy, health and education of desperately needed funds.

The International Monetary Fund last year halted a $11.3 billion assistance package over a lack of progress on reforms, principally on tax.

In the wake of catastrophic 2010 floods that cost the economy $10 billion, Washington donated hundreds of millions of dollars and demanded that Pakistan's rich, whose lifestyles outstrip many in the West, step up to the plate.

Shaikh said Pakistani exports grew by 28 percent, an unprecedented rate, during the current fiscal year.

"We also hope that our remittances will reach a level of $12 billion by close of this year," he said, adding: "Our foreign currency reserves have reached $17.3 billion."

He said that the government had achieved some macrostability, checked inflation and begun to impact the growth rate.

Local newspaper The News reported this week that Pakistan had decided to launch a "careful and meticulous" military offensive in North Waziristan after a recent visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Islamabad.

But Lt. Gen. Asif Yasin Malik, the corps commander supervising all military operations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told reporters on June 1, "We will undertake operation in North Waziristan when we want to."

Russian Leader Vows Probe Into Fatal Armory Fire

MOSCOW - More than 20,000 people were evacuated and dozens injured when a fire at a munitions depot in central Russia triggered a succession of explosions and sent a fireball blazing into the sky.

The huge blaze at a military depot storing artillery shells and rockets came after a similar fire late last month, prompting President Dmitry Medvedev to vow that those responsible for the latest "doomsday" accident would face the sack.

Officials battled through the night to put out the blaze at the depot near the village of Pugachyovo in the Volga region of Udmurtia that broke out June 2, minutes before midnight, hurling shrapnel into the air and sending people running for their life.

"Anything that could have exploded did," emergencies ministry spokesman Mikhail Turkov said.

About 60 people sought medical help, including 25 people who were hospitalized - many of them elderly, officials said, adding one man had his finger amputated as a result of the accident.

Two elderly people - a woman and a man - died of heart attacks, said Elena Ivanova, a spokeswoman for the regional health ministry in Udmurtia, declining however to link the deaths to the fire or the explosions themselves.

More than 500 personnel were battling the blaze, along with four planes, three helicopters and robotic equipment, officials said, adding more than 40 tons of water have been dumped over the blaze as of early June 3.

By that time, authorities said they had the fire under control and many people were beginning to return home as doctors were helping local residents who sustained emotional trauma.

"I thought it was thunder. No, looks like it is not thunder. I then hear the base is going up in the air," local villager Galina Morozova said in televised remarks, adding the force of the blast broke windows.

"You really can't put it into words," a visibly shaken witness said.

Explosions at military weapons depots are relatively common in Russia and are often linked to ageing equipment and lax enforcement of safety rules.

Some observers have suspected foul play, noting that corruption in the military is rife and such fires can help hide the illicit sale of munitions on the black market.

Late last month, a similar fire at a munitions depot in the nearby region of Bashkortostan triggered explosions that lasted several days.

Officials could not immediately pinpoint the reason for the fire but a spokesman for the FSB security service in Udmurtia said that a terrorist attack was ruled out.

A granite-faced Medvedev told Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to conduct an internal investigation and establish who was responsible for the latest accident in the country's armed forces.

"We are having a doomsday for the second time in a row," Medvedev said in televised remarks.

"Two times is already systematic. Put together proposals as to who and how should be held responsible for this," he said, noting that several officials have already been let go due to similar explosions in the past.

Early on June 3, Udmurtia leader Alexander Volkov met local residents, who were evacuated to the nearby villages, saying the government would compensate them for damage sustained in the fire.

Turkov, the emergencies ministry spokesman, said officials had prepared to evacuate about 28,000 but ended up evacuating more than 22,000 people living nearby.

The defense ministry quickly put a lid on the exact quantity of munitions stored at the depot.

"This is confidential information," Moscow-based defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said. Turkov said earlier in the day the depot could have contained up to 10,000 rail trucks worth of shells.

The silo also stores a small amount of rockets for Grad rocket launcher systems but they are kept in a concrete shelter and did not explode, Konashenkov said.

France Unveils Plan for New Defense Headquarters

PARIS - French Defense Minister Gérard Longuet on May 31 unveiled a detailed architectural model and plans for the building complex, popularly dubbed the French Pentagon and expected to house 9,300 command and civilian staff in 2014 under a 3.5 billion euro ($5.1 billion) public-private partnership (PPP) contract.

Builder Bouygues led a group that includes Thales, Sodexo and Dalkia to win the PPP contract, initialed by Longuet on May 30, to build and manage the site under a 27-year lease, receiving an annual rent of 130 million euros. The other bidders were Vinci and Eiffage. A bank pool including Natixis, Dexia, Société Générale and BBVA will lend financing.

Architect Nicolas Michelin said he designed the main building as an environmentally friendly system inspired by the lines of stealthy military aircraft.

Defense officials hope the new site will encourage a joint approach in military affairs by bringing together at the Balard site, located in east Paris, the headquarter staff of the services, which are dispersed around the capital. The Direction Générale de l'Armement procurement office will also join the defense staff.

The government retains the Hotel de Brienne, the 18th-century building that served as the headquarters of Gen. Charles de Gaulle when he led the provisional administration on the liberation of Paris in August 1944.

North Korea Threatens Retaliation over Kim Targets

SEOUL - North Korea's military on June 3 threatened retaliation against South Korea unless Seoul punishes troops who used pictures of Pyongyang's ruling dynasty as rifle-range targets.

The South's defense ministry said earlier this week it had ordered the army reservists to discontinue the practice and to use normal targets.

But the North's military general staff called for an apology and stern punishment for those involved.

The North's regular armed forces and reservists would "escalate the practical and overall retaliatory military actions till the puppet authorities have taken measures to punish the prime movers... and make an apology for them," said a military statement on the official news agency.

Several Seoul media outlets published pictures of targets depicting the North's leader Kim Jong-Il, his late father and founding president Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il's youngest son and heir apparent Kim Jong-Un.

"The recent hideous provocation is a never-to-pardoned treason," said the North's statement, which did not elaborate on the threatened retaliation.

It called on the South's "puppet authorities" - a reference to President Lee Myung-Bak's government - to "apologize to the nation for the evil deeds committed by traitor Lee Myung-Bak and the puppet army hooligans and take a responsible step for their prevention."

Cross-border relations have been icy for more than a year, since the South accused the North of sinking one of its warships and imposed trade sanctions.

The North denies involvement in the March 2010 sinking. But it shelled a South Korean border island last November, killing four people including two civilians.

In an abrupt change of tack in January, the North began calling for peace and dialogue. But this week it announced it would no longer deal with Lee's government.

On June 1 it said it had rejected a South Korean proposal to hold a series of three summits designed to ease tensions on the peninsula.

South Korea confirmed it had held a secret meeting with the North in Beijing in May. But it said the main purpose was to try to persuade the North to apologize for the two border incidents and to promise no recurrence.

Seoul says its neighbor must take responsibility for the incidents before there can be any serious peace dialogue.

Some analysts believe the North will not mount further attacks while it is seeking U.S. food aid and preparing for a major political anniversary next year.

But others say its decision to disclose the diplomatic contacts is worrying. Seoul critics cited Lee's alleged double-dealing in seeking summits while publicly maintaining a tough line with Pyongyang.

But U.S. academic Marcus Noland said the disturbing aspect "is not Lee Myung-Bak's alleged hypocrisy but rather North Korea's recklessness.

"One has to assume that this behavior is connected to North Korea's internal political machinations and could augur further provocations in the future," he wrote in a blog posting.

Several U.S. and South Korean officials have warned of heightened uncertainty as Kim puts in place a succession plan involving his son.