Overnight Defense: Pentagon chief proposes chain of command reforms

THE TOPLINE: Defense Secretary Ash Carter Tuesday unveiled his proposal to update a landmark 30-year-old law that reorganized the Pentagon and set the chain of command it still follows today.

The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel has the story:

Under Carter’s proposal, the role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would be clarified, the number of four-star generals would be whittled down and service chiefs would have a greater role in the acquisition process, among other changes.

{mosads}”Instead of the Cold War and one clear threat, we face a security environment that’s dramatically different from the last quarter-century,” Carter said during a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It’s time that we consider practical updates to this critical organizational framework, while still preserving its spirit and intent.”

At issue is the Goldwater-Nichols Act, which in 1986 reworked the Pentagon’s command structure.

Under Goldwater-Nichols, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is the chief military adviser for the president and the secretary of Defense.

Carter’s proposal would clarify that role and specify the chairman should look across all services and combatant commands to make recommendations.

Read more here. 

 

SENATE GOP CRACKING DOWN ON GITMO TRANSFERS: Senate Republicans are hoping to crack down on President Obama’s ability to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees as he works to shutter the controversial Cuban prison in his final year.

The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports: 

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) introduced legislation Tuesday to prohibit permanently closing the facility. 

Her proposal would make permanent a current ban on bringing detainees into the United States and block the White House from releasing detainees to other countries through September 2017.

GOP Sens. Richard Burr (N.C.), James Inhofe (Okla.), Roger Wicker (Miss.), Pat Roberts (Kan.), Tim Scott (S.C.), Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.), Steve Daines (Mont.), and Jerry Moran (Kan.) have signed onto Ayotte’s legislation.

Ayotte has also placed a hold on Jennifer O’Connor’s nomination to be the Pentagon’s general counsel as she angles to get the administration to hand over information on Guantanamo Bay detainee transfers. 

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) also introduced legislation this week to limit the administration’s ability to transfer detainees to unstable countries or state sponsors of terrorism. 

Countries that would be impacted by the ban include Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Iran. 

Read more here.

 

SENATORS SAY OBAMA LACKS CYBERWAR POLICY: Senators on Tuesday hammered the Obama administration, saying it lacks a coherent or fully formed cyber warfare policy, and the lack of planning could have disastrous results, including muddled responses to cyberattacks and poorly structured Defense Department cyber teams. 

The Hill’s Cory Bennett reports: 

“The administration’s cyber policy as a whole remains detached from reality,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said during a hearing with National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers. 

“For years our enemies have been setting the norms in cyberspace while the White House sat idly by hoping the problem would fix itself,” he added.

“If we don’t have a policy, how are we going to develop plans?” Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) asked Rogers, who also heads the U.S. Cyber Command.

“Something terrible is going to happen and a lot of people are going say, ‘Why didn’t we have a policy?'” said Sen. Angus King (I-Maine).

Several senators, including James Inhofe (R-Okla.), pointed to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released Monday that concluded the DOD has not clearly defined its own “roles and responsibilities for cyber incidents.”

Rogers agreed that greater clarification was needed, but had not yet read the report.

For more, read here. 

 

ISIS WAR BECOMING NEXT VIETNAM? Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), said the administration’s incremental buildup in the ISIS war could turn into another Vietnam. 

“As a young military officer, I bore witness to the failed policy of gradual escalation that ultimately led to our nation’s defeat in the Vietnam War,” McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war, wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Ash Carter.

The Pentagon has recently come under fire after acknowledging the number of troops on the ground in Iraq is higher than the administration’s authorized cap of 3,870.

McCain specifically wants answers to a slew of questions related to how many troops are in Iraq and Syria and what the plans are for retaking Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa, Syria, from ISIS.

The Hill’s Rebecca Kheel has the story here.

 

ON TAP FOR TOMORROW: 

The Senate Armed Services Committee holds a hearing with Sean Stackley, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition, on Navy shipbuilding programs at 2 p.m. at Russell 222. http://1.usa.gov/1PSvtu6

Joint Staff Vice Director for Operations Rear. Adm. Andrew L. Lewis conducts a press briefing at 11 a.m. in the Pentagon Briefing Room. 

 

ICYMI: 

— The Hill: State Dept: Iran missile tests ‘violated intent’ of UN resolution

— The Hill: Report: World military spending rises, US drops

— The Hill: Kerry: ‘We are definitively at war with ISIS’

— CNN: Iceland’s Prime Minister resigns amid Panama Papers fallout

— WaPo: Trump reveals how he would force Mexico to pay for border wall

 

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