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Welcome to today's Early Bird Brief, featuring concise summaries of articles in the DoD Current News Early Bird.
LIBYA1. France, Britain Criticize NATO
(Washington Post)...Edward Cody
Thirteen days after the United States turned over command of the Libya campaign, the NATO alliance showed signs of strain Tuesday, with France and Britain complaining that their partners are not doing enough to help protect rebel-held cities from assaults by Moammar Gadhafi's troops.
2. Pace Of Attacks In Libya Conflict Is Dividing NATO
(New York Times)...Steven Lee Myers and Eric Schmitt
In Washington, Obama administration officials sought to tamp down a growing sense of concern among some military analysts that the combination of the Americans' back-seat role, NATO's inexperience in waging a complicated air campaign against moving targets and botched communications with the ragtag rebel army had thrown the mission into disarray.
3. Libyan Rebels Urge Stronger US Military Role
(NYTimes.com)...Associated Press
A spokesman for Libyan rebels urged the U.S. military Wednesday to reassert of stronger role in the NATO-led air campaign or risk more civilian casualties in the stalemate fighting between Moammar Gadhafi and forces seeking to end his four-decade rule.
4. Rebels Hijack Gadhafi's Phone Network
(Wall Street Journal)...Margaret Coker and Charles Levinson
A team led by a Libyan-American telecom executive has helped rebels hijack Col. Moammar Gadhafi's cellphone network and re-establish their own communications. The new network, first plotted on an airplane napkin and assembled with the help of oil-rich Arab nations, is giving more than two million Libyans their first connections to each other and the outside world after Col. Gadhafi cut off their telephone and Internet service about a month ago.
5. 'I've Been Waiting To Seize A Moment Like This'
(Washington Post)...Leila Fadel
Former exile in U.S. becomes Libyan rebels' field commander.
JOINING FORCES6. 'Joining Forces' Campaign Puts Military Families Front, Center
(Washington Post)...Nia-Malika Henderson and Erin Williams
The Obama administration launched a national initiative Tuesday to highlight and support service members and their families, joining with top corporations and nonprofit groups to bolster their health-care, employment and educational opportunities.
7. Michelle Obama, Jill Biden Are 'Joining Forces'
(USA Today)...Mimi Hall
Michelle Obama says she is determined to use the "wonderful megaphone" she has as first lady to highlight the plight of military families and encourage Americans to do more to help the people her husband calls "the force behind the force.";
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT8. Pentagon Would Receive $5 Billion More
(Washington Post)...Philip Rucker
The Defense Department would be allocated $513 billion, a $5 billion increase from 2010 levels, making the Pentagon one of the few agencies to receive a boost in the budget bill. The legislation also would put an additional $157.8 billion toward overseas contingency operations.
9. US Weapons Program Officials Pledge Cost Control
(Reuters.com)...Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters
Officials from some of the Pentagon's most expensive weapons programs on Tuesday vowed to keep costs under control given tightening pressure on defense budgets.
10. DoD To Focus On Price During Contract Talks
(DefenseNews.com)...Marcus Weisgerber
The Pentagon will place a greater emphasis on price when negotiating weapons or service purchases, said Shay Assad, DoD's director of defense procurement and acquisition policy.
CONGRESS11. Levin: Defense Cuts Must Be On The Table
(The Cable (thecable.foreignpolicy.com))...Josh Rogin
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said on Tuesday that he agreed with the White House that cuts to the defense budget must be part of upcoming budget negotiations. "Defense has to be on the table," Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said in a Tuesday interview.
12. Spending Cuts Bill Hits Defense And Foreign Aid
(SeattleTimes.com)...Donna Cassata, Associated Press
Tea partyers insistent on cutting military spending and foreign aid will find plenty to like in the spending deal struck by President Barack Obama and congressional leaders.
13. Debt Worries Crimp Aid For 'Arab Spring'
(Los Angeles Times)...Paul Richter
The Obama administration's efforts to use foreign aid to help Middle East and North African nations undergoing democratic transitions have been stopped short by a Congress focused on paring federal debt and other spending priorities.
14. Budget Deal Includes 'Pork,' Rep. Flake Says
(Washington Times)...Shaun Waterman
Congress' budget deal provides funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that is larded with pork-barrel projects, Rep. Jeff Flake told The Washington Times. The special $159 billion funding measure, known as Overseas Contingency Operations, contains spending that is "not related to the war," the Arizona Republican added. Defense Secretary Gates recently told lawmakers about "several billion dollars" in the OCO "that was moved around, principally by the Congress... [to pay for] things that we don't need or want."
WARRIOR CARE15. For Some War Wounded, Amputation By Choice
(USA Today)...Gregg Zoroya
Wounded soldiers and Marines are making choices about arms and legs that predecessors from earlier wars never had: whether to trade poorly functioning flesh-and-blood for microprocessor-driven substitutes. Advanced prosthetics created to replace limbs lost in battle now are being sought by troops with legs or arms that survived combat, but are not functioning well or are still causing great pain after months or even years of physical therapy.
AIR FORCE16. Northrop Unmanned Drone Cost Rises 25% After Order Is Cut, Air Force Says
(Bloomberg.com)...Tony Capaccio and Gopal Ratnam, Bloomberg News
The average cost for one of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Global Hawk drone aircraft has risen more than 25 percent because the U.S. Air Force cut the order by about 14 percent in its 2012 budget request, Michael Donley, the service's top official, said in a letter to lawmakers.
17. Pentagon Seeks More Savings In Next JSF Order
(DefenseNews.com)...Marcus Weisgerber
The Pentagon is preparing to negotiate its next order of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft with Lockheed Martin, this time with a concerted effort to crank down the jet's price, according to the Air Force's top acquisition official.
AFGHANISTAN18. West Trains Spies To Hunt Taliban In Afghan Forces
(Reuters.com)...Mohammed Abbas, Reuters
Western forces in Afghanistan have begun to train counter-intelligence agents to help root out Taliban infiltrators in the Afghan army and police, as concern mounts over killings by rogue security personnel.
19. Drone Hit Apparently Killed 2 U.S. Troops
(Washington Post)...Associated Press
The military is investigating what appears to be the first case of American troops killed by a missile fired from a U.S. drone. The investigation is looking into the deaths of a Marine and a Navy medic killed by a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator after they apparently were mistaken for insurgents in southern Afghanistan last week, two senior U.S. defense officials said Tuesday. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
20. Roadside Bomb Kills 5 Workers
(Los Angeles Times)...Unattributed
An Afghan official said a roadside bomb killed five road construction workers in eastern Afghanistan who were in a car traveling near the Pakistani border.
PAKISTAN21. 2 US Missile Attacks Kill 6 Near Afghan Border
(NYTimes.com)...Associated Press
Two U.S. missile strikes minutes apart killed at least six suspected militants near the Afghan border on Wednesday, two Pakistani intelligence officials said.
22. CIA, Pakistan Working To Repair Widening Rift In Relationship
(Washington Post)...Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung
The CIA has agreed to reveal more about its operatives and their activities in Pakistan, and pledged expanded cooperation on drone strikes, in an effort to repair a widening rift between the two counterterrorism allies, U.S. and Pakistani officials said.
ASIA/PACIFIC23. US: China's 1st Aircraft Carrier Watched By Region
(NYTimes.com)...Associated Press
China's first aircraft carrier could begin sea trials as early as this summer and its deployment would significantly change the perception of the balance of power in the region, the chief of U.S. forces in the Pacific said Tuesday.
24. China Blocks Off Coastal Waters
(Washington Times)...Bill Gertz
China's "troubling" military buildup coincides with new efforts by Beijing to block the Navy from international waters near its coasts and field new missiles, submarines and cyberweapons, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific told Congress on Tuesday.
25. U.S. Airmen Quietly Reopen Wrecked Airport In Japan
(NYTimes.com)...Martin Fackler
...On Wednesday, the airport in Sendai reopened to commercial flights for the first time since the earthquake and tsunami struck on March 11. But when the airport resumes civilian operations, the two dozen members of the Air Force unit, the 353rd Special Operations Group, will not be on hand to celebrate. Nor will some 260 Marines and soldiers who also joined the cleanup. They will have already packed up and gone.
CIA26. A Post-9/11 Brain Drain At The CIA
(Washington Post)...Julie Tate
In the decade since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, private intelligence firms and security consultants have peeled away veterans from the top reaches of the CIA, hiring scores of longtime officers in large part to gain access to the burgeoning world of intelligence contracting.
BUSINESS27. Boeing Jets, Raytheon Missiles Get Budget Boost Amid Trims
(Bloomberg Government (bgov.com))...Roxana Tiron, Bloomberg News
The U.S. Congress is boosting Boeing Co.'s F/A-18 E/F fighter jets and United Technologies Corp.'s Black Hawk helicopters even as it cuts the overall defense budget for 2011.
28. Afghanistan Aircraft Win Big In Budget Deal
(TheHill.com)...John T. Bennett
Defense firms that build the helicopters and unmanned aircraft needed in Afghanistan were once again big winners in the budget sweepstakes.
29. GE-Rolls Continue Fight For Second F-35 Jet Engine
(Reuters.com)...Andrea Shalal-Esa, Reuters
General Electric Co and Britain's Rolls Royce on Tuesday vowed to continue work on a second engine for the Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet despite news that a compromise fiscal 2011 defense budget will not fund the program.
BASE REALIGNMENT AND CLOSURE30. Bases Benefit From Budget Deal
(Washington Post)...Ashley Halsey III
The 2011 budget deal struck by Congress last week includes $300 million to expand roads around military bases in Fairfax and Montgomery counties that will absorb tens of thousands of new commuters as part of a seismic relocation of the region's military workforce.
OPINION31. Afghan Army Finding Its Footing
(USA Today)...Ronald Neumann and Michael O'Hanlon
The soldiers are better trained, increasingly professional and willing to fight. Though there's still progress to be made, it's time to stop underestimating this fighting force.
32. The Facts About American 'Decline'
(Wall Street Journal)...Charles Wolf Jr.
...As noted, military spending by the U.S. increased across the board relative to NATO, China and Russia. Whether this suggests the U.S. is allocating too much, or other countries too little, is not evident from numbers alone. And numbers also don't indicate whether high military outlays have a positive or negative effect on economic growth.
33. The War On Soft Power
(ForeignPolicy.com)...Joseph S. Nye Jr.
Even the U.S. military doesn't want to cut the State Department and foreign aid budget. So why is Congress playing a dangerous game with America's global influence?
34. Power, Not Prisoners, Is Gitmo Legacy
(Washington Times)...Mark V. Vlasic and Peter Atlee
Defense takes point on the path to fuel freedom.
35. Biofuel Takes Off With U.S. Air Force
(Washington Times)...Kevin Geiss
...President Obama outlined a plan to cut oil imports and rely more on U.S.-derived energy, including biofuels, in the next decade. The Air Force has been working diligently in this regard for nearly five years, certifying a large number of our aircraft with test flights using a variety of alternative fuels.
36. Paying For War's Mistakes
(Los Angeles Times)...Editorial
How did the U.S. kill more than a dozen civilians, and what did it do to compensate their families?
CORRECTIONS37. Corrections and Amplifications
(Wall Street Journal)...The Wall Street Journal
The surname of Sgt. Matthew Abbate, the hero of a Marine platoon in Afghanistan who was killed in action last year, was misspelled as Abate in an article in Saturday's Review section. | 
