ABOUT:
Defense policy analysis, commentary and discussion.Frank Oliveri has been a reporter and editor for 23 years, primarily covering national security, but also foreign policy, NASA, and homeland security. He has been with CQ for eight years. An expert in congressional process, Frank's specialty is the development of defense policy on Capitol Hill and the relationship between the Pentagon and the policy makers in Congress. His coverage at CQ has ranged widely, from the policies governing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan down to the details of weapons systems and their requirements. Before joining CQ, Frank spent 10 years with several Gannett Corp. properties, most recently as a reporter for Gannett News Service, and as metro editor for a mid-sized daily, Florida Today.
He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Southern Connecticut State University. û
The $40 billion Ground-based Midcourse Defense system was developed and deployed to intercept incoming ballistic missiles and consists of ground-based interceptor missiles, kill vehicles and radar located in Alaska and California.
Democrats and Republicans agree that the nation’s missile defenses — designed to blunt missile threats from North Korea and Iran — need improvement.
When the House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved an amendment directing the president to remove all combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, it was far more important in reflecting the nation’s current mood toward the Afghanistan war — and war generally — than in having any practical effect on administration policy.
Beginning in 2000, the military services began a process that has led to a proliferation of different camouflage uniforms.
When the full House and the Senate Armed Services Committee take up their fiscal 2014 defense policy bills this week, troops may literally lose the shirts off their backs.
The inquiry led by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee into the slaying of four Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year has been attention-grabbing, but some senior GOP aides are worried that the partisan overtones are diverting Congress from identifying and addressing the real lessons learned from the attack.
In the past, the Pentagon has been able to convince skeptical lawmakers to authorize rounds of base closures by promising significant savings.
When the Pentagon last year asked Congress to initiate a base closure process, powerful lawmakers such as Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the military it needed to look for cuts in Europe before lawmakers would consider cuts at home.
The White House’s assessment of Syria’s likely use of chemical weapons in its civil war has intensified calls on Capitol Hill for more aggressive U.S. intervention there, but lawmakers are far from agreeing on what any greater American role would look like.
Today’s soldiers and Marines are more likely than ever before to survive major ground combat.
A surprising number of casualties on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq involved fractures, strains and musculoskeletal problems, many of them related to the heavy combat loads for soldiers and Marines on the front lines.
Several senators are expressing outrage at a decision by an Air Force general to overturn a jury’s guilty verdict against a military pilot accused of rape, calling it a “travesty of justice.”
Furloughs of about 730,000 Defense Department civilian employees would cost the states $4.43 billion in lost salaries and billions more in military operating expenditures if Congress fails to avert sequester, according to documents released by the Obama administration late Sunday.
Alabama Republican Sen. Richard C. Shelby now appears ready to vote Tuesday to limit debate on the nomination and confirm Chuck Hagel as Defense secretary.
The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee insist that despite highly partisan clashes over the handling of the killings of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and the nomination of a new Defense secretary, the panel should have no difficulty reaching agreement on a defense policy bill later this year.
The Senate panel overseeing Pentagon nominations plans to vote Tuesday on the contentious nomination of Chuck Hagel to be Defense secretary. And while the committee may vote along party lines to recommend confirmation, some Republicans are expected to delay action on the Senate floor.
The ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday accused the Obama administration of covering up the true nature of last year’s fatal attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, amplifying yet another political proxy battle between the White House and Republicans.
While Republican Chuck Hagel appears likely to win confirmation to lead the Pentagon, many senators in both parties are still holding back their formal endorsements or opposition.
One of the Senate’s more liberal members said Friday he intends to take over the powerful Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, at a time when military budgets are contracting.
The top defense policy Republican in the Senate threatened Thursday to introduce legislation that would attempt to block part of the Pentagon’s initiative to lift the ban on women in combat after the changes were officially announced.
Democrats hailed the news Wednesday that Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta plans to lift the ban on women serving in combat.
On the same day that Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer said the president’s choice to become Defense secretary assuaged his concerns regarding past statements about Israel and Iran, among others, the top defense policy Republican in the Senate rejected the nominee.
Douglas C. Roach, the longtime staff director for the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, died Jan. 11. He was 70.
The president’s nominee to become the next Defense secretary is already facing tough opposition from a wing of the Republican Party, in part over differences regarding the application of military power, but former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel has a long record of being hawkish when it comes to defense policy and spending.
Congress may be gridlocked on most issues, but one major bill is on a glide path for the president’s desk.
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