With Connor O’Brien and Jacqueline Feldscher
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— The Pentagon is weighing a series of far-reaching policies to wean itself off of fossil fuels and prepare for climate change.
— Russian maneuvers in recent days have alarmed U.S. commanders, prompting the top officer to pick up the phone.
— End the extra “wish lists” from the military services that add billions to the budget, a watchdog group says.
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‘BOONDOGGLE’: The conservative National Taxpayers Union is out with a new policy paper calling for Congress and the Pentagon to crack down on the billion-dollar “boondoggle” wish lists that the military services are required to deliver each year outside of the defense budget request.
“While unfunded priorities lists make up a relatively small portion of the DoD budget, they still tally up to billions of dollars in wasteful ‘wish lists’ that make lawmakers less willing and able to right-size the DoD budget and meet the debt and deficit challenges facing our country,” NTU contends.
At minimum, the watchdog says, the Defense Department leadership and the White House Office of Management and Budget should rein them in.
“Congress should repeal the requirements surrounding these lists in FY 2022 — or otherwise significantly reform them — and DoD and OMB should step up in encouraging the service branches … to downsize their requests,” it says.
Also: HASC Air-Land Chairman Donald Norcross talks F-35 costs and ‘Buy America’ in the next defense bill, via Defense News.
The Federalist Society hosts “Securing the Nation: CFIUS, Foreign Transactions, and Judicial Review” at 7 p.m.
McAleese and Associates will hold its 2021 Defense Programs Conference on May 12 and 13. The annual ritual will offer up a who’s who of Pentagon leaders, including most of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
CHANGE AGENT: The Pentagon is weighing a series of proposals to make the military more energy-efficient, from mandating all-electric vehicles to weaning trucks, ships and aircraft off of fossil fuels, according to people familiar with the option, our colleague Lara Seligman and your Morning D correspondent report for Pros.
Officials say the push will make the military more effective, and as the world’s single largest energy consumer — and a driver of markets — the military can lead the federal government as well as spur society at large, the Biden administration hopes.
“Number one: Moving off fossil fuels into renewables will have first just the direct effect of reducing the carbon footprint dramatically,” said Ray Mabus, a former Navy secretary and energy consultant who is an influential voice on climate change. “Number two: Where the military goes, the civilian world often follows.”
“DoD will decide how the federal government looks because DoD dominates the federal portfolio,” said John Conger, who held a series of top Pentagon posts overseeing energy and installations and is now director of the Center for Climate & Security. “The DoD is most of the buildings. DoD is most of the fuel use. DoD can lead by example. They can invent things. They can do a lot of stuff.”
“On electric vehicles in particular,” he added, “it could catalyze an industry that will have those impacts more widely. That’s the importance.”
Related: Biden’s infrastructure plan includes billions to develop emerging tech the military needs, via C4ISRNet.
RESTORED TO SERVICE: The Pentagon on Wednesday swept away the remains of the Trump-era policy banning most transgender Americans from serving in the armed forces, issuing new rules that provide for medical care and gender transition surgery, The Associated Press reports.
HIGHEST ALERT: “The Pentagon is on alert as Russia steps up its activity in Eastern Europe and the Arctic, presenting a new challenge for the young Biden administration, military officials said Wednesday,” Lara also reports for Pros.
“U.S. European Command has raised its alert status to the highest level after fighting resumed between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian soldiers in the Donetsk Region of eastern Ukraine, marking the end of a June 2020 ceasefire, and Russian forces began building up military equipment along the border,” she writes.
Meanwhile, NATO jets scrambled 10 times on Monday alone to respond to an unusually high number of Russian fighter and bomber flights near allied airspace. And last week, three nuclear-armed Russian submarines punched through several feet of ice in the Arctic, a new show of force in a region American forces are challenged to reach.
“We obviously don’t want to see any more violations of Ukrainian territory,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said. “We’ve been very clear about the threats that we see from Russia across domains. … We’re taking them very seriously.”
Related: Russian troop movements on Ukraine border test Biden administration, via The Wall Street Journal.
And: Italy orders 2 Russian Embassy officials expelled for spying, via The Associated Press.
‘STEADY PACE’: Russia’s arsenal of weapons designed to disrupt satellites and enhance military capabilities in space expanded in 2020, according to an annual assessment of space threats from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a similar report from the Secure World Foundation.
“Though most industries, and a large portion of other countries mentioned in this report, were slowed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s military space capabilities kept a steady pace,” it states.
It cites two publicly known anti-satellite tests, including a missile launched to space in December and a satellite placed into orbit in July designed to harm other satellites.
Russia is also working on a new defensive program called Tobol that would protect its communications satellites from electronic jamming, according to the Secure World Foundation review.
The papers also outline the counter-space capabilities of China, India, North Korea and other nations.
Related: Russia and China seek to tie America’s hands in space, via Foreign Policy.
Andrew Mara, formerly with the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, is joining CNA as VP and director of the Systems, Tactics, and Force Development Division.
— Some border wall cash ‘moving forward,’ Psaki says: POLITICO Pro
— The military has long had an extremism problem. What will it do now to finally solve it? CNN
— U.K. will ‘absolutely’ buy more F-35s, procurement minister says: Defense One
— A growing challenge for Iraq: Iran-aligned Shia militias: The Associated Press
— Listen to America’s top commander in the Indo-Pacific and fund the Pacific Deterrence Initiative: War on the Rocks
