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WASHINGTON — Attacks on U.S. and allied forces with makeshift bombs in Afghanistan are 50 percent more lethal than three years ago, reflecting insurgents’ use of more powerful explosives and the increased vulnerability of troops who patrol more on foot than in the past. Lt. Gen. Michael Oates, director of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, told a House subcommittee that the casualty rate was “disturbing” and half that of troops attacked by IEDs in Iraq. Overall, IED attacks have doubled over the past year in Afghanistan, Oates said. It was even worse when comparing February 2010 to February 2009, attributed in part to a Marine-led offensive in the town of Marjah in Helmand province. This year, insurgents planted 721 bombs compared with 291 last year. Those attacks killed or wounded 204 troops this February compared with 51 in February 2009. Oates cited several advantages that Afghan insurgents had over U.S. forces: • Reliance on fertilizer-based explosives that lack metal components frustrates attempts to detect buried bombs. • U.S. forces traveling in heavy vehicles are forced to travel on the few improved roads in Afghanistan, making them easier targets. “This facilitates a successful enemy tactic of emplacing large explosive charges buried in the middle of the road or in culverts,” Oates said. • The counterinsurgency strategy pushed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal stresses protecting Afghan civilians and requires troops to be in close contact with them. The downside, Oates said, is that “separated from the protection of an armored vehicle they are also more vulnerable to casualty from an IED.” Oates, in a USA TODAY interview, said winning the trust of Afghans will ultimately provide the best protection for U.S. troops. Afghans will identify insurgents and provide tips on where they have planted bombs. Meantime, Oates said, the military will focus on fielding new all-terrain Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles designed specifically to protect troops in Afghanistan. Surveillance aircraft will monitor roads, troops will be trained to find and defuse bombs, and the networks that produce IEDs will be attacked. “There is no silver bullet,” he said.

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JIEDDO 3-star: Afghan IED attacks more lethal

Despite meeting all recruiting and retention goals, the service personnel chiefs pleaded with a House panel Wednesday to keep paying enlistment and selective re-enlistment bonuses. Clifford Stanley, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said military pay and benefits generally are competitive with the private sector, and that large across-the-board increases are not wanted or needed. “The state of military compensation is healthy,” Stanley told the House Armed Serfices Committee’s military personnel panel. “For the first time, we truly have the ability to target pay with pinpoint accuracy to achieve desired aims and maximize effects of dollars spent.” Service officials said they may be recruiting and keeping enough people to meet numerical goals — and they noted that they are reducing bonus budgets — but they worry about Congress cutting too deeply. The Air Force, for example, wants $645 million for bonuses in fiscal 2011, said Lt. Gen. Richard Newton, that service’s deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel. “These pays are critical as we shape the force to meet new and emerging missions and support the combatant commanders in today’s fight,” Newton said. Lt. Gen. Richard Zilmer, the deputy Marine Corps commandant for manpower and reserve affairs, said the Corps also is cutting bonuses but continues to expect to need significant entry bonuses to meet goals for recruits in some critically needed skills. The Army budget for bonuses was $4.9 billion in fiscal 2009 and was reduced to $4.4 billion this year. For 2011, the Army wants $4.6 billion, an amount that reflects the cost of anniversary payments for bonuses already signed, said Maj. Gen. Thomas Bostick, the Army’s deputy chief of staff for personnel.

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Personnel chiefs warn against cuts to bonuses

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday that it remains the goal of U.S. troops to capture Osama bin Laden alive and “bring him to justice.” The comment by Gen. Stanley McChrystal to reporters was in contrast to remarks made a day earlier by Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder told Congress that the chances of capturing bin Laden alive were “infinitesimal” because he would probably be killed by U.S. forces or by one of his own fighters. Bin Laden’s whereabouts have longed vexed U.S. officials. But his elusive status has recently taken on new meaning as President Barack Obama pushes to try suspected terrorists in civilian courts instead of more secretive military tribunals. Congressional Republicans are pushing back by saying that bin Laden and others like him shouldn’t be given the same rights as U.S. citizens. Holder said in House testimony that terrorists wouldn’t be given any more rights than serial killers like Charles Manson. He also dismissed the example of bin Laden being given access to U.S. courts as a red herring in the debate. “Let’s deal with reality,” Holder said. “The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom.” When McChrystal was asked whether the U.S. had given up on capturing bin Laden alive, he said, “Wow, no.” If bin Laden enters Afghanistan, “we would certainly go after trying to capture him alive and bring him to justice,” McChrystal told Pentagon reporters from Kabul. “I think that is something that is understood by everyone,” he said.

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McChrystal: Goal still to get bin Laden alive

A key lawmaker said Tuesday that strains on equipment and people are causing declining readiness in the Navy and Air Force, while the Army and Marine Corps are keeping pace only through a reliance on emergency war funding to cover the cost of repairing or replacing vital equipment. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s readiness panel, said that if war funding dries up — and he expects it will — the Army and Marine Corps will miss a 2013 deadline for restoring prepositioned stockpiles and resetting equipment. “My fear is that budgetary pressures and other priorities will continue to drive that timeline further to the right,” Ortiz said of the 2013 deadline to fully restore force readiness. Immediate problems for the Navy and Air Force involve a variety of budget contraints that include underfunding of ship maintenance and flight hours for both services, as well as in funds for aviation spare parts, Ortiz said. The shortages are occurring even though the 2011 defense budget request includes $283.1 billion for operations and maintenance accounts, a $17.8 billion increase over current spending.

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The cost-of-living adjustment for retirees next year could test the idea if something really is better than nothing. After getting no COLA this year in military and federal civilian retired pay, veterans disability compensation and Social Security because of the weak national economy, congressional economists are estimating that the pay adjustment this Dec. 1, which will take effect in January paychecks, will be just 0.1 percent. That forecast was issued March 12 by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in relation to a bill that would increase veterans disability and survivor benefits. While Social Security and military and civilian retired pay are automatically adjusted each Dec. 1 based on the change in the Consumer Price Index, a Labor Department measure of the cost of goods and services, increases in veterans benefits require a change in law. Legislation pending in the House and Senate would give veterans the same increase, if there is one, that goes to Social Security recipients. Steve Strobridge of the Military Officers Association of America said the 0.1 percent COLA forecast could easily change, noting that earlier this year, congressional analysts were predicting no increase in the Consumer Price Index for three years. “We just have to see what happens,” he said. No COLA was approved for this year after the formula for determining the federal adjustment revealed that consumer prices had dropped by about 2 percent between the third quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009. Inflation during the third quarter of each calendar year is the basis for the annual COLA. In instances when consumer goods and services actually fall — which has not happened for more than three decades prior to last year — federal law includes a provision that prevents benefits from dropping in this situation. Instead, there is simply no increase. “You cannot really say that a 1/10th of a percentage point increase is better than nothing because when it comes to COLAs, it is what it is,” Strobridge said. “You could argue that having no change in your retired pay at a time when prices had fallen was better than getting a small increase that matches the CPI. It is all in your perspective.”

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Preparations for the formal establishment of U.S. Cyber Command, which will operate and defend the Defense Department’s information networks, are in progress, a senior military officer told the House Armed Services Committee.

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U.S. Cyber Command Preparations Under Way, General Says

Service members and veterans praise legislation that would expand access to mental health care — but they question the military’s ability to improve treatment given the challenges of today’s high operations tempo. One proposal in the House would require all returning combat veterans to undergo confidential, face-to-face mental health screening. Another would allow direct access to mental health counseling without a referral from a primary care physician. The bills are designed to detect mental health problems and prevent suicides and attempts at a time of record suicide rates in the armed forces. Troops receive pre- and post-deployment screenings, but they are not necessarily evaluated by licensed professionals in optimal settings. Army Lt. Col. Jason Wieman, a physician at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., said the services simply don’t have enough psychiatrists, physicians and nurses to adequately screen and provide follow-up care to the thousands of service members cycling in and out of the war zones on a regular basis. “This is an issue of extreme importance for us as a nation,” Rep. Michael McMahon, D-N.Y., told a crowded conference room during a discussion Thursday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank. At least 349 service members committed suicide last year, McMahon said, adding that just weeks ago, an Army Ranger from near his congressional district with two tours of duty killed himself in a shopping-mall parking lot. McMahon and Rep. Thomas Rooney, R-Fla., worked together last spring to introduce HR1308, the Veterans Mental Health Screening and Assessment Act. Portions of the bill were included in the 2010 defense budget. McMahon said he was glad to see $500 million in additional funding for mental health care in the budget, but said language for mandatory screening was left out. The two lawmakers paired up again last fall to introduce HR 3839, the Counselor Accessibility Reform and Expansion (CARE) for Soldiers Act. Both bills have been referred to subcommittee and have no companion legislation in the Senate. Wieman said he welcomed the initiatives but noted the perennial shortage of licensed mental health care providers in the military. “The medical system simply doesn’t have that resourcing,” he said. Returning home As the division surgeon for Multi-National Division-Baghdad during the troop surge from 2006 to 2007, Wieman helped oversee the redeployment of some 17,000 troops to Fort Hood, Texas. He said 30 percent of those returning troops — more than 5,000 soldiers — indicated in post-deployment screenings a need for follow-up mental health care, but relatively few received immediate treatment because of shortages of credentialed providers. The screening “almost made the situation worse because help wasn’t provided on an immediate basis,” he said. Timothy Muchmore, a former soldier and now deputy director in the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-8, cited the Army’s record suicide rate, which reached 23 per 100,000 soldiers in 2009. Citing the different lengths of deployments among the branches of service, Muchmore questioned whether Army combat tours should be shortened from 12 months to nine months, and dwell time increased to as much as three years between deployments. “Left to its own devices, the Army will continue to spin as fast as it can,” he said. “Perhaps Congress has to step in and provide some minimums and maximums,” he said. William Collins, a former Judge Advocate General in the Marine Corps and now an advisor to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said removing the stigma of mental health disorders from military culture will be a long-term challenge. Collins recounted a story about a service member seeking mental health counseling on post who was told by a commander that he could do so only after obtaining the “chit,” a slip of paper authorizing permission — which was attached to a 3-foot-tall stuffed animal. “If you wanted to go to mental health, you had to carry this giant teddy bear,” he said.

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The price tag for the Coast Guard’s major acquisitions program, called Deepwater, rose to $27.4 billion, the service’s acquisition’s chief told a congressional subcommittee Thursday. Rear Adm. Ronald R?bago said that he did not expect the costs to increase any further. Last summer, the Coast Guard acquisitions directorate reported that the program would cost $26.3 billion over 25 years. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the chairman of the House subcommittee on Coast Guard and maritime transportation, praised R?bago and his staff for bringing the Deepwater program under control since the service stood up its own acquisitions department in 2007. R?bago testified that the problems and cost overruns with the national security cutters have been ironed out and everything was on track for the other surface ships under production. “It has simply been phenomenal,” Cummings said. “We have been very pleased with what you have been able to achieve.” The tone from the congressional panel was a marked contrast to blistering criticism the Coast Guard received in the past for its management of the Deepwater acquisition program, a massive project to replace the service’s aging ships and aircraft. Deepwater, now set to be completed in 2027, has been beleaguered by delays and escalating costs. The program’s estimated cost was $17 billion in 1998, with a completion date of 2018. Problems with the program surfaced in 2005 under the Coast Guard’s former lead system integrator, Integrated Coast Guard Systems — a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Ships Systems. The Coast Guard became the lead system integrator in 2007. The current contract with ICGS will expire in 2011. The Department of Justice still is investigating the contract dispute that erupted when the Coast Guard received eight faulty 123-foot patrol boats. The Coast Guard has managed to salvage some parts from the unusable cutters that were supposed to be a replacement for the service’s 110-foot patrol craft, but it must preserve the rest for evidence in the investigation, R?bago said. Work has begun on the new replacement: the fast response cutter. Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, La., began construction in late November on Sentinel, the first in a class of 58 cutters. The Coast Guard awarded a contract option for about $141 million to Bollinger Shipyards on Dec. 15 to begin production on three additional fast response cutters. R?bago said the Coast Guard also is moving forward on the 357-foot offshore patrol cutters, which will replace the medium endurance cutters. He said he still expects to field them for at or under $4.7 billion. And the Coast Guard is in negotiations on its fourth national security cutter. It hopes to award a contract later this year. Cummings asked R?bago whether the design had been perfected because previous problems had caused the cost of the ship to escalate. “The cost of the national security cutters is steadily rising far above what we anticipated,” Cummings said. R?bago said the requirements had been perfected and he expected costs to stabilize. The Coast Guard also has made progress in hiring and certifying its acquisitions staff, as well as implementing policies and procedures, R?bago said. In fiscal 2009, the directorate hired 90 new people, reducing its civilian vacancy rate from nearly 24 percent at the end of fiscal 2008 to less than 10 percent by the end of fiscal 2009. That vacancy percentage rose slightly when the directorate received funding in this fiscal year to hire 100 additional people, he said. The directorate now employs 950 military and civilian personnel.

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CG: Deepwater costs rise to $27.4 billion

The Navy on Tuesday took top honors Tuesday as the nation’s leader in human resources management as it received Workforce Management magazine’s Optimas Award for General Excellence — and its top officer gave clear orders to stay the course. The award, presented in a ceremony on Capitol Hill, recognizes the Navy’s innovative initiatives and excellence in the recruiting, development and care of its people, said Todd Johnson, Workforce Management publisher. “Optimas started 19 years ago to recognize the significant and measurable organizational impact of human resources,” said Johnson, who pointed out that the Navy is the largest organization to win. “The object to us isn’t the size of the organization. It’s the size of the impact. And we’re going to give that award this year to the U.S. Navy.” Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, who received the award on behalf of the Navy, first acknowledged more than four dozen personnel officials in attendance, calling them “great team … who made this possible.” “[This award] recognizes the great work of people who move this great organization along,” Roughead said. “It has been a way to assess ourselves and … become better at what we do.” “I’m just proud of the Navy. I couldn’t be more pleased,” said Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., who hosted the presentation. The Navy, which is the first military organization to win the award, joins past winners such as Google, Intel, Hewlett Packard and AT&T. The Optimas Awards consist of 10 annual prizes. Nine are presented for initiatives in competitive advantage, ethical practice, financial impact, global outlook, innovation, managing, change, partnership, service and vision. The organization that demonstrates excellence in at least six categories receives the General Excellence Award. The Navy programs that contributed to the win are: • The Assignment Incentive Pay Program, an online assignment system that encourages volunteerism for hard-to-fill assignments by giving sailors through an incentive pay bidding system. • Global War on Terror Support Assignment Process Initiative, which provides greater assignment predictability and improved morale by allowing sailors to volunteer and plan for combat-zone assignments. • Center for Language, Regional Expertise and Culture Program, which prepares sailors for overseas assignments and enhances mission success by strengthening communication and cultural awareness. • Credentialing Opportunities Online program, which provides independent occupational certification for sailors in each of the Navy's 64 enlisted career fields. • Advancement Exam Development Conference Initiative, which enables subject-matter experts from the fleet to convene and author annual advancement examinations, allowing 85 of 100 full-time exam writers to be released for high-priority assignments, saving $7 million per year. • The Navy College Program Distance Learning Partnership, which provides greater access to higher education for sailors through partnerships with colleges and universities to offer associate and bachelor degrees via distance learning. • Task Force Life Work, which helps partner the professional and personal developmental needs of sailors and their families, to enhance recruiting and retaining our best and brightest to ensure mission success. • Crisis Action Organization, which assists commands in accounting for Navy personnel and their families following catastrophic events such as severe hurricanes, tornadoes or wildfires using a Web-based system. Interestingly, the Navy handicapped itself by entering in only eight of Optimas’ nine categories. Fifteen programs were initially submitted to a team of 50 personnel officials who narrowed the field to eight. “We looked at the programs we have, the impact they’ve had and the improvements they’ve made for the sailors,” said Cmdr. Lisa Truesdale, chief strategist for N1. “We expected to win in a couple categories, but the overall award was a surprise.” The word “surprise” was echoed by Johnson, who first saw the Navy’s submission when presented the finalists. “We were surprised to see their application, but quickly sold,” he said. “They had done a wonderful job of tying their programs into very specific and quantifiable results, so the surprise didn’t last very long. They made a very compelling argument. It was easy to give them the award.” Roughead, however, wasn’t surprised. “I think this tells our sailors that we indeed are the Top 50 organization that we set ourselves out to be,” the CNO told Navy Times. “That what we do as part of our daily work is viewed by those outside of the Navy as pretty forward leaning, being well above the norm and being that standard of excellence that we aspire to be.” Such recognition is becoming commonplace for the Navy, which has received 20 work force awards in 20 months. In February, it took the 17th spot in Training Magazine’s Top 125 Organizations That Excel at Employee Development. Still, the Optimas Award “is the top award,” Truesdale said. Roughead called the award a milestone and a milepost, “because we don't intend to stop here.” “Clearly, the focus that we have been able to bring to the ‘work/life balance’ is going to become more important as we move into the future,” he told Navy Times. As we attract, recruit and train young people, how we balance that while meeting the missions the nation expects from us will be absolutely key.” The CNO pointed to the “extremely important” cyber community as a prime example. “That’s a group within our Navy that will be in great demand outside the Navy,” he said. “What we want to be able to do is to create an environment where they believe that they are working for the absolute best organization in the world when it comes to cyber activity. Maybe they’ll see better salaries on the outside, maybe they’ll see a bit more stability on the outside, but when they work it through in their minds, we want them to say ‘I’m going to do this in the Navy because there is no better place to do it.’ ” As this happens, the Navy is setting its sights on something that never has been done — winning a second Optimas. “It’s a very difficult thing to do,” Johnson said. “The bar is getting set higher each year, so it will be interesting to see.” Truesdale is not deterred. When asked if she and her peers will try again next year, her answer came with no hesitation. “Absolutely. And I think we have a great shot at it.”

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Navy honored for human resources innovation

The U.S. Air Force does not plan to modify its request for proposals in the KC-X aerial refueling plane program despite the withdrawal of one of two expected bidders, said Gen. Norton Schwartz, the service’s chief of staff, at a March 10 congressional hearing. Schwartz spoke at a hearing of the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel. Northrop Grumman said March 8 it would not bid for the $35 billion program, leaving Boeing as the sole bidder. “We reached this conclusion based on the structure of the source selection methodology defined in the RfP, which clearly favors Boeing’s smaller refueling tanker and does not provide adequate value recognition of the added capability of a larger tanker, precluding us from any competitive opportunity,” Northrop President Wes Bush said in a statement. In previous KC-X bids, Northrop teamed up with EADS to offer a tanker plane based on the Airbus A330. Airbus is a subsidiary of EADS, the European defense and aerospace group. Boeing has offered a converted version of its 767 airliner.

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