23 Jan 15. All options should remain on the table in an authorization for use of military force against Islamic terrorists, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey spoke in an interview aboard his plane as he returned to Washington following a two-nation European tour focusing on threats to the continent. Dempsey said his “best military advice” is that such an authorization — called an AUMF for short — gives flexibility to military leaders charged with defeating ISIL. “I think in the crafting of the AUMF, all options should be on the table, and then we can debate whether we want to use them,” he said. “But the authorization should be there.” In his Jan. 20 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called on Congress to authorize an AUMF against ISIL. Dempsey said flexibility to make decisions on military action is important in this kind of fight, where state actors are fighting a nonstate actor. “In particular, it shouldn’t constrain activities geographically, because ISIL knows no boundaries [and] doesn’t recognize any boundaries — in fact it’s their intention to erase all boundaries to their benefit,” Dempsey said. “It would always be my recommendation as the senior military leader to keep our options open as long and as wide as possible — whether [or not] we ever use them, it’s important to have them,” he said. An AUMF that has time limitations would not be helpful in this kind of fight against brutal terrorists who know no boundaries to their violence, the chairman said. “Constraints on time, or a ‘sunset clause,’ I just don’t think it’s necessary,” the general said. “I think the nation should speak of its intent to confront this radical ideological barbaric group and leave that open until we can deal with it.” The fight is about the people of Iraq and the region “against the group that has perverted Islam,” Dempsey said. There are nine lines of effort in battling ISIL, Dempsey said, noting that two of those lines are military efforts and the rest are nonmilitary. The most important lines of effort, he said, are the nonmilitary lines of good governance and counter-messaging. Iraqi leaders need inclusive governance in which the Kurds and Sunnis are participants; the people of Iraq as a whole need to reject ISIL, he added. The people need to get the message from their leaders that the fight is not about the West against Muslims, or Christians against Muslims, or against the Shia, he said. It’s a fight of the people of Iraq and international partners against the terrorists. “That message can’t come from us. It’s got to come from them,” he said. For progress to be made, that message must be “forcefully delivered,” while reconstruction and good governance need to be in place. “I’m telling you from personal experience,” said Dempsey, a career armor officer with four decades in the Army. “If that doesn’t happen, then it’s not enduring, because the people will reject the government. They won’t feel like it’s supporting them, and we’ll be right back where we started from.” (Source: US DoD)
22 Jan 15. Northrop Eyes Future Palmdale Production. Northrop Grumman is eyeing extra space at its F-35 center fuselage facility as a potential production line for a new aircraft — whatever that may be. The location — part of a Palmdale, California, government-owned contractor operated facility known as Air Force Plant 42 — is used to produce the center fuselage for the F-35 joint strike fighter. But the production line, part of Northrop’s campus at the location, is massive, with around 450,000 square feet of space for the F-35 and another 1 million square feet currently unused. That unused space would be ripe for a top-end, tech-savvy production line, something Tom Vice, Northrop’s president of aerospace systems, has clearly been thinking about. “This site has very unique capabilities and capacities,” Vice told reporters Wednesday. However, he declined to talk about “any future plans for any ne