Situation Report: SecDef kicks off effort to sell new personnel and pay plan; Air Force in trouble with Congress; more drones and jets to Eastern Europe; Taliban leader sends along his resume; and lots more

By Paul McLeary with Adam Rawnsley

Pay to play. Defense Secretary Ash Carter is a hitting the first day of September running, kicking off a one-hour, live-streamed “worldwide troop talk” at 9 a.m. where he’ll take questions from troops via Twitter, Facebook, email and Skype. Then he’s headed up to Baltimore, Md. to deliver remarks at the 97th Annual Convention of the American Legion at 10:50 a.m.

One thing we imagine he’ll begin hinting at is his ambitious “Force of the Future” plan, which if enacted would completely overhaul the way the military recruits, pays, promotes, and tracks the active-duty force of 1.3 million troops, according to a leaked copy of the 120-page obtained by the Military Times’ Andrew Tilghman.

Some of the provisions of the plan include targeted pay raises for the most in-demand jobs in cybersecurity and other high-tech fields where the private sector has long offered more lucrative compensation packages, and better ways to recruit and retain talented people. Not everyone in the Pentagon is happy about the slate of proposed changes, however, since the plan adds about $1 billion to the defense budget, which would mostly be taken on by the services. Congress will also need to get involved, setting the stage for a tough fight on the Hill, and with the Joint Chiefs, this fall.

Grilled. A few key Senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee are demanding answers from the U.S. Air Force about how it keeps its books. Air Force leadership is being drilled on the shocking budgetary hash it recently made of projections on how much its much-anticipated Long Range Strike Bomber will cost.

In what Air Force Secretary Deborah James recently described merely as a “regrettable error,” the Air Force originally said that the bomber would cost $33.1 billion to design and build over the next decade, only to suddenly ratchet it up to $58.4 billion in its most recent report to Congress submitted earlier this year. But when called on the discrepancy a few weeks ago, the service came back with yet another number, saying the expected cost should have been $41.7 billion all along.

That was enough to bring Senators John McCain (R-Az.) and Jack Reed (D-RI), Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, respectively, together to issue a letter Ash Carter. The duo charged that “to commit administrative errors amounting to tens of billions of dollars is simply unacceptable,” demanding “a detailed accounting by line item” how the service arrived at its estimates. They also demand an explanation of “how the error occurred, and what actions will be taken to prevent future occurrences.” We pity the Air Force and Pentagon staffers who’ll spend Labor Day weekend firing up their computers deep in the bowels of the Pentagon, instead of firing up their grills.

Welcome to September, friends. We made it without a major “August surprise,” but with enough happening in the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe to keep everyone plenty busy.  As always, please pass along any tips, notes, or otherwise interesting bits of information that you may have at your disposal. Best way is to send them to paul.mcleary@foreignpolicy.com or on Twitter: @paulmcleary or @arawnsley.   

The business of defense

The U.S. Army has been ordered to pay oft-sued contractor KBR $30 million to cover the company’s considerable legal fees racked up defending itself against lawsuits stemming from its work in Iraq. The Project on Government Oversight noticed the Aug. 13 filing by the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) which directed the Army “to reimburse KBR for the more than $30 million it has spent defending lawsuits alleging toxic chemical exposure in Iraq. The ASBCA ruled that an indemnification provision in KBR’s Restore Iraqi Oil (RIO) contract [PDF] requires the government to cover KBR’s legal expenses arising from property damage, injury, or death at KBR worksites in Iraq.”

Europe

A big day in Eastern Europe as two U.S. Air Force F-22 fighters and two Predator drones touched down on Russia’s Western border, as part of Washington’s small but high-profile movement of assets to the region. The drones and 70 airmen from the Texas Air National Guard have deployed to Latvia, while the stealthy F-22s are in Poland, representing the first of four F-22s headed for air bases in the country. While American drones and advanced fighter planes are landing in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s backyard, the Russian majordomo spent the day in Sochi, quietly working out and grilling some meat with one of his best pals.

Afghanistan

There’s some extra drama at a critical meeting of hundreds of Afghan Taliban militants in Quetta, Pakistan that has been called to answer the question of who will lead the Taliban now that we know Mullah Omar has been dead for two years. Members of the insurgent leadership have released a 5,000-word biography of the militant who has already — controversially — replaced Omar. The letter portrays Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour as a humble academic and reformer who was seriously wounded fighting the Soviets, and whose only ambition was to serve as an “ordinary worker” before being nominated and then named head of the Taliban earlier this month by the group’s leadership council. He’s also an aviation expert, the letter explains in exhausting detail.

Syria

Israel’s Ynetnews reports that Russia will begin deploying its own fighter jets, pilots and support personnel to an air base outside Damascus in order to begin carrying out airstrikes against rebels on behalf of the Assad regime. Syrian forces have suffered a number of battlefield setbacks recently and the move would mark the most direct intervention by Russia to prop up the Syrian war effort.

Fighters from the Islamic State are bringing pressure against the Syrian capital of Damascus with the group moving closer to the city center than ever before, according to Agence France Presse. Militants from the Islamic State took control of a couple of blocks in the Asali neighborhood following clashes with other Islamist rebel groups there this weekend.

China

China’s big military parade for the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of World War II looks set to be a big day for those interested in catching a glimpse of the latest Chinese military hardware. The parade isn’t until Thursday, but the event is already being described as a hit according to handy censorship guidelines and talking points handed out to the media by the Chinese government. China Digital Times got its hands on a copy of the guidelines, which include instructions that outlets must “actively promote positive, sunny netizen commentary” and that accounts of the event be “positive and not offensive to the PLA or the military parade.”

Meet China’s newest armed drone, the Rainbow 5 or CH-5. China Central Television recently broadcast footage of the aircraft, which looks like a spitting image of America’s MQ-9 Reaper drone. Earlier models in the Rainbow series of drones have proved popular exports. Nigeria purchased the similarly armed CH-3 drone from China which it has used in its war against Boko Haram terrorists. Pakistan has reportedly imported the drone from China, as well.

Iraq

There’s a gruesome tit-for-tat exchange of atrocity videos currently taking place between Shia militias in Iraq and the Islamic State. Abu Azrael, a Shia militia fighter and viral propaganda hit dubbed “Iraq’s Rambo” was recently filmed mutilating the corpse of a fighter from the Islamic State with a sword. According to the Long War Journal, the Islamic State has responded to the release with a video of its own depicting the beheading of four members of Iraq’s Shia militias.

Big Data

Brian Bennett and W.J. Hennigan of the Los Angeles Times report that China and Russia are getting good at integrating the vast data dumps obtained by hacking into American networks to identify and build detailed profiles on U.S. intelligence personnel included in them. According to the report, one group of clandestine intelligence technical support personnel has already been outed to a foreign country thanks to insights gleaned from cross referencing hacked data.

Air Force

The close air support battle royale between the F-35 and the A-10 Warthog promises to be one of the most anticipated matchups in recent defense nerd history. But don’t get too excited just yet. The Defense Department’s Director of Operational Test and Evaluation won’t be holding the throwdown until at least 2018. Critics have claimed that the F-35 can’t provide sufficient close air support to ground troops and have accused the Air Force of trying to prematurely retire the A-10 in exchange for only a slight amount of budget savings.

Somalia

Somali pirates reared their heads in the late 2000s, earning millions in ransoms, killing a number of innocent sailors and drawing in a coalition of navies in order to clamp down on their trade. But a few years of decline and seeming victory in the war against Somali piracy, the brigands may be coming back, according to the BBC.

Think tanked

So, who exactly is Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi? Will McCants, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the forthcoming The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State attempts to de-mystify the bloody-minded insurgent leader in an essay to be published on the Brookings Web site today.

While no superhero, McCants warns that Baghdadi is “an unusually capable man,” who shouldn’t be discounted. In a recent chat with SitRep, McCants said that Baghdadi’s “career demonstrates that not only is he skilled as a scholar but also in navigating the deadly politics” of insurgent power plays.

Significantly, there’s been much made of the alliance Baghdadi has forged with former Saddam-era Baathists, particularly Sunni military officers who have spent the past year outmaneuvering their former colleagues in the Iraqi Army. But who is using who? McCants says that the guys running the ground war for ISIS have been forged by the combat of the past 12 years and “they have learned. These are not guys who served on cushy bases. They’ve been living house to house for years. What you’ve got left is a remnant that is very cagey and very capable,” who are taking advantage of a Sunni population that is, at the very least, distrustful of the Shia-led government in Baghdad.

“It’s not a given that the Baathists in his circle are the godless socialists” that have been portrayed in some press reports, he said. “A lot of these guys were radicalized” in U.S-run prisons. “Even if you believe that this is just a marriage of convenience, it is Baghdadi who is the stronger partner in this marriage.”