thedrifter
06-18-07, 08:06 AM
Marine brings ‘sharp elbow’ to Joint Staff
By John T. Bennett - jbennett@militarytimes.com
Posted : June 25, 2007
Marine Gen. James Cartwright, likely the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has garnered broad attention for his innovative moves as U.S. Strategic Command chief. But his years running a key Joint Staff directorate — more than his time in Offutt, Neb. — lead some former officials and defense observers to predict that Cartwright could add muscle to a key Pentagon acquisition panel.
As vice chairman, Cartwright would lead the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, which reviews major proposed weapons.
“It appears General Cartwright will be more likely to throw a sharp elbow” than his predecessor, retiring Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, said Thomas Christie, a former director of the Pentagon’s Operational Testing and Evaluation outfit.
President Bush has said he will tap Cartwright for his new job when he nominates Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Both nominations, requested by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, require Senate confirmation.
Besides the JROC, Cartwright would co-chair two other key Pentagon acquisition posts: the Defense Acquisition Board and the deputy defense secretary’s Defense Acquisition Working Group. The three seats give him great sway over Pentagon decisions to buy or reject weapons.
Cartwright would arrive at the job wearing the mantle of an innovator, a reputation burnished by his creation of five “joint functional component commands” at StratCom. These first-of-their-kind outfits are set up as multiservice organizations to coordinate U.S. military efforts around the globe, handling “day-to-day planning and execution of primary mission areas: space; global strike and integration; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; network warfare; integrated missile defense; and combating weapons of mass destruction,” according to a StratCom fact sheet.
Many defense officials regard creation of the JFCCs as a key success for Cartwright.
Several former officials said Cartwright knows how the Pentagon works, and how to get things done despite countervailing forces. No stranger to Washington, the aviator served as deputy commandant for aviation plans, policy and budgets from 1993-94; served in the Joint Staff’s force structure, resources and assessment branch from 1996-99; and ran that branch from 2002-04, according to his biography.
Those jobs, especially running the J-8 directorate, “make him uniquely qualified,” Christie said. Cartwright and senior Pentagon officials Kenneth Krieg and Ryan Henry “dominated” the planning, programming, budgeting and execution process, Christie said.
Giambastiani and current Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace held senior posts before ascending to the Joint Chiefs, but had little experience in jobs that focused on militarywide acquisition and budgeting.
“But Cartwright certainly does. This is a major difference he’ll have at that first JROC meeting,” said one former official, who requested anonymity because of relationships with those involved.
No one underestimates the forces that resist change. The JROC, which includes the Joint Staff vice chairman and the service vice chiefs, too often is overcome by a culture of “‘I won’t criticize your program if you won’t criticize mine,’” Christie said.
No vice chairman has yet to seriously challenge that mind-set, but Cartwright might use the panel to give a hard look at new proposals.
“General Cartwright is the kind of guy who could give it some teeth,” Christie said.
Cartwright’s Joint Staff service also gives him credibility and a relationship with senior Pentagon leaders, said Andrew Krepinevich, an aide to three defense secretaries and now the director of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Still, the Marine would assume the post at a time when the political environment appears resistant to reform.
“He will be facing an administration in its final two years, and working within one that is preoccupied with Iraq,” Krepinevich said.
What’s more, the White House could well have too “damaged a political capital to make major changes” to the Pentagon’s planned list of acquisition programs, Krepinevich said.
The expected nominee, once on the job, may well opt to direct his focus on rebuilding the Pentagon’s “intellectual architecture for the future” and trying to ensure the department is on a “good footing” when the next president takes office in early 2009, he said.
John Handy, a retired Air Force general, called Cartwright “the perfect guy for the job,” but said he wouldn’t expect big changes.
“The director of the JROC is just another four-star” on that panel, said Handy, a former U.S. Transportation Command chief. “And amongst four-stars, you’re just a four-star. ... The service vices are free to go back to their offices and do whatever they really want to do.”
The nature of the panel will make it tough for Cartwright, or any vice chairman, to give it substantially more muscle, Handy said. “The vice [chairman] is still burdened by all of the services’ individual problems.”
But his track record as J-8 director and later as StratCom chief, Christie said, shows “he’s as purple-suited as anyone in the Pentagon.”
By John T. Bennett - jbennett@militarytimes.com
Posted : June 25, 2007
Marine Gen. James Cartwright, likely the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has garnered broad attention for his innovative moves as U.S. Strategic Command chief. But his years running a key Joint Staff directorate — more than his time in Offutt, Neb. — lead some former officials and defense observers to predict that Cartwright could add muscle to a key Pentagon acquisition panel.
As vice chairman, Cartwright would lead the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, which reviews major proposed weapons.
“It appears General Cartwright will be more likely to throw a sharp elbow” than his predecessor, retiring Adm. Edmund Giambastiani, said Thomas Christie, a former director of the Pentagon’s Operational Testing and Evaluation outfit.
President Bush has said he will tap Cartwright for his new job when he nominates Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Both nominations, requested by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, require Senate confirmation.
Besides the JROC, Cartwright would co-chair two other key Pentagon acquisition posts: the Defense Acquisition Board and the deputy defense secretary’s Defense Acquisition Working Group. The three seats give him great sway over Pentagon decisions to buy or reject weapons.
Cartwright would arrive at the job wearing the mantle of an innovator, a reputation burnished by his creation of five “joint functional component commands” at StratCom. These first-of-their-kind outfits are set up as multiservice organizations to coordinate U.S. military efforts around the globe, handling “day-to-day planning and execution of primary mission areas: space; global strike and integration; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; network warfare; integrated missile defense; and combating weapons of mass destruction,” according to a StratCom fact sheet.
Many defense officials regard creation of the JFCCs as a key success for Cartwright.
Several former officials said Cartwright knows how the Pentagon works, and how to get things done despite countervailing forces. No stranger to Washington, the aviator served as deputy commandant for aviation plans, policy and budgets from 1993-94; served in the Joint Staff’s force structure, resources and assessment branch from 1996-99; and ran that branch from 2002-04, according to his biography.
Those jobs, especially running the J-8 directorate, “make him uniquely qualified,” Christie said. Cartwright and senior Pentagon officials Kenneth Krieg and Ryan Henry “dominated” the planning, programming, budgeting and execution process, Christie said.
Giambastiani and current Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace held senior posts before ascending to the Joint Chiefs, but had little experience in jobs that focused on militarywide acquisition and budgeting.
“But Cartwright certainly does. This is a major difference he’ll have at that first JROC meeting,” said one former official, who requested anonymity because of relationships with those involved.
No one underestimates the forces that resist change. The JROC, which includes the Joint Staff vice chairman and the service vice chiefs, too often is overcome by a culture of “‘I won’t criticize your program if you won’t criticize mine,’” Christie said.
No vice chairman has yet to seriously challenge that mind-set, but Cartwright might use the panel to give a hard look at new proposals.
“General Cartwright is the kind of guy who could give it some teeth,” Christie said.
Cartwright’s Joint Staff service also gives him credibility and a relationship with senior Pentagon leaders, said Andrew Krepinevich, an aide to three defense secretaries and now the director of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Still, the Marine would assume the post at a time when the political environment appears resistant to reform.
“He will be facing an administration in its final two years, and working within one that is preoccupied with Iraq,” Krepinevich said.
What’s more, the White House could well have too “damaged a political capital to make major changes” to the Pentagon’s planned list of acquisition programs, Krepinevich said.
The expected nominee, once on the job, may well opt to direct his focus on rebuilding the Pentagon’s “intellectual architecture for the future” and trying to ensure the department is on a “good footing” when the next president takes office in early 2009, he said.
John Handy, a retired Air Force general, called Cartwright “the perfect guy for the job,” but said he wouldn’t expect big changes.
“The director of the JROC is just another four-star” on that panel, said Handy, a former U.S. Transportation Command chief. “And amongst four-stars, you’re just a four-star. ... The service vices are free to go back to their offices and do whatever they really want to do.”
The nature of the panel will make it tough for Cartwright, or any vice chairman, to give it substantially more muscle, Handy said. “The vice [chairman] is still burdened by all of the services’ individual problems.”
But his track record as J-8 director and later as StratCom chief, Christie said, shows “he’s as purple-suited as anyone in the Pentagon.”