The Center for Defense Information (CDI) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C.
[2] The Center for Defense Information was founded in 1971 by an independent group of retired military officers including Adm. Gene La Rocque and Adm. Eugene Carroll.
Winslow T. Wheeler, a former Capitol Hill staffer and General Accounting Office assistant director, directs the Straus Military Reform Project at CDI.
[6] Since the mid-2000s, CDI has focused on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II as what it says is the embodiment of the Pentagon's acquisition problems—being both unaffordable and a huge disappointment in performance.
In 2012, the World Security Institute closed,[7] and CDI merged with the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).