Thursday, May 16, 2024
Key Issues USAF depot plan LSM design FLRAA program schedule
The Air Force's shortage of precision guided munitions must be addressed by increasing the purchases of new PGMs beyond the quantities requested in the fiscal year 2002 budget, Air Combat Command chief Gen. John Jumper said today.
The administration's nominee for defense research and engineering director said today that the Defense Department's intent to increase science and technology spending to 3 percent of the defense budget is a realistic goal, but added that DOD must continue to balance S&T needs with other budget requirements.
The Air Force is considering a reduced presence in Iceland as a means of saving money, the service secretary told lawmakers today.
The Defense Department does not intend to send to Congress a detailed spending plan for beyond fiscal year 2002 until after the Quadrennial Defense Review is complete, senior DOD officials said today.
Air Force Secretary James Roche told lawmakers yesterday that the service will seek to reduce the size of the B-52 bomber fleet beginning in fiscal year 2003 and use the savings to make the remaining B-52s more effective.
Senior Defense Department officials confirmed to Congress this week that the F-22 Raptor will enter the next phase of its testing program no sooner than April 2003, a still-risky schedule requiring more funding.
Despite the Bush administration's plans to add $18.4 billion to the fiscal year 2002 defense budget, the military services last week delivered to Congress lists of unfunded priorities totaling $32.4 billion, according to documents obtained by InsideDefense.com.
The Air Force has decided a fleet of 60 "effective" B-1 bombers is better than the 93 less efficient aircraft it flies today, a reduction that will save the service at least $130 million in fiscal year 2002 by drawing down the force, service budget director Maj. Gen. Larry Northington told reporters today.
The Defense Department lost the right to keep a report about National Missile Defense test shortcomings from the public when it began restructuring the NMD program to address the report's findings, Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) said in a letter yesterday to the DOD general counsel.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's conventional forces panel today dealt another blow to several embattled programs, naming them as potential billpayers that could free up $10 billion over the future years defense plan if they are canceled.
Israel has reached an agreement with Lockheed Martin to purchase 52 new F-16 fighters, the company announced today.
Future military procurement requirements are more fluid than commonly asserted, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments asserts in a report released today, and several common assumptions about funding needs are essentially "myths," according to study author Steven Kosiak.
The panel chartered by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to find ways to transform the military released its findings today, targeting the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle and Navy Joint Strike Fighter variant as acceleration candidates.
NATO today voiced limited support for President Bush's plans to engage U.S. allies in National Missile Defense negotiations and to pursue cuts in numbers of U.S. nuclear weapons independent of formal treaties.
PHILADELPHIA -- Senior naval officials laid out the plan to correct deficiencies in the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey yesterday and bring the aircraft into operational use -- itemizing a tentative plan approved late last week by Pentagon acquisition executive Pete Aldridge.
DAYTON, OH -- Ohio Rep. David Hobson (R) said yesterday he feels the Joint Strike Fighter's future is the most secure of three major combat aircraft acquisition programs -- JSF, the F-22 fighter and the V-22 tiltrotor.
ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, MD -- Brig. Gen. Francis Taylor, director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, is President Bush's choice to become the State Department coordinator for counterterrorism after he retires from command of the investigative agency today.
Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson (R) has asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to base F-22 Raptors at Mountain Home Air Force Base.
In a speech today outlining national security priorities, President Bush said he will move quickly to cut the number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal, with the goal of leaving the smallest number of weapons needed to meet national security goals.
A V-22 Osprey undergoing operational evaluation in February 2000 experienced a catastrophic hydraulic failure similar to one that led to a fatal crash in North Carolina later that year, but the program manager told Congress today the V-22 office was not informed of the incident until last week.