Thursday, May 2, 2024
Key Issues HADES deployment SAOC contract FORGE framework
Jason Sherman is a reporter for Inside Defense. For more than two decades -- including stints with Defense News and Armed Forces Journal -- he has covered the Pentagon, defense industry, the military budget, weapon system acquisition and defense policy formulation as well as reporting on technology, business, and global arms trade. Jason has traveled to more than 40 countries, studied medieval history at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and lives in Brooklyn.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has dismissed concerns raised by the four military service chiefs that portions of a new defense strategy present too much risk, approving a blueprint for the Pentagon to swing its focus away from preparing for major conventional wars in order to be ready for more Iraq-like missions.
The weakening U.S. dollar is forcing the Pentagon to hunt for more than $500 million to pay for goods and services overseas in foreign currencies and keep solvent a range of accounts that fund personnel and operations needs, as well as security assistance and classified intelligence programs.
The Pentagon's top officer today said the military's acquisition system is riddled with systemic challenges that generate "way too many major programs whose costs have gone sky high," adding that the Defense Department needs to rein in requirements in an effort to curtail outlays necessary for new weapon systems.
The Pentagon's acquisition chief is warning all weapon system program managers that unforeseen future cost growth will be paid for out of hide, a new policy that aims to provide a measure of funding stability to the Defense Department's procurement accounts, but one that could penalize projects with rising costs by scaling back planned capabilities or quantities.
Buffeted by a recent congressional audit that found weapon system programs experiencing skyrocketing cost growth, the Defense Department's chief weapons buyer today offered a vigorous defense of the military acquisition system, asserting that recent cost-growth trends signal an improvement, not a crisis.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense is wrestling with how to package a future war-cost spending request that will ultimately be the responsibility of an Obama or McCain administration, a debate that pivots on whether any portion of military supplemental appropriations requests can be incorporated into the fiscal year 2010 base budget proposal.
The Pentagon last week put into effect a new rule that effectively requires the U.S. military to break up task and delivery order contracts valued at $100 million or more and award them to at least two firms, a policy that is expected to influence deals for privatized maintenance of major weapons systems and logistics support to operational troops.
Concerned by data suggesting that rotorcraft losses are increasing, key House lawmakers have concluded U.S. military helicopters are not "as safe or survivable" as they could be and are proposing legislation that would direct the Pentagon to undertake a comprehensive review of recent mishaps to determine what might be done to reduce accidents.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive is convening a weekend meeting to conduct an in-depth review of the Future Combat Systems program just as Army leaders are poised to decide whether to significantly restructure the complex set of air-, ground- and communications systems that collectively comprise its No. 1 modernization effort.
The Pentagon this week suggested that it may not be able to fully repay Air Force and Navy accounts that are providing more than a third of the $9.7 billion "emergency" reprogramming announced yesterday to fund Army operations in Iraq and Afghanistan if Congress does not raise the cap on the amounts the Defense Department is permitted to shift between accounts.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has directed a new, sweeping assessment of the U.S. military's vertical-lift needs, aiming to harmonize -- where possible -- service-specific requirements in a bid to map a coherent acquisition path for all future helicopter and tiltrotor acquisitions.
Congress wants the next administration to establish a new standing advisory panel to improve cooperation among the three arms of the federal government responsible for defense, diplomacy and international development, the latest effort to improve coordination among bureaucracies whose overseas missions are expected to be increasingly intertwined, as they are in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon's acquisition chief has directed an influential advisory panel to wrestle with one of the most vexing challenges to U.S. military dominance -- how to avoid being caught flatfooted by an adversary wielding an unexpected capability that could cancel out the advantages of the world's most advanced armed forces.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive is urging Defense Department program managers to invite independent experts to critique their efforts, a step often associated with programs facing challenges but one he believes all weapon systems could benefit from -- including those not facing particular scrutiny.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates is set to approve a new strategy that calls for greater emphasis on irregular operations, solidifying in a key Pentagon planning document his recent public admonitions that the military services must shift their focus away from preparing for conventional fights against superpowers in favor of plans for more Iraq-like missions.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has asked an influential Pentagon advisory board headed by a leading Democratic military expert to identify defense issues beyond Iraq and Afghanistan that the next administration must be prepared to deal with, according to Pentagon officials.
A key congressional defense committee believes industry is not maximizing its production capacity in order to support the Pentagon's top acquisition program -- the life-saving Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle.
The Pentagon wants to recruit officials from other federal agencies to help the military better understand the dynamics underlying the recent price increases affecting commodities like food and fuel -- trends that senior Defense Department officials believe will have national security implications, according to defense officials.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive has directed the Air Force to pony up an additional $1.8 billion to fully fund its newly restructured C-5 cargo plane modernization program in its new six-year investment plan -- now being developed -- as a condition of allowing the effort to proceed, according to Defense Department documents obtained by InsideDefense.com.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates last week launched the 2008 roles and missions review, approving a framework for the assessment that requires the Pentagon to define the "core competencies" of the military as well as examine the division of labor among the military services across seven specific areas.