Jason Sherman

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.

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Daily News | September 26, 2007

Navy officials today are meeting with General Dynamics to discuss the service's recent request to switch the contract for the Littoral Combat Ship to a fixed-price deal in a bid to rein in ballooning costs for the design and construction of the shore-hugging vessels, according to a source familiar with the discussions.

Daily News | September 24, 2007

The Defense Department's top requirements officer has directed the Army to articulate its overarching strategy for modernizing and sustaining its wheeled-vehicle fleet over the next dozen years, a vision that should address long-term plans for 10,000 new blast-proof trucks the service seeks to acquire.

Daily News | September 21, 2007

Concerns about the adequacy of a plan to replace the U.S. military's humvee fleet with a newly designed, next-generation family of vehicles have prompted the Pentagon to put the brakes on the Army and Marine Corps' Joint Light Tactical Vehicle competition.

Daily News | September 20, 2007

The Pentagon's move to raise the number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles it aims to acquire for the Army is based on what the Office of the Secretary of Defense believes the industrial base can produce in the near term, according to a senior Army official.

Daily News | September 20, 2007

The Defense Department appears to be setting the stage for fielding Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles -- heretofore designated only for troops in Iraq -- to U.S. personnel in Afghanistan, a development that would expand the use of the new blast-proof trucks into a second operational theater and might have implications for the total size of the program.

Daily News | September 19, 2007

The Defense Department wants to keep select spending accounts, including those funding high-priority weapon system programs like the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle effort, flush with cash in case the new fiscal year begins before a new base budget or war spending package is passed by Congress.

Daily News | September 17, 2007

Hoping to make sure newly minted Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles are ready to be whisked to Iraq as soon as possible, the Defense Department is working to slash the time required to outfit them with communications, navigation and classified radio-jamming capabilities from nearly a month down to a week, according to government officials.

Daily News | September 14, 2007

While the Army is slated to receive the lion's share of the Pentagon's new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle fleet, the service's logisticians will eventually face a daunting task -- maintaining an armada of different blast-proof trucks manufactured by five different vendors.

Daily News | September 12, 2007

The military services are putting the finishing touches on their estimates of how much money will be needed to continue operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in fiscal year 2009, a rough calculation that, according to Pentagon officials, is expected to total somewhere between $140 billion and $200 billion.

Daily News | September 11, 2007

It's official: the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle program has formally joined the ranks of the Defense Department's big-ticket weapon programs.

Daily News | September 10, 2007

The Defense Department is planning to award contracts next month for additional Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in order to avoid a production gap, giving armored truck makers adequate time to order materials necessary to sustain peak manufacturing rates into early spring, according to a senior Pentagon official.

Daily News | September 7, 2007

The Army's war costs in fiscal year 2008 are poised to exceed $110 billion, at least $25 billion more than the Pentagon projected would be needed earlier this year to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including a larger troop presence in Baghdad, new blast-proof trucks and new initiatives proposed by Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff.

Daily News | September 6, 2007

The Pentagon is poised to cap the size of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle program at approximately 14,000 vehicles, setting up a need for approximately 6,000 additional blast-proof trucks next year and requiring up to $9 billion more in fiscal year 2008, according to defense sources.

Daily News | September 5, 2007

The Pentagon is drafting a new strategic construct that strives to better prepare for "shocks" to national security and international order that are caused by non-military factors, scrutinizing global "trends" across a wide range of disciplines from demographics to economics to developments in science and technology.

Daily News | September 4, 2007

The five vendors building Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles for the Defense Department will be permitted to compete for new MRAP II deals by simply modifying their original proposals, a step that will save each of the companies considerable time and paperwork.

Daily News | August 31, 2007

U.S. military leaders have boosted the Army's share of the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle fleet to nearly two-thirds, assigning the ground service 95 percent of the blast-proof trucks ordered in the final batch of fiscal year 2007 production contracts.

Daily News | August 30, 2007

An influential advisory panel to Defense Secretary Robert Gates has recommended a new six-point plan, with a $4 billion annual price tag, to deal with one of the most vexing national security challenges -- protecting the United States against weapons of mass destruction.

Daily News | August 30, 2007

The Defense Science Board is establishing a permanent advisory group to support the Pentagon's intelligence shop -- as well as the wider federal intelligence community -- on a broad range of matters, including the acquisition of intel systems.

Daily News | August 28, 2007

The military services this week are preparing formal requests to alter the shape of the Pentagon's $511 billion base budget request for fiscal year 2009, the opening moves in a four- month process of executive branch review that could alter the Defense Department's weapon system investment plans.

Daily News | August 23, 2007

The Defense Department says four major weapon system programs -- including the Air Force's billion-dollar-plus B-2 Radar Modernization Program -- are facing schedule delays of at least six months, a slip that requires the status of the projects to be reported to Congress.

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