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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Archived Articles
Daily News | August 7, 2007

Congress has officially blessed the Pentagon's July 17 request to shift $1.16 billion between accounts to procure additional Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, setting the stage for additional production orders of as many as 725 blast-proof trucks.

Daily News | August 3, 2007

Operational bosses at U.S. Central and U.S. Special Operations commands, in concert with Pentagon leaders, have in recent weeks allocated the Army nearly 60 percent of the total number of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle fleet ordered to date, according to Pentagon officials.

Daily News | August 3, 2007

A powerful House committee is directing the Defense Department to consolidate requests for fiscal year 2009 war spending into its base budget proposal, a first step toward remedying what lawmakers assert is "fiscal flabbiness" that has "infected" the Pentagon's budgeting process on the Bush administration's watch.

Daily News | August 2, 2007

The Navy late yesterday awarded Northrop Grumman a $635 million contract to develop critical technologies for a pilotless jet designed to operate on aircraft carriers, giving the California-based defense contractor a leg up in a high-stakes competition with rival Boeing to lead the Unmanned Combat Aircraft Systems-Navy program, a potentially multibillion-dollar effort.

Daily News | August 2, 2007

The House Appropriations Committee has directed a significant reordering of the Pentagon's budget structure to give much greater visibility to the approximately $20 billion annually spent on space programs, a move that budget experts say will make it more difficult for space program budgets to be raided to pay for other modernization efforts.

Daily News | August 2, 2007

Precisely how many MRAP II vehicles, the next class of blast-proof trucks designed to protect against explosively formed penetrators, does the Pentagon want?

Daily News | August 1, 2007

In a bid to increase the number of blast-proof trucks fielded to U.S. troops in Iraq, the Pentagon yesterday opened the competition to build Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles to at least 14 new companies -- including foreign concerns -- asking for proposals for a new version of the vehicle, MRAP II, capable of stopping explosively formed penetrators.

Daily News | August 1, 2007

The $5.3 billion boost in Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle spending requested by the White House yesterday is merely a down payment toward the total amount the Pentagon will require for MRAP production in the next fiscal year, providing only enough money to purchase less than a fifth of the blast-proof trucks the Defense Department plans to buy, according to the administration.

Daily News | August 1, 2007

The Pentagon plans to wait until the proverbial eleventh hour in the current fiscal year to disclose exactly how many additional billions of dollars it requires on top of the $147 billion it has already sought for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a move that will stretch debates about war funding into at least October.

Daily News | July 31, 2007

The Defense Department is preparing a new $5.3 billion spending request to purchase thousands of additional Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in fiscal year 2008, bringing the two-year total slated at this point for the blast-proof truck program to more than $11 billion.

Daily News | July 27, 2007

Pentagon officials leading the charge to field as many blast-proof trucks to Iraq as possible face a vexing dilemma -- what to do with scores of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles purchased last winter that had difficulties in survivability tests this spring.

Daily News | July 23, 2007

The powerful House Appropriations defense subcommittee has slashed $139 million, or more than a third, of Pentagon-requested funding in fiscal year 2008 for a controversial plan to establish a U.S. missile defense capability in Europe.

Daily News | July 22, 2007

The Pentagon late Friday awarded International Military and Government a $414 million contract to build an additional 755 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, a deal that gives the Illinois-headquartered truck builder a total of 1,971 orders and nudges it ahead of Force Protection and General Dynamics Land System for the largest share of the growing MRAP work.

Daily News | July 20, 2007

The Army has slashed by half the total number of vehicles operating in Iraq that it considers capable of withstanding blasts from roadside bombs, a change that reflects a new view that part of its armored wheeled vehicle fleet is more vulnerable to improvised explosive devices than previously thought.

Daily News | July 19, 2007

Pentagon assertions that Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle production will increase by 60 percent this year are based on pledges made by MRAP makers competing for additional orders, not on independent industrial estimates worked up by the Defense Department.

Daily News | July 19, 2007

The Pentagon, which is preparing a preliminary spending request to cover the purchase of 8,000 additional Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles in fiscal year 2008, plans to increase its funding proposal in September if makers of the blast-proof trucks demonstrate the ability to produce additional vehicles, according to a senior Defense Department official.

Daily News | July 18, 2007

The Defense Department yesterday proposed a pair of reprogramming actions to maximize the production of blast-proof Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, asking Congress for the authority to boost spending for the vehicle program by more than $1.1 billion and keep more than $400 million already transferred to MRAP, according to Pentagon documents.

Daily News | July 18, 2007

The Defense Department's $1.1 billion reprogramming proposal for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle program would provide funds for an additional 1,480 vehicles during fiscal year 2007, bringing the total number of vehicles on order to 6,415, according to senior Pentagon officials.

Daily News | July 18, 2007

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is planning major revisions to the Pentagon's $141.7 billion war spending request for fiscal year 2008 to account for new requirements, including the purchase of as many as 12,000 new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, an effort expected to cost at least $10 billion.

Daily News | July 17, 2007

The Defense Department is preparing to boost funding for the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle program by as much as $1.5 billion, which could lift total spending for in fiscal year 2007 as high as $5.3 billion and raise prospects for additional production orders during the last 10 weeks of the fiscal year.

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