Thursday, April 25, 2024
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.
The Pentagon acquisition czar is moving to assert oversight of a fast-moving and potentially big-ticket Army and Marine Corps effort to field thousands of armored vehicles that promise improved protection against roadside bombs.
The Defense Department is seeking congressional permission to add as many as three deputy chiefs of staff to the Army staff.
The Army and Marine Corps are $5 billion short of what they require in fiscal year 2008 to acquire a fleet of armored vehicles designed to provide better protection against roadside bombs -- the scourge of U.S. forces in Iraq -- than the current fleet of humvees.
U.S. Special Operations Command has identified $391 million in needs for new weapons and technology research that require funding in fiscal year 2008 beyond resources requested by the Pentagon, funding that would provide commandos with improved ability to operate at night and funds to replace an advanced heavy lift helicopter lost in a crash last year.
The Marine Corps has spelled out $3.2 billion in requirements for fiscal year 2008 beyond programs funded in the Pentagon's FY-08 budget request, including $2.8 billion to rapidly field to Iraq a fleet of wheeled vehicles with better protection against roadside bombs than the current fleet of humvees.
The Army has identified more than $10 billion in requirements that are not funded in the president's fiscal year 2008 budget request, including $8.2 billion for combat vehicles that offer improved protection against roadside bombs, tactical trucks, ammunition and other equipment key to forces operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Pentagon comptroller has directed the Army and Navy to pony up $68.5 million to fund missile research and development in an account that could be used to revive the Joint Common Missile -- or something like it -- more than two years after the Office of the Secretary of Defense moved to terminate the program.
The Defense Department is packing a six-year spending plan with $1.8 billion in new and enhanced programs designed to train and equip foreign forces to assist the U.S. military in counterterrorism operations, according to internal budget documents.
The Defense Department's new spending proposal slashes $500 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency -- the U.S. military's flagship research and development shop -- and includes $300 million for a controversial program to modernize the U.S. military's nuclear weapons arsenal, according to internal budget documents.
The Pentagon has fully funded the system development and demonstration phase of the Joint High Speed Vessel, directing the Army to reinstate hundreds of millions of dollars between fiscal years 2008 and 2011 for the new ship, according to internal budget documents.
The Defense Department is steering tens of millions of dollars toward new homeland defense missions and initiatives that include a fledgling U.S.-Canadian effort to protect against maritime threats, funding a Joint Task Force-Alaska, and preparing a national Homeland Security Plan.
Tina Jonas, the Pentagon's comptroller, has shifted $578.3 million from Army and Air Force research and development accounts to the Navy, which will manage the development of the Joint Tactical Radio System, according to previously undisclosed budget documents.
The Defense Department has revised the economic assumptions underpinning its fiscal year 2008 budget proposal -- accounting for factors such as a weak U.S. dollar against foreign currencies and slightly higher inflation rates -- that require the military services to absorb a net loss of $2.6 billion in costs associated with this new forecast.
The Air Force's entire roster of major weapon system programs and its $135 billion budget request for fiscal year 2008 emerged relatively unscathed from the Office of the Secretary of Defense's review last month, according to previously undisclosed Pentagon budget documents.
In a bid to give an Air Force general at least one regional combatant command and break the Navy's tradition of leadership across the Asia-Pacific Rim, Air Force leaders are lobbying the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff to nominate an airman to lead U.S. Pacific Command.
The Pentagon has for the first time drawn up a short list of the "most pressing" needs of combatant commanders that will be used to shape requirements for new weapon systems and is already influencing where the Defense Department invests billions of dollars for tomorrow's ships, aircraft and guns.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates this morning announced plans to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps by 92,000 personnel in a bid to increase combat capability and relieve stress on U.S. ground forces stretched thin by the high pace of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has issued a raft of changes aimed at ensuring National Guard and Reserve forces remain healthy, while at the same time widening the pool of reservists available to deploy to Iraq and elsewhere.
President Bush tonight is expected to announce plans to increase the permanent size of U.S. ground forces by as many as 90,000 uniformed personnel, the first such significant boost in end-strength since the fall of the Soviet Union, according to defense officials.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is preparing a $5.6 billion package as part of the Pentagon's fiscal year 2007 supplemental spending request to pay for what senior administration officials say will be a "surge" of more than 21,000 additional troops to Iraq.