Wednesday, January 15, 2025
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 Defense Department wants to equip select National Guard units with new non-lethal weapons to ensure troops under the command of state governors responsible for large population centers, as well as areas along the border with Mexico, finance hubs and territories at risk of damage from massive hurricanes, are equipped with capabilities beyond traditional firearms.
The Defense Department is seeking permission from Congress to shift $4.4 billion between dozens of accounts in order to prevent paychecks from bouncing during the final months of the fiscal year and to launch a few new-start weapons programs, including an effort to prevent B-2 bombers from crashing.
The Bush administration has proposed a long-awaited set of significant enhancements to Pakistan's air force in a potential $5.1 billion deal that includes three dozen new F-16 fighter aircraft, new weapons and upgrades to the South Asian country's existing fighter fleet.
The Defense Department is seeking $8.6 billion to buy new weapon systems needed to support operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during the first part of fiscal year 2007, a sum well above what lawmakers so far have authorized and appropriated.
The Defense Department is preparing to seek permission from lawmakers to shift hundreds of millions of dollars from low-priority projects to higher-need programs that reflect unforeseen military requirements in the final months of fiscal year 2006, according to Pentagon officials.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has set forth a collection of priorities intended to guide the Pentagon for the remainder of the Bush administration's second term, a list that calls for "significantly improving military intelligence capabilities" and meeting the challenge of roadside bombs, a scourge of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Defense Department is preparing to present Congress its formal proposal for how to spend $50 billion in supplemental funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Senate this afternoon passed an amendment to the fiscal year 2007 defense authorization bill permitting the Air Force to enter into a multiyear procurement contract to purchase F-22A fighter aircraft, opening the door for prime contractor Lockheed Martin and the Air Force to possibly extend production beyond the current planned buy of 183 aircraft.
Military experts are questioning whether the Defense Department has the ability to intercept an incoming long-range ballistic missile following news reports indicating that the Pentagon has activated a system designed to protect U.S. territory from a possible North Korean missile launch.
U.S. military forces are "unlikely to very unlikely" to employ non-lethal weapons when deployed in support of civilian authorities in the aftermath of a domestic disaster, according to the officer in charge of U.S. Northern Command.
A new, independent assessment of the F-22A fighter aircraft program says the Air Force might realize only half the savings its leaders have said could be gained by consolidating its remaining purchases of F-22A aircraft into a single, multiyear procurement contract.
Negotiations this week between U.S. and British officials over the transfer of sensitive technologies key to the next-generation Joint Strike Fighter reached an impasse on the eve of a high-level, bilateral meeting Thursday intended to resolve the issue, threatening to prolong a festering disagreement between the two allies.
The Defense Department is seeking expanded authority to protect select military and civilian personnel deemed "high-risk" targets for possible terrorist attacks, both in the United States and abroad, by employing security guards empowered to conduct arrests.
The Defense Department plans to offer the Department of Homeland Security new assistance to enhance its planning for short-notice, large-scale mobilizations in response to domestic disasters, according to a senior Pentagon official.
The Defense Department has hammered out an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security to place Navy ships under Coast Guard command for domestic counterterrorism actions, a "largely unprecedented" arrangement designed to enhance maritime homeland security missions, according to a senior Pentagon official.
NEW YORK -- The Defense Department next month plans to demonstrate a rapidly deployable air defense package that could protect high-profile national events against cruise missiles and other low-flying threats.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has directed the U.S. military to expand its capacity to respond to multiple, near-simultaneous domestic terrorist attacks involving weapons of mass destruction, calling for the armed forces to be prepared to deal with a dozen different scenarios involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosives (CBRNE).
The Defense Department is planning to further consolidate its military intelligence programs this summer under its new management umbrella as part of an ongoing effort to better administrate the Pentagon's vast intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities.
The Army, Navy and Marine Corps are wrapping up first drafts of their respective six-year spending plans, classified documents that spell out what weapon system programs each proposes to fund as well as those targeted for cuts between fiscal years 2008 to 2013, according to Pentagon officials.
President Bush has codified a number of changes to the U.S. military's command structure in an update of the Pentagon's Unified Command Plan, realigning territorial responsibilities and assigning new missions to the top brass who oversee American forces around the world.