Wednesday, March 19, 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.
Singapore's decision to buy as many as 20 new F-15 fighters will keep Boeing's combat aircraft production line warm through 2009 and give Air Force officials the option to buy additional F-15s if the Quadrennial Defense Review truncates procurement plans for the Joint Strike Fighter or the F/A-22, according to a defense analyst.
Gordon England, the acting deputy defense secretary, is weighing far-reaching changes to the Pentagon's complex acquisition system that include empowering the combatant commanders -- rather than the military services -- to dictate requirements for new weapon systems.
NEW YORK -- Navy and Marine Corps efforts to provide relief to communities devastated by last year's Asian tsunami constitute the most significant victory to date in the global war on terrorism, according to a senior Pentagon official.
NEW YORK -- Navy leaders hope to bring stability to shipbuilding accounts by firmly sticking to a requirement for a 313-ship fleet and not tinkering with acquisition plans in the service's five-year spending plan, according to a senior service official.
NEW YORK -- A senior Pentagon official overseeing the Quadrennial Defense Review told investment bankers and defense industry representatives here that the Defense Department has "plenty" of money to invest in new capabilities, stressing that the U.S. military is enjoying a budget that has grown 40 percent over the last four years.
NEW YORK -- Senior Army officials are circling the wagons to protect the crown jewel of the service's modernization effort, the Future Combat System, a network of 18 different platforms that service officials say is as essential to ground forces as aircraft carriers are to the Navy.
The Air Force is eyeing cuts across its entire personnel operation -- including all categories of uniformed and civilian workers -- in a bid to avoid cutting its weapon system modernization accounts, according to Pentagon officials.
The Defense Department is directing the Army to hand over to U.S. Special Operations Command five high-speed ships to ferry troops and equipment, according to Pentagon officials.
Kuwait is eyeing a $175 million arms deal that would provide its navy with high-speed, U.S.-made military boats to protect its territorial waters and offshore oil production facilities from terrorist attacks, according to the Defense Department.
The first wave of Pentagon budget decisions has largely spared the military's major programs.
Acting Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed a long-awaited directive on stability operations this week, handing the under secretary of defense for policy far-reaching powers to shape the Pentagon's approach to stabilizing and rebuilding failed or failing states.
The Defense Department is preparing to issue a series of classified budget decisions next week that Pentagon officials anticipate will detail the key results of its nearly 10-month long Quadrennial Defense Review, including the programs to be terminated or pared back.
For the first time since the creation of a new national intelligence director's office, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has issued a directive detailing the responsibilities of the Pentagon's intelligence executive and spelling out the military's jurisdiction over intel activities.
The Pentagon has set an aggressive schedule for the completion of its new defense budget and is poised this week to begin advising the services of what weapon system programs will soon be cut.
The Pentagon's intelligence chief has outlined new guidelines for the U.S. military to follow in acquiring information dealing with espionage, sabotage, terrorism, assassinations or other intelligence activities conducted by terrorists or foreign powers.
The Defense Department has begun compiling the findings of its nine-month assessment of U.S. military force structure, modernization plans and roles and missions, preparing a draft report that is expected to begin circulating within the Pentagon by mid-December.
The Defense Department is drawing up a short list of Army, Navy and Air Force weapon system programs that could be terminated or significantly pared back in the coming weeks as the Pentagon's fiscal year 2007 budget request takes final shape.
PHOENIX -- A key senior Pentagon official today sought to lower expectations for next Monday's high-level Quadrennial Defense Review meeting, which is expected to be a forum for final decisions on changes to service force structure and weapon system procurement plans.
The Navy's top brass is reshuffling its Pentagon staff responsible for the development and procurement of submarines, ships and naval aircraft, giving a single three-star admiral oversight of the services' near- and long-term weapon system investment decisions.
The Defense Department must "act with dispatch" to improve its ability to conduct post-conflict stability operations, a high-level advisory panel to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has recommended.