Sunday, March 16, 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 Navy and Missile Defense Agency are studying options for defending ships against short-range ballistic missiles, including a new, unorthodox alternative -- equipping fighter aircraft with interceptors like the most advanced version of the Patriot, according to Navy documents and sources.
The Navy has quashed an internal proposal by two senior officials to avoid delivering a 30-year shipbuilding plan to Congress this summer, according to Pentagon officials and documents.
U.S. Joint Forces Command this week convened the second meeting of a blue-ribbon advisory panel assembled to critique and advise the Norfolk-based command's efforts to transform the capabilities of the American military.
A recent high-level Navy assessment of future sea-service needs that calls for a 260-ship fleet and paring back select Marine Corps capabilities is drawing sharp criticism from senior Marine generals.
U.S. military leaders guiding the Quadrennial Defense Review were at an all-day meeting today to consider what major changes in combat gear and force structure are necessary to improve the Pentagon's ability to wage a long-term battle against sophisticated terrorist networks.
The Joint Staff has standardized definitions of a wide range of military activities in a way that sets the stage for major changes to the Pentagon's weapon system procurement practices.
A special adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has examined what to do with the Office of Force Transformation in light of the unexpected departure of Arthur Cebrowski, its founder and intellectual leader, and recommended no changes to the organization.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is laying plans for a special summer meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to consider significantly realigning the military bureaucracy and budget, according to sources.
Two high-level advisory boards are accelerating work on a pair of key studies -- examining military transformation and reducing vulnerabilities to weapons of mass destruction -- in a bid to influence the ongoing Quadrennial Defense Review.
For a second consecutive year, the Pentagon is set to give combatant commanders a greater voice in shaping the Defense Department's annual spending proposal.
The Pentagon's acquisition czar-nominee pledged at a Senate confirmation hearing today to work to protect the U.S. military's procurement system from fraud and abuse in the wake of recent scandals over major Air Force weapon system programs.
The Pentagon is considering trimming the Navy's planned fleet of 11 aircraft carriers to 10 in order to find money for new military capabilities needed to better contend with irregular, catastrophic and disruptive challenges, according to Pentagon sources and documents.
The 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review is set to take up what the White House calls one of the greatest security challenges facing the United States -- the prospect of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of terrorists or hostile states.
The Navy is drafting a new strategy to guide its transition from a fleet optimized to fight a conventional adversary on the high seas to a service better able to deal with a wider range of threats presented by the global war on terrorism.
Senior military officials leading last Saturday's inaugural Quadrennial Defense Review meeting determined that one of the capabilities essential for an effective military contribution to homeland defense does not reside in a camouflaged warehouse or combat schoolhouse.
An advisory panel to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is evaluating the long-term viability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile in an assessment that could lay the groundwork for a new class of nuclear weapons.
Decisions on weapon system investments made in the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review are set to dominate changes to the Pentagon's spending plans this fall, according to defense documents and officials.
The Defense Department is directing the services to consider the capabilities needed to aid civil authorities in the aftermath of massive terrorist attacks on at least two American cities.
Senior Pentagon officials this Saturday will delve into nightmarish scenarios of catastrophic terrorist attacks on U.S. soil in a bid to figure out how the military can best defend the American homeland and provide support to civil authorities in the aftermath of such an attack.
The Navy and Coast Guard are considering expanding a cooperative port harbor surveillance pilot program to give more American harbors a command and control operations center capable of coordinating a response to a maritime terrorist threat.