Saturday, April 20, 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 Missile Defense Agency is proposing what is effectively a new, billion-dollar radar program beginning in fiscal year 2019 to shore up sensor coverage over the Pacific to protect the nation from long-range ballistic missile threats, seeking funds to begin surveying potential sites for what is called Homeland Defense Radar-Pacific.
Raytheon is holding in abeyance planned deliveries of the newest variant of the Standard Missile-3 -- the Block IIA interceptor -- pending the outcome of an investigation into the cause of a failure during a major ballistic missile defense flight test last month, according to company officials.
The Army's fiscal year 2019 budget request seeks funding to launch research and technology projects that aim to spawn new ways to strike the enemy -- the vanguard of capability development spawned by the service's Multi-Domain Battle concept -- with an eye toward a potential land-based, anti-ship missile and a new single, multimission attack missile.
The estimated price tag to develop the Air Force's new intercontinental ballistic missile is now $21.7 billion -- a 20 percent jump compared to the service's estimate last year -- a revision that comes after Northrop Grumman and Boeing were tapped last summer to develop prototypes for a Minuteman III replacement.
The Air Force has revealed the development cost of the Long Range Standoff Weapon to be $4.5 billion, nearly half the tab for the next-generation nuclear cruise missile the service tallied two years ago, according to service budget documents.
The Defense Department is ratcheting up planned funding for the Conventional Prompt Strike program and plans to hand responsibility for the project -- the U.S. military's marquee effort to develop an intermediate-range, non-nuclear hypersonic weapon -- to the Navy beginning in fiscal year 2020.
The Strategic Capabilities Office is seeking nearly $1.5 billion in fiscal year 2019 -- an increase of more than 20 percent over FY-18 -- to develop new and surprising ways of using existing technology to bolster conventional deterrence against China and Russia.
The Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are seeking more than $400 million in fiscal year 2019 -- up about 160 percent from the FY-18 request -- to mature "game-changing" technologies for potential aircraft-launched, hypersonic-strike weapons.
Army leaders are asking Congress to plow $3 billion more than previously forecast into the service's missiles account in fiscal year 2019 -- an increase of nearly 140 percent compared to the FY-19 forecast the Pentagon published last year -- with major increases for the Guided Missile Launch Rocket System, Patriot MSE missile, and modifications of Army Tactical Missile System programs.
The Defense Department is seeking permission from Congress to negotiate a pair of multiyear contracts with Raytheon for Standard Missiles worth nearly $4 billion.
The Missile Defense Agency is asking Congress for permission to negotiate a five-year contract for Aegis ballistic missile defense interceptors, a potential $1.9 billion deal with Raytheon for Standard Missile-3 Block IB guided missiles beginning in fiscal year 2019 the agency estimates would cost $306 million less than if procured annually.
The Navy is seeking permission from Congress to negotiate a $2 billion, five-year contract to buy Standard Missile-6 interceptors, a deal the service says would avoid $331 million compared to annual purchases. This would be one of two multiyear procurement deals the Pentagon is seeking with Raytheon for Standard Missiles in fiscal year 2019.
The White House Office and Management and Budget has transmitted a statutorily required report to Congress outlining $54 billion in cuts to defense spending in fiscal year 2019 required by the Budget Control Act -- reductions, however, that are no longer needed in light of the recent two-year budget deal which lifted caps on discretionary spending in FY-18 and FY-19.
The Missile Defense Agency is seeking $9.9 billion in fiscal year 2019 -- an increase of more than 20 percent compared to the Trump administration's earlier plans -- signaling concern by policy makers about the growing threat and increasing complexity of long-range missiles from adversaries such as North Korea and a potential new class of ultra-fast, maneuvering weapons from China and Russia.
The Trump administration is backing the new National Defense Strategy with a 10-year, $7.2 trillion spending forecast -- a boost of more than $1 trillion compared to the most recent Obama plan -- including a near-term drive to propel the Pentagon's annual budget above $700 billion beginning in FY-20, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
The Trump administration today unveiled the outlines of a $686 billion budget for the Defense Department in fiscal year 2019 that includes a $20 billion placeholder for military spending increases set as part of the recent two-year budget deal.
The Pentagon's acquisition executive has approved the Standard Missile-3 Block IB for full production, paving the way for the Missile Defense Agency to advance its first proposal to negotiate a multiyear procurement contract.
The Defense Department is dropping the "ballistic" from the Ballistic Missile Defense Review President Trump asked for last year, a change that reflects the assessment -- set to be released soon -- aims to provide a new policy, strategy and architecture blueprint accounting for a wider array of threats than one released in 2010.
Senate leaders today broke a political logjam over federal spending, announcing a two-year budget agreement that would raise statutory caps on defense spending for fiscal years 2018 and 2019 by $165 billion, a deal that -- if agreed to by the House and enacted -- would exceed increases for the Pentagon proposed last year by the Trump administration.
The Pentagon's fiscal year 2019 budget request, set to be sent to Congress next week, will be missing a key figure -- the Defense Department's actual prior-year allocation, a figure that not only provides context for the new proposal but also provides a foundation for the military's latest fiscal plan and accompanying four-year projection.