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Tony Bertuca is chief editor of Inside the Pentagon, the flagship publication of InsideDefense, where he focuses on defense budget and acquisition policy. He previously worked for the Sun-Times News Group in his hometown of Chicago, IL, and at the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester, NH. Tony has also served as managing editor of Inside the Army. He has a master's degree in journalism from Boston University.
Republicans and Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee set to embark on their annual debate over the national defense authorization bill next week will face several key policy disagreements, one of which is over a proposal to cut the Pentagon's civilian management agencies, the so-called "Fourth Estate," by 25 percent.
The Senate Armed Services Committee will conduct a series of secret meetings this month to consider its version of the fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill.
The Pentagon says the recent spate of aviation crashes being investigated by the military service branches is "not a crisis" that requires a department-wide review, despite rumblings from Capitol Hill that a more holistic investigation is necessary.
The Defense Department wants to spend $1.2 trillion in the coming decades to modernize the U.S. nuclear triad, a sum that senior Pentagon officials behind the recent Nuclear Posture Review argue is both necessary and affordable, despite concerns on Capitol Hill that the plan will prove unrealistic amid mounting deficits.
The Government Accountability Office today established a new bid-protest process, which creates a new electronic docketing system and implements a new filing fee.
An industry group representing information technology contractors wants Congress to provide greater transparency on the Pentagon's controversial plans to award a potentially lucrative cloud-computing contract to a single company.
The week ahead features appearances from senior Pentagon officials at several think tank and military association events around Washington.
A two-year, bipartisan spending deal brokered in February has granted the Pentagon a period of fiscal stability, but that window is quickly closing as Congress eyes 2018 midterm elections and the return of mandatory budget caps.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has told Congress that Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, is failing to live up to the Pentagon's expectations.
Here are some must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
New legislation being considered by the House Armed Services Committee could result in the elimination or restructuring of the Strategic Capabilities Office by Oct. 1, 2020.
The Aerospace Industries Association says Congress should repeal statutory budget caps and the Pentagon should embrace a streamlined acquisition system if they are to maintain a healthy defense industrial base.
The House Armed Services Committee has begun releasing subcommittee marks of the fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill.
The Senate has cleared Army Lt. Gen. Paul Nakasone to become the next chief of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.
The Pentagon is not planning for another significant funding boost in fiscal year 2020 and is exploring ways to make budgetary "headroom" to support a host of new modernization investments being drawn up by a new innovation team, according to Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford return to Capitol Hill this week, while the House Armed Services Committee begins marking up its version of the fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill.
The Defense Department, in response to a two-year-old congressional directive, is moving to establish a "new pathway" to streamline rapid prototyping for "middle tier" capabilities that could be fielded within five years or use proven technologies to upgrade existing systems, according to a recent memo from Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord.
The Pentagon said today its controversial cloud contract could be won by a single vendor for a period of two years, but stressed that an initial victory did not guarantee eight additional option years.
Some must-reads from this week's issue of Inside the Pentagon.
Former Pentagon officials agree with congressional reformers that the Defense Department could find significant savings if it eliminated some "Fourth Estate" civilian management agencies, but the big money, they said, is in base realignments and closures and other politically unpopular actions.