Friday, May 10, 2024
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.
President-elect Donald Trump held a press conference today in which he promised to bring down the cost of Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, again alluding to plans to compete the plane against Boeing's F-18 Super Hornet.
With the formation of the White House National Trade Council and the designation of a full-time staffer focused on the defense industrial base, the incoming Trump administration is signaling an early interest in potentially relying on the defense industry to spur more U.S. manufacturing jobs.
In his final report to Congress, the Pentagon's chief weapons tester is urging lawmakers and the Defense Department to reject the "constant criticism" from those who have pushed to reduce operational testing and seek to curtail the independent authority of his office.
Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) will be the next chair of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, according to an announcement from committee Chairman Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ).
The Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony today from a foreign policy analyst and prominent critic of President-elect Donald Trump, who hopes former Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis will be confirmed as the next defense secretary to keep "wildly stupid, dangerous, or illegal things from happening."
The Defense Innovation Board approved a series of recommendations at a Pentagon meeting Monday, sounding the alarm over cyber vulnerabilities in U.S. weapon systems and pledging to continue advising the incoming Trump administration under defense secretary nominee James Mattis.
Former CIA director James Woolsey, who has ceased advising President-elect Donald Trump's team amid controversy surrounding Russian cyberattacks the U.S. intelligence community says were meant to hep ensure Trump's victory, remains worried about bigger hacks to come -- like voting machines.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) laid out a broad agenda for his panel at the opening gavel of this morning's hearing on foreign cyber threats, highlighting intelligence assessments that the Russian government directed hackers to interfere with the U.S. presidential election.
Here's a few must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
The House and Senate budget committees released a revised spending resolution for fiscal year 2017 on Jan. 4 that, despite some early confusion on what it means for defense funding, is solely focused on repealing the Affordable Care Act, according to congressional aides.
President-elect Donald Trump, following meetings with top U.S. military officials and defense executives, took to Twitter on Thursday to state his support for strengthening nuclear capabilities.
President-elect Donald Trump met with Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson on Wednesday in Palm Beach, FL, to discuss the F-35 program, according to the presidential transition team.
Here's a few must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
President-elect Donald Trump has announced the formation of the White House National Trade Council, which, among other things, will assess the defense industrial base with an eye toward increasing U.S. manufacturing jobs.
A spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump's transition team told reporters Wednesday it is "premature" to discuss Trump's defense priorities after an internal Defense Department memo surfaced a day earlier.
Vice President-elect Mike Pence is in Washington today meeting with senior members of President-elect Donald Trump's national security team on the heels of the assassination of Russia's ambassador to Turkey and an incident in Germany that left 12 people dead after a truck plowed through an outdoor Christmas market, according to spokesmen for the presidential transition team.
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen fiscal hawk Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) to run the White House Office of Management and Budget, raising questions about bullish predictions for defense spending, specifically the Pentagon's $58.8 billion Overseas Contingency Operations account, which Mulvaney has called a "slush fund."
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) has released a new report detailing what he says is $13 billion in wasted defense spending, the vast majority of it accounted for by the Navy's Littoral Combat Ship program.
The Pentagon, which has been attempting to increase its emphasis on technological innovation under outgoing Defense Secretary Ash Carter, receives nearly half of all federal research and development appropriations, more than twice that of the next largest recipient, the Health and Human Services Department, according to a recent Congressional Research Service report.
Few events are scheduled for the week ahead as Washington winds down for the holidays.