Friday, April 26, 2024
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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.
U.S. Strategic Command says it detected the simultaneous launch of two presumed North Korean No Dong intermediate range ballistic missiles yesterday, noting that the first exploded immediately, while the second landed in the Sea of Japan.
The Pentagon announced today that the new U.S. military effort to support the Libyan government against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has been named "Operation Odyssey Lightning."
Though the worst of sequestration never came to pass, a prominent defense budget analyst has chosen to mark the fifth anniversary of the Budget Control Act with a warning for Congress, the Pentagon and the new presidential administration.
The United States has conducted airstrikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Sirte, Libya, marking an expansion of the counter-ISIL operation, according to a Pentagon announcement.
The Pentagon has amended the charter for the new Defense Innovation Board to include more members and non-voting advisers.
The Air Force is expected to announce initial operational capability for the F-35 this week and several defense contractors have scheduled earnings calls. Senior leaders from the Army and Air Force are also scheduled to make public appearances.
The deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency concurs with a recent report highlighting several budgetary trends squeezing MDA's research and development funds, including the politically sensitive push for increased aid to Israeli defense projects.
The military services have submitted their respective program objective memoranda for fiscal years 2018 through 2022 for review by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a Pentagon spokesman has told Inside Defense.
Here are a few must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
The Defense Logistics Agency has released its list of defense industry “superior suppliers.”
A joint U.S.-South Korea defense technology strategy cooperation group held its first “high-level” talks in Washington this week, according to the Pentagon.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter cut the ribbon on the Pentagon's new Defense Innovation Unit Experimental office in Boston on Tuesday, mapping out the organization's new configuration and its latest projects.
Amazon CEO and Chairman Jeff Bezos, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Harvard Law School professor Cass Sunstein and Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America, will join the new Defense Innovation Advisory Board Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Tuesday.
House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX) has yet to receive a formal request from the Pentagon on an expected supplemental budget request to finance the retention of U.S. troops in Afghanistan as well as additional operations in Iraq and Syria, but he believes the military is now conducting $6 billion worth of activities that were not part of the Obama administration's fiscal year 2017 request.
Five House Democrats, citing ongoing fiscal constraints and concerns about nuclear war, have sent a letter to the White House urging President Obama to "reshape" his current plan to modernize the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford are scheduled to host a joint press conference today on the heels of an international coalition meeting dedicated to accelerating the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Congress is in recess.
Earlier this year the Defense Department refuted charges that it spent $43 million building a single gas station in Afghanistan, but now an influential senator alleges DOD "opened a real can of worms" while defending itself and is demanding additional information.
Commercial electric power has been restored to a key U.S. air base in Incirlik, Turkey, which has been using a backup generator since an attempted military coup last week.
The Defense Department has yet to send Congress a plan to pay for President Obama's new policy to keep 2,900 additional troops in Afghanistan through 2017, but Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said DOD is working on a path forward with the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The Defense Department is set to formally unveil its new Defense Innovation Unit Experimental office in Boston next week as the organization continues to retool itself, according to statements from the DIUx press office.