Sunday, March 23, 2025
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.
Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said today that the Pentagon's plan for fiscal year 2025 has found a "smart, responsible" way to absorb billions in cuts stemming from a two-year congressional deal but stressed that growth will be needed in the coming years to counter Chinese military modernization.
The Pentagon, which had to absorb a $10 billion cut to its previously projected topline thanks to a two-year congressional budget deal, is cutting its requested modernization investment for fiscal year 2025 -- which includes its procurement and research and development accounts -- by $4.3 billion below what it sought in FY-24.
The White House is scheduled to submit the fiscal year 2025 defense budget request to Congress this week. Senior defense officials will also testify on Capitol Hill.
The Defense Department has established a new “warfighter senior integration group” to focus on the “urgent and growing threat posed by uncrewed weapon systems,” according to chief Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.
The Defense Department's fledgling Office of Strategic Capital has released its first investment strategy intended to "catalyze" private investment in technology industries deemed critical to national security.
Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord said today that the fiscal year 2025 defense budget request slated to be rolled out on Monday will emphasize innovation by continuing the Defense Department's focus on investments in emerging technologies, despite a 1% topline cut driven by a congressional spending agreement reached last year.
Pentagon acquisition chief Bill LaPlante said today that he wants to move about half of the department's approximately 40 counter-drone prototypes into production, noting that the programs have been protected from scheduled fiscal year 2025 procurement cuts.
The Pentagon, in response to "near-term" recommendations released today by a bipartisan congressional commission, has formulated a new implementation plan to enact more than a dozen structural reforms to its decades-old budget planning and execution process.
A bipartisan legislative commission has released long-awaited recommendations to reform the Defense Department's 1960s-era planning and budgeting system, seeking specifically that Congress grant the Pentagon greater spending flexibility while ensuring appropriate oversight.
Senior defense officials are scheduled to speak at several events this week in advance of the scheduled March 11 release of the fiscal year 2025 budget request.
The Senate voted last night to confirm Douglas Schmidt to be the Defense Department's next director of operational test and evaluation.
The Senate voted 77-13 last night to approve a short-term continuing resolution to avert a partial shutdown and keep the government open through the new deadlines of March 8 and March 22.
The Senate voted last night to confirm Adm. Samuel Paparo as the next chief of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
The House voted 320-99 to pass another stopgap continuing resolution that averts a partial government shutdown Friday night and extends funding deadlines to March 8 and March 22.
Congressional leaders have put forth a bipartisan proposal to extend funding deadlines to avert a partial government shutdown, saying more time is needed to craft a final deal on a fiscal year 2024 appropriations package that is within reach.
The under secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force said today that weapons procurement and modernization programs would be hit hardest should Congress, which remains mired in partisan debate over spending, take the unprecedented step of passing a yearlong, stopgap continuing resolution, rather than agreeing to a full-year appropriations deal.
The Senate Armed Services Committee today voted to advance the nomination of Adm. Samuel Paparo to be chief of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, sending the matter to the full Senate for a confirmation vote.
The Pentagon has concluded in an internal review that there was no "ill intent or an attempt to obfuscate" in how senior officials and staff handled the secrecy surrounding Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's hospitalization last month, releasing an unclassified summary today of key events and observations intended to improve the department's "transfer of authorities" and notification processes.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is scheduled to testify before the House Armed Services Committee this week to discuss his unannounced medical absence, while senior defense officials are slated to speak at a variety of other public events.
Ongoing congressional dysfunction is blocking $560 million in supplemental spending intended to help U.S. Central Command counter drone attacks against U.S. troops in the Middle East.