Friday, April 26, 2024
Key Issues Optical clocks Prototype funding SPAFORGEN
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.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) has offered the first congressional proposal for a short-term continuing resolution that would fund the federal government until Dec. 11, while defunding Planned Parenthood and providing $74.4 billion to the Defense Department in overseas contingency operations funding.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's chief acquisition executive, is no longer scheduled to present the third annual acquisition system performance evaluation this week due to road closures resulting from the visit of Pope Francis to Washington.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter had a "constructive conversation" this morning with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoygu about Russian military activity in Syria and efforts to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, according to a statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that the Air Force would have budgetary priorities in fiscal year 2017 that are similar to the service's FY-16 request, but he warned that Congress would be putting the Defense Department in a "straightjacket" if lawmakers were to pass a long-term continuing resolution that would cap FY-16 spending at FY-15 levels.
The Defense Department is planning to cut headquarters staffs by 25 percent across the Pentagon between fiscal year 2017 and FY-20, according to a newly surfaced memo signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, said Wednesday that ongoing "political gridlock" in Washington over the future of government spending has become the greatest threat facing the United States.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, on Wednesday sought to address concerns voiced by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and defense industry advocates over a new draft policy on commercial pricing.
A wide-ranging speech given Wednesday by Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, provided updates to a variety of ongoing initiatives including cybersecurity, the Long Range Research and Development Plan and the new oversight system being crafted for services contracts.
The Army is spending between $6 billion and $7 billion per year in its overseas contingency operations account on "enduring" expenses that would normally be funded in its base budget, according to an executive summary of the service's fiscal year 2017-2021 program objective memorandum, obtained by InsideDefense.com.
The Defense Department has sent Congress a list of new-start acquisition programs and weapon system production increases that would be adversely affected should Capitol Hill remain snarled in budgetary gridlock and pass only a stopgap spending measure for fiscal year 2016, according to documents obtained by InsideDefense.com.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter is scheduled Friday to announce the Obama administration's plans to award a new Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Hybrid Electronics to a consortium of 162 companies, universities and nonprofits led by the FlexTech Alliance based in Silicon Valley, according to a Defense Department statement.
Defense industry advocates are far more supportive of Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall's new proposal to manage the Defense Department's independent research and development funding than they were of his initial effort to strengthen governmental oversight of the process.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter, speaking Thursday to Marines at Camp Pendleton, CA, previewed his pending trip to a new defense innovation unit in Silicon Valley, where he is scheduled to announce a "major economic initiative" on Friday.
The Government Accountability Office is recommending that the Pentagon update its portfolio review process to remedy what auditors consider to be a "fragmented" management system that suffers from the absence of "sustained leadership and policy," according to an Aug. 27 report.
The Pentagon is reviewing all defense-related prototyping and experimentation facilities in the hopes of more tightly integrating the science and technology community with acquisition programs.
The Pentagon's new push to increase unmanned combat air patrols will require that private contractors fly 10 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions on a daily basis around the globe, according to a recent statement from the Defense Department.
Following the award of a massive Pentagon electronic health records program to Leidos, no protests have been filed, allowing the contractor to move forward with the initiative.
The Pentagon's Long Range Research and Development Plan is complete and is currently influencing budget strategy for fiscal year 2017, though public release of the hotly anticipated report, initially expected in July, is now scheduled for sometime this fall, according to a Defense Department spokesman.
The White House notified Congress this week that President Obama intends to exempt all military personnel accounts from the mandatory spending caps set by the 2011 Budget Control Act should full sequestration be triggered in fiscal year 2016. The exemption would then prompt larger cuts to non-exempt accounts.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense has sent the military services its final list of proposals for the largest personnel overhaul the Pentagon has seen since the 1970s, InsideDefense.com has learned.