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.
The 2015 National Military Strategy -- the first such document to be released since 2011 -- gives a nod to the efficiencies sought by Better Buying Power 3.0, the Pentagon's key acquisition improvement initiative, and also provides a brief glimpse into plans for new investments in military technology.
The Pentagon was given an "A" grade on Friday by the U.S. Small Business Administration for awarding $53.3 billion in fiscal year 2014 prime contracts to small businesses -- more than half of the federal government's total for FY-14.
The House has named members to the conference committee tasked with resolving differences with the Senate in the proposed fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill.
The conferees will be led by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-TX).
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-TX) spoke this week in support of proposed acquisition reform measures now being debated that would give military service chiefs greater power over the Pentagon's buying process, though he was opposed by Christine Fox, a former interim deputy defense secretary, who warned it would be a mistake to sideline the Pentagon's civilian authorities.
As Defense Secretary Ash Carter meets with NATO allies this week to discuss future plans to deter Russian military aggression, defense budget analysts in Washington are wondering how a potential European "rebalance" will manifest itself in the Pentagon's fiscal year 2017 spending plans amid the current fiscal fight on Capitol Hill.
Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work is "pretty certain" that sequestration will not occur in fiscal year 2016 given congressional support for White House veto threats, but the need to hedge against a revanchist Russia is forcing the Pentagon to re-think fundamental budget plans for FY-17.
Democrats in the Senate are following through on their promise to block the fiscal year 2016 defense appropriations bill as a tactic to force high-level discussions with the Republican majority to end sequestration, but the defense authorization bill was allowed to pass the upper chamber and now heads to a conference committee with the House.
The office of the Pentagon's chief weapons tester responded positively Wednesday to a recent Government Accountability Office report which refutes the notion that operational testing impedes acquisition programs, thereby providing the testers ammunition against critics in Congress and the defense industry.
The Congressional Budget Office is reporting that, if current laws remain unchanged, the federal debt is on track to exceed 100 percent of all U.S. economic output by 2040, thereby constraining defense spending and compromising national security.
The Pentagon has released a detailed cost analysis of U.S. operations to combat the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has totaled $2.74 billion from Aug. 8, 2014, to June 4, 2015, at an average daily cost of $9.1 million.
As lawmakers on Capitol Hill consider defense acquisition reform legislation that would increase the role of the military service chiefs at the expense of the Pentagon's civilian authorities, the Government Accountability Office has released a report highlighting the fundamental contours of the debate.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee is reporting a fiscal year 2016 bill to the full committee that adds nearly $3 billion to the Defense Department's $107 billion procurement request, as well as an additional $540 million to DOD's $70 billion research and development request, according to unreleased funding tables obtained by InsideDefense.com.
President Obama has authorized the Pentagon to deploy up to 450 additional U.S. personnel for a "non-combat role" to expand the training and advising of the Iraqi army, according to a Defense Department statement.
The Obama administration has issued another veto threat as the full House takes up its version of the fiscal year 2016 defense appropriations bill.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee approved a fiscal year 2016 spending bill Tuesday that would provide $490 billion in base budget funding for the Pentagon, accompanied by an $87 billion overseas contingency operations account, but top-ranking lawmakers are resigned to the long, partisan budget clash that lies ahead.
Shay Assad, the Pentagon's pricing director, provided details Monday on the Defense Department's new and ongoing efforts to enable acquisition program managers to better assess commercial products and services.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter today nominated Air Force Gen. Darren W. McDew to become the next chief of U.S. Transportation Command, according to a Defense Department announcement.
The U.S. ambassador to India believes a newly updated defense pact between the United States and the world's largest democracy will enable a decade of cooperation, the likes of which the global security environment has never seen.
The White House has thrown down the latest gauntlet in a simmering conflict between Senate lawmakers and the Pentagon over acquisition reform proposals championed by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that would strengthen the role of military service chiefs at the expense of Defense Department civilians currently responsible for the process.
The Government Accountability Office has found that oversight from the office of the Pentagon's chief weapons tester, often criticized for being too intense and bureaucratic, has actually resulted in "few significant disputes and limited program cost and schedule increases," according to a June 2 report.