Some must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Key Issues EPAWSS GAO on HADES Chinese military companies list
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.
Some must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
The Government Accountability Office has been asked by congressional defense committee staffers to "informally" evaluate data-based assertions made by Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, that the Defense Department's Better Buying Power initiative has controlled weapon system contract costs.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter is expected to preview the Pentagon's fiscal year 2017 budget request "in the coming days," though the target date for submission to Congress remains Feb. 1, according to officials and sources.
The Pentagon has unveiled a new oversight and review structure for the acquisition of services in an effort to better manage the $100-plus billion it spends annually on such contracts.
Katherine Blakeley will work on defense budgeting issues for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
Defense contractors will have to wait until the new year to see a variety of expected Pentagon acquisition initiatives, including the release of a new guidebook for program managers meant to incentivize vendor performance, as well as the establishment of a new oversight and review structure for services acquisitions.
The Pentagon, in a bid to shape potential outcomes of an ongoing congressional effort to update the landmark Goldwater-Nichols defense reform law, has launched its own internal review of the 30-year-old legislation and its impact on the organization of the Defense Department, according to officials and sources.
The fiscal year 2016 omnibus spending bill recently passed by Congress includes nearly $1.8 billion in rescinded prior-year funding for Defense Department weapons programs, with the Air Force poised to pay the lion's share, according to an explanatory statement accompanying the legislation.
Here's a list of must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
The State Department has approved a $1.72 billion arms sale to Taiwan that includes two Perry-class frigates, anti-tank missiles, amphibious assault vehicles and other weapon systems, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
The Inside Defense team has spent the day digging through the 2,009-page omnibus spending bill released by congressional negotiators . . .
Congressional negotiators early Wednesday morning agreed to a fiscal year 2016 omnibus spending bill that directs the Pentagon to spend $100 million assessing all of its major weapon systems for cyber vulnerabilities.
House lawmakers are preparing to release a fiscal year 2016 omnibus spending package to the Rules Committee later tonight that will likely necessitate another short-term continuing resolution to allow Congress time to pass the measure after a Dec. 16 deadline.
Claire Grady, the director of defense procurement and acquisition policy, said today that guidance on the Pentagon's new oversight and review structure for services acquisitions is set to be released in the coming weeks -- or months.
The Pentagon is ready to release a new guidebook encouraging program managers to pursue contracts with the defense industry that will more greatly reward performance, according to Claire Grady, the director of defense procurement and acquisition policy.
Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work announced Monday that planned investments in the so-called "Third Offset" strategy would likely total between $12 billion and $15 billion across the future years defense plan beginning in fiscal year 2017.
A few must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon.
The Defense Department could replace 80,000 full-time military positions with civilian contractors to save the government between $3.1 billion and $5.7 billion on an annual basis, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office.
Congress is poised to extend its deadline to pass an omnibus spending bill from Dec. 11 to Dec. 16, according to a statement released today by the House Appropriations Committee.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the United States was prepared to send attack helicopters and "accompanying advisers" to Iraq to help the military there re-take the city of Ramadi from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.