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.
General Dynamics Land Systems, seizing on a recent Army request for up-gunned Strykers in Europe, is pitching a plan on Capitol Hill that would have lawmakers provide the service with an additional $412 million in fiscal year 2016 to outfit 81 Strykers with 30mm guns, according to officials and documents.
The House Appropriations Committee will stick to a GOP-crafted budget resolution that features a $90 billion overseas contingency operations account for the Pentagon when lawmakers mark up the fiscal year 2016 defense spending bill, despite Defense Secretary Ash Carter's recent declaration that the spending framework is a "road to nowhere."
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told lawmakers Wednesday on Capitol Hill that the new GOP-crafted budget resolution featuring a $38 billion increase to the Defense Department's overseas contingency operations account is a “road to nowhere,” noting the likelihood of a presidential veto and stressing that what the Pentagon really needs is a bipartisan, multiyear spending deal.
The Republican-controlled Senate passed a budget resolution Tuesday -- without a single Democrat's vote -- that would skirt sequestration spending caps by injecting an additional $38 billion into the Pentagon's overseas contingency operations fund.
President Obama has nominated Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has also tapped Air Force Gen. Paul Selva to be Dunford's vice chief.
House Republicans drew criticism from the White House after a GOP-crafted budget resolution was passed on Thursday that also bypassed concerns of deficit hawks who oppose a provision that would inject additional funds into the Pentagon's overseas contingency operations account.
Internal budget discussions are underway at the Pentagon on increasing the U.S. military presence in Europe, according to the supreme allied commander of NATO.
Defense budget watchers acknowledged the House's upcoming fiscal year 2016 defense policy bill authorizing a $90 billion overseas contingency operations fund was far from the final word on the matter as a host of variables remain in flux over the future of sequestration.
After Defense Secretary Ash Carter finished a speech last week at Stanford University encouraging greater cooperation between the Pentagon and Silicon Valley innovators, he was asked why non-defense technology companies should even consider entering the Defense Department's infamously labyrinthine acquisition system.
A key aspect of a major new security cooperation agreement being inked by Japan and the United States involves increased defense technology information sharing and, possibly, greater foreign military sales as the Japanese seek to shed a decades-old pacifist posture in a region where China continues to rise as a global power.
In an effort to spur deeper cooperation with the technology industry in the area of cybersecurity, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced today that earlier this year Russian hackers accessed one of the Pentagon's unclassified networks, but were beaten back by a U.S. cyber team.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter plans to announce a series of new innovation initiatives in Silicon Valley on Thursday, where he also is scheduled to meet with top executives from Facebook and leading venture capital firms to discuss new ways the Pentagon can deepen its relationship with the non-traditional defense technology players, according to senior defense officials.
The White House is criticizing House appropriators for marking their first fiscal 2016 defense bill to the spending caps mandated by sequestration, arguing also that lawmakers' continued attempts to fund military construction through the overseas contingency operations account is "bad budget policy."
Major defense contractors were silent this week on the Pentagon's newly announced effort to play a larger role in guiding industry's independent research and development (IRAD) spending, though industry advocates behind the scenes said they would continue to lobby the Defense Department and lawmakers for fewer acquisition regulations.
The program manager for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter told lawmakers Tuesday that a key maintenance and logistics information system tasked with identifying problems with the aircraft is producing false-positives to the tune of 80 percent and must be redesigned and upgraded.
The Marine Corps, stressing the importance of affordable and incremental modernization, has laid out the focus areas for its future vehicle science and technology investments, according to a new strategy from the program executive office for land systems.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's top weapons buyer, said Monday he thinks the Navy's Next Generation Jammer program will be selected as a pilot "Skunk Works" initiative aimed at accelerating the Defense Department's acquisition cycles and eliminating the current document-based approach.
The Defense Department has updated its premiere acquisition improvement effort, unveiling a variety of new initiatives aimed primarily at driving innovation in the development of next-generation weapon systems and, in some cases, opening the door for a greater government role in industry's independent research and development spending.
Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work on Wednesday laid out his clearest vision yet for the Third Offset Strategy -- a new technological initiative that has driven the Pentagon to begin planning for next-generation conflicts after more than a decade of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a copy of his prepared speech delivered at the Army War College.
The Pentagon has already saved $750 million in fiscal year 2015 due to the plummeting global price of oil and could see a total of $1.85 billion in savings if conditions remain the same, thereby freeing up the cash to be reprogrammed to other Defense Department priorities.