Saturday, May 17, 2025
Key Issues Army UAS focus Project Convergence FTUAS capabilities
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 Defense Department, despite ongoing fiscal uncertainty, must pursue new initiatives in a variety of areas, including moving to a "left of launch" posture for missile defense and cyber capabilities, if the United States is to avoid a "strategic surprise" that could have potentially devastating consequences, according to a newly released Defense Science Board report.
A new bilateral security cooperation statement between the United States and Australia will, among other things, increase opportunities for defense industry engagement and acquisition program teaming, according to Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
The Defense Department is re-tooling its embattled effort to train and equip thousands of Syrian rebels -- which resulted in only a small number of vetted fighters to take on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant -- and is now focusing on assisting a much narrower group of "vetted leaders and their units," according to an Oct. 9 statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook.
The proposed fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill is moving toward a final Senate vote later this week, clearing a procedural hurdle today required to consider the bill.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, said Oct. 6 that he has sent Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work a list of planned program awards for development and production that he believes the Defense Department should consider deferring until a time of greater budget certainty.
The Defense Department wants to strengthen the linkage between subcontractor profit margin and performance, contending it has already begun doing so for prime contractors, according to a new report released by Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall.
Though Congress temporarily averted a government shutdown this week, Defense Secretary Ash Carter is telling all Defense Department personnel to brace themselves for continued fiscal uncertainty.
It was in April that the Pentagon first announced it had plans to enter into a multiyear pilot program with In-Q-Tel, the CIA-backed strategic investment firm, in the hopes of identifying promising new start-up technologies to halt the American defense establishment's fast-eroding technological edge on 21st century battlefields, including space and cyberspace.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter is scheduled to depart on a five-day trip to Europe on Oct. 4 to attend the NATO Defense Ministerial Conference in Brussels, Belgium and meet with his counterparts in Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
The Navy and Marine Corps budget for fiscal year 2016 faces a $2.8 billion shortfall under the three-month continuing resolution approved by lawmakers this week, according to a Navy "information paper" obtained by InsideDefense.com.
The House passed the fiscal year 2016 defense authorization conference bill today by a vote of 270-156, though the threat of a White House veto remains.
Top Pentagon officials on Wednesday spoke out forcefully against defense industry consolidation, warning it could result in higher prices and reduced innovation.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter is advising President Obama to veto the proposed Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act mainly because it adheres to a GOP budget "gimmick" that fails to give the Defense Department long-term fiscal certainty.
House and Senate conferees, amid a veto threat from the White House and opposition from Democrats over a budgeting "gimmick," have agreed on a proposed fiscal year 2016 defense authorization bill that would significantly change the management of the Pentagon's acquisition system by increasing the power and accountability of the military service chiefs.
The Defense Department is in the process of prioritizing which legacy weapon systems should receive resources in fiscal year 2017 that would go toward "hardening" them against cyber attacks, according to the Pentagon's No. 2 official.
The planned exit of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has upended the political calculus on Capitol Hill concerning the preservation of U.S. defense spending in fiscal year 2016, while Congress is poised to remain mired in partisan gridlock even if a short-term continuing resolution is passed to temporarily stave off a government shutdown.
Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work released a memo to the Pentagon workforce Friday morning alerting employees to the possibility of a federal government shutdown on Oct. 1 if Congress does not pass a budget deal or a stopgap spending measure to buy time.
Representatives from three of the most influential defense industry associations met with Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall last week, the Pentagon has confirmed to InsideDefense.com.
Congressional officials trying to avert a long-term continuing resolution are asking the Defense Department to update its April 2014 sequestration impact report, though the Pentagon has made no plans to do so, InsideDefense.com has learned.
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.