Saturday, December 7, 2024
Key Issues MQ-25 Stingray USSF pLEO spending cap JLTV funding
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 U.K. has awarded Lockheed Martin U.K. a $1 billion contract to provide 245 turrets for the Scout Specialist Vehicle GD has been pitching to the U.S. Army as a potential solution to the service's next-generation combat vehicle needs.
America's top general in the campaign against Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria believes enemy units will be "much degraded" over the next eight to 12 months, creating the opportunity for 5,000 U.S.-trained Syrian rebels to make a significant impact when they join the fight next year.
The Defense Department has released its new Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap, the latest in a series of indicators signaling the military continues to view changing weather conditions as a threat to the global security environment.
The Pentagon today confirmed that Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey will meet in Washington on Oct. 14 with 20 foreign chiefs of defense to discuss ongoing operations in Iraq and Syria.
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said today he is in favor of approving $750 million the Pentagon has requested be reprogrammed from the fiscal year 2014 budget to fight Ebola in West Africa.
The $1 billion the Defense Department has reprogrammed for Ebola crisis response in West Africa should last approximately six months before mission resourcing will have to be re-evaluated, according to DOD's outgoing chief of nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs who is leaving the Pentagon to help lead the State Department's Ebola efforts.
The United States has reached a significant milestone in the ongoing revision of its security relationship with Japan and has identified several focus areas for new defense cooperation guidelines set to be finalized later this year, according to U.S. government officials.
U. S. Central Command is considering a formal name for the current operations in Iraq and Syria, where the military has been conducting airstrikes and surveillance since August.
A Senate investigations committee has released a large compendium of acquisition reform proposals and essays penned by more than 30 current and former Pentagon officials.
The Pentagon announced today that U.S. Central Command has established a Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force as part of the "new normal" in CENTCOM's area of operations.
Congress, by refusing to allow the Defense Department to cut aging weapon systems and enact compensation reform in fiscal year 2015, has put the Pentagon in a $70 billion budget hole as it contemplates the FY-16 budget submission, according to Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work, who sees DOD's embattled overseas contingency operations fund as a way to address the situation.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has launched a long-term analysis of how the Defense Department plans to fund its expanded campaign against Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria, but Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey already sees "budget problems" approaching the Pentagon.
The Defense Department is spending between $7 million and $10 million per day on operations in Iraq and Syria, though Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon's chief spokesman, stressed that those numbers were loose estimates.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI), who will retire in 2015, is working to leave behind a 'roadmap' to undo the automatic budget cuts triggered by sequestration, an effort he thinks will be boosted by those who are unsettled by the current threat environment in the Middle East.
The latest installment of Better Buying Power -- the Pentagon's marquee acquisition improvement initiative -- aims to stimulate technological innovation by increasing the involvement of defense contractors in the weapons program requirements process.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this week acknowledged the Pentagon's overseas contingency operations budget is poised to expand in the coming months as the U.S. military is increasingly faced with new expenses related to combating violent extremism in Iraq and fighting Ebola in Africa.
The Defense Department has requested that Congress allow it to reprogram a total of $1 billion in fiscal year 2014 overseas contingency operations funds to launch a major effort to fight Ebola in Africa, a Pentagon official has confirmed.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Sept. 16 that vehicles would be included in the equipment package slated to be given to Syrian rebels the Pentagon plans to train to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria as well as the regime of Bashar al Assad.
The House Armed Services Committee is unwilling to authorize the additional $500 million requested by the White House to train and equip Syrian rebels, though the committee has introduced a measure that would allow the Pentagon to pay for the effort by reprogramming existing funds.
The Pentagon is finalizing a plan to vet and train moderate Syrian rebels to combat militant extremists in Iraq as well as the regime of Bashar al Assad, according to a Defense Department spokesman.