The Congressional Budget Office has found that Defense Department spending for military activities dropped by $30 billion in fiscal year 2014, or 5 percent, mostly due to a decline in Army spending.
Saturday, April 26, 2025
Saturday, April 26, 2025
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 Congressional Budget Office has found that Defense Department spending for military activities dropped by $30 billion in fiscal year 2014, or 5 percent, mostly due to a decline in Army spending.
The White House is requesting an additional $5 billion in overseas contingency funding in fiscal year 2015 to support its expanded campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, with $1.6 billion to support the U.S. mission to train and equip Iraqi and Kurdish forces, according to government documents.
President Obama has authorized Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to deploy up to 1,500 additional military personnel to Iraq in non-combat roles in the coming months to "expand our advise and assist mission and initiate a comprehensive training effort for Iraqi forces," according to a Pentagon announcement.
The Defense Department is poised to put renewed emphasis on experimental prototyping in search of next-generation capabilities, though the budgetary resources to eventually transition the technologies in formal programs of record remain either in question, or, in some cases, inconsequential, according to the Pentagon official overseeing the effort.
The Pentagon will likely submit a fiscal year 2016 budget that is above the sequestration levels mandated by the Budget Control Act, according to a top acquisition official.
President Obama said today that he would "begin engaging Congress over a new authorization for military force against" the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, noting that Gen. Lloyd Austin, chief of U.S. Central Command, would soon head to Capitol Hill to brief Congress on the ongoing campaign against ISIL.
Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, has an unsurprising request for the new GOP majority in Congress: Overturn sequestration as soon as possible.
NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove said Monday that Europe was at a "strategic inflection point" due to increased pressure from a "revanchist Russia," adding that he was in discussions with the military service chiefs on stationing additional military equipment on the continent to rapidly respond to potential challenges.
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said Thursday the "command-and-control apparatus" is in place to begin a $500 million effort to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels, though the vetting effort has not yet been launched.
The civilian chief of the National Nuclear Security Administration hopes a congressionally mandated panel charged with assessing nuclear enterprise management gaps at NNSA will see recent improvement efforts as evidence of progress.
The Defense Department is discussing the future of its overseas contingency operations account with the Office of Management and Budget, including the possibility of making OCO a long-lasting piece of the DOD budget.
The Defense Department is not yet prepared to disclose what percentage of the overall research and development budget it will use to finance the upcoming technological "offset" strategy aimed to guide long-term R&D spending, but a top acquisition official did provide a list of likely investment areas.
The Defense Department recently pegged the total price tag for Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria at $580 million -- a $156 million increase from when the Pentagon last provided cost figures.
The commander of U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula said the miniaturization of a nuclear device and cyberattack were among the "evolving and developing" threats from North Korea that have indefinitely delayed the transfer of operational control in the region to the South Korean military.
A Navy ship testing its Standard Missile-6 interceptors has successfully shot down two anti-ship cruise missile targets prior to its own radar detecting the incoming threats, instead using targeting information from another Aegis ship nearby, according to a Raytheon statement.
The Defense Department continues to plan for the worst should the automatic budget cuts triggered by sequestration remain law in fiscal year 2016, according to Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon's chief spokesman.
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.