Senior defense officials are slated to speak around the Washington area this week.
Monday, February 10, 2025
Monday, February 10, 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.
Senior defense officials are slated to speak around the Washington area this week.
Ukrainian pilots are coming to the United States next month to begin training to fly F-16 aircraft, according to the Pentagon’s chief spokesman.
The Government Accountability Office today said it intends to honor the request of House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and review the basing decision process that determined U.S. Space Command should remain in Colorado instead of moving to his home state of Alabama as former President Trump previously announced.
Doug Beck, the former Apple executive who in April became director of the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit, said today that the war in Ukraine is helping the Washington defense establishment reach a "tipping point" when it comes to adopting commercial technology.
The State Department has approved a potential $500 million foreign military sale to Taiwan for F-16 Infrared Search and Track systems, according to a notice from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
The House Freedom Caucus threatened today to not support legislation that would avoid a government shutdown unless they get their way in several areas including the elimination of “woke policies in the Pentagon.”
Defense officials are slated to speak at conferences around the country this week.
Senior leaders on the independent congressional commission aiming to reform the Defense Department's budget and planning system say Pentagon officials need more flexibility from lawmakers if the notoriously slow process is to become agile enough to capture technological innovation needed to compete with China, but they stress DOD must do more to build trust with Capitol Hill.
The congressional commission tasked with reforming the Defense Department's 1960s-era budget planning and programming system is considering making recommendations to lawmakers that would provide the Pentagon with greater spending flexibility amid an appropriations process that has become mired in political dysfunction.
The Defense Department "generally did not meet" deadlines for responding to reviews conducted by the Government Accountability Office, submitting about half of its agency comments late, according to a new congressionally mandated GAO report.
The Defense Department announced today it will begin transferring another $200 million in U.S. weapons to Ukraine following a June review that found the congressionally approved funding remained available and unspent.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL), angered by President Biden's recent decision to keep U.S. Space Command headquartered in politically blue Colorado instead of moving it to deep-red Alabama, is demanding that senior Pentagon officials comply with his requests for documents and interviews as he launches an investigation into the matter.
The Defense Department has released a new compendium of information on $9.7 billion in contracts to replenish U.S. weapons that have been transferred to Ukraine.
The Defense Department will not say what is included in a $345 million weapons package President Biden ordered for Taiwan because of operational security and the diplomatic sensitivity of the situation regarding China, according to DOD's chief spokesman.
President Biden has decided to keep U.S. Space Command headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, reversing an earlier Air Force decision made under President Trump that would have based it in Huntsville, AL, according to officials from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill.
The White House has registered its disapproval over several weapons-related provisions in the Senate's version of the annual defense authorization bill -- some of which are also supported by the House -- according to a statement of administration policy released by the Office of Management and Budget.
Senior defense officials are slated to speak at several events this week.
The White House says it "strongly opposes" a provision in the Senate's version of the fiscal year 2024 defense authorization bill that would reestablish the position of the Defense Department's chief management officer, according to a statement of administration policy from the Office of Management and Budget.
The Senate passed the annual defense policy bill this evening by a vote of 86-11.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee this morning released its draft version of the fiscal year 2024 defense spending bill, intending to fund the Pentagon at $831.7 billion, or about $5 billion above President Biden's request.