Inside the Pentagon highlights

By Tony Bertuca / March 29, 2018 at 9:52 AM

Some must-reads from this week's edition of Inside the Pentagon:

1. When President Trump was elected in late 2016, defense advocates readied for increased spending, confident his arrival would mean far larger budgets. But for nearly the past 18 months, that prediction has faced doubts and political gridlock, as Congress continued to rely on stopgap spending measures.

Full story: How GOP defense hawks delivered a massive military budget

2. The omnibus appropriations law increases funding for the Pentagon's marquee artificial intelligence program by $100 million in fiscal year 2018.

Full story: Omnibus hands $100M increase to Pentagon's artificial-intelligence 'pathfinder'

3. The Defense Department is exploring a potential new mission for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: ballistic missile defense, according to a senior DOD official. The move could leverage sensors on the planned fleet of 2,456 new stealthy aircraft the U.S. military plans to buy in the coming decades to help detect and track enemy launches.

Full story: Pentagon eyeing new mission for F-35 Joint Strike Fighter: BMD

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