Friday, April 19, 2024
Friday, April 19, 2024
This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has news on a couple of the Pentagon's FY-23 unfunded priorities lists and more.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and U.S. Central Command have sent lawmakers their fiscal year 2023 unfunded priorities lists:
INDOPACOM sends Congress $1.5B unfunded priorities list
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has sent Congress a list of unfunded priorities totaling about $1.5 billion for fiscal year 2023, according to a document obtained by Inside Defense.
CENTCOM sees $35M unfunded need to replenish 'bunker buster' bombs
U.S. Central Command has for now identified a single item on the annual unfunded priorities list it sends to Congress: $35 million to replenish GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, sometimes called "bunker buster" bombs, according to a letter obtained by Inside Defense.
The Missile Defense Agency's fiscal year 2023 budget request includes $89 million for the Hypersonic and Ballistic Space Tracking Sensor project, which is slated to be on orbit by mid-FY-23:
HBTSS payloads taking shape; L3Harris and Northrop eye acquisition endgame
The Hypersonic and Ballistic Space Tracking Sensor project is beginning to take physical shape, with both L3Harris and Northrop Grumman beginning assembly of their respective prototype payloads as the two companies await word from the Missile Defense Agency on whether a down-select is in the offing or if both could be carried forward as suppliers.
Air Force engineers in coordination with Boeing have issued a temporary fix to a flaw found on the KC-46A airborne refueling tanker:
KC-46 cleared for TRANSCOM fueling missions as program grapples with trim defect
Air Mobility Command has authorized the KC-46A Pegasus to refuel the F-35A and F-22 aircraft, expanding the new tanker’s U.S. Transportation Command-approved mission sets as the aircraft awaits full mission capability and faces a recently discovered trim issue.
During a recent panel discussion hosted by the Center for a New American Security, defense analysts took the Pentagon to task for how it calculates for inflation:
Defense analysts: DOD too optimistic in FY-23 about buying power lost to inflation
Washington analysts who have had several days to dissect the fiscal year 2023 defense budget request criticized the White House and Pentagon today for using unrealistic inflation assumptions, but were uniform in their predictions that Congress would add tens of billions more to the Pentagon's coffers.