Friday, April 19, 2024
Friday, April 19, 2024
This Monday INSIDER Daily Digest has a deep dive into where the defense budget stands as the White House tries to figure out how much money to seek from Congress, plus news on the role of U.S. Central Command, a new Army Futures Command directorate and more.
With reports over the weekend of the Trump administration yo-yoing over its military spending request, here's a primer of how we got to this point:
Topline watch: Pentagon and Hill officials ask Trump to halt $33B cut
President Trump has now heard from a long line of Pentagon and Capitol Hill officials urging him to halt a $33 billion defense budget cut being contemplated by the Office of Management and Budget, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK), who said he is optimistic that Trump understands the position of GOP defense hawks.
The defense and Air Force secretaries don't seem to have the same views on the role of U.S. Central Command under the new National Defense Strategy:
Mattis, Wilson offer different views on CENTCOM's future under National Defense Strategy
Defense experts in Washington say Defense Secretary Jim Mattis' vision may conflict with Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson's recent remarks that the service can't continue its current level of effort in the Middle East while properly executing the National Defense Strategy, but that greater funding and new programs could bridge the apparent divide between their perspectives.
The Army Capabilities Integration Center now has a new name and mission:
Army Futures Command activates Futures and Concepts Directorate
FT. EUSTIS, VA -- The Army Capabilities Integration Center has been officially redesignated the Futures and Concepts Directorate under Army Futures Command and will remain here to oversee the publication of two major documents on Army modernization.
Updating last year's Multidomain Battle 1.0, the slightly re-titled MDO 1.5 concept offers a more detailed plan to make the service's doctrine more joint and move it toward fighting a larger military threat:
Multidomain Operations 1.5 fleshes out new Army warfighting concepts
The Army recently published its latest iteration of the Multidomain Operations concept, which one general called a "more fleshed out" response to the National Defense Strategy's focus on the near-peer threats of Russia and China.
John Swift, the amphibious programs director at BAE Systems, told reporters he expects to start delivery of the Lot 2 Amphibious Combat Vehicles in early 2020 and finish by "late summer" of that year:
Navy awards BAE Systems $140 million contract modification for ACV Lot 2
The Navy has awarded a $140 million contract modification to BAE Systems to build 30 Amphibious Combat Vehicles for Lot 2 of the program's low-rate initial production phase.