The INSIDER daily digest -- Jan. 26, 2024

This end of the week INSIDER Daily Digest starts off with news from Northrop on the Air Force’s newest bomber, Congress being briefed on a new unmanned program, news about the upcoming Air Force budget release, a senior congressional Republican pushing for a major defense spending increase and more.

Northrop is taking a dollar hit on the first production B-21 aircraft:

Northrop reports $1.2 billion charges on first B-21 LRIP lot

Northrop Grumman will lose $1.17 billion on the first lot of the B-21 Raider’s low-rate initial production and will likely take charges on the next four lots, the business announced in its year-end earnings call today.

Congress is getting information on the Defense Department’s new unmanned aircraft plan:

DIU official says Congress being briefed on Replicator

A senior Defense Innovation Unit official said today that Congress is being briefed about the Replicator initiative, adding that military services are working on selecting specific systems suitable to meet the Pentagon’s requirements for thousands of small, “attritable,” autonomous drones.

An Air Force official this week talked about the upcoming budget release:

Air Force to highlight integration, implementation in 2025 budget

The Air Force will focus on integration, sustainment and implementation in its not-yet-released fiscal year 2025 budget, two senior service officials said today during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

A senior GOP senator wants to see a big defense spending boost:

Wicker laying groundwork to push for defense spending to be 5% of GDP

Some of Washington’s top conservatives gathered at the Heritage Foundation today to lament the think tank’s annual assertion that the U.S. military is underfunded and too small, with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) calling for the federal government to “go big” and put 5% of the gross domestic product into national defense spending.

The Navy is moving ahead with an expanded Tomahawk missile production:

Tomahawk Block V production expansion begins, Navy official says

Using targeted industrial base investments, the Navy has begun expanding the annual production and recertification capacity for the newest version of the Tactical Tomahawk missile, according to a service official.