Sunday, May 12, 2024
Sunday, May 12, 2024
This Thursday INSIDER Daily Digest has news from both the House authorization and appropriations marks, a conversation with the top Air Force officer, a check-in with the head of the Defense Innovation Unit, and more.
House authorizers are pumping the brakes on Air Force plans to jettison some aircraft:
House Armed Services Committee cools Air Force divestment plans
As lawmakers debate provisions of the fiscal year 2023 defense authorization bill, amendments passed by the House Armed Services Committee today impose limits on the Air Force’s goal of rapidly divesting platforms.
The amendments, proposed in an en bloc package by the tactical air and land forces subcommittee and approved by a voice vote, add provisions to the service’s strategy of shifting away from the HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter and A-10 aircraft.
The Defense Innovation Unit has a new strategy to develop major weapon programs:
Head of DIU says new ‘hedge strategy’ would pack ‘surprise’ into capability development
The leader of the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit hopes that a recently created “hedge strategy” he helped craft in coordination with the Office of Naval Research will pack “surprise” into DOD’s development of large weapons platforms.
The top Air Force official this week laid out how the service needs to move forward over the next number of years:
Brown: Air Force needs to ‘break out’ of bureaucracy, rethink readiness to adapt
The Air Force will need to undergo cultural changes, overcome bureaucratic constraints and re-evaluate how it measures readiness to evolve, the service’s top uniformed officer said today.
Speaking at an event at the Hudson Institute this morning on the future of the Air Force, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Brown said that emerging technologies have run up against cultural barriers.
The Pentagon’s budget got a big boost from House authorizors:
House Armed Services Committee increases defense topline by $37B
The House Armed Services Committee voted 42-17 today to authorize a $37 billion increase to the amount President Biden has requested for national defense.
The increase comes via an amendment offered today by Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME), who cited concerns over inflation and the ongoing war in Ukraine during the committee’s debate on the annual defense authorization bill.
The Navy is taking severe weather events very seriously:
Navy to hold climate wargame next week
The Navy is holding an exercise next week that will simulate operating in a climate-impacted environment.
The event will include participants from the Pentagon, industry, Capitol Hill and academia for an “immersive, educational experience,” according to Meredith Berger, the Navy’s assistant secretary for energy, installations and environment.
House appropriators have closely scrutinized nuclear weapons spending:
House appropriators won’t ‘rubber stamp’ nuclear modernization spending
The House Appropriations defense subcommittee won’t “rubber stamp” nuclear modernization spending proposed by the Air Force, according to a report accompanying the subcommittee’s fiscal year 2023 defense spending bill.