Monday, May 13, 2024
Monday, May 13, 2024
DOD's defense pricing director speaking at a Capitol Forum event, plus coverage of senior Army officials' testimony to Congress and more highlight this Tuesday INSIDER Daily Digest.
Shay Assad, director for defense pricing, recently appeared at a Capitol Forum event, where he said DOD spends approximately $4 billion a year reimbursing contractors' IR&D expenses:
DOD pricing chief: Pentagon should reward commercial companies' investments
The official in charge of pricing the Defense Department's purchases says the Pentagon should advantage commercial companies investing in their own products over defense companies reimbursed for research and development.
The Army's top uniformed officer recently told lawmakers: "You halted it. Stopped the bleeding, so to speak. We turned a corner."
Milley: FY-18 budget is a start, but real build comes in FY-19
The fiscal year 2017 appropriation "stopped the bleeding" for the Army, and the FY-18 budget request should serve as a foundation for future growth, according to the service's chief of staff.
A senior Army officer told lawmakers last week: The funding level sought "sustains, but it does not significantly advance our modernization efforts."
Army will use FY-18 budget to address urgent capability gaps
Two senior Army leaders told lawmakers last week the service is prioritizing critical capability gaps as it budgets for the coming year.
Green-glow typically occurs when it is dark at night and makes it difficult for pilots to see certain objects:
Navy, F-35 JPO to test green-glow, catapult ride quality at sea this summer
The Navy and the F-35 joint program office plan to conduct an at-sea test for the Joint Strike Fighter carrier variant in September, assessing fixes for the helmet's green-glow problems and catapult ride quality, according to an official.
"There's certainly more headroom to spend more on R&D," according to an L3 exec:
Defense contractors boost independent research and development dollars
Some defense contractors say they're spending more on independent research and development, seeing an opportunity to differentiate themselves from the crowd.
The Air Force is proposing $5.1 million in R&D funding for a new-start program to fund "armament subsystems":
FY-18 budget seeks Next-Generation Strike Weapon for planned sixth-gen fighter
The Air Force has unveiled the outlines of a plan to develop a next-generation armament for its Penetrating Counterair capability -- a strike package for a yet-to-be-determined sixth-generation fighter -- with a budget line in fiscal year 2018 to competitively assess novel prototype weapons as part of a new project to ensure U.S. air dominance in the 2030s.