Saturday, May 4, 2024
Key Issues Budget 'parity' Summer CUAS demo EW in Ukraine
Tony Bertuca is chief editor of Inside the Pentagon, the flagship publication of InsideDefense, where he focuses on defense budget and acquisition policy. He previously worked for the Sun-Times News Group in his hometown of Chicago, IL, and at the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester, NH. Tony has also served as managing editor of Inside the Army. He has a master's degree in journalism from Boston University.
Pentagon acquisition chief Bill LaPlante told House lawmakers today that the Defense Department is preparing to fund about 40 developmental systems to counter small drones, but he stressed that the individual "interceptors" many of the systems use are still too expensive when compared to the cheaply made targets they are meant to shoot down.
The Air Force and Space Force will lose a combined total of $6 billion in modernization investments and suffer $13 billion in lost buying power if Congress cannot pass a fiscal year 2024 defense appropriation and opts for a yearlong funding patch, according to a new fact sheet.
The Senate voted 70-29 to pass a $95.3 billion supplemental spending package early this morning that would provide military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, with tens of billions intended for the U.S. defense industrial base.
Senior defense officials are slated to speak at several events this week. The Air and Space Forces Association also hosts its annual air warfare conference in Colorado, while a key Navy conference takes place in San Diego, CA.
Pentagon acquisition chief Bill LaPlante said the Defense Department would "love" to have a special category of money with spending flexibility to quickly counter attacks from unmanned drones, especially since U.S. adversaries change their tactics nearly every two weeks. But he also said he knows congressional appropriators think his wish for "agility" sounds a lot like a "slush fund."
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Pentagon acquisition chief Bill LaPlante said today that ongoing congressional dysfunction is hobbling their ability to compete with China, detailing some of the specific financial stresses that lawmakers have put the department under as the government continues down an uncertain path toward the fiscal year 2025 budget submission.
The Senate Armed Services Committee today voted to advance four senior Defense Department nominees to the full chamber for confirmation votes.
The Senate voted 67-32 to advance consideration of a $95.34 billion security supplemental spending package that would aid Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after Republicans forced Democrats to remove border security and immigration reform provisions.
The State Department has approved a possible $1.2 billion foreign military sale for airspace and surface radar reconnaissance aerostat systems, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
A new supplemental security spending bill that emerged from the Senate over the weekend after months of bipartisan negotiations injects $35 billion into the U.S. defense industrial base, focusing on new weapons for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as replenishing U.S. stocks and adding $2.44 billion to cover the latest military actions in and around the Red Sea against Iran-backed militants.
Senior defense officials are scheduled to speak at several events this week, including the acquisition chiefs of two military services.
The United States, in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three U.S. servicemembers in Jordan last Sunday, has launched airstrikes against 85 targets at seven military facilities in Iraq and Syria controlled by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps' Quds Force and other affiliated groups.
The White House intends to submit its fiscal year 2025 spending request to Congress on March 11, according to the Office of Management and Budget.
The acting head of the Pentagon's independent weapons testing office says that while his team has developed new digital tools to evaluate the military’s most expensive systems, the war in Ukraine demonstrates the deadly effectiveness of U.S. weapons that have been put through rigorous live-fire test and evaluation.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking to the press for the first time since his Jan. 1 emergency hospitalization, apologized for how he handled the secrecy surrounding his medical absence, including his failure to tell President Biden.
The State Department has approved a possible $4 billion foreign military sale to India for 31 Sky Guardian MQ-9B drones to conduct “unmanned surveillance and reconnaissance patrols in sea lanes of operation,” according to a congressional notification from the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
The Defense Department today released an updated list of "Chinese military companies" operating directly or indirectly in the United States.
U.S. foreign military sales increased by 56% in fiscal year 2023 for a record-breaking total of $81 billion, a significant boost above the $52 billion reported in FY-22 and coming at a time when NATO is bolstering its defenses against Russia, according to new data from the State Department.
Senior defense officials are scheduled to speak at several events this week.
Zeno Power, which in May was awarded a $30 million Air Force contract to build a satellite powered by nuclear waste, has announced a new deal with the Energy Department by which it will obtain radioactive material needed to fuel its “novel” power system.