Is the Army doing enough to sell Congress on its five-year, $57 billion modernization plan? And does that long-term effort require a long-term leader?
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON The massive and troubled $10 billion cloud contract the Pentagon has been pursuing has run into another snag. DoD revealed Tuesday it has obtained “new information” pointing to potential of conflicts of interest in the competition, already widely criticized for favoring Amazon Web Services. Pentagon spokesperson Elissa Smith confirmed to Breaking Defense that “new…
By Paul McLeary“From an industry perspective, calling us, engaging us, talking to us, and synchronizing that alignment can be most helpful. It can also be, frankly, harmful if the appropriators or the authorizers get some stray voltage that doesn’t match up to the story.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The big news about the $674.4 billion defense appropriation that conferees agreed to yesterday is that, for the first time in nine years, it’s on time. But in a budget this big, even the “small” items are billions of dollars, and there are plenty of devils in them thar details.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.“Those will be debates we’ll have over the next couple of years, and those are some tough choices,” intelligence official Kevin Sherman told me. “Do we reduce some of those capabilities have been very helpful in the CT (counter-terrorism) fight, that a lot of our combatant commands have relied on, in order to buy more exquisite things?”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Wait — doesn’t this omnibus fund 14 new ships for the Navy, compared to 13 in the National Defense Authorization Act and just eight in President Trump’s request? Yes, but not all ships are created equal, Wittman said.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.In a somewhat surreal scenario, President Trump yesterday riffed on the idea of a “Space Force,” something he’d clearly been briefed on at some point. And the Air Force expects new engines for the B-52 fleet to cost up to $8 billion.
By Colin ClarkLegislators will probably loosen some rules on federal spending to help the Pentagon cope with Congress’s failure to pass funding bills until six months into the fiscal year. Budget dysfunction has gotten so bad it’s forcing even the famously strict appropriations committees to loosen the reins after years of resistance.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.UPDATED with Harrison & Hunter analysis WASHINGTON: To prevent a repeat of last year’s lethal accidents, Senate authorizers Roger Wicker and John McCain want to give the Navy unprecedented flexibility to retain experienced officers and spend readiness funds. But the provision to let the Navy spend Operations & Maintenance money as late as in the fiscal…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: Navy Secretary Richard Spencer has asked legislators to repeal an obscure statute that he says hinders Navy readiness in the Pacific, where accidents this summer killed 17 sailors. Armed Services committee leaders seem receptive, but it’s the appropriators who’ll have to change the provision in question, which was written by their late, great chairman…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.ARLINGTON: House leadership wants to pass all the outstanding spending bills by Sunday, defense appropriations chairwoman Kay Granger said this afternoon. “We’re going to do… all the rest of them this week,” Granger told a DefenseNews conference here. “I was with the Majority Leader [Rep. Kevin McCarthy] last night, who said, ‘if we don’t finish…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
After heading off a government shutdown with a “clean” temporary spending bill on December 7th, lawmakers are scrambling to reach a consensus under a new Continuing Resolution that funds the government beyond December 22nd. If leaders cannot come to a final agreement on spending levels and other thorny policy issues for a government spending deal…
By Mackenzie Eaglen