No, The Pentagon Did NOT Waste $28 Billion

No, The Pentagon Did NOT Waste $28 Billion
No, The Pentagon Did NOT Waste $28 Billion

One of our primary goals here at Breaking Defense is to try and avoid the madness of the daily news cycle and tell our readers what is really happening, as best as any human can tell at any time. The following explanation by two experienced defense budget experts of what really happened to $28 billion discussed in a…

Navy To Trump: ‘Don’t Knock Us Over’ With Budget Cuts

Navy To Trump: ‘Don’t Knock Us Over’ With Budget Cuts
Navy To Trump: ‘Don’t Knock Us Over’ With Budget Cuts

“The waste would be absolutely stunning,” Secretary Spenser said. To cut the already-completed 2020 budget plan so steeply on such little notice, he said, “some of the scenarios will make your eyes water for what we will have to do” in his shipbuilding and maintenance accounts.

Forget The Terminator: Robotics For Logistics 1st, Combat 2nd

Don’t think about the Terminator or Iron Man: Think about Sigourney Weaver’s power loader lifting crates in Aliens.

With Funding In Peril, Coast Guard Pushes Icebreaker As ‘Polar Security Cutter’

With Funding In Peril, Coast Guard Pushes Icebreaker As ‘Polar Security Cutter’
With Funding In Peril, Coast Guard Pushes Icebreaker As ‘Polar Security Cutter’

“One of the things that we did early in my tenure was we changed (it to) Polar Security Cutter as we were trying to get the funds from the Congress, from our own department, the administration,” Coast Guard Commandant Karl Schultz told Breaking Defense.

Congress Traded Operations & Maintenance For Modernization In 19 Appropriations

Congress Traded Operations & Maintenance For Modernization In 19 Appropriations
Congress Traded Operations & Maintenance For Modernization In 19 Appropriations

Now that President Trump has signed the fiscal 2019 defense appropriations bill — marking the first time in nine years that defense is not bound by a Continuing Resolution — the broad trend was cuts to Operational and Maintenance (O&M) to fund Research, Development, Testing, & Engineering (RDT&E). The top line was consistent with the…

Wilson Presses For 40K More Airmen, 74 More Squadrons

Wilson Presses For 40K More Airmen, 74 More Squadrons
Wilson Presses For 40K More Airmen, 74 More Squadrons

It won’t be cheap. Todd Harrison, defense budget guru at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tweeted that the larger service could cost an additional $13 billion per year.

Up the Buy ASAP: Fixing American Airpower

Up the Buy ASAP: Fixing American Airpower
Up the Buy ASAP: Fixing American Airpower

Double the buy rate on F-35A starting in 2020 and plan on a minimum of 200 B-21 bombers built in rapid fashion. That will begin to get to the Air Force that America needs to meets the challenges of the future.

Transforming The RAF: F-35B, Carriers, Typhoon TyTAN, & More

Transforming The RAF: F-35B, Carriers, Typhoon TyTAN, & More
Transforming The RAF: F-35B, Carriers, Typhoon TyTAN, & More

The future of the RAF is on display at the Farnborough Air Show. With the F-35, the RAF is part of the multi-domain airpower transformation and will work closely with European allies, notably in reshaping Northern Tier Defense. With the Typhoon, the RAF is seeking a modernized aircraft reworked to compliment the F-35 but with a yet undetermined relationship with its European partners. And the A330MRTT and A400M aircraft, as well as MBDA missiles, are part of a broader context of resolving Brexit.

AI Logistics Let Combat Units Move Faster: Uptake’s DIUX Contract

AI Logistics Let Combat Units Move Faster: Uptake’s DIUX Contract
AI Logistics Let Combat Units Move Faster: Uptake’s DIUX Contract

The Army needs to figure out how to support the forces it has more efficiently so they can maneuver more freely, with less frequent pit stops for maintenance or supply runs for repair parts. That’s where Uptake’s AI comes in.

Keep Ships Longer To Boost Fleet Size: 355 Ships By 2035

Keep Ships Longer To Boost Fleet Size: 355 Ships By 2035
Keep Ships Longer To Boost Fleet Size: 355 Ships By 2035

Instead of growing from 284 ships now to 355 in 2052-2055, the timeframe officials cited in the past, the Navy could reach its goal in 2032-2035, said Vice Adm. Thomas Moore, chief of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

Coast Guard Fears Two-Year Budget Boost Just A Blip: Adm. Zukunft

Coast Guard Fears Two-Year Budget Boost Just A Blip: Adm. Zukunft
Coast Guard Fears Two-Year Budget Boost Just A Blip: Adm. Zukunft

Adm. Zukunft says he doesn’t want to return to the old culture of “martyrdom” when the service prided itself on doing more with less even as it ran its equipment and people into the ground.

House Approps Chair Promises Pentagon ‘Flexibility’ On O&M Funds

House Approps Chair Promises Pentagon ‘Flexibility’ On O&M Funds
House Approps Chair Promises Pentagon ‘Flexibility’ On O&M Funds

Legislators 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.

Manpower, Parts Shortages Would Hinder Navy In Wartime

Manpower, Parts Shortages Would Hinder Navy In Wartime
Manpower, Parts Shortages Would Hinder Navy In Wartime

Faced with erratic funding from Congress, the Navy has pursued cost-efficiency so rigorously that it has cut corners and compromised peacetime safety and, very possibly, wartime performance. Crews are shorthanded and spare parts stockpiles are low.

DoD R&D Soars 24%, Procurement Up 15%; Army Up Most

DoD R&D Soars 24%, Procurement Up 15%; Army Up Most
DoD R&D Soars 24%, Procurement Up 15%; Army Up Most

The Defense Department’s 2019 budget request dramatically increases spending on research and new weapons, less so on personnel and readiness. That’s as promised by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.