Modernizing our supply chain is a national security imperative
Closing supply chain gaps in innovating technology will reposition the industrial base to be a strategic source of value.
UPDATED: Adds Trump Riposte WASHINGTON: When a group of Republican national security experts signed a letter denouncing Donald Trump during the primaries, we didn’t report it because it was still intramural politics. Today, some of the most respected Republican experts in national security released a letter saying Trump “would be a dangerous President and would put…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: Whoever wins the White House in November will still be hobbled by the spending limits in the Budget Control Act, warned fiscal expert Todd Harrison. Whether BCA goes away, he said, depends much less on whether Trump or Clinton wins, and much more on who controls Congress — above all on whether Reagan defense…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
LONDON: Sen. John McCain would be howling if 49 percent of Pentagon contracts were not competed — especially if that had been true for more than nine years. How would McCain and his colleagues react if a company awarded a sole source deal charged the government $34,000 for a charitable donation or for “staff welfare?” One can only…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: As the House and Senate head to conference with an $18 billion gap between their drafts of the defense bill, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee is taking pains to align himself with the Senate. Speaking to the Defense Writers’ Group this morning, Rep. Adam Smith drew clear battle lines between himself…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: If you want to know just how fractured the Republican Party is, even in the relatively staid Senate, just look at today’s bipartisan vote knocking down Sen. John McCain’s amendment to add $18 billion in defense spending to the National Defense Authorization Act. The vote, technically a cloture motion, saw 11 Republicans voting nay, four…
By Colin Clark
UPDATED from SASC briefing WASHINGTON: In their dueling drafts of the annual defense bill, Senate Armed Services Committee chairman John McCain has staked out bold positions where the House’s Mac Thornberry is cautious — and McCain is cautious where Thornberry is bold. Specifically, according to a summary his staff released last night, McCain’s bill is bold…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Enterprise-wide training: the Army’s $3.5B program for multi-service combat readiness
The competition for Warfighter Training and Readiness Solutions will bring together training networks, combat training centers and live ranges across the DoD enterprise.
CAPITOL HILL: Members of Congress clashed today over everything from the F-35 fighter to the Lesser Prairie Chicken. But the most fundamental issue at the House Armed Services Committee’s annual marathon markup of its defense policy bill was simply how to pay for it. Chairman Mac Thornberry defended repurposing $18 billion of Overseas Contingency Operations funds…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. Sen. John McCain, a stalwart defense Republican, has come out against GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, saying he shares the concerns expressed today by fellow former GOP presidential Mitt Romney and 65 GOP national security leaders “about Mr. Trump’s uninformed and indeed dangerous statements on national security issues…. “At a time when our world has never…
By Mark Cancian
[UPDATED with experts’ analysis; “innocent passage” confirmed] WASHINGTON: Just two days after the head of US Pacific Command, Adm. Harry Harris, pledged to push harder on Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea, the destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within the 12 nautical mile limit around Triton Island. Situated in the Paracels, which are claimed…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
UPDATED Deal passed, Forbes voted “no” WASHINGTON: With hours to go before the House vote on the budget deal — assuming it doesn’t get derailed — the Republican caucus is deeply divided. A central selling point is the deal ups the defense budget, but one leading legislator on national security issues, House seapower subcommittee chairman Rep.…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: The budget deal announced late last night is unmixed good news for the Defense Department, our sources say — for a year, at least, and if it actually passes the ever-more-erratic House of Representatives. “This ‘October Surprise’ is a better deal for defense than I expected,” said one of Washington’s leading budget experts, Todd…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: Are we giving Beijing mixed messages? On the one hand, the US Navy is getting ready — maybe — to challenge Chinese claims around their artificial islets in the South China Sea. On the other hand, the Navy’s also preparing to welcome three Chinese warships at Naval Station Mayport in Florida two weeks from…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
WASHINGTON: The most intriguing assessment of President Obama’s veto yesterday of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act comes from a Republican. While Mackenzie Eaglen, defense expert at the American Enterprise Institute, clearly doesn’t think much of Obama’s move — citing “his intransigence at anything less than is being demanded of him” — she also concludes that he’s…
By Colin Clark
One of America’s top defense lawmakers, Rep. Joe Wilson, will write an exclusive monthly opinion piece for Breaking Defense. As Breaking D readers know, Rep. Randy Forbes, outgoing chairman of the HASC seapower and power projection subcommittee, started this tradition. But the voters spoke and, sadly, Mr. Forbes is moving on after the election. Wilson,…
By Colin Clark