budget

Budget Battles: IC Costs Mean Air Force Gets Short Straw, Say Advocates

Budget Battles: IC Costs Mean Air Force Gets Short Straw, Say Advocates
Budget Battles: IC Costs Mean Air Force Gets Short Straw, Say Advocates

While service in-fighting for budget share is a perennial fact of political life, this year’s version resembles the fictional, to-the-death “Hunger Games,” as all the services struggle with an essentially flat 2021 DoD top line and a mandate to shift gears away from fighting against low-level insurgencies toward global competition with Russia and China.

CSIS Bad Idea: Blaming OCO for Defense Budget Blunders

CSIS Bad Idea: Blaming OCO for Defense Budget Blunders
CSIS Bad Idea: Blaming OCO for Defense Budget Blunders

In other words, the fault is not with the OCO mechanism, but in many cases, with members of Congress who are critiquing its use.

SecDef Esper, Don’t Make Gates’ Mistakes With Night Court

SecDef Esper, Don’t Make Gates’ Mistakes With Night Court
SecDef Esper, Don’t Make Gates’ Mistakes With Night Court

Pentagon officials seek to show they are reorienting to great power competition with China by shifting money under the flat defense topline. The goal is to spend a more defense dollars on high-end capabilities to match the National Defense Strategy instead of pleading for more, new money. The tradeoffs will become very real for members…

Will Trump’s Wall Mean a Delay in Defense Funding?

Will Trump’s Wall Mean a Delay in Defense Funding?
Will Trump’s Wall Mean a Delay in Defense Funding?

Senate Republicans and Democrats remain far apart on using DoD money for the border wall — so far that the government might not gets its 2020 budget on time,

Day One: Esper Praises Budget Deal, Warns On China Tech, Iran

Day One: Esper Praises Budget Deal, Warns On China Tech, Iran
Day One: Esper Praises Budget Deal, Warns On China Tech, Iran

The secretary heads first to CENTCOM to hammer out the details of Operation Sentinel, a plan to monitor and protect shipping from Iran in Persian Gulf.

Esper Confirmed As SecDef; Budget Deal Leaves DoD Spending Flat Next Year

Esper Confirmed As SecDef; Budget Deal Leaves DoD Spending Flat Next Year
Esper Confirmed As SecDef; Budget Deal Leaves DoD Spending Flat Next Year

With a two-year budget deal the Pentagon is getting what it wanted: budget certainty. But that certainty comes at a cost.

Trump Threatens NDAA Veto If House Cuts Stand

Trump Threatens NDAA Veto If House Cuts Stand
Trump Threatens NDAA Veto If House Cuts Stand

The Trump Administration argues the HASC’s cuts to the defense policy bill would hamper missile detection and defense priorities.

House Armed Services Scrutinizes F-35 Costs, ABMS, Army Modernization

House Armed Services Scrutinizes F-35 Costs, ABMS, Army Modernization
House Armed Services Scrutinizes F-35 Costs, ABMS, Army Modernization

The HASC wants an independent cost estimate on the F-35 and some detail — any detail — on the plan to replace AWACS. It’s also a little curious about robot tanks.

HASC to DoD: We’ll Do The Money, You Do A Tech Strategy

HASC to DoD: We’ll Do The Money, You Do A Tech Strategy
HASC to DoD: We’ll Do The Money, You Do A Tech Strategy

In a markup of the 2020 defense budget, the HASC tells the Pentagon to keep developing new tech but inform the Hill about how and where it might be used.

ATEC Appeals To Hill For Helicopter Engine Dough

ATEC Appeals To Hill For Helicopter Engine Dough
ATEC Appeals To Hill For Helicopter Engine Dough

Rebuffed by the Army and GAO in its bid to re-engine aging helicopters, ATEC has gone over their heads to Congress and asked legislators for a second chance.

Army Big 6 Gets $10B More Over 2021-2025

Army Big 6 Gets $10B More Over 2021-2025
Army Big 6 Gets $10B More Over 2021-2025

Undersecretary Ryan McCarthy says the service’s new five-year budget plan will be finished within weeks.

Defense Spending Will Bust BCA Caps: Mark Cancian

Defense Spending Will Bust BCA Caps: Mark Cancian
Defense Spending Will Bust BCA Caps: Mark Cancian

One of Washington’s leading budget experts explains how bipartisan supporters of Pentagon funding will steamroll the Budget Control Act.

NDAA 2020: SASC Emphasizes Tech Race With China

NDAA 2020: SASC Emphasizes Tech Race With China
NDAA 2020: SASC Emphasizes Tech Race With China

The senators’ draft of the annual defense bill puts a new emphasis on technological competition, including industrial policy moves to strengthen US companies.

SASC OKs Space Force, But Imposes Tight Oversight

SASC OKs Space Force, But Imposes Tight Oversight
SASC OKs Space Force, But Imposes Tight Oversight

SASC wants the Air Force and DoD “to come back to the oversight committee every single month” to explain how they are standing up the new Space Force — if it is finally approved by Congress.