Army Contracting Command still accounts for 45 percent of all DoD Other Transaction Authority obligations, but the Air Force and, belatedly, the Navy are starting to catch up.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.What’s new in naval radars and missiles: Defending the Pacific
Defending U.S. naval forces in the Pacific, Red Sea, and elsewhere require a range of systems from close-in weapons to anti-ballistic missiles.
The best way for America to develop a consensus on what our defense and global security commitments should be is for Congress to have a lengthy series of posture hearings that delve deeply into these issues. They could be jointly held by the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees from the two chambers, patterned…
By Peter Huessy
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…
By Mackenzie Eaglen and Rick Berger
AFA: The Air Force won’t issue a Request For Information on possible Light Attack aircraft, originally scheduled to come out December, in favor of doing a lot more experiments, Air Force Undersecretary Matt Donovan told reporters this morning. The service has been dithering for over a decade about whether to buy propeller-driven aircraft for affordable close…
By Colin Clark
WASHINGTON: After years of delays, budget fights, and searing debates over the role that the ship will play, three Littoral Combat Ships will head out on their first deployments this year. “We’re deploying LCS this year. It’s happening. Two ships are going on the West Coast, one ship is going on the East Coast,” said…
By Paul McLeary
“I am opposed to using defense dollars for non-defense purposes,” Rep. Mac Thornberry said. “Seems to me we ought to fund border security needs on their own and not be taking it from other accounts.”
By Paul McLeary
Gray Eagle is the low-cost, low-risk answer to Army modernization
Gray Eagle STOL and Gray Eagle 25M are the best options for Army aviation as it assesses where to move from its current inflection point.
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump injected a fresh dose of uncertainty over defense spending Monday when he derided 2019’s defense budget — which he readily signed and has praised for months — as “Crazy!” The sharp turn in sentiment came in another dreaded early-morning presidential tweet that often shift the talking points for entire segments of…
By Paul McLeary
The goal is to give the 6,200-strong Cyber Mission Force a common, compatible set of tools so they can act in cyberspace as a coordinated military unit.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
The White House surprised DoD with a last-minute $33 billion budget trim last week. But it’s far from certain that the cuts will outlive months of haggling between the Trump administration, the Pentagon and Congress.
By Paul McLeary
“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.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Trump’s plan would undercut the more expansive National Defense Strategy for “great power competition” that embattled Defense Secretary Jim Mattis rolled out just nine months ago.
By Mark Cancian
“I get really irritated when I’m in the audience and I hear ‘startup, startup, startup,’” Army Futures Command’s chief innovation officer said this morning at the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). “Startups are not the only source of ideas.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
As old programs go, the Corps is looking at new cyber capabilities and getting back into the air defense game.
By Paul McLeary
The clock is ticking, and the Senate, where floor time is always at a premium, has only 35 days in session after July 4th before fiscal 2020 begins (August is mostly recess, unless the Senate decides to enjoy the swelter of a Washington summer).
By Mark Cancian