Rep. Langevin criticized the 2022 budget overview for its brevity, opacity, and appearance as “nearly a carbon copy” of the 2021 document. “If DoD were a high school student, I would have called [the 2022 budget overview] plagiarism.”
By Brad D. WilliamsDoD’s IT spending includes “a budget of more than $46.4 billion in fiscal year 2019, roughly 10,000 operational systems, thousands of data centers, tens of thousands of servers, millions of computers and IT devices, and hundreds of thousands of commercial mobile devices.”
By Barry Rosenberg“There is no enemy on the planet than can do more damage to the United States Air Force than us not getting a budget,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told a defense conference on February 23. “Lack of 2017 appropriations and no supplemental increase in funding…will increase risk to the nation and ultimately…
By David DeptulaRobert Hale, former budget god (comptroller) at the Pentagon, is good with numbers, especially defense budget numbers. And he speaks about them in clear, simply structured and well expressed English. Here he tackles one of the two or three thorniest issues facing the leadership of the US military: how to rein in the enormous growth…
By Robert HaleWhen you add up the defense budget shortfalls for the next few years, it quickly becomes clear Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s recent Strategic Choices and Management Review (SCMR) looks to become just what he did not want: actions he will have to implement instead of a menu of options. Pentagon leaders must now consider most if…
By Mackenzie EaglenWe don’t do this very often, mostly because it’s just so declasse to note the difficulty one’s competitors may have in matching one’s content, but today’s Wall Street Journal op-ed on the grim and crucial conflict between the two contracts America has with its troops leaves us almost too satisfied to speak. The op-ed, by…
By Colin ClarkAmerica likes the idea that we have made a solemn promise to generously compensate our military service members. After all, the argument goes, how can we ever fully repay them for risking their lives for us? Providing benefits like low-cost premium health care, comfortable pensions, housing allowances, grocery discounts, tuition assistance, tax breaks and much…
By Mackenzie Eaglen
The Pentagon must avoid the ancient Roman tactic of “burning the bridge behind them” by immediately throwing aside older weapons systems in favor of wholesale investments in new technologies and platforms. While force modernization is necessary, the Department of Defense does not have the time, track record, or the funding to rapidly field replacements to…
By Mackenzie Eaglen and John Ferrari