Ashley Roque covers land warfare for Breaking Defense. Over the past two decades, she’s reported on defense, US politics, and foreign policy for publications inside and outside of the United States including Janes, Roll Call, Inside Defense and Shephard Media. Ashley holds a BA in English with a minor in journalism from Florida State University, and a master's degree in conflict transformation from the University of Basel.
The proposed bill includes provisions to appease some Republican lawmakers’ social concerns, and jumps in the fight for A-10 retirements, an amphibious fleet and other sometimes controversial Pentagon programs.
“We intend to support India in the creation of logistics, repair, and maintenance infrastructure for aircraft and ships… that is obviously something that will be important as we work together to preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.
One Republican-backed amendment funds a special inspector general for Ukraine spending, while a Democrat-backed add-on targets “excessive contractor payments.”
With a GOP-controlled House and a Democrat-controlled Senate, nothing in the bill is final until the last minute conference negotiations are completed, but here are the key issues to watch.
When the House Appropriations Committee marks up the FY24 defense spending bill this week, social issues and a roadblock for multi-year munition deals appear to be on the table.
After AM General won a new contract over incumbent Oshkosh Defense in February, Oshkosh filed a protest, saying it had “significant concerns” about the award process.
“I’m happy to report that toxic fumes were one of our concerns at the production decision and we’ve been doing some engineering and testing, and I can confidently say today that that is an issue that is behind us,” an Army official said.
The subcommittee’s mark would enable the Air Force to continue retirements of the A-10, would impose some limits on development of next-gen fighters and drones and would further ask the Army for reports on major programs.
The Army decided to transition ERCA after DoD denied providing the service with a wavier to keep the program under the rapid prototyping umbrella, GAO said.
Although the service has awarded contracts to wind down leader-follower development and give the experimental trucks back to soldiers, a separate office has launched a prototyping competition.
