Prior to joining Breaking Defense, Justin Katz reported on the Navy and Marine Corps as an associate editor for Inside Defense, where he focused on the services' largest acquisition programs and congressional committees overseeing them. Justin has also covered the federal government's cybersecurity policies and programs for FCW and a worked as a general news reporter in both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Katz graduated from Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla., in 2015 with a degree in communications focusing on journalism and is a native of Long Island, N.Y.
jkatz@breakingmedia.com
In an exclusive interview with Breaking Defense, HII boss Chris Kastner said the company views its non-shipbuilding division as a key source of future growth.
“It is not a Washington Monument ploy. It is a necessary moment that we… need to push through to actually get strategic outcomes,” said Russell Rumbaugh.
Like in its formal budget, the submarine industrial base is the top item in the Navy’s annual unfunded wishlist, which also aims to replace missiles used recently in the Red Sea.
The inclusion of the Medium Landing Ship in the fiscal year 2025 shipbuilding request is a major win for the Marine Corps, which faced significant amphibious shipbuilding cuts last year.
Navy officials have stressed during the budget rollout many ‘hard decisions’ were made due to the defense spending caps in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.
Pentagon officials say they have “high confidence” that they can return the V-22 Ospreys to flight safely, but are tight lipped on what they learned about the cause of a crash in Japan that killed eight airmen.
The comments from Sen. Dan Sullivan come after a contentious year during which the Navy, Marine Corps and Congress publicly feuded over the state of the amphibious fleet.
