A smaller 2021 budget and greater funding demands for nuclear weapons development mean the end of plans by the four services to expand their numbers. Rising budgets have allowed the Pentagon to maintain old planes, ships, armored vehicles and other weapons, grow the force and invest in new weapons. The reduced topline in fiscal 2021 […]
Planning for a 21st century Navy of unmanned vessels, distributed operations, and great power competition has collapsed. Trapped by a 355-ship force goal, a reduced budget, and a fixed counting methodology, the Navy can’t find a feasible solution to the difficult question of how its forces should be structured. As a result, the Navy postponed […]
AI is reshaping the Army’s approach to cyber, electronic warfare and command and control. At TechNet Augusta 2026, leaders outlined how they’re turning emerging technology into capabilities for the battlefield.
A larger NATO embroils the United States in obscure regional disputes, commits it to defend exposed countries, and unnecessarily antagonizes the Russians.
What went wrong and what happens next? CSIS experts Mark Cancian & Andrew Hunter dive deep into JEDI.
Sen. Warren: "And as everything from more F-35s to massive bombs never used in combat have migrated into the OCO account, the Department of Defense has been spared from having to prioritize or live within its means. It’s not just bad budgetary practice – it’s wasteful spending."
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).
A commercial prototype in a sandbox is different from deploying AI across classified networks.
One of Washington's leading budget experts explains how bipartisan supporters of Pentagon funding will steamroll the Budget Control Act.
The Trump defense budget takes significant steps to move from a focus on regional conflicts and counter-insurgency to a focus on great power conflicts. But the Army, Navy Air Force and Marines clearly are struggling with this balance.
Trump's pick to replace Sec. Jim Mattis will be a key indicator about where the president wants to drive the department -- and the confirmation process will show what the Senate will accept -- while the defense budget may be collateral damage from a bitterly divided Congress.
We have been here before. In 1982 Caspar Weinberger and David Stockman had a similar showdown referred by President Reagan. DOD won that time. What does that have to tell us about the impending Mulvaney–Mattis showdown? And if OMB wins this time, would Mattis stay on?
A commitment to long-term operational value.
WASHINGTON: The Democrats’ recapturing the House means three major impacts on the Defense Department: The odds are that controversial Trump priorities like new nuclear weapons and a Space Force will go nowhere, defense budgets will go down, and oversight will go up, up, up. Program winners and losers The most likely losers are nuclear modernization […]
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.
Now that President Trump has signed the fiscal 2019 defense appropriations bill — marking the first time in nine years that defense is not bound by a Continuing Resolution — the broad trend was cuts to Operational and Maintenance (O&M) to fund Research, Development, Testing, & Engineering (RDT&E). The top line was consistent with the […]
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson announced “the Air Force we need”, a significant expansion of the Air Force from 312 operational squadrons to 386. One thing is clear. It will be really expensive. The annual additional cost would be about $37 billion at a time when budget projections show no increase, and up to 94,000 additional personnel, active and reserve.