HASC Wants To Stop Year-End Spending Sprees

HASC Wants To Stop Year-End Spending Sprees
HASC Wants To Stop Year-End Spending Sprees

To end annual panic spending to use up the budget, HASC wants to let DoD keep 50% of unspent Operations & Maintenance funds – if the appropriators allow it. A floor flight looms.

DoD ‘Agile’ Software Development Still Too Slow: GAO

DoD ‘Agile’ Software Development Still Too Slow: GAO
DoD ‘Agile’ Software Development Still Too Slow: GAO

Pentagon programs that claim they’re ‘agile’ rarely are, GAO data shows. But how well does a Silicon Valley software strategy translate to weapons programs?

Amazon Vs. Trump: How A JEDI Protest & Impeachment Intertwine

Amazon Vs. Trump: How A JEDI Protest & Impeachment Intertwine
Amazon Vs. Trump: How A JEDI Protest & Impeachment Intertwine

If Amazon protests the Pentagon’s award of the $10 billion JEDI contract to rival Microsoft — and they almost certainly will — the president’s public feud with CEO Jeff Bezos will be central to their case.

Cut Carriers To Save Subs, Cyber From Sequester, Thinktanks Say

Cut Carriers To Save Subs, Cyber From Sequester, Thinktanks Say
Cut Carriers To Save Subs, Cyber From Sequester, Thinktanks Say

THE WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM, CA. 2025: “Where are the carriers?” “In the scrapyard, Mr. President. How about some submarines?” That’s a parody, not a projection. But this hypothetical future isn’t that far off from what experts from four top thinktanks — AEI, CNAS, CSBA, and CSIS — presented this morning as the “least unacceptable”…

Fear, Changing Threats Drive SCMR, OpPlans Rewrite; Cut Readiness Dough, Analysts Say

Fear, Changing Threats Drive SCMR, OpPlans Rewrite; Cut Readiness Dough, Analysts Say
Fear, Changing Threats Drive SCMR, OpPlans Rewrite; Cut Readiness Dough, Analysts Say

WASHINGTON: Turmoil, fear and a certain resolute grimness marked this week at the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. The military scrambled to cope with a range of new threats as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and the Pentagon leadership begin to grapple with the grim future posed by the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration. Put it all…

The Pentagon’s ‘Lost Year;’ Time To Clear The Rubble

David Berteau at the Center for Strategic and International Studies has penned a wise and pungent analysis of the fairly ridiculous defense budget unveiled today. He’s coined an excellent term to describe it — the Lost Year. Below you will find a somewhat shortened version of his piece, written with Ryan Crotty. Let’s hope Congress…

European Defense Ain’t Getting Better: Budgets, People, R&D All Down

WASHINGTON: You think US defense spending is a mess? At least we’re not Europe. A study out Tuesday from the Center for Strategic and International Studies warned that a decade of shrinking forces and funding is likely to continue, threatening a European defense industrial base already burdened by inefficiencies, national rivalries, and governmental tendencies to…

BAE, Boeing, Raytheon Lose Congressional Champions; EMP Loses A Friend

WASHINGTON: The overall balance of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees will shift little in the 113th Congress, but individual causes and companies have lost important advocates as individual legislators went down to defeat. This may have been a banner year for incumbents– as most years are — but the House Armed Services Committee…

Army Creates ‘Strategic Landpower’ Office With SOCOM, Marines; Odierno Defends Budget

Army Creates ‘Strategic Landpower’ Office With SOCOM, Marines; Odierno Defends Budget
Army Creates ‘Strategic Landpower’ Office With SOCOM, Marines; Odierno Defends Budget

WASHINGTON: Hey, you want Special Forces? The Army’s got your back. Want air defense Missile defense? Communications? Intelligence? Logistical support? Joint Task Force headquarters? Go Army! Just — just please, don’t cut our budget any more, okay? That was the subtext when Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno spoke this morning at the Center…

Obama’s Pacific Tilt Comes Under Fire

The Obama administration’s highly touted “rebalancing” of U.S. military forces to the Asia-Pacific region attracted a barrage of flak during a briefing at an influential Washington think tank Monday. A group of former senior defense and State Department officials criticized the Pacific tilt at the Center for Strategic and International Studies saying the U.S. lacked…