It’s Not Buy America: Admin Aide On Trump’s Sweeping Industrial Base Study

It’s Not Buy America: Admin Aide On Trump’s Sweeping Industrial Base Study
It’s Not Buy America: Admin Aide On Trump’s Sweeping Industrial Base Study

WASHINGTON: Is the Defense Industrial Base study required by the Trump Administration’s new Executive Order the groundwork for a new Buy America push or a bold strategic act reminiscent of President Eisenhower’s Solarium project, begun just four months after he took office? Many of the defense analysts, industry people and acquisition experts I’ve spoken with…

Deadlock: Mattis Vs. White House On Pentagon Nominees

Deadlock: Mattis Vs. White House On Pentagon Nominees
Deadlock: Mattis Vs. White House On Pentagon Nominees

WASHINGTON: Chronic conflict between Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the Trump White House has hobbled the nomination process for top Pentagon posts, a source familiar with the Trump personnel team tells Breaking Defense. In several cases, the source said, the Trump team recommended nominees with extensive experience and bipartisan respect — Rep. Randy Forbes, Sen. Jim Talent…

Randy Forbes Still Long Shot For SecNav; Mattis Not A Fan

Randy Forbes Still Long Shot For SecNav; Mattis Not A Fan
Randy Forbes Still Long Shot For SecNav; Mattis Not A Fan

CAPITOL HILL: Rep. Randy Forbes still has plenty of fans, but Sec. Jim Mattis apparently isn’t one of them, which makes Forbes a long shot for Secretary of the Navy. Yes, the withdrawal of Philip Bilden’s nomination for SecNav reopens Forbes’ path to the position, even triggering an endorsement from The Wall Street Journal. But it’s…

Kendall Says Full Speed Ahead On Navy Nuke Missile Subs: $128B Columbia Class

Kendall Says Full Speed Ahead On Navy Nuke Missile Subs: $128B Columbia Class
Kendall Says Full Speed Ahead On Navy Nuke Missile Subs: $128B Columbia Class

WASHINGTON: Pentagon procurement chief Frank Kendall just approved the Navy’s top-priority program, the Columbia-class nuclear missile submarine, to start detailed design work and engineering. Known in Pentagonese as a Milestone B decision, undersecretary Kendall’s okay lets the Navy spend the $773 million Congress voted for the program in last month’s Continuing Resolution. [CORRECTED:] The projected procurement…

Good News For Navy In 2017 NDAA & Beyond: Rep. Courtney

Good News For Navy In 2017 NDAA & Beyond: Rep. Courtney
Good News For Navy In 2017 NDAA & Beyond: Rep. Courtney

WASHINGTON: While big-ticket additions to the Navy budget like F-35 fighters and Littoral Combat Ships didn’t survive conference, there are several smaller but strategic plus-ups in the annual defense policy bill that make a major difference for the fleet, Rep. Joe Courtney told me this afternoon. What’s more, with House Armed Services Committee chairman Mac…

Trump Advisers Press For Major NSC Changes

Trump Advisers Press For Major NSC Changes
Trump Advisers Press For Major NSC Changes

WASHINGTON: The administration of Donald Trump will probably slash the size of the National Security Council and return it to its traditional role of coordinating national security policy across the national security and intelligence communities. For most of the Obama Administration, conflicting cabinets ruled and battled to often bad effect, one staffed by the actual Cabinet officers…

Trump’s DoD Lineup: SecDef Talent Or Mattis; DepSecDef Wynne; SecArmy Hipp; SecAF McCoy; SecNav Forbes

Trump’s DoD Lineup: SecDef Talent Or Mattis; DepSecDef Wynne; SecArmy Hipp; SecAF McCoy; SecNav Forbes
Trump’s DoD Lineup: SecDef Talent Or Mattis; DepSecDef Wynne; SecArmy Hipp; SecAF McCoy; SecNav Forbes

WASHINGTON: While the DC parlor game of musical chairs gathers steam (see headline), some outlines of how President Donald Trump will govern are emerging. Look for two principles to govern much of how Trump initially manages the fundamental truth that people are policy. First, strong deputies will be chosen to ensure mistakes aren’t made and things…

Trump’s Pentagon, Trump’s World; Defense Stocks Soar

Trump’s Pentagon, Trump’s World; Defense Stocks Soar
Trump’s Pentagon, Trump’s World; Defense Stocks Soar

WASHINGTON: Hope for the best; prepare for the worst. It’s a standard military prescription for dealing with a sometimes hostile and usually unpredictable world. It’s also what an African-American chum told me this morning was his plan for life under President Trump. This guy is a fellow Chicagoan and Cubs fan, so he knows how to…

Rep. Wilson Of HASC Signs On For Monthly Op-Eds

Rep. Wilson Of HASC Signs On For Monthly Op-Eds
Rep. Wilson Of HASC Signs On For Monthly Op-Eds

One of America’s top defense lawmakers, Rep. Joe Wilson, will write an exclusive monthly opinion piece for Breaking Defense. As Breaking D readers know, Rep. Randy Forbes, outgoing chairman of the HASC seapower and power projection subcommittee, started this tradition. But the voters spoke and, sadly, Mr. Forbes is moving on after the election. Wilson,…

BCA Will Hamstring Trump Or Clinton: Only Congress Can Fix It

BCA Will Hamstring Trump Or Clinton: Only Congress Can Fix It
BCA Will Hamstring Trump Or Clinton: Only Congress Can Fix It

WASHINGTON: Whoever wins the White House in November will still be hobbled by the spending limits in the Budget Control Act, warned fiscal expert Todd Harrison. Whether BCA goes away, he said, depends much less on whether Trump or Clinton wins, and much more on who controls Congress — above all on whether Reagan defense…

Don’t Push China Too Hard After SCS Ruling

Don’t Push China Too Hard After SCS Ruling
Don’t Push China Too Hard After SCS Ruling

UPDATED with Chinese Ambassador, Sen. Sullivan, & CSIS conference WASHINGTON: “To a surrounded enemy, you must leave a way of escape,” Sun Tzu wrote 2,500 years ago. It’s a stratagem – often called the “golden bridge” – that the US and its allies would do well to remember tomorrow morning, when a UN tribunal will almost…

SecAF James Is Cool To F-22 Restart

SecAF James Is Cool To F-22 Restart
SecAF James Is Cool To F-22 Restart

PENTAGON: Restarting the F-22 line would probably be “cost-prohibitive,” says Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James. The idea for restarting the F-22 line was pushed hard by Rep. Randy Forbes, the outgoing chairman of the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee. Forbes was defeated by Scott Taylor, a relatively unknown challenger, a Virginia state delegate who…

HASC Hammers Navy Readiness In Push For $18B Defense Boost

HASC Hammers Navy Readiness In Push For $18B Defense Boost
HASC Hammers Navy Readiness In Push For $18B Defense Boost

CAPITOL HILL: House Republicans keep hammering on military shortfalls, part of their push for a controversial $18 billion budget boost that the Senate has so far rejected and the White House has threatened to veto. “The message that we’re hearing is across the services we have a significant problem with readiness,” Rep. Randy Forbes told me.…

Winning The Missile Wars: Army & Navy Tech In HASC NDAA

Winning The Missile Wars: Army & Navy Tech In HASC NDAA
Winning The Missile Wars: Army & Navy Tech In HASC NDAA

WASHINGTON: Tucked into the corners of the House’s huge draft defense bill are the seeds of a new way of warfare. It’s an approach aimed at adversaries armed with lots of long-range missiles, such as Russia and China. If the Pentagon takes the money and suggestions in the House Armed Services Committee’s draft National Defense…