Budget

Commentary

What it looks like when competing with China comes last

It is past time for the Biden administration to answer fundamental questions about how it intends to support Taiwan and secure a free and open Indo-Pacific region.

Senators back $45 billion boost in defense spending for FY23

Lawmakers say the extra money will counter rising inflation and replenish stocks of munitions sent to Ukraine.

The US is heavily reliant on China and Russia for its ammo supply chain. Congress wants to fix that.

The mineral antimony is critical to the defense-industrial supply chain and is needed to produce everything from armor-piercing bullets and explosives to nuclear weapons as well as sundry other military equipment, such as night vision goggles.

House panel wants independent look at how Pentagon funds testing

“We place a lot of demands on that community, and those demands are not always aligned with the resources that they have,” one committee staff member said. “This is geared towards shining a light on some of the shortfalls.”

US Army terminates science and technology effort for strategic long-range cannon

The Army has zeroed out funding for the Strategic Long-Range Cannon science and technology effort to focus on other long-range precision fires priorities.

Commentary

The US defense budget’s latest casualty is readiness

To advance future capabilities that provide for long-term readiness, the armed services need well-trained, knowledgeable warfighters who have the capacity to integrate modernized systems into sustained arsenals. Instead, the budget’s reductions come at a point when the operational tempo of the force continues to increase as capacity investments are falling.

Republicans lay battle lines over Biden’s plan to retire B83 megaton bomb

Congressional Republicans are pushing back against the president’s plan to retire an aging nuclear weapon, decrying the effort during a series of hearings this week dedicated to the administration’s fiscal 2023 budget request for nuclear forces and atomic energy.

SOFIC

Special ops leader issues warning over information warfare capabilities, funding

Though operational commitments keep U.S. Special Operations Command moving, progress comes down to affordability.

Commentary

Is America’s military headed down the same path as Russia’s?

Diplomacy that is not backed by military might will fail. It all comes down to credibility behind the words. The U.S. has lost its edge in that regard from both a military capability and capacity perspective.

Most projects on Pentagon’s $5.7B lab ‘wish list’ likely to stay unfunded

The Pentagon's chief technology officer says addressing the lab and testing infrastructure gap is a top priority, but most of this year's unfunded facilities projects are too early in the design process for Congress to consider.

Inside the US Air Force’s race to fund future fighters, bombers and autonomous drones before the next crisis

To prepare for far more contested airspace, the U.S. Air Force is laying the groundwork for a series of radical transformations in how it approaches air combat that could cost at least tens of billions of dollars over the next two decades.

This week in Congress: Military leaders line up to ask for bigger budgets next year

Defense and veterans hearings on Capitol Hill for the week of May 9, 2022.

US Army’s budget lacks plan to buy protection system for Bradley vehicles

The Army is further afield to get a vehicle protection capability in place for its current fleet against rockets and drones, and the service has provided no funding to procure an interim system for its Bradley in the meantime.

How much did engine delays set back the Future Attack Recon Aircraft program?

An Army prototype flight schedule, among other milestones, has slipped due to issues getting the first ITEP engine into testing during the pandemic, budget books show.

Commentary

Moskva’s sinking, the rise of anti-ship cruise missiles and what that means for the US Navy

If a relatively low-cost, short-range missile can destroy one of the largest warships in the Russian Navy, how do we ensure that ships in our fleet are not doomed to the same fate?

US Navy envisions larger fleet despite long-range plans reflecting budget crunch

The Navy is heading toward a fleet size that its top officer admits “nobody likes.”

US Army to choose whether it’ll pursue a hybrid Bradley vehicle in FY23

The Bradley vehicle is already pushed to the maximum when it comes to using power to support everything from running the vehicle to controlling its payloads.

DARPA budget request seeks to bolster ‘critical’ defense technologies

The agency's $4.1 billion budget is closely aligned with DoD's critical technology priorities, particularly in the areas of microelectronics, artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

NORAD boss wants to get creative about defeating cruise missiles

The U.S. commander responsible for North America says he’s open for new ways to defend against cruise missile attacks on the homeland, including electronic warfare and other non-kinetic means.

NORTHCOM wants millions more for AI and data handling

U.S. Northern Command has asked Congress for almost $30 million to buy information technology equipment and to optimize infrastructure for artificial intelligence and machine learning at its joint operations center with the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

Army’s $5.1B wish list to Congress would ramp up modernization, infrastructure efforts

Among the items included in the Army's unfunded requirements list are fielding another half of a Brigade Combat Team of Abrams tanks, infrastructure improvements and more money to manage homeland contingencies.

SPACECOM requests more funding for key space domain awareness center

The $74 million request would support projects in support of the National Space Defense Center, an important command-and-control and space domain awareness capability.

More F-35s, Compass Call replacements make it onto Air Force wish list

The unfunded priorities list calls for more electronic warfare aircraft and F-35 fighters, as well as money to help bases recover from natural disasters.

Davis-Monthan’s future in flux after Congress blocked A-10 retirement

Disagreements over the fate of the A-10 Warthog have had a broader impact in Tucson.

DoD seeks ‘huge jump’ in budget for hypersonic test facilities

Industry executives have identified testing infrastructure shortfalls as a major barrier to fielding hypersonic weapons capabilities on a faster timeline.