The Biden administration will send its fiscal year 2022 defense budget request to Congress on Friday, setting the stage for debates on spending levels, modernization priorities and the potential divestiture of weapon systems deemed unsuitable for competition with China, the Pentagon's "pacing challenge."
Daily News
May 24, 2021
May 21, 2021
The Navy estimates the cost to develop and procure a fleet of 20 new guided-missile frigates is $24.7 billion, setting the average cost for each new FFG-62 Constellation-class warship at about $1.2 billion or slightly less than the current $1.3 billion price tag for DDG-51 Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.
(307 words)
The Army needs predictable funding to fully develop its new air and missile defense systems, and the service cannot take on significant new responsibilities without more resources, the head of the service's Space and Missile Defense Command said today.
(700 words)
May 20, 2021
The Army's deputy assistant secretary for research and technology told lawmakers today he'd like to see the current level of funding for laboratory revitalization doubled.
(742 words)
Top technology officials at the Pentagon told lawmakers today they could use more flexibility to shift funds within their annual budgets, joining a growing push from the Defense Department to loosen restrictions around how the military budget is managed in the name of innovation.
(685 words)
GSA plans to make CMMC requirements 'in scope,' rather than a requirement, for its contract vehicles
The General Services Administration will allow civilian federal agencies to decide whether to include requirements from the Pentagon's cyber certification program in individual contracts that utilize GSA offerings for facilitating their information technology purchases.
(537 words)
The Air Force may update its F-35 retrofit plan to include more than 470 aircraft in low-rate initial production lots 5 through 16.
(727 words)
May 19, 2021
The Defense Department is readying a major live-fire test to bolster the last line of defense against ballistic missiles for major warship formations, such as aircraft carrier strike groups, by pitting a pair of the newest Standard Missile-6 variants against a medium-range ballistic missile target in waters off Hawaii.
(530 words)
An official appointed by President Biden now has direct oversight of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program, as the Defense Department prepares to potentially make "significant modifications" to the nascent effort.
(654 words)
REDSTONE ARSENAL, AL -- The Army needs consistent sustainment funding to build up prepositioned stocks and supply lines in the Indo-Pacific and other parts of the world, an official with Army Materiel Command said in an interview last month.
(819 words)
While analysts expect the Navy to continue to grow, President Biden’s team at the Pentagon is unlikely to pursue the aggressive growth laid out in the Trump administration's outgoing December 2020 shipbuilding plan.
(1057 words)
Top Senate Republicans have introduced an amendment that would require parity between defense and non-defense spending increases for fiscal year 2022, arguing it is needed to compete with China.
(454 words)
The Navy's new Joint Precision Approach and Landing System reached initial operational capability on May 4, the service announced Tuesday.
(350 words)
The Pentagon's Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification program needs to do more to help small businesses reach compliance, senators said Tuesday at a hearing on cybersecurity in the defense industrial base.
(882 words)
May 18, 2021
An amendment to the bipartisan China bill on the Senate floor this week would double the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's funding to $7 billion a year.
(294 words)
Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger said the service is prepared for a flat budget, though budget cuts would delay the service's ongoing force design efforts.
(854 words)
The Missile Defense Agency is now betting on a service life extension project to improve the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system until the Next Generation Interceptor is ready for fielding, a shift in messaging from the agency's gambit last year that proposed an underlayer featuring new variants of the Aegis and Terminal High Altitude Area defense systems.
(676 words)
Groups representing defense contractors say there is a lack of collaboration between the U.S. government and industry on the military drawdown from Afghanistan, which they say has raised many "as-yet unanswered" questions about the future.
(659 words)
A recent two-week Army aviation exercise at Dugway Proving Ground, UT, showcased the service's aviation capabilities and technologies ahead of Project Convergence this fall, Army officials told reporters yesterday.
(1115 words)
May 17, 2021
The Army has invested $24 billion in a new priority of 30 programs considered "key enablers" that are directly tied to the service's top modernization efforts, Lt. Gen. James Pasquarette, deputy chief of staff (G-8), said last week.
(591 words)