Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), the new chairman of the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee, said he wants to see full modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, including the intercontinental ballistic missile leg of the triad, which is partly based in his home state.
Air Force
February 26, 2021
February 25, 2021
The Defense Department needs about $11 billion in supplemental funding from Congress to support defense contractors with pandemic-related costs or else modernization programs and military readiness accounts will be raided, according to two senior Pentagon officials.
February 24, 2021
The Air Force is still assessing the impact of Congress' decision to cut nearly half of the fiscal year 2021 funding the service requested for the Advanced Battle Management System program but anticipates the planned on-ramp events and capability rollouts will have to slow down.
February 24, 2021
Air Mobility Command is working on a plan to approve the KC-46 for limited operational missions beginning later this year, despite remaining deficiencies that have delayed full mission capability until 2024.
February 24, 2021
The Pentagon's Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) strategy will be released in the coming weeks, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Trussler, deputy chief of naval operations for information warfare, said Wednesday at an Association of Old Crows event.
February 24, 2021
Senior Pentagon leaders have identified a core set of priorities with direct impact on the fiscal year 2022 defense budget that must be reviewed in advance of submission to Congress, Inside Defense has learned.
February 24, 2021
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-RI) said today a new executive order from President Biden to review the U.S. defense industrial base is the start of a "major effort" to secure national supply chains, despite challenges posed by China's key role in the global marketplace.
February 24, 2021
Sierra Nevada Corp. has filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Office against the Air Force's solicitation for a nearly $1 billion HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter upgrades contract the service is sole sourcing to Sikorsky.
February 24, 2021
The Defense Department and Lockheed Martin have negotiated a significantly smaller scope for a forthcoming performance-based logistics sustainment contract for the F-35, opting for a "bridge" contract the company expects will yield less savings but instill confidence in its performance and set a foundation for a full PBL.
February 24, 2021
The COVID pandemic has revealed the U.S. defense industrial base to be "not healthy" and hampered by "weak" supply chains that threaten the ability of the nation to nimbly develop and field new capabilities to keep ahead of technological advances by other nations, according to the Pentagon's No. 2 military official.
February 23, 2021
House and Senate defense authorizers used hearings with outside technology experts this week to probe the Pentagon's struggle to transition new technologies into programs of record and take full advantage of advances in software.
February 22, 2021
The Defense Science Board last month launched a congressionally mandated study of the Defense Department's cyber warfighting capabilities, including a technical evaluation of DOD's major cyber warfare programs.
February 22, 2021
The Pentagon has entered arrangements with three universities to study key areas related to contract finance and pricing that could impact the way defense contractors are paid.
February 19, 2021
The new executive vice president of Lockheed Martin's aeronautics business told reporters today that as the Air Force evaluates the makeup of its tactical aircraft portfolio -- and considers a clean-sheet 4.5-generation fighter to replace the F-16 -- he thinks the three fighter aircraft the company already builds for the service provide a holistic, family-of-systems approach to meet a spectrum of capability needs.
February 19, 2021
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said today he discussed challenges posed by "an increasingly aggressive China" during recent meetings with NATO officials.
February 18, 2021
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's new LongShot air-launched, armed drone program will consider a series of design options -- and a possible down select -- before flight testing a contractor-built prototype in fiscal year 2024 at the earliest.
February 17, 2021
The Air Force is working with the Pentagon's cost assessment office to consider options for a future tactical fighter aircraft mix -- one of which is buying a clean-sheet, "4.5-generation" fighter with an open mission systems architecture to help the service counter low-end threats.
February 16, 2021
After Congress significantly cut fiscal year 2021 funding and demanded more reviews of U.S. Special Operations Command's armed overwatch program, a three-star general is defending the organization's search for a more efficient counterinsurgency fleet and argued the Pentagon would have been ready to move forward with a procurement decision this year.
February 12, 2021
The director of the Space Development Agency this week highlighted the organization’s success in achieving a $14.1 million average per-satellite cost for its first tranche of transport space vehicles and said he’s aiming to lower the cost even further as the proliferated architecture grows.
February 12, 2021
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who recently became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Inside Defense in an exclusive and wide-ranging interview he wants to continue to see the Defense Department "transform" to counter China and prepare for the challenges of the 21st century, though he made it clear that transformation will likely need to occur amid downward budget pressure.
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