Army

The Pentagon is reviewing its bedrock policy governing how the U.S. military approaches autonomy in weapon systems, as defense officials say the directive may be outdated due to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) appeared to throw the Navy's top officer a curveball this week when the lawmaker raised the prospect of the Army taking responsibility for any land-based variant of the Aegis ballistic missile system the Pentagon might acquire to bolster homeland defense against North Korean threats.

The Government Accountability Office this week released an advisory opinion indicating it would have objected to the Army's price reasonableness evaluation for the U.S. European Command theater under the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program V.

House lawmakers on Wednesday will hear from Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who will attempt to justify their fiscal year 2021 budget request amid political opposition to the Pentagon’s bankrolling of President Trump's border wall.

The Missile Defense Agency has provided Congress a $1.1 billion wish list to finance nine projects above and beyond the agency's $9.2 billion fiscal year 2021 budget request, additional undertakings that -- if funded -- would increase Standard Missile-3 Block IIA interceptor procurement, hypersonic defense funding and buy an additional Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery.

U.S. Central Command is asking Congress for $371 million for "unfunded priorities," most of which would go to purchase MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicles, which were recently cut to pay for President Trump's wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, according to documents obtained by Inside Defense.

The chief of U.S. Northern Command has submitted a list of unfunded priorities to Congress seeking additional funds for Arctic communications and radar to counter cruise missiles and drones, according to documents obtained by Inside Defense.

An internal Pentagon review that resulted in $5.7 billion in savings has led to the termination of three classified weapons programs managed by the secretive Strategic Capabilities Office, according to newly released budget documents.

The Army wants to move the first Integrated Visual Augmentation System program into procurement in fiscal year 2021, asking for 40,219 units in its budget request.