The Navy's schedule for delivering the first Columbia-class submarine is threatened by ongoing design software challenges that will likely increase the program's cost, a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday concludes.
Congress
January 13, 2021
The Pentagon's chief weapons tester says the government needs to spend the next 10 years updating weapons testing processes and infrastructure, paying special attention to space and cyber capabilities.
January 12, 2021
The Pentagon has fallen short in sharing a list of critical military capabilities with key Defense Department stakeholders and outside government agencies, potentially putting at risk federal efforts to protect those technologies, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
January 12, 2021
The Senate Armed Services Committee, in advance of a scheduled Jan. 19 nomination hearing for retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin to serve as defense secretary, today questioned experts about the perceived erosion of civil-military relations at the Pentagon.
January 11, 2021
Congress, after overriding President Trump's veto, has passed a defense policy bill that immediately eliminates the office of the Defense Department's chief management officer, a post lawmakers established in 2017 intending it become the third-most senior job in the Pentagon.
January 6, 2021
Committee chairmanships are on the line as the results of two run-off Senate elections in Georgia indicate the Democratic party is close to claiming a majority in Congress that will be led by President-elect Biden from the White House.
December 23, 2020
A recent audit of Pentagon software programs found Defense Department organizations took a mixed bag of approaches to agile development and cybersecurity testing, often leading to schedule challenges, but the Pentagon says a new software "acquisition pathway" should yield better results in the future.
December 22, 2020
House and Senate lawmakers have proposed adding $1.3 billion to the Missile Defense Agency's fiscal year 2021 budget request -- a 14% hike that would allocate $10.4 billion for guided-missile interceptors, radars, space-based sensors and more -- while also taking the agency to task for inconsistent budgeting across its modernization portfolio.
December 21, 2020
Lawmakers have charged the Pentagon's top officer with overseeing a comprehensive new assessment of U.S. air and missile defense capabilities of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Space Force and Missile Defense Agency against advanced threats such as hypersonic glide bodies and long-range, ultra-fast cruise missiles and to develop a plan to address these threats.
December 21, 2020
Congress has agreed to a $2.3 trillion omnibus package for fiscal year 2021 that includes $900 billion in pandemic relief funds.
December 15, 2020
President Trump has asserted several times he plans to veto the $740.5 billion defense authorization bill, which, according to the law, he must do by Dec. 23, positioning himself for a confrontation with Congress during the final weeks of his presidency.
December 10, 2020
The bipartisan Congressional Oversight Commission charged with reviewing pandemic stimulus spending is pressing Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord to provide more public information about the Defense Department's support for a controversial $700 million loan to a financially troubled trucking company.
December 9, 2020
Lawmakers are directing a digital overhaul of the Defense Department's acquisition system and instructing defense officials to use "data-driven portfolio management" to consolidate duplicate or similar weapon systems.
December 7, 2020
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) said today Democrats and Republicans in Congress have the votes necessary to override President Trump if he vetoes the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill.
December 7, 2020
Rep. Mac Thornberry (TX), the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said today the "message has been conveyed" to the White House that Congress will be prepared to override President Trump should he make good on threats to veto the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill.
December 7, 2020
House and Senate conferees have agreed to include major cybersecurity pieces in the annual defense policy bill, creating a National Cyber Director and adopting other proposals that will make the legislation "the most significant cyber bill Congress has ever passed," according to Cyberspace Solarium Commission senior adviser Mark Montgomery.
December 4, 2020
The compromise fiscal year 2021 defense policy bill does not include strict "Buy American" requirements for weapons programs after defense industry groups and foreign governments lobbied against them.
December 4, 2020
The final version of the fiscal year 2021 defense authorization bill significantly ramps up oversight of the Advanced Battle Management System and directs the Air Force to produce a series of cost and planning documents the service has sought to bypass.
December 4, 2020
The final version of the fiscal year 2021 defense policy bill includes a number of spacelift provisions, directing the creation of a certification and innovation fund, a tactically responsive space launch program and an acquisition strategy for small satellite launch.
December 4, 2020
House and Senate negotiators have included a second Virginia-class submarine in the final 2021 defense authorization bill.