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.
Coronavirus
February 25, 2021
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 16, 2021
A tank assembly line cannot be transitioned to work-from-home.
February 11, 2021
Despite continued interest overseas, the COVID-19 pandemic is placing pressure on the foreign military sale program for Lockheed Martin's F-16 Block 70/72 variant -- slowing down negotiations with new customers and work at the new production line in South Carolina, according to multiple sources who spoke with Inside Defense.
HII CEO says company likely won't be able to make up all delays, cover all costs related to COVID-19
The chief executive of Huntington Ingalls Industries says the company has returned to its pre-pandemic production rate -- but the company lost time and money it will likely not fully recover.
December 22, 2020
The Pentagon and Congress have yet to fully reckon with the costs the COVID-19 pandemic may have imposed on the U.S. defense industrial base, including the roughly $11 billion defense officials tell lawmakers is needed to rectify the situation.
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 8, 2020
A full accounting of the increased supply chain costs the coronavirus pandemic created for some of the Army's largest ground vehicles might not be available for "two to three years," a senior official said Dec. 8.
December 1, 2020
The bipartisan Congressional Oversight Commission established to review COVID-19 stimulus spending wants Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord to testify about the Defense Department's support for a $700 million loan to a financially troubled trucking company.
November 23, 2020
The Missile Defense Agency is delaying initial fielding of the Long Range Discrimination Radar -- originally slated for next month -- to June 2021, a change of plans forced by the COVID-19 pandemic which hampered facility construction and installation of the new sensor in Alaska earlier this year.
November 9, 2020
Huntington Ingalls Industries executives said today the company has established new protocols, including testing, that are allowing it to better predict and manage its workforce.
November 9, 2020
Mercury Systems said this week it has expanded its on-site COVID-19 testing to seven manufacturing locations in an effort to keep employees healthy and maintain business continuity.
November 2, 2020
The production of the America-class amphibious assault ship Bougainville (LHA-8) is continuing despite the coronavirus pandemic, and a Navy spokeswoman says the vessel remains on track to meet its January 2024 delivery date.
October 30, 2020
Top contracting executives noted this week the current period -- with surging COVID-19 cases, a continuing resolution and an upcoming election -- is uncertain, but said so far they have been able to maintain sales and profit.
October 29, 2020
The Defense Department has responded to the inquiries of a special congressional commission in the matter of a controversial pandemic stimulus loan made to a trucking company with connections to the White House, according to a letter obtained by Inside Defense.
October 28, 2020
About 1,800 of General Dynamics' roughly 100,000 employees have come down with COVID-19 and about 1,500 are "fully recovered and back to work," according to the company's chief executive.
October 15, 2020
The Defense Department inspector general has begun an investigation to determine whether the Pentagon acted appropriately when it spent hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID-19 relief aid to prop up defense contractors.
October 1, 2020
Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord told lawmakers today the Defense Department is justified in distributing COVID-19 bailout funds to defense contractors economically hurt by the pandemic and said Congress needs to provide billions more.
September 29, 2020
Pentagon acquisition chief Ellen Lord said today the effort now underway to identify and re-shore critical defense technologies with fragile or foreign supply chains was enhanced by the global outbreak of COVID-19.
September 25, 2020
Production for the CH-53K helicopter is progressing on schedule despite the COVID-19 pandemic, prime contractor Sikorsky says.