Pentagon

The proposed merger between Raytheon and United Technologies is likely to move forward without government intervention, analysts said, and could lead to another wave of consolidation within the defense industry.

House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-TX) said today he and his GOP colleagues have yet to decide whether they will support the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill slated for consideration tomorrow, but he does have plans to offer amendments that would increase total defense spending and block Democratic efforts to cut nuclear weapons programs.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) says he is trying to position the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill to engage not only Republicans in the Senate, where the GOP has a majority ready to fight for higher spending and resist restrictions on nuclear weapons, but also members of his own caucus in the House, where Democratic leaders have increasingly been at odds with the party's progressive wing.

Tom Kennedy, the chief executive of Raytheon, first approached Greg Hayes, the CEO of United Technologies Corp., about the possibility of a merger in 2018.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) has set a $733 billion topline for total defense spending in his mark of the fiscal year 2020 defense authorization bill, blocking all Pentagon funding for President Trump’s border wall and putting the panel at odds with the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has approved $750 billion, according to a copy of the "chairman's mark" obtained by Inside Defense.

The Trump administration is asking Congress to pass new legislation delaying implementation of a ban on the government sending federal dollars to companies and organizations that use certain Chinese telecommunications equipment and services.

Members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee are seeking a "comprehensive" investigation into TransDigm, even after the company last month agreed to refund $16.1 million the Defense Department inspector general previously deemed excess profit.

A new inspector general audit has found the Defense Department expects to have spent $2.2 billion by fiscal year 2023 deploying Joint Regional Security Stacks to consolidate network defenses across the military, and the IG recommends the Pentagon get a better handle on the capabilities it requires for JRSS.

The Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center is in the early stages of building a "common foundation" of tools the military services can access to develop AI capabilities, like Apple's App Store or Amazon Web Services' Marketplace, according to a Defense Department official.