Pentagon

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA), who is negotiating a final defense authorization bill, said he is confident President Trump will not veto the bill, but only because he believes Senate Republicans would never agree to anything that would force the president's hand.

In a new survey of 46 Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps aircraft, the Government Accountability Office found that only three met their mission-capable goals in most fiscal years between FY-11 and FY-19 -- demonstrating the readiness and cost implications of the military's aging aircraft fleet.

Two leaders from National Institute of Standards and Technology-funded centers focused on the manufacturing sector are expressing concerns on whether small businesses will be prepared for implementation of the Pentagon's cyber certification program on Dec. 1.

Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced today he is raising the top special operations civilian to be on par with a military service secretary, meaning the official would report directly to him and bypass the under secretary of defense for policy.

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee said today he is concerned that "political calculations" over renaming military bases currently honoring Confederate leaders, along with two U.S. Senate election runoffs in Georgia, are threatening to scuttle the annual defense policy bill that has passed for 59 consecutive years.

The Defense Department, which does not expect to pass a full financial audit for many years, has failed for the third year in row, but is making some progress, according to the Pentagon inspector general's office.

The Defense Department has named John Tenaglia principal director of defense pricing and contracting, while Kim Herrington, who had been acting in the role, has become director of industrial base acquisition portfolio management, according to a Pentagon spokeswoman.

A Missile Defense Agency signature project -- adding two "layers” to the homeland ballistic missile defense architecture by folding in the newest Aegis ballistic missile interceptor and a future variant of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense interceptor -- is on the ropes after lawmakers raised serious concern about the endeavor's maturity.

The Senate Appropriations Committee is concerned with the proliferation of the Defense Department's rapid prototyping programs and has approved additional funds for the Pentagon's chief weapons tester to increase oversight of them.