CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Marine Corps aviation is recovering from “a horrible year” of “horrific” accidents that killed 20 Marines, the Commandant said here yesterday. But, Gen. Robert Neller said, that progress is at risk unless Congress — which just passed a short-term spending bill to end the government shutdown — can actually enact… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Air Force and Army couldn’t start an important set of tabletop wargames last week because of the government shutdown. Air Force Gen. Mike Holmes revealed the information when he disclosed today that the Air Force was starting multi-domain war games to hammer out how the land and air services would work together in… Keep reading →

The Navy and Marine Corps hit the wall in 2017 with an string of deadly accidents. The newly named Secretary of the Navy, Richard Spencer, seems to be charting a collision course with joint commanders.

WASHINGTON: The federal government needs to spend more money on civilian agencies like the State Department, NASA, and the FAA, not just defense, the aerospace industry’s top lobbyist said today, but there’s no reasoning with a portion of Congress that wants cuts at any cost. “There’s a part of Congress that’s suspicious of everything,” said… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Congress should strike a budget deal to fund the federal government  for at least two years, the Secretary of the Navy said today. The armed forces and defense industry need at least 24 months of predictable, stable funding so they can make investments and operate efficiently, Richard Spencer told reporters. Right now, though, the government’s… Keep reading →

UPDATED: Adds SecDef Spox Comment That CRs Are “Damaging” & Mattis Supports Spending Bill CAPITOL HILL: To prevent a government shutdown Dec. 8th, Congress looks likely to pass a stopgap spending bill called a Continuing Resolution. But yet another CR, rather than a proper budget, would do unacceptable damage to the military, defense hawks say. So… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: When the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee went to talk with the almost mystical Pentagon gang known as the Office of Net Assessment, they told him America can’t afford to execute the strategy we’re pursuing. “I asked them what they were lacking. They didn’t have an answer,” Rep. Adam Smith told… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Congress and pundits have raised the cry of a readiness crisis, but the military’s top enlisted men want America to know there’s no such thing. In a rare press briefing today by the most senior non-commissioned officers of all five services (including Coast Guard), plus the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the… Keep reading →

The defense community is abuzz with talk of strategy and force expansion as the Pentagon develops the Trump Administration’s National Security Strategy. Talk is nice but, as budgeteers like to say, “If it ain’t funded, it ain’t”. Building the forces the services say they need—with the readiness and modernization to support them— requires large budgets,… Keep reading →

  WASHINGTON: A massive maintenance backlog has idled 15 nuclear-powered attack submarines for a total of 177 months, and the Navy’s plan to mitigate the problem is jeopardized by budget gridlock, two House Armed Services Committee staffers told Breaking Defense. That is almost 15 submarine-years, the equivalent of taking a boat from the 2018 budget… Keep reading →