Washington: The top defense and budget leaders in the House of Representatives want the director of the Office of Management and Budget and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to tell them more about the administration’s top-level defense review and clarification about just what will happen if the Super Congress can’t cut $1.2 trillion from the budget.… Keep reading →

d The invitation came to me from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s public affairs office to attend a “conversation” with Panetta and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton at the prestigious National Defense University in Washington. Although I knew it wasn’t me they wanted to talk to, I sat in the audience to hear Panetta and… Keep reading →

Washington: Unmanned military aircraft may soon have a permanent home in U.S. commercial airspace, according to a Defense Department official. The Pentagon and the Federal Aviation Administration are carving out between four to 10 “bubbles” in civilian airspace above the United States to test UAS, Steve Pennington, executive director of the Defense Policy Board on… Keep reading →

UPDATED Washington: Former congressman and long-time House Armed Services Committee chairman Ike Skelton is heading to the Democrat’s designated military thinktank, the Center for A New American Security. Skelton, along with former senior State Department officials Anne-Marie Slaughter and Richard Verma are joining the Center for A New American Security’s board of directors. Skelton’s appointment… Keep reading →

Washington: Things are only going to get worse for the Defense Department and industry, as the White House increasingly looks to military spending as a way to cut the nation’s debt. For more news and information on the swiftly-changing defense industry, please sign up for the Breaking Defense newsletter. You can also catch us on… Keep reading →

Washington: The Marine Corps does not know how it will replace ground equipment worn out by over a decade of combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, or how much it will cost, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. The service has a plan to replace its fighters and helicopters lost in battle, but “a… Keep reading →

Washington: SM-3 proponents can breathe easy. The missile won’t be coming under the Pentagon’s budget ax anytime soon, according to a soon-to-be released DoD report. Members of the Defense Science Board briefed the Hill on the initial findings of that report, which focused on ballistic missile defense operations, particularly in the early launch phase. What… Keep reading →

Washington: A senior defense official sent Congress a very clear message today: you can do what you want, but lawmakers should raise taxes and cut Social Security and other entitlements before imposing any reducing Pentagon spending beyond the $350 billion mandated in the debt deal. “I would expect them to focus on entitlement and taxes,”… Keep reading →

Washington: The Navy has fixed the fatal flaws that put the future of its newest unmanned drone in jeopardy, and is now on track to get the aircraft into final testing by the end of this year. The FireScout unmanned aerial vehicle earned a scathing review by DoD’s test and evaluation shop during 2009 test… Keep reading →

There are numerous misleading and misinformed assertions being made about defense spending and the grand debt deal. The White House’s Fact Sheet asserts a $350 billion savings in the “base defense budget.” The $350 billion in defense savings that the White House declares apparently uses a different “baseline” (basis of comparison) and pretends that a… Keep reading →