Democrats and Republicans sparred all night over nukes in the 2020 defense policy bill, but the Democrats had the votes. For now.

The House Armed Services Committee starts a marathon wrangle on the Pentagon budget, complete with dueling Dickens & Shakespeare quotes, with a detour to debate paint schemes for Air Force One and renaming a key intelligence position.

Democratic chairman Adam Smith wants to focus on the “cyber fight with Russia and China… that’s really going to happen.”

The top HASC Republican outlines some of the amendments he plans to add to the HASC 2020 defense policy bill, previewing coming debates with the Senate.

HASC calls on Pentagon for “near- and long-term plans and options to ensure resilience” of the nuclear command, control and communications network, including requirements for survivability and protection of the supply chain.

In a markup of the 2020 defense budget, the HASC tells the Pentagon to keep developing new tech but inform the Hill about how and where it might be used.

BOSTON: “It’s like running through a briar patch naked,” Will Roper said of trying to bring start-up companies into the service’s contracting model to keep apace of commercial innovation. “You have to be willing to bleed a little bit,” Roper, the Air Force’s top acquisition official told me in an interview last Thursday, after watching 10 newborn… Keep reading →

While Congress wrestles with CH-47 cuts, Army leaders are already looking ahead to hard decisions on high tech.

Military space programs have to navigate a maze of 60 agencies. Creating a Space Force may not make things simpler.

The Air Force is once again accepting deliveries of the troubled tankers — but the service’s acquisition chief warned Boeing must get its act in order ASAP.