“Look, the Obama administration indicated that Russia was in violation of the INF Treaty four years ago,” said a staffer from the House Armed Services Committee. “If the treaty’s being violated, we have to take steps to ensure that stability some other way.”

As Jon Kyl, the new senator who brings a long track record of spending on missile defense and nukes returns to the Hill, Democrats in the House might have other ideas.

“It’s establishing buy-in over the next three, four, five years from the institution (of the Army),” Gen. Murray said. “It’s about establishing buy-in on Capitol Hill, because if I don’t have buy-in there, this won’t survive.”

There’s no timeline, no cost estimate, and no certainty Trump’s proposed Space Force will even happen. Even the interim step of creating a Space Command is being dialed down, a significant policy shift.

“None of this would be happening without someone who’s not here today, and that’s Senator John McCain, an American hero,” General Milley said to some of the loudest applause of the day.

Thursday’s overwhelming Senate vote to pass the bill clears a major hurdle in getting the budget passed on time. But Not only do the House and Senate have little time to knock out final appropriations language and vote on it, but President Trump has signaled he wouldn’t be opposed to a government shutdown this fall, which would bring everything to a grinding halt.

A slew of new civilian officials are settling in at the Pentagon, adding muscle to promises of change in how the military develops and buys technology, and how fast it can put that gear in the field.

The White House only has a few objections to this year’s NDAA, and lets Congress know what they are as the Senate gears up for debate.

With the two-year budget relief ending in 2020, and a new Space Force to fund, the good times might not last long.

Most coverage of the annual defense policy bill has focused on program changes: more ships (including six icebreakers!), no change to F-35’s, more RDT&E, no JSTARS recap, a growl (but no more) on ZTE, and many more (the bill and report run 2,500 pages). Less discussed, but of more import in the long run, are the… Keep reading →