PENTAGON: Military and civilian leaders at the Pentagon are portraying the new Missile Defense Review as a common-sense response to aggressive Chinese and Russian investments in new hypersonic weapons and faster, longer-range missiles. The review marks “a new era in missile defense” undersecretary for policy John Rood said at the Pentagon Thursday. But mostly what… Keep reading →

The relationship went through a messy ending. Will the president now try and give Mattis the Rex Tillerson treatment?

PENTAGON: The Air Force has eked out a victory in the Pentagon’s latest proposal for a Space Force. While many in the Air Force would prefer to keep their current preeminent role in space operations and not create a new service at all, the current plan — to be submitted by year’s end for inclusion… Keep reading →

While standing up a new Space Force would likely run between $11 billion and $21 billion per year, the vast majority of that money — 96 percent — is already being spent by the Pentagon to run space operations, according to an analysis released Monday by budget expert Todd Harrison at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“We failed the audit. We never expected to pass it,” Pat Shanahan said. But at least the Space Force will cost less than half of the Air Force’s estimate.

Despite increasing uncertainty over President Trump’s surprise proposal to cut $33 billion from defense, the Pentagon’s R&D chief says he’s confident more cash will be pumped into laser weapons and new space capabilities.

WASHINGTON: The Democrats’ recapturing the House means three major impacts on the Defense Department: The odds are that controversial Trump priorities like new nuclear weapons and a Space Force will go nowhere, defense budgets will go down, and oversight will go up, up, up. Program winners and losers The most likely losers are nuclear modernization… Keep reading →

For insights about how the US military currently views the realities of space war, it’s helpful to consider the recently concluded annual Schriever War Game.

Space Corps? Space Force? Space Command? Ever since Rep. Mike Rogers put the Space Corps cat amongst the Air Force pigeons in April last year, debate has raged within the Air Force, the wider space enterprise, Congress and across the four services about just what must be done. President Trump glommed onto the idea and… Keep reading →

The Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian said Wednesday that the final figure for a Space Force is unclear and is far from a done deal, even though the Air Force recently threw out a figure of $13 billion.

“The final answer won’t happen this month or next month,” Deputy Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan told a small group of reporters.