These are the complete remarks by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Dec. 3, 2022, in Simi Valley, Calif.
As voters head to the polls Nov. 8 for the 2022 midterm elections, major potential changes to congressional power hang in the balance. For the Department of Defense—and the Air Force, in particular—here are meaningful shifts to watch for and new faces to track.
Congress is of a mind to allow the Pentagon to do more multiyear procurement—in the billions of dollars—particularly of munitions, given the situation in Ukraine and its implications for other potential conflicts, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante said.
Congress needs to do a better job of providing the Air Force with steady, consistent funding; the Air Force needs to find ways to develop programs faster; and the two need to work together to ensure that the service can build capacity for both the ...
As time runs out for Congress to act and avoid an unprecedented debt default, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III is joining the chorus of voices trying to pressure the legislature into action. In a statement released Oct. 6, Austin warned that if the U.S. ...
Congress passed a continuing resolution Sept. 30 to keep the Pentagon and the rest of the government funded through Dec. 3, avoiding a shutdown with just hours to spare. The stopgap measure, approved 65-35 in the Senate and 254-175 in the House, means the Defense ...
A package deal similar to the Base Realignment and Closure process offers hope of getting Congress to let the Air Force retire old airplanes, Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said. The move could give members of Congress some political cover for allowing ...
Firefighting technology hasn’t changed much from the days when Chief of the National Guard Bureau Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson dropped buckets of water from a UH-60 Black Hawk, and his brother, a smokejumper, parachuted in to fight wildfires on foot. What has changed is the ...
The House and Senate passed a $2.1 billion emergency security supplemental bill July 29 that fully reimburses the National Guard for its role in protecting the U.S. Capitol after the Jan. 6 insurrection. It also provides relief for Afghan interpreters who helped the U.S. during ...
Air Force nominee Frank Kendall is one step closer to a major procedural hurdle after agreeing to extend his industry recusal from two years to four years at the behest of Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren. Kendall’s May 25 nomination has been on hold for weeks ...
The Air Force has set its shopping list for the first round of Advanced Battle Management System capability acquisition and is defining the requirements for future capabilities it wants to develop and buy as this new approach to command and control progresses. At the same ...
The Pentagon’s 2022 budget is light on funding for the Arctic, though Defense Department officials want that to change in future funding requests as it develops a new strategy that will take into account the growing importance of the region. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin ...