More than five months after the fiscal year began, Congress unveiled its 2022 spending bill for the Pentagon and the rest of the federal government in the early hours of March 9, with a proposed boost for defense spending.
The Air Force faces an uphill fight with its plans to cut five units worth of C-130s, largely from the Guard and Reserve. The service, however, says the tactical airlift fleet can afford to absorb some risk and that there could be future lift possibilities ...
Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft are among the Air Force's most-requested assets worldwide, but the service wants to cut back the number of combat air patrols it supports with ISR on any given day so it can free up funds in the fiscal 2022 budget ...
After some lawmakers questioned the need for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program, top Defense Department leaders said June 23 that its future will depend on a review of the military’s nuclear posture. The Pentagon is asking for $1.1 billion to fund the GBSD program ...
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 ...
The Defense Department is reviewing the "pass-through" budget idiosyncrasy that can make the Air Force's spending levels look nearly a fifth larger than they really are, acting Air Force Secretary John P. Roth told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The sticking point is that changing ...
The Pentagon’s $715 billion budget request aims to increase research and development, with a key focus on what is needed in the Indo-Pacific, and it will chop old aircraft to do it. The Biden administration’s first budget request, released May 28, includes the biggest total ...
The fiscal 2022 Pentagon budget should be $753 billion, $38 more than the Biden administration's proposal of $715 billion, said Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia), ranking member of the House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee. Wittman's proposal is an increase from the $731.3 billion ...
Defense Secretary Mark Esper acknowledged that heavy government spending on anti-Coronavirus efforts could suppress defense spending in coming years, and said the Pentagon will prioritize modernization programs over legacy systems if the budget flattens. There are "dozens" of legacy programs Esper said he would be ...
The services will likely fall short of their end-strength goals this year because of the impacts of the new coronavirus outbreak, though positive trends in recruitment have remained, the Pentagon’s head of personnel said April 28. Matt Donovan, under secretary of defense for personnel and ...
New documents released March 30 show the Defense Department asking Congress for authority to stop producing an unclassified version of its Future Years Defense Program—its five-year plan for future spending that is released alongside its budget. Required since 1989, the FYDP shows the Pentagon’s near-future ...
The first 747-8 aircraft has begun the modification process to become a VC-25B, or the next Air Force One. The process, which began Feb. 25, will include cutting out parts of the aircraft’s skin and structure in the forward and aft lower lobes to install ...