UPDATED: Harrison says Senate Dems are key CAPITOL HILL: The House Armed Services Committee will propose $631.5 billion in funding for defense, HASC staff told reporters this afternoon. That is about 1.4 percent less than the $640 billion HASC chairman Mac Thornberry and his Senate counterpart John McCain campaigned for, but it’s also 4.7 percent above […]
CAPITOL HILL: The Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee thinks President Trump’s 2018 spending plan is dead on arrival and has already gone to the Budget Committee to get a much bigger defense budget. Mac Thornberry also doesn’t want defense increases offset by steep cuts to the Coast Guard or State Department, as Trump proposed. Thornberry […]
CAPITOL HILL: Rep. Randy Forbes still has plenty of fans, but Sec. Jim Mattis apparently isn’t one of them, which makes Forbes a long shot for Secretary of the Navy. Yes, the withdrawal of Philip Bilden’s nomination for SecNav reopens Forbes’ path to the position, even triggering an endorsement from The Wall Street Journal. But it’s […]
CAPITOL HILL: Sen. John McCain wants an ambitious plan for new ground vehicle designs and new kinds of combat units from the Army. So does the Heritage Foundation, which has provided much of the brain power for the Trump administration. But the Army isn’t on board: Burned by past program meltdowns like FCS and GCV. […]
CAPITOL HILL: “I do not think a year-long CR will pass the House,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry told reporters this afternoon. Full-year CRs aren’t that common, but the last few years have usually seen Congress, incapable of passing timely appropriation bills — which is one of their most basic and important jobs — instead passing a […]
CAPITOL HILL: The Navy-Marine fighter fleet is in a “death spiral” and the only long-term fix is to buy new jets faster, both F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a former Pentagon analyst told Breaking Defense. Two veteran Hill staffers agreed the situation is dire and new planes are needed, although they put equal […]
UPDATED with Marine Corps data CAPITOL HILL: More than 60 percent of Navy and Marine Corps strike fighters are out of service, the Navy confirmed today. While 62 percent of fighters are effectively grounded, the overall figure for all naval aircraft is 53 percent. [UPDATE: With some of the oldest fighter jets in service, Marine Corps […]
SIMI VALLEY, CALIF.: “I don’t how we buy it back without a real bloodbath,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham. “It” is the $500 billion, 10-year cut to defense spending imposed by the Budget Control Act of 2011, popularly (mis)called sequestration. Graham, one of Donald Trump’s harshest critics in the GOP, is not alone in thinking the […]
WASHINGTON: The odds keep getting better that Donald Trump will ask for a big boost to defense spending in a supplemental request soon after his inauguration. But who gets how much for what? That raises a whole host of unanswered questions, experts and policymakers made clear today at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. […]
UPDATED CAPITOL HILL: House and Senate conferees have agreed to an almost $619 billion defense budget that stops steep cuts in the US Army, eliminates 110 generals and admirals, makes US Cyber Command independent, and cuts the Pentagon’s most powerful position in two. The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017 — which began […]
UPDATED: Republicans Abandon Spending Bills; McCain Says “Madness Needs To End” WASHINGTON: The defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, is the crowning glory of Congress when it comes to the most fundamental function of the federal government: providing for the common defense. To that end, we understand a letter by Rep. Joe Wilson, chairman […]
WASHINGTON: Marine Corps aviation is on a “glide slope” to reaching acceptable readiness levels by 2020, the deputy commandant for aviation said Friday. But today the only units fully ready — with enough spare parts, trained maintainers and air crews, and adequate monthly flight hours for pilots — are two squadrons flying brand new Lockheed Martin F-35B […]
UPDATED: Adds Air Force Statement WASHINGTON: The administration’s nominee for Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. David Goldfein, came before the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning promising to improve Air Force relations with Congress. And Goldfein delivered, to the point of apparently agreeing with a pleased SASC chairman John McCain that the service should […]
STUTTGART, GERMANY: HASC Chairman Rep. Mac Thornberry, responding to comments by Defense Secretary Ash Carter which we reported yesterday, rejected criticisms about a spending gimmick the House Armed Services Committee chairman hopes to use to improve readiness for the U.S. military. Thornberry was reacting to comments Carter made en route to Stuttgart for the European Command […]
CAPITOL HILL: Members of Congress clashed today over everything from the F-35 fighter to the Lesser Prairie Chicken. But the most fundamental issue at the House Armed Services Committee’s annual marathon markup of its defense policy bill was simply how to pay for it. Chairman Mac Thornberry defended repurposing $18 billion of Overseas Contingency Operations funds […]