WASHINGTON ― The New START nuclear pact’s demise could cost the Department of Defense as much as $439 billion for modernization, plus $28 billion in annual maintenance costs, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report published Tuesday. That price estimate, as the U.S. and Russia remain at odds over the treaty, reflects a threefold increase in weapons production costs. With Washington and Moscow’s responses to […]
Joe Gould
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WASHINGTON ― Defense revenues of the top 100 defense companies in the world climbed for a fourth straight year, pushed upward by U.S. defense spending growth combined with strong foreign military sales. Fiscal 2019 defense revenues recorded in Defense News’ Top 100 list totaled $524 billion, up about 7 percent from $488 billion in fiscal 2018, according to numbers compiled by Defense News as part of […]
WASHINGTON ― The Trump administration is granting the Pentagon a temporary waiver of government-wide ban on contractors using Huawei and other Chinese-made telecommunications equipment, according to a memo obtained by Defense News. The move offers a weeks-long reprieve, until Sept. 30, for firms doing business with the Department of Defense. The firms are among those still reeling from the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic and […]
WASHINGTON ― A confirmation hearing has been scuttled for Anthony Tata, President Donald Trump’s embattled pick for the Pentagon’s top policy job, following stiff opposition to the nomination from Democrats and wavering by some Republicans. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., said Thursday he and President Donald Trump agreed on the eve of Tata’s confirmation hearing Thursday to at least delay the nomination. Inhofe […]
WASHINGTON ― Senate Republicans’ proposed $1 trillion coronavirus relief package includes at least $7 billion for weapons programs, part of $29 billion for defense overall. The 177-page draft appropriations legislation unveiled Monday included funding for military helicopters, aircraft, ships and missile defense systems. The bill also includes $11 billion to reimburse defense contractors for coronavirus-related expenses, as authorized by Section 3610 of the CARES Act. Defense […]
WASHINGTON ― As Congress works to reach a deal on their next stimulus package, trade groups are urging lawmakers to extend the window for reimbursing government contractor costs for COVID-19 connected disruptions and cost increases, set to close Sept. 30. Government contractors, “are continuing to face the same ‘ready state’ workforce sustainment challenges that justified” the initial authorization of reimbursements under Section 3610 of the CARES […]
WASHINGTON ― The White House and Senate Republicans are nearing an agreement on a $1 trillion-plus economic rescue proposal that would also seek $21 billion for defense, according to a draft obtained by the New York Times on Thursday. The emerging GOP proposal would include $11 billion in payments to contractors under the Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, which allowed […]
WASHINGTON ― Congress went two-for-two swatting down measures to slash the national security budget by $74 billion, rejecting a proposal Wednesday from Sen. Bernie Sanders to redirect the money toward domestic needs. The Senate voted 23-77 against an amendment to its version of the $740.5 billion annual defense policy bill. Progressives floated the plan to use defense dollars (excluding salaries and health care of military personnel) […]
WASHINGTON ― The Senate Armed Services Committee has set an open hearing July 30 for Anthony Tata, President Donald Trump’s embattled pick for the Pentagon’s top policy job ― but that won’t be the first time the committee gathers to hear from the nominee. Tata, a Fox News contributor, staunch ally of the president and a retired Army brigadier general, has had to walk back a […]
WASHINGTON―The Republican-controlled U.S. Senate rejected a bipartisan measure to block the military from giving offensive surplus equipment to state and local U.S. police departments. The Senate voted 51-49 on the proposed amendment to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. The action comes amid civil unrest and a national debate over race and policing in the wake of George Floyd’s death―and amid lobbying from police organizations to […]
WASHINGTON ― No funding would be available for live nuclear weapons testing under an amendment the House adopted to its version of the annual defense policy bill. The amendment from Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah, was adopted, 227-179, in a mostly party-line vote. The House is expected Tuesday to vote to pass the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment’s adoption will likely make it harder for […]
WASHINGTON ― Legislation from progressive Democrats to slash authorized defense spending by 10 percent is expected to fail in the Senate this week, with uncertain prospects in the House. But their hope is to advance an internal debate over defense spending, should Democrats take back the White House or the upper chamber. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and House Progressive Caucus co-chair Mark Pocan, D-Wis., and are […]
WASHINGTON ― Epirus, a venture-backed startup offering a counter-drone capability, launched quietly enough two years ago, but it’s making noise by bringing together key veterans of Microsoft, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon ― and by landing its first deal with a name-brand defense prime contractor. Epirus chief executive Leigh Madden was general manager for Microsoft’s national security business before he joined the Hawthorne, Calif.,-based firm two months […]
WASHINGTON ― The chairmen of the House foreign affairs and intelligence committees are pushing a measure meant to extend the last remaining U.S.-Russia arms control agreement amid fears President Donald Trump will let it lapse. Led by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the proposal would require congressional approval to increase the nuclear arsenal above the limits of the 2010 New START treaty, if […]
WASHINGTON ― Eighty defense industry executives have written to top congressional leaders to ask for emergency appropriations to reimburse defense contractors’ coronavirus-related costs. Led by the Aerospace Industries Association, which represents 300 large and small suppliers to the Department of Defense, the letter called for, “an appropriate level of funding for these reimbursements and respectfully request your support of the Department of Defense’s request for emergency […]
WASHINGTON — Pentagon leaders need “around $10 billion” in the next pandemic aid package to cover defense contractors’ coronavirus-related costs, according to a top defense leader. But it’s unclear how the hefty funding handout will square with Republican skepticism of new deficit spending after already approving aid packages worth trillions. On Monday, Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition & Sustainment Alan Shaffer said the money […]
WASHINGTON ― The House Appropriations Committee approved separate measures to end the 2001 and 2002 war authorizations, which underpin U.S. counter-terror operations―just the latest attempt by lawmakers to curb President Donald Trump’s war making powers. At the panel’s deliberations on the fiscal 2021 defense spending bill on Tuesday, members voted on two amendments to 2001 defense spending bill from Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. The committee was […]
WASHINGTON ― Fired-up House appropriators are expected to vote Tuesday to reject the Pentagon’s requests for added budget flexibility over the President Donald Trump’s diversion of military funds to build his promised U.S.-Mexico border wall. In a sign of fraying relations between the Department of Defense and Capitol Hill, the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee ― chaired by Indiana Democrat Rep. Pete Visclosky ― “condemned” the Pentagon’s […]
WASHINGTON ― With Trump administration poised to impose a governmentwide ban on contractors using Huawei and other China-made telecommunications equipment, trade groups say that companies, still reeling from the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, should get more time. The administration plans to finalize regulations that would prohibit government contracting with companies whose supply chains contain products from five Chinese companies including Huawei, Reuters reported Thursday. […]
WASHINGTON ― The Pentagon would have $758 million to help mid-tier defense firms wether the financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic as part of the annual defense spending bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. But the aid, which was part of the panel’s proposed $694.6 billion bill, falls short of the “lower double-digit billions” Pentagon officials say defense firms will claim under the […]
WASHINGTON ― House appropriators on Tuesday approved a spending bill that would block plans from defense hawks to give the Pentagon a stronger hand in crafting nuclear weapons budgets. The House Appropriations Committee passed their Energy-Water bill, which contained the provision, by a voice vote. The $49.6 billion spending bill contained $13.7 billion for nuclear weapons accounts ― a $1.2 billion increase over fiscal 2020 that’s […]
WASHINGTON ― A bipartisan group of lawmakers are urging the Pentagon to move quicker to stop buying components for the F-35 fighter jet from Turkey. Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Chris Can Hollen, D-Md., complained in a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper on July 6. They said Pentagon plans to buy parts from Turkey into 2022 undercuts U.S. pressure […]
The proposal was to transfer $1 billion to the pandemic preparedness from the next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile, for which Northrop Grumman is the sole competitor. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., sponsored it, and while HASC Chair Adam Smith, D-Wash., supported it, most HASC Democrats did not. “The United States does not need to be modernizing the ICBMs,” Khanna said, citing experts who see the sea- and air-based […]
WASHINGTON ― The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday delivered a near-unanimous bipartisan rebuke to President Donald Trump’s plans to pull about 10,000 U.S. troops from Germany. During its markup of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, the panel voted 49-7 to approve the measure. It was backed by HASC’s chairman, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., its top Republican, Rep. Mac Thornberry, of Texas, and other lawmakers […]
Under the proposal, the defense secretary would decide how the No. 3 civilian job is replaced. The panel approved Ranking Member Mac Thornberry’s amendment during its markup of the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act on Wednesday. It was approved by an unanimous voice vote as part of a package of amendments. “I have come to the conclusion that Congress is largely responsible for making this an […]
WASHINGTON ― Lawmakers took another apparent jab at Ligado Networks on Wednesday as the House Armed Services Committee passed a ban on the Pentagon awarding contracts to firms that interfere with Global Positioning System signals. The panel adopted an amendment from House Strategic Forces Subcommittee Chairman Michael Turner to bar the Department of Defense from contracting with an entity that engages in commercial terrestrial operations using […]
The panel adopted an amendment from House Strategic Forces subcommittee Chairman Rep. Michael Turner to bar the Defense Department from entering, renewing or extending contracts an entity that engages in commercial terrestrial operations using certain frequency ranges―unless the defense secretary has certifies to the Congress the operations do not cause harmful interference to a the military’s GPS devices. Ligado is not specifically named. However, the FCC […]
WASHINGTON ― Congress is readying proposals to rebuke President Donald Trump’s controversial plans to pull about 10,000 U.S. troops from Germany amid dissatisfaction with the administration’s rationale for the move and concerns it will weaken NATO. As President Donald Trump confirmed rumored plans to draw down American military personnel levels in Germany in coming months, a bipartisan group of senators led by Utah Republican Sen. Mitt […]
WASHINGTON ― The U.S. would be able to buy Turkey’s Russian-made S-400 air defense system under legislation proposed in the Senate last week. It’s one powerful lawmaker’s apparent attempt to alleviate the impasse between Washington and Ankara over the F-35 joint strike fighter. Senate Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., has proposed an amendment to the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that would allow the purchase out […]
WASHINGTON ― Congress is a step closer to eliminating the Pentagon’s chief management officer position, four years after creating the job to help streamline reform efforts inside the department. The House Armed Services Committee’s top Republican, Rep. Mac Thornberry, said Monday he supports the aim of a proposal from the Senate Armed Services Committee to discontinue to the Pentagon’s No. 3 civilian job. He said he […]
WASHINGTON ― Lockheed Martin has sent $1.1 billion in accelerated payment to support its network of suppliers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company announced Friday. The defense contracting giant has also hired 8,300 employees since the crisis began in March, with plans to hire 3,200 more before the end of the year. The hires mark a contrast with the rest of the U.S. economy, which saw […]
WASHINGTON ― Congressional defense leaders now have at least three competing plans to push back on China in the Pacific. Which will they choose? House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., introduced his own $3.6 billion Indo-Pacific Reassurance Initiative plan Thursday―a response to two plans, each called the Indo-Pacific Deterrence Initiative―that would spend more and be more prescriptive about how the Pentagon would spend that […]
WASHINGTON — With support eroding for President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Pentagon’s top policy job, Senate Armed Services Committee Republicans are planning an emergency meeting to discuss the fate of the nomination, congressional sources say. Retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, a Fox News contributor and staunch ally of the president, has been under fire since his nomination, after CNN revealed since-deleted tweets from 2018 […]