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 the annual Top 100 list. “The single most striking thing about these data is the year-over-year growth, the median of which is 7 percent,” said Atlantic Council Senior Fellow Steven Grundman. “For an industry generally […]
defense spending
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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 is needed to cover a host of defense contractors’ coronavirus-related expenses. Without it, the Department of Defense will have to dip into modernization and readiness funds, potentially jeopardizing smaller firms in the defense industrial base […]
As they look at the state of their coronavirus-hit economies and U.S. President Donald Trump’s poor standing in opinion polls, many European leaders may be tempted to put on hold any plans to meet NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. But Europeans need to wake up. Trump is not a reliable ally, and the damage he has done to the trans-Atlantic partnership is likely to linger. Trump’s hostility to NATO has been obvious since he called into question its Article 5 mutual defense guarantee during his last presidential campaign. We now know, according to former […]
LONDON — Producing a promised new defense and security review was never going to be straightforward for the British government, but the impact of the COVID-19 crisis and the fast-evolving geostrategic position has muddied the waters even further, leaving open the question of future investment priorities. The integrated defense, security and foreign policy review ordered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson soon after he entered office last December was meant to provide answers to how Britain would make its way in the world post-Brexit. That exercise is partly, but not entirely, on ice as the government focuses its attention on trying to […]
WASHINGTON — Elaine McCusker, who has been serving as the Pentagon’s acting comptroller for 18 months, has resigned, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced Tuesday. “Today Elaine McCusker submitted her resignation as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) effective Friday, June 26, 2020,” Esper said in a statement. “Since joining the Department of Defense, Elaine has worked tirelessly to ensure that our budgeting and audit processes give full value to the taxpayer while meeting the enormous security needs of our nation as well as the men and women who serve it.” “I am grateful for her dedication to public service and […]
WASHINGTON — As the Pentagon has begun focusing on new technologies such as artificial intelligence and directed energy, department officials have loudly declared the need to keep close watch in order to ensure that foreign nations are not buying their way into the defense industrial base. But a new report warns that China may already have ownership over part of the defense industrial base for a key focus for the department — hypersonic weapons, missiles capable of going faster than five times the speed of sound, expected to become a backbone of the U.S. military in the coming decades. As part […]
When budgets are tight, we pit current security needs against future security needs. That is dangerous. Source link
A new budget proposal for the European Union shows that the bloc’s defense plans are back on the table as the continent pushes to revive its economy following the coronavirus crisis. Source link
New support for an Indo-Pacific Deterrence Initiative suggests it’s a lock for the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act. Source link
Lorenzo Guerini said he “confirmed that the program would continue,” after calls from Italy’s Five Star party to halt F-35 purchases for a year to pay for a coronavirus rebound. Source link
A new report predicts that Brexit will be “more harmful and long-lasting” for the British army and U.K.’s defense sector than for the European Union. Source link
A parliamentary committee says the government has admitted that costs on three nuclear projects “could keep rising, as its poor contract design has left the taxpayer to assume financial risk, while… Source link
Talks between the 27 EU member countries over their next long-term budget have been blocked for more than a year, well before the coronavirus hit Europe. Source link
Our pursuits to fix financial shenanigans and sow fiscal discipline into the defense budget are more important than ever. Source link