CAPITOL HILL: Can Congress finally break the logjam of the Budget Control Act and increase spending on defense? Yes we can, said the cautiously optimistic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Why are the chances any better this year than for all the failures since 2011? Because, Rep. Mac Thornberry told reporters this morning,… Keep reading →

CORRECTED: Bilden is least experienced, not 2nd to last WASHINGTON: Trump’s pick for Navy Secretary, Philip Bilden, has less relevant experience than any of his predecessors since 1980, Breaking Defense has found. To be precise, every Navy Secretary for 36 years has had significant prior experience in either government or the defense industry or both: Bilden… Keep reading →

UPDATED with Rep. Wittman comment WASHINGTON: The long-delayed super-carrier USS Ford is “99 percent” complete and will be delivered to the Navy in April, the Navy announced late Wednesday. A date for commissioning the $13 billion ship into service has still not been yet. The Ford is the first all-new carrier design in 40 years —… Keep reading →

Congress is setting the defense budget on autopilot and high-tailing it out of town, leaving a lot of unfinished business behind. While President Obama is set to sign the defense policy bill for 2017 into law, this Congress left the funding bills in shambles for the next session to fix. As a stopgap, an extended… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Mr. Trump, we’ll see your campaign pledge of a 350-ship fleet and raise you five vessels, the US Navy effectively said this morning. The long-anticipated Force Structure Assessment calls for a fleet of 355 ships to counter “a growing China and a resurgent Russia,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced today. [Click here for Congressional… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Should the Navy buy the next generation of Littoral Combat Ships in bulk? A contentious hearing today before House Armed Services subcommittee on oversight largely framed the options as polar opposites. You can either sign a multi-ship deal to drive down the price, at the risk of getting “locked in” to buying a flawed… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Want to save $125 billion by slashing Pentagon “waste”? Not so fast. If you take a closer look at the much-touted Defense Business Board study proposing those cuts– which was published in 2015 but went viral after Monday’s Washington Post story saying the Pentagon had “burie[d]” it — and talk to experts, officials, and… Keep reading →

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.… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: While big-ticket additions to the Navy budget like F-35 fighters and Littoral Combat Ships didn’t survive conference, there are several smaller but strategic plus-ups in the annual defense policy bill that make a major difference for the fleet, Rep. Joe Courtney told me this afternoon. What’s more, with House Armed Services Committee chairman Mac… Keep reading →

Now that conferees have hammered out a 2017 National Defense Authorization Act, the House and Senate must vote on the final product. They may want to read this before casting their votes. Read on. The Editor. Buried in the fine print of the defense authorization bills is a $50 billion earmark for an obscure facility in… Keep reading →