UPDATED: Adds SecArmy Esper Roundtable PENTAGON: The figures aren’t final, but the Army hopes to get about $6.8 billion in additional funding for fiscal year 2018 thanks to the recently concluded budget deal, Army Secretary Mark Esper said this morning. The service’s new plan would start delivering a Next Generation Squad Weapon to the infantry… Keep reading →

PENTAGON: The Army’s 2019 budget will upgrade 261 M1 tanks, enough for three brigades, to carry Israeli-made Trophy Active Protection Systems (APS) to guard against anti-tank missiles, service officials said this morning. That’s just one of many funding changes — from buying more howitzer shells to intensifying training exercises — meant to reorient the Army… Keep reading →

The Defense Department’s 2019 budget request dramatically increases spending on research and new weapons, less so on personnel and readiness. That’s as promised by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

UPDATED w/ Mahnken interview CAPITOL HILL: The US military is not ready for war against Russia or China, leading experts told the House Armed Services Committee this morning. How can Congress help? Champion new technologies that would otherwise drown in the Pentagon bureaucracy, they said, the way it did with the Predator drone and Tomahawk missile in… Keep reading →

We’re partnering with the Center for Strategic and International Studies to bring you their fab Bad Ideas series through the Christmas holiday season. This one deals with something Breaking D readers know a great deal about: the wonders of how requirements get built and the ensuing fun that can follow. Gabriel Coll of CSIS reminds everyone of… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Congress should strike a budget deal to fund the federal government  for at least two years, the Secretary of the Navy said today. The armed forces and defense industry need at least 24 months of predictable, stable funding so they can make investments and operate efficiently, Richard Spencer told reporters. Right now, though, the government’s… Keep reading →

CRYSTAL CITY: Ash Carter created the Defense Innovation Advisory Board so the military could tap the expertise of a panel of civilian luminaries, from Google’s Eric Schmidt to pop astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. But the board is less interested in being oracular than in embracing and adopting enthusiastic young innovators. To paraphrase several participants at… Keep reading →

AUSA: On the last day of this enormous trade show, the acting Army Secretary made a point of reaching out to the defense industry. Ryan McCarthy promised action on a host of issues important to business, from R&D investments to intellectual property, as well as offering more details on sweeping acquisition reforms internal to the… Keep reading →

AMARILLO, TEX.: The Future Vertical Lift program aims to create revolutionary replacements for today’s military helicopters. But how? And why? The answers lie in the speed limits built into the physics of how a helicopter flies. Rival contractors Bell and Sikorsky (part of Lockheed Martin) both say they have transcended those limits to build dramatically… Keep reading →

AMARILLO, TEX.: Bell Helicopter is so confident in their new V-280 tilt-rotor prototype that they want the Pentagon to accelerate the Future Vertical Lift program – which they think the V-280 will win – by “five to eight years.” [Click here for our head-to-head comparison of the V-280 and its rival, the Sikorsky-Boeing SB>1] That… Keep reading →