Americas * With dread, Pentagon watchers are seeing circumstances line up suggesting that a budget breakthrough may not happen, leaving the possibility of a semi-permanent continuing resolution funding mechanism. * The General Accountability Office found that the DoD...
Americas * The Missile Defense Agency is lessening its ambitions for the number of ships that will be equipped with ballistic missile defense to 39 from 48. Between the Navy buying fewer, more expensive ships and opting not to staff ships in drydock with BMD-qualified...
DDG 110 & MH-60S(click to view full) Technically, the Ticonderoga Class cruisers sit at the pinnacle of the US Navy's surface combatant fleet. They're no longer being built, however, and the growing preponderance of Arleigh Burke Class destroyers in missile defense...
Norway's CV90-30IFV, Afghanistan(click to view full) In June 2012, Norway began a NOK 10 billion/ $1.68 billion program to upgrade and build CV90 tracked armored vehicles, and field unmanned air and ground vehicles, as part of the Army's largest military modernization...
Americas * The Air Force's contrite admission that the B-3 bomber program would cost roughly double what it originally said it would isn't going down well in Congress. Beyond the obvious financial pain involved with a program that hopes to produce planes for half a...
Americas * The on-again, off-again Air Force comparison test between the F-35 and the A-10 for close air support is back on again, according to the Washington Times. The F-35 doesn't carry - and isn't anticipated to carry - the sorts of weapons that have proven useful...
Pentagon auditors are questioning more than $108 million in costs claimed by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown Root (KBR) under its $875 million “Task Order 5” contract to provide fuel in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. The Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) also faulted KBR for the quality of the records it delivered to the investigation, citing discrepancies between reported actual costs and accounting records. Halliburton is asserting that no wrongdoing was involved, claiming that the costs stemmed directly from the strictures it was working under and the challenges of getting shipments into a war zone without fail…
Americas * Technology allowing parts to be printed is rapidly seeing military adoption, but manufacturing experts warn that they need to be designed in a fashion to allow for inspection. * The Navy is prepping a patch of seafloor off Florida to be an undersea training...
Americas * The Pentagon is codifying how and when defense contractors must report data breaches. * Lockheed is reportedly working on a U2 replacement. To be optionally manned, which is less apt to offend either pilot officers or policy wonks. A new U2 could well see...