Ideas
Esper’s Reforms: An Interim Report Card
What progress has the defense secretary made on his ambitious goals to reorient the Defense Department?
Ideas
Esper's Convenient Lie
The defense secretary's claim that the two decades of countering violent extremism left the U.S. under-prepared for a near-peer fight doesn’t hold water.
Business
Air Force General Defends Plans for Mixed F-35, F-15 Fleet
Top Air Force generals are expected to discuss the service’s future fighter force in upcoming meetings.
Business
Here’s What Might Not Survive COVID Budget Cuts
Like baby antelope at the watering hole, military weapons and vehicles still in early development might be the first to go.
Ideas
The Navy Needs More Ships — and Vision, Too
From shipyards to sea, the Navy needs to show more passionate leadership articulating what its future must be, and why.
Business
Raytheon CEO Projects Three-Year Coronavirus Downturn
It’s ‘a hell of a lot worse than what we originally projected,’ says the head of the new company formed by the United Technologies-Raytheon merger earlier this year.
Ideas
This Is Not Your Parents' Military. We Can’t Fund It the Same Way
The price of arms and personnel has risen far faster than inflation.
Business
Progressives Mount Assault on Defense Spending Ahead of Stimulus Package, Election
During a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing, one Democrat questioned defense firms access to coronavirus stimulus money.
Ideas
OCO Must Go
Lawmakers should rally behind House appropriators' effort to eliminate a funding vehicle that allows the Pentagon to evade budget caps.
Business
We Need $10B to Pay Contractors’ Coronavirus Expenses, Pentagon Tells Congress
It’s the first time a defense official has put a specific price tag on DoD’s COVID relief efforts.
Ideas
Democrats, Be Bold on National Security
Even before the pandemic, it was clear that more money didn’t mean more real security.
Ideas
Does the Pentagon Understand What a Navy Is For?
Fleet-force planning has been seized by a Joint Staff and Defense Secretary who put budget-slicing before strategy.
Ideas
The NDAA Should Prompt a Rethinking of Costly U.S. Foreign Policy
The annual defense authorization bill offers a chance to end wars and programs that are not worth their price.
Policy
We Don’t Have Enough Cash to Build New Nuclear Weapons, Says Air Force Chief
Nukes or conventional weapons, “the current budget does not allow you to do both,” says Gen. Dave Goldfein, suggesting Congress create a separate account.
Ideas
Congress Has Less Than a Month to Ward Off Needless Harm to the US Military
The ranking member of the House’s Defense Appropriations panel lays out how it would hurt to start fiscal 2021 with a continuing resolution.
Ideas
Airpower Gets a Big Boost in the Senate’s Authorization Bill
Air Force leaders won’t be entirely happy with it, but the country should be.
Ideas
The Senate’s Defense Authorization Bill Ignores Our New Reality
The annual policy bill takes almost no notice of a pandemic that has already wrought more destruction than most of our country’s wars.
Business
The Pentagon Can’t Afford All of the Weapons It Wants, New Report Says
Based on projected funding levels, the military will be forced to choose winners and losers among its priority projects.
Business
US Defense Firms Hiring Thousands Amid Record Unemployment
Pentagon spending on missiles, satellites, and nuclear weapons fuels a production boom, as firms fight off commercial aerospace downturn.
Policy