News
Hagel Seen as Able to Tackle Personnel Costs
The spiraling cost of personnel at the Defense Department isn’t a new problem, yet a solution has been elusive. Cutting benefits for service members during more than a decade of war has been politically unpalatable. As a result, the topic has largely been pushed to the side, left to be debated by budget wonks and defense policy gurus.
Budget Woes Could Affect AF’s KC-46
The KC-46 tanker program faces potential budget issues that could force a renegotiation of the Defense Department’s contract with Boeing, according to budget analysts.
Weight-Loss Surgery: Budget Shock Could Be Healthy
Deep and long-term budget cuts could be the best thing to happen to the U.S. defense enterprise in decades.
Hagel’s Defense Priorities
CSBA President Andrew Krepinevich discusses top priorities for the incoming Secretary of Defense on This Week in Defense with Vago Muradian. The next Secretary of Defense would need to go a step beyond the current strategic guidance, believes Krepinevich, and articulate a strategy for maintaining stability in the two key regions: the Western Pacific and the Persian Gulf.
Pentagon Orders Planning for Civilian Furloughs, Other Cutbacks
If the automatic cuts currently scheduled to take place on March 1 stay in effect, DoD estimates its spending authority would be reduced by $45 billion in fiscal 2013. Compounding the problem, the cuts would have to be absorbed in just the final seven months of the year.
Pentagon No. 2 Issues Guidance To ‘Mitigate’ Budget Uncertainty
After months of near-silence on planning for sequestration, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter on Thursday instructed Pentagon managers to prepare specific actions in case Congress and the White House fail to enact a new budget deal.