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Pentagon Welcomes Greater Freedom Under Trump but Is Wary of Blame
The president’s penchant “to delegate blame when things go wrong” is the negative flip side of the Pentagon’s freedom, said Hal Brands, a defense official in the Obama administration and now a senior analyst at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
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House Armed Services moving ahead with $640B top line
Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments research fellow Katherine Blakeley noted that Congress has little time left to iron out a federal spending plan, with nominations and an ambitious GOP agenda that includes tax reform and a health care overhaul eating up the legislative calendar. “They’re trying to move with alacrity, but they’re facing down the clock,” she said. The GOP strategy to pass spending measures is a big, open question, Blakeley said. For defense, it’s unclear whether Congress will hew to the Mattis budget request’s emphasis on research and development as well as and operations and maintenance — or upend it by seeking more procurement funding. “Will they shift more money into O&M or will they try to grow the force — which Mattis says the Pentagon is not ready to do, and that they want to prepare to grow in fiscal '19,” Blakeley said. “How fast can the Army responsibly grow?”
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‘Pivot’ to Asia will remain a priority for US military, experts say
Pacific allies should expect the United States to stay engaged, said Jan Van Tol, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C.
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The US Navy may skip an important test so it can get its futuristic new aircraft carrier sooner
"Once the Ford comes online you can have the East Coast carriers essentially cover the Middle East with short gaps and have the West Coast carriers fill the gaps in the Pacific while [the carrier] Reagan is in its spring maintenance availability," Bryan Clark, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments told Defense News.
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Investigation into Fitzgerald collision begins
Retired Navy Capt. Jan van Tol, who commanded the destroyer O’Brien and the amphibious assault ship Essex in the same Japanese waters, said he was “puzzled” by the captain’s absence…“That would normally get a CO to the bridge,” he said…Still, destroyers like the Fitzgerald are “the sports cars of the sea,” van Tol said. “They should be able to get out of the way of anything.”
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Navy might get to skip Ford shock trials ahead of first deployment
Getting the Ford earlier would be a win for Fleet Forces, which has been trying to get its new optimized fleet response plan on track.