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Air Force Targets $120 Million Investment in Laser Gunship
As Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments senior fellow Mark Gunzinger attests, "the technology is ready" for the deployment of laser cannons on AC-130s. Further out, the Air Force is working to continually shrink the size and weight of its laser prototypes to a point where, at "5 kilograms per kilowatt," these weapons could be installed on a whole host of smaller aircraft as well, both manned and unmanned…
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All Eyes on F-35 as Farnborough Debut Nears
Mark Gunzinger, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told Millitary.com other positive signs for the F-35 program included a decrease in developmental problems, indicating that the platform is maturing, and a decrease in unit cost, as predicted by the Joint Program Office. Gunzinger said he had spoken with test pilots and trainees who raved about the aircraft after having the chance to familiarize themselves with it. "It's well known the F-35 really does have a magic cockpit and the ability to take multiple sources of information,: Gunzinger said. "Its situational awareness is unparalleled."..
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Obama’s New Afghanistan Troop Plan Raises Budget Questions Amid OCO Fight
But Kate Blakeley, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, told Inside Defense that the current OCO budget has enough built-in "slack" to accommodate Obama's new troop policy. "The additional marginal costs of about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan would be quite small compared to the $41.7 billion requested for Operation Freedom's Sentinel in Afghanistan in FY-17," she said. "The FY-17 OCO budget request already is largely a continuation of FY-16 OCO funding levels for Afghanistan."..
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Congressional Budget Office Challenged to Explain Rising O&M Cost
Kate Blakeley, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the CBO study demonstrates that the Pentagon's O&M budget lacks transparency. "The growth of O&M costs is one of the more vexing budget problems that DOD faces," she said. "With half of O&M costs effectively a black box, DOD needs to get a handle on its escalating O&M costs, which are crowding out procurement and other spending.
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Russian Spy Ship Now Off Hawaii, U.S. Navy Protecting ‘Critical Information’
“It used to be that AGIs would deploy regularly off their ports and we would encounter them and they would operate very safely and professionally — mostly looking for signals intelligence,” Bryan Clark, a naval analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments and former aide to retired Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert, told USNI News...
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Analysts Developing New Fleet Designs Ahead of Updated Ship Requirement
The three "fleet architecture" studies are being completed by the office of the chief of naval operations' assessment division (N81), the MITRE Group and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, respectively. Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at CSBA who is leading the fleet architecture analysis, said the three studies will inform the Navy's new Force Structure Assessment (FSA), which lays out the number of ships the Navy needs...