March 28, 2024

Sequestration Compromising Defense Innovation

Pentagon Capitol

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Sequestration-driven budget cuts are compromising American defense innovation and the next generation of weapons and other defense products, according to Reuters. Military funding for research and development has been cut by a fourth and further reductions are possible if lawmakers maintain the sequestration law that dictates automatic cuts in defense spending for the rest of the decade. Boeing President Dennis Muilenburg said, “Cuts in the government R&D budget are very worrisome, and it is not a long-term sustainable trend for the country.” He added that sequestration will be “devastating to industry in the long term.”

The Art of the Deal: As the Obama administration begins to assemble a coalition to defeat ISIS, speculation heats up about “hidden partners” of the initiative who would prefer to fly beneath the radar, according to a Christian Science Monitor analysis.

DefenseNews believes that the fifth-generation F-35 JSF program is safe from from any cuts because it has the full support of both the DoD and Congress. Despite pledges from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill to closely scrutinize the troubled program, four congressional defense panels’ 2015 military policy and spending bills back the Pentagon’s funding and other plans for the F-35 program.

A 30-year comparison of military pay raises against civilian increases has been compiled by Defense One. Civilian and military pay raises have, at times, mirrored each other, especially in the 1980s and 1990s, but since 2000 Congress has generally allocated military personnel larger salary increases.

The Obama administration’s effort to hire military veterans for government jobs is fueling resentment in federal offices, according to The Washington Post. Non-veterans resent the preferential hiring of retired service members and accuse them of a blind deference to authority. Veterans believe there is a condescending view of their skills and experience and accuse many non-veterans of lacking a work ethic and sense of mission.

A Rolls-Royce engine upgrade for the V-22 Osprey passed a successful flight test, DefenseNews reports. The new engine provides a 17 percent power increase, which enables the Osprey to fly at 6,000 feet in 95-degree temperatures, an improvement that resolves a major challenge to V-22 operations in regions such as the Middle East.

After many hearings, reports and speeches, and multiple pieces of legislation introduced, improvements to the security clearance process remain limited, reports The Washington Post.

A Chinese admiral said the P-8A Poseidon long-range reconnaissance aircraft the US Navy plans to deploy in Malaysia are “a serious threat to China’s national security,” according to WantChinaTimes.

Breaking Defense reviews “Predator: The Secret Origins of the Drone Revolution” by Rick Whittle. The reviewer predicts the book will “become a standard work for the military, the defense industry, for those who decide weapons requirements and for the Pentagon’s acquisition corps.”

The Navy has identified the F/A-18C Hornet pilot who is presumed dead after his aircraft collided with another Hornet on Friday as Lt. Nathan Poloski, a 2009 Naval Academy graduate, reports Military Times.

Changes to the command advancement program will allow thousands more sailors to be eligible to advance without an advancement exam, and make the move up to 12 months early, reports Navy Times. The changes to the authority that allows skippers to advance sailors to E-4, E-5 and E-6, are set to take effect October 1.

 

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