Back to news

July 25, 2019 | International, Other Defence

Newly installed SecDef: The budget deal provides a ‘good’ number for defense

By:

WASHINGTON – Newly installed U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper says he is happy with the two-year budget deal's recommendation for the Pentagon, despite it being $12 billion less than what the White House requested for fiscal 2020.

Speaking to press just hours after taking office, Esper also said he is focused on filling empty spots at the Pentagon as quickly as possible to “make sure we have that civilian control of the military” firmly in place.

The Trump administration's request for defense in FY20 was $750 billion, a number Democrats in Congress tried to reduce to $733 billion.

The nearly $1.4 trillion spending plan announced Monday — which would prevent a government shutdown this fall and do away with the final two years of budget caps known as sequestration — includes about $738 billion in military funding for FY20. That's a 3 percent increase from current-year levels, which seems fine with the man now running America's military.

“$738 [billion] is a good number. We also have two years. We expect to see two years' worth of numbers. To the degree we have predictability, to the degree we can avoid [continuing resolutions], those things allow us to plan and make more efficient use of our dollars,” Esper said. “So I'm good with those dollars. No complaints.”

Esper is the first confirmed defense secretary since Jim Mattis resigned at the end of last year. But a number of spots — including 14 of 59 political spots, and four of the top six roles in the department — are still filled by acting individuals, something Esper highlighted as an issue he's hoping to quickly address.

“My perspective was from a service secretary and I think it's always challenging — people in acting jobs, when you don't feel the full confidence in the role, sometimes folks tend to maybe not behave as confidently because you're unsure and you also don't want to bind the person-who-may-actually-be-confirmed's hands,” he said, adding he does not think the open spots impacted operations.

“We need to get staffed up quickly,” he said. “We have to get stable leadership.”

One of those empty spots is Army secretary, now vacant with Esper's promotion. Ryan McCarthy, the service undersecretary, has been nominated to fill the full role. Asked about advice for his successor, Esper joked that he hopes McCarthy won't “break anything,” before saying he expects McCarthy's nomination to arrive at the Senate in a “matter of days.”

“His paperwork is at the White House, and everybody we put forth needs to be thoroughly vetted. So I think he should soon be coming out of the process,” Esper said. “The question is if it will be soon enough for the Senate Armed Services Committee to do its due diligence in a timely matter.”

The secretary has also asked for new guidance to be issued to the field to inform service members on the “very important role of media and press” in society.

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2019/07/24/newly-installed-secdef-the-budget-deal-provides-a-good-number-for-defense/

On the same subject

  • GOP’s ‘targeted’ stimulus doesn’t include defense dollars

    September 9, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Naval, Land, C4ISR, Security

    GOP’s ‘targeted’ stimulus doesn’t include defense dollars

    By: Joe Gould WASHINGTON ― Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday introduced and set up a floor vote for a leaner Republican coronavirus relief bill, but it does not contain the billions of dollars the defense industry has sought to diffuse the economic impact of the pandemic. The bill, which includes some of the elements of the $1 trillion package the GOP proposed in July, is intended to break a weekslong partisan stalemate. However, it has a slim chance of passage in the face of Democrats' insistence for more sweeping aid. “The Senate Republican majority is introducing a new targeted proposal, focused on some of the very most urgent health-care, education and economic issues. It does not contain every idea our party likes,” McConnell said in a statement. “I will be moving immediately today to set up a floor vote as soon as this week.” It wasn't immediately clear what the differences, if any, were to an earlier version that Senate Republicans floated last month. Both draft bills excluded the $29 billion for defense that the GOP included in its previous $1 trillion package. The $1 trillion proposal from July contained $11 billion to reimburse defense contractors for coronavirus-related expenses, as authorized by Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. which expires Sept. 30. Defense firms and trade associations have lobbied for an extension of Section 3610 as well as the funding, fearing the Pentagon would otherwise have to tap modernization and readiness accounts. The move comes as lawmakers straggle back to Washington for an abbreviated preelection session, as hopes are dimming for another coronavirus relief bill — or much else. Passage of an extension for Section 3610 and any funding may have a better chance if lawmakers can attach it to and pass a stopgap continuing resolution before Sept. 30, when the fiscal year ends and 2020 appropriations run out. However, defense industry observers were pessimistic on Tuesday. “I don't see any of the COVID package procurement money making it into the CR, and the CR is a high hurdle in any event,” a defense industry source told Defense News. “This Senate bill is a ‘press release' bill and not a piece of legislation that has a chance of passing into law.” Several Republican senators in tough reelection bids are eager to show constituents they are working to ease the pandemic's strain on jobs, businesses and health care. But many Senate Republicans are resisting more spending. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters Tuesday that the GOP conference would discuss the legislation during a meeting on Wednesday. McConnell's move Tuesday would clear the way for a Thursday test vote in which the $500 billion, scaled-back bill — roughly half the size of a measure McConnell unveiled earlier this summer — is sure to be blocked by Democrats. McConnell's bill would provide more than $100 billion to help schools reopen, enact a shield against lawsuits for businesses and others that are powering ahead to reopen, create a scaled-back supplemental jobless benefit of $300-per-week, and write off $10 billion in earlier post office debt. (The National Defense Industrial Association is among groups that have called for a liability shield.) But the bill won't contain another round of $1,200 direct payments going out under President Donald Trump's name. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., continues to demand $2.2 trillion, and while Trump's negotiators have signaled a willingness to inch further in her direction, a significant gap remains. Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., rapped McConnell in a statement Tuesday for resisting earlier calls to work on an economic stimulus bill. They called the most recent bill “political” and a nonstarter with Democrats. “As they scramble to make up for this historic mistake, Senate Republicans appear dead-set on another bill which doesn't come close to addressing the problems and is headed nowhere,” Pelosi and Schumer said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2020/09/08/will-gops-targeted-stimulus-include-defense-dollars/

  • Bell’s V-280 Valor hits 200 hours of flight time 3 years after first flight

    December 17, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Land

    Bell’s V-280 Valor hits 200 hours of flight time 3 years after first flight

    By: Jen Judson WASHINGTON — Bell's technology demonstrator designed to show the Army the realm of the possible in Future Vertical Lift capability has flown 200 hours since its first flight three years ago, according to Keith Flail, the company's executive vice president for advanced vertical lift systems. The V-280 Valor tiltrotor parted ways with the tarmac for the first time on Dec. 18, 2017, at 1:59 p.m. CDT at a Bell facility in Amarillo, Texas. Defense News reported the flight as the aircraft was still in the air, but the aircraft logged roughly 15 to 20 minutes before returning to solid ground. Since then Bell's clean-sheet-designed aircraft has flown more than 150 sorties, Flail told Defense News in a recent interview, and the extensive effort has driven down risk for the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft program for the U.S. Army. Valor hit the 200 flight hour mark on Dec. 4, Flail said. The Army wants to field FLRAA — an aircraft expected to fly twice as fast and twice as far as a conventional helicopter — by 2030. Bell is gearing up to compete head-to-head with a Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky and Boeing team, which built the only other flying technology demonstrator in the effort leading up to a program of record. The SB-1 Defiant coaxial helicopter flew for the first time in March 2019 after struggling with rotor blade manufacturing problems and working through other more minor kinks. Both companies have entered a competitive development and risk reduction phase awarded in March 2020 ahead of the FLRAA program. The Army announced this month that it intends to proceed into a competition between just Sikorsky-Boeing and Bell to produce FLRAA. Valor has been put through its paces, completing key performance parameters and continuing to prove out possible threshold and objective requirements for FLRAA. The aircraft had its first public flight in June 2018 where it reached cruising speeds of 195 knots and was put through its paces in hover mode. In May 2019, the aircraft completed low-speed agility maneuver testing — which made up the final key performance parameters left to prove out with the system as part of the technology demonstration phase. Valor flew autonomously for the first time a year ago. The aircraft performed an autonomous takeoff, conversion into cruise mode, precision navigation to various waypoints, loiter maneuvers, conversion into vertical-takeoff-and-landing mode, and landed autonomously. Other achievements include demonstrating an integrated system from Lockheed Martin that provides the pilots and aircrew a 360-degree view through the skin of the aircraft in the spring of 2019. And in early 2020, Bell also integrated the Tactical Common Data Link and transmitted information between Valor and the ground station to include basic flight data and showed it would be able to provide targeting information to help long-range precision fires weapons hit targets more accurately, according to a Dec. 17 company statement. In the same flight, Bell demonstrated sling-load capability, Flail said. “During a single sortie, the team performed multiple cargo lifts to demonstrate the procedure and coordination of ground crew, aircraft, crew chief, pilots and the behavior of the loads for the V-280,” the statement notes. Over the course of the technology demonstration period, Flail added, the aircraft was also able to show its reliability and availability. “This configuration of tiltrotor really shows how robust it is in terms of reliability and availability because one of the tricks with proving that is you have to accumulate enough data to show that you do have a reliable system,” he said. “A lot of your critical items, your gearboxes and your blades ... those are typical cost drivers downstream and today, we still have the original six blades and gearboxes on this aircraft.” https://www.defensenews.com/land/2020/12/17/bells-v-280-valor-hits-200-hours-of-flight-time-3-years-after-first-flight/

  • Behind Europe’s ammo pledge to Ukraine, some manufacturers grow leery

    June 19, 2023 | International, Land

    Behind Europe’s ammo pledge to Ukraine, some manufacturers grow leery

    Companies are looking for more guidance from the EU as they balance the need for speedy production with hefty market intervention from Brussels.

All news