Space Force, partners to craft global supply chain strategy

Sur le même sujet

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  6 septembre 2018 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR

  Adam Smith expects future defense budgets to dip below $716 billion

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — When Congress delivered a $716 billion defense budget to the Pentagon, defense leaders made it clear it was a welcome boost — but some questioned if the number would be enough to do everything the department foresees as necessary. Now the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee — who is poised to take over the HASC should November elections go blue — is warning that tightened belts are on the horizon. Asked specifically if $716 billion is the right number for defense and whether future budgets will stay at that level, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash, said flatly: “No and no.” “I think the number's too high, and its certainly not going to be there in the future,” Smith said at the second annual Defense News Conference. The congressman argued that the debt and deficit situation facing the country requires balancing out how the government is spending, particularly after the Trump administration's tax cuts made it “even more difficult to get our budget under control.” But drawing down the defense budget has to be part of a broader look at U.S. strategy, something that Smith said requires a realistic look at America's military strategy. He pointed to the idea that 355 ships are vital for the Navy as an example of flawed logic, because “capability matters.” “We can do this,” Smith said of the U.S. remaining the key world power. “I'm not even remotely worried about it. It is a more complicated and different world in some ways, but the Cold War was no walk in the park either. World War II certainly wasn't. We will always face challenges. The question is about being smart. “We just have to be smart instead of trying to force our way back into a world that is never going to be again." “We are going to be a major, major player, probably the major player, on the global stage” for a long time to come, Smith added. “But we are not going to be utterly and completely dominant.” https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2018/09/05/adam-smith-expects-future-defense-budgets-to-dip-below-716-billion

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  3 mars 2021 | International, Aérospatial

  Australia makes another order for Boeing’s Loyal Wingman drones after a successful first flight

  The design will also be the basis of one of the U.S. Air Force's Skyborg entrants.

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  24 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Pentagon expected to increase Space Force funding in coming years

  Nathan Strout WASHINGTON — U.S. Space Force leadership is confident the new service's budget will increase in the coming years as the Pentagon continues to prioritize spending on space systems, according to the head of the Space Force's main acquisitions body. “If you thought space was going to be a priority in a kind of one-and-done way, that's not clearly what's been happening, right?” Lt. Gen. John Thompson, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center, said during the virtual 6th annual Schriever Space Futures Forum. “So three years in a row budgets have gone to the Hill with foundational changes to the space budget.” That's despite the fact that space systems and their supporting equipment are very expensive. “ Everybody knows the space enterprise is a really expensive one, even with the reductions in cost that we've seen over the past couple decades. Launch services, space vehicles, ground segments — everybody knows they ain't cheap, right?” Thompson said. The real shift in prioritizing spending on space came with the fiscal 2019 budget request, with the Pentagon declaring space a war-fighting domain. “I think we made some real progress. As we acknowledged space as a war-fighting domain, we had some really strong shifts in the budget,” Thompson said. For fiscal 2021, the Department of the Air Force requested $15.4 billion for the new Space Force. That's $800 million more than the $14.6 billion the department requested for that same enterprise in fiscal 2020, according to the Air Force's own calculations. “The '21 [Program Objective Memorandum] was another landmark event. It was not only the first POM approved by the Chief of Space Operations ... but during the cycle the Deputy's Management Action Group, [or DMAG] ... the folks that advise the secretary of defense on investment, continued to label space as one of the big strategic areas that DoD needs to address,” Thompson explained. And while the fiscal 2022 request has not been finalized or released yet, Thompson said it will include a marked increase in spending on space. “We plused up the space portfolio significantly to address users' needs,” he explained. “I can't give you the exact dollars and obviously it's all pre-decisional. But the DMAG and many other DoD leaders are clearly sending a message that across the [Future Years Defense Program], the importance of the space enterprise is growing and needs to grow further.” Even further out, Thompson noted the fiscal 2023 request will continue the military's trend of prioritizing space in the budget. “For the '23 POM, which many of you know we're already working, we're trying to take an unprecedented enterprise approach to where we take the force design that we need along with the operational requirements associated with it, and we pair that up with the acquisition programs that are required to deliver the war-fighting capability that Gen. [John] Raymond and our combatant command, Gen. [John] Dickinson, are absolutely demanding,” Thompson said. He added that the Space Force's funding strategy will balance innovation, international and commercial partnerships, and the need to rapidly provide capabilities to troops. Thompson pointed to the Space Force's recently released planning guidance as shaping that strategy. Thompson credited the Space Force's flexibility to maneuver within budget discussions to the service's lean staff, something that's been one of Raymond's top priorities in establishing the new branch of the armed services. “That collaboration, as many of you know, within the Department of the Air Force or in any large service, is really, really hard because so much of the budget is set,” he explained. “We as a service, though, have a little bit more trade space. The chief of space operations has a smaller, more nimble team. There's not as many spoons banging on highchairs demanding something that they've always been given. And so determining where to spend the next space dollar is really, really exciting, and it's a team effort between operators, acquirers and the entire small, nimble team that is Space Force.” https://www.c4isrnet.com/battlefield-tech/space/2020/11/20/pentagon-expected-to-increase-space-force-funding-in-coming-years/