* Faced with a really tough fiscal environment, Italian Defense Minister Giampaolo Di Paola announced that Italy intends to reduce its F-35 order by about 40 units. Bloomberg | Reuters [in Italian]. * The US Defense Science Board task force published its final report...
The US federal government puts together its budget by way of a protracted, ongoing process. As the largest recipient of discretionary federal funds, the Department of Defense adds its own layer of complexity unknown to other smaller departments. This article explains...
* The Brookings think tank, on the proliferation of IED attacks in 2011: “[D]anger will not disappear even after the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan ends. […] It is unsustainable to keep throwing billions of dollars to fight a technology that costs the other...
* Todd Harrison at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) reviews options [PDF] for DOD to handle sequestration. “If this downturn in defense spending is like previous downturns, the FY 2013 budget projection the administration is about to...
* Significant drilling has started at Portsmouth Naval Base to allow the UK’s future aircraft carriers in. * Former US Navy Secretary and DOD UnderSec Gordon England opines: “The base defense budget, somewhat over 3 percent of our gross domestic product,...