defense spending
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The Secretary of the Army said Wednesday that the service agreed with most of the recommendations of a blue ribbon panel on reforming its acquisition process. Secretary John McHugh told Congress the Army was moving forward with 63 of the 76 recommendations.
May 19, 2011 -
Researchers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies find trends toward more competition in Defense Department contracting between 1999 and 2010. The Washington think tank also found DoD also had increased the use of fixed price contracting.
May 09, 2011 -
The U.S. Joint Forces Command, which will be formally disestablished later this year as part of Defense Secretary Robert Gates\' efficiency initiative, had several of its functions transferred to other DoD components on Tuesday. The Pentagon said the realignment would preserve critical capabilities and place them in other branches of the department\'s organizational chart.
May 03, 2011 -
DOD\'s budget cutting mode isn\'t just for this year. It\'s likely to continue for the foreseeable future. We talk about it with Deloitte\'s JoAnn Boutelle.
April 26, 2011 -
A Defense Science Board panel found DoD\'s procedures and its senior leaders don\'t give service contracts the attention they deserve. Service contracts make up more than 50 percent of the Defense Department\'s acquisition budget.
April 25, 2011 -
In the Defense department, the goal of consolidating tens of thousands of IT systems and networks into a more manageable structure is not exactly new. But some leaders in the department think with new budget pressures in play, they\'ll be able to make some serious progress.
April 25, 2011 -
The Pentagon\'s acquisition chief said Wednesday that Defense leaders would \"undoubtedly\" cut more major weapons systems, possibly as soon as next year. But undersecretary of Defense Ashton Carter said there were more savings to be found in other areas of the Defense Department budget. Major weapons procurement makes up only one seventh of DoD\'s spending.
April 20, 2011 -
New figures show U.S. defense spending grew by just under 3 percent last year. That\'s compared with more than seven percent on average for most of the decade.
April 11, 2011 -
The Defense Department is preparing its first departmentwide strategy on how it uses energy for military operations and what it\'s doing to move to more secure energy sources. Leaders are hopeful that the strategy will be sent to Congress in April.
April 01, 2011 -
The Government Accountability Office said in findings announced to Congress Tuesday that the Nunn-McCurdy amendment, designed to curtail cost growth in Defense programs, has succeeded in bringing an end to only one overly costly military program in the last 14 years.
March 29, 2011 -
Ashton Carter, the Defense Department\'s undersecretary for acquisitions, said the Pentagon can buy things quickly when it truly needs to. But when it comes to supporting overseas contingency operations, he said the country needs a dedicated, permanent \"fast lane\" that leapfrogs DoD\'s notoriously slow methods of buying goods and services.
March 29, 2011 -
The Army and Marine Corps are both in the early phases of deploying logistics accountability systems that will replace a collection of disconnected, stovepiped IT systems and processes that have grown up since the 1960s. Though the systems share the same objective, they were made by different vendors, prompting questions from one member of Congress.
March 22, 2011 -
Military personnel would not be subject to a furlough in the event of a government shutdown, according to guidance prepared by the Defense Department as a contingency plan. The memo, drafted earlier this month, gives broad overarching guidance to military departments and agencies who would have discretion to determine what activities would and would not be exempted from a shutdown.
March 15, 2011 -
The Defense Department\'s efficiencies initiative isn\'t just about internal DoD processes, the Army\'s acquisition chief said Wednesday. The service wants its vendors to help find ways to reduce costs and take on risk in the process, he said.
March 10, 2011 -
The Defense and Energy departments will team up on a pair of multimillion dollar research projects. The goal is to give the military access to secure, reliable renewable energy, both in deployed units and on military bases.
March 07, 2011