I not onkly think it should stay the same under the CR, but I'd like to see another 40-50B shaved off. I think our military is currently the most advanced technologically as it is. The F-35 has been quite the boondoggle from what has been reported on it, taken way too long, full of glitches and bugs, not to mention way over budget and timeline. They just now have delivered the first ones.
From this article it sounds like this Frank Kendall has it right(of course it's just one article) but it sounds like he really is trying to keep things under control. ,Be nice if it's true.
Defense spending: Pentagon gravy train has less gravy
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/19/defense-spending-pentagon-gravy-train-has-less-gravy.html
"The Pentagon is hardly broke. Under the worst-case scenario, it will only have $496 billion to spend this year.
However, that's less money than it used to have, and less money than it expected.
It's tough to run the military industrial complex — or run anything — when you don't know what your budget is. "The department's under a lot of stress," said Frank Kendall, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Kendall returned to the Department of Defense in 2010 and has been in charge of writing checks for weapons programs. Over the last five years, he has worked to bring costs down, to make contractors more accountable for overruns, and to bring some sanity to a system where everything always take too long and costs too much.
It has become his job to keep people honest about budget projections, and every area of contracting is worth looking into. For example, Kendall's staff has done research revealing that weapons programs that are started during lean budget times end up seeing costs soar three times more than programs started in the middle of fatter budgets.
"People become more optimistic in their projections when times are lean and money is tight," Kendall said. His research also revealed that subcontractor profit margins are much higher than those of prime contractors, and Kendall is talking with major defense companies about how they can more efficiently work with their subs.
In the meantime, if Congress doesn't pass a new budget, and the Pentagon has to operate with the same amount of money it had last year under a Continuing Resolution, Kendall will have to find his own cost cuts. He said he'll need to take $20 billion out of planned purchases and development. Hundreds of programs could be hit. "It has a pretty devastating impact," he said.
So if the budget remains the same at 496B and that's 20B less than they expected, does that mean that the budget automatically get a raise every year? Who knows, I could be wrong,I don't know maybe we do need a budget 700B?
From this article it sounds like this Frank Kendall has it right(of course it's just one article) but it sounds like he really is trying to keep things under control. ,Be nice if it's true.
Defense spending: Pentagon gravy train has less gravy
https://www.cnbc.com/2015/10/19/defense-spending-pentagon-gravy-train-has-less-gravy.html
"The Pentagon is hardly broke. Under the worst-case scenario, it will only have $496 billion to spend this year.
However, that's less money than it used to have, and less money than it expected.
It's tough to run the military industrial complex — or run anything — when you don't know what your budget is. "The department's under a lot of stress," said Frank Kendall, under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
Kendall returned to the Department of Defense in 2010 and has been in charge of writing checks for weapons programs. Over the last five years, he has worked to bring costs down, to make contractors more accountable for overruns, and to bring some sanity to a system where everything always take too long and costs too much.
It has become his job to keep people honest about budget projections, and every area of contracting is worth looking into. For example, Kendall's staff has done research revealing that weapons programs that are started during lean budget times end up seeing costs soar three times more than programs started in the middle of fatter budgets.
"People become more optimistic in their projections when times are lean and money is tight," Kendall said. His research also revealed that subcontractor profit margins are much higher than those of prime contractors, and Kendall is talking with major defense companies about how they can more efficiently work with their subs.
In the meantime, if Congress doesn't pass a new budget, and the Pentagon has to operate with the same amount of money it had last year under a Continuing Resolution, Kendall will have to find his own cost cuts. He said he'll need to take $20 billion out of planned purchases and development. Hundreds of programs could be hit. "It has a pretty devastating impact," he said.
So if the budget remains the same at 496B and that's 20B less than they expected, does that mean that the budget automatically get a raise every year? Who knows, I could be wrong,I don't know maybe we do need a budget 700B?