US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

timepass

Brigadier
Army contracts with Oshkosh for tactical vehicles...

Army-contracts-with-Oshkosh-for-tactical-vehicles.jpg


"Oshkosh Defense has been awarded a contract for 416 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles for the U.S. Army.

The deal, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, is valued at more than $106.3 million and is a modification on a previous contract.

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV, has been rapidly replacing the military's fleet of Humvees in the last several years as the need for stronger armored vehicles was demonstrated early in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."

The agreement also provides for 832 kits, which include installation and packaging kits, according to the Pentagon.

Work on the contract will occur in Oshkosh, Wis., and is expected to be complete by March 2019.

The total amount of the contract has been obligated to Oshkosh at time of award from Army fiscal 2016 and 2017 other procurement funds.



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Both house of the US Congress need to get together and solve this budget impasse. This is ridiculous.
the most recent is
Mattis Blasts Lawmakers for Failing to Reach Budget Deal
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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told lawmakers on Tuesday that he was wasting time outlining military strategies while Congress fails to provide the funding to carry them out.

"It is not lost on me that as I testify before you this morning, we are again on the verge of a government shutdown or, at best, another damaging continuing resolution," Mattis said in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee.
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"I regret that without sustained, predictable appropriations, my presence here today wastes your time, because no strategy can survive without the funding necessary to resource it. We all know America can afford survival," he said.

The secretary was referring to the stopgap funding known as a continuing resolution, or CR, which
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and which keeps most defense spending at 2017 levels. The current resolution will expire at midnight Thursday, and the House and Senate are expected to resort to fifth resolution. There is disagreement between the chambers over whether to fully fund the Defense Department at 2018 levels while leaving domestic agencies at 2017 levels.

The hearing was called to have Mattis and
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Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testify on the Nuclear Posture Review and the new National Defense Strategy presented by Mattis last month.

Selva has noted that the Defense Department will be in the predicament on Friday of beginning to outline spending proposals for fiscal 2019, while operating without a budget for fiscal 2018 and spending at levels authorized for 2017.

Mattis bluntly told the lawmakers that they were shirking their responsibilities by failing to provide the military with the nearly $700 billion in funding called for in the National Defense Authorization Act passed last year.

The result was a loss of morale in the ranks and severe impacts on the readiness to respond to a crisis, Mattis said.

"To advance the security of our nation, these troops are putting themselves in harm's way, in effect signing a blank check payable to the American people with their lives," Mattis said. "They do so despite Congress' abrogation of its Constitutional responsibility to provide stable funding."

Add to existing story after last graf ending ... provide stable funding."

Mattis' testimony came just before the House was to vote on a bill to enact yet another continuing resolution that would also separate defense funding from domestic spending and lift budget caps under sequestration mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

The bill to avoid another government shutdown at midnight Thursday faced uncertain prospects in the Senate but could set the stage for agreement on a modified resolution that might finally yield a budget agreement for fiscal 2018, according to Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia.

In a conference call with reporters on other issues, Kaine said, "We need to get out of CR mania," adding that he saw the possibility for agreement on a brief resolution that would pave the way for a deal "pretty quickly on both the defense and non-defense portions of the budget."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, last week made a similar argument for a brief continuing resolution at a Republican retreat at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, where Mattis and President Donald Trump made appearances.

Kaine said, "That's a good thing and it looks like we're getting close and I'm not expecting to see any shutdown of government because both sides are talking."

At the hearing, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, the panel's chairman, called Mattis' challenge to Congress "the bluntest statement I have ever heard" on the need to drop the political maneuvering and pass a budget.

Thornberry, who has argued previously for splitting defense spending from non-defense spending, made the case again in his opening remarks.

"It is morally wrong to send brave men and women out on missions under any strategy for which they are not fully trained, equipped and supported with the best that this country can provide," he said. "That support should not be conditioned on any other issue" such as spending on domestic programs.

Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, the committee's ranking member, argued against the divide between defense and non-domestic spending and said they must be linked.

If defense spending gets total priority, "you gut everything else," Smith said, adding that Thornberry's proposal would shortchange other agencies important to national security, such as the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department.

"To sit here and say, 'We're going to stand up and spend all this money on defense because it would just be wrong to prioritize other things' is patently absurd and insulting," Smith said. "Defense is incredibly important. It's not the only thing important in keeping the peace."

Although Congress appeared to be moving towards another stopgap continuing resolution of uncertain duration, Mattis said the Defense Department was once again going through preparations for a possible shutdown at midnight Thursday.

In a shutdown, uniformed and civilian Pentagon personnel would not get paid unless Congress passes an emergency measure to exempt them, according to Pentagon Comptroller Dennis Norquist.

In his testimony, Mattis said one of his main concerns was that Congress would give up on reaching a budget deal and fall back on a full-year continuing resolution.

"To those who might suggest that we should accept a year-long continuing resolution, it would mean a return to the disastrous sequestration level of funding for the military," the defense secretary said.

"Let me be clear -- as hard as the last 16 years of war have been, no enemy in the field has done more to harm the readiness of the U.S. military than the combined impact of the Budget Control Act's defense spending caps, worsened by operating in 10 of the last 11 years under continuing resolutions of varied and unpredictable duration," Mattis said.
 

Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
Army contracts with Oshkosh for tactical vehicles...

Army-contracts-with-Oshkosh-for-tactical-vehicles.jpg


"Oshkosh Defense has been awarded a contract for 416 Joint Light Tactical Vehicles for the U.S. Army.

The deal, announced Friday by the Department of Defense, is valued at more than $106.3 million and is a modification on a previous contract.

The Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV, has been rapidly replacing the military's fleet of Humvees in the last several years as the need for stronger armored vehicles was demonstrated early in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq."

The agreement also provides for 832 kits, which include installation and packaging kits, according to the Pentagon.

Work on the contract will occur in Oshkosh, Wis., and is expected to be complete by March 2019.

The total amount of the contract has been obligated to Oshkosh at time of award from Army fiscal 2016 and 2017 other procurement funds.



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From your picture? I'd say that's the "Hovering HEAVY HumVee!" a new type, LOL, love the rotor blades in case you get stuck in the muck!
 
Could be fun for US military watchers.

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TRUMP WANTS A BIG MILITARY PARADE, JUST LIKE FRANCE
BY GRAHAM LANKTREE ON 2/7/18 AT 4:13 AM

President Donald Trump has asked the Pentagon to put on a military parade to show off America’s military might. It will be similar to one Trump saw during his trip to France last July, and officials are working to make it happen later this year.

“The marching orders were: I want a parade like the one in France,” a military official told The Washington Post Tuesday. “This is being worked at the highest levels of the military.”

Trump made the decision during a meeting at the Pentagon January 18, two officials told the Post. The planning process is in its “infancy,” Pentagon spokesman Charlie Summers said Tuesday.

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02_07_Bastille
French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump speak with French army General Bruno Le Ray, military governor of Paris, at the end of the traditional Bastille Day military parade on the Champs-Elysées in Paris on July 14, 2017.
GONZALO FUENTES/REUTERS

The president “has asked the Department of Defense to explore a celebration at which all Americans can show their appreciation,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Tuesday.

“President Trump is incredibly supportive of America’s great service members who risk their lives every day to keep our country safe,” she said.

Trump has long wanted a military parade in Washington, which hasn’t seen a parade of this kind since the 1991 parade on Constitution Avenue to mark the end Operation Desert Storm in Iraq during the first Gulf War—a show of might that cost more than $8 million.

A month after Trump won the 2016 election, the Presidential Inaugural Committee wrote to the Pentagon because it was “seriously considering adding military vehicles to the Inaugural Parade,” a Pentagon official wrote in an email obtained by The Huffington Post early last year. The military rebuffed the idea.

Read more: Russia tells U.S. military to deal with getting buzzed if spy planes fly near Crimea

After witnessing the Bastille Day parade, which features heavy artillery including tanks, during a trip to France last July, Trump said, “It was one of the greatest parades I've ever seen.”

“It was two hours on the button, and it was military might, and I think a tremendous thing for France and for the spirit of France,” Trump continued. “We’re going to have to try to top it.”

02_07_FranceMilitary
Tanks roll down the Champs-Elysee avenue with the Arc de Triomphe in the background during the traditional Bastille Day military parade in Paris on July 14, 2017.
GONZALO FUENTES/REUTERS

Trump told French President Emmanuel Macron last September that he wanted a similar parade on the fourth of July. Yet the Pentagon is aiming to have the parade on Veterans Day, November 11, according to one military official who spoke with the Post, because it would mark 100 years since America’s victory in World War I.

News of the parade planning comes as the Pentagon has complained about a lack of stability in its budget as Republicans have continued to rely on a series of short-term spending bills while they seek a long-term deal on immigration with Democrats.

The Pentagon is still “determining specific details” about what the parade will look like, said Defense Department spokesman Thomas Crosson in a statement Tuesday.
 

timepass

Brigadier
Lockheed awarded $523M for Patriot missiles for Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Romania...

Lockheed-awarded-523M-for-Patriot-missiles-for-Qatar-Saudi-Arabia-Romania.jpg



"The deal, announced Tuesday by the Department of Defense, is valued at more than $523.8 million, which is a modification on a previous award contract.

The agreement will provide Patriot advanced capability-3 missile segment enhancement missiles, cost reduction initiative missiles and associate ground support equipment, the Pentagon said.

Work on the contract will occur in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Massachusetts and Texas, and is expected to be completed by January 2021."

The total amount of the contract will be obligated to Lockheed Martin at the time of award from Army fiscal 2016, 2017 and 2018 other procurement funds.


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Yesterday at 8:20 PM
Today at 12:24 PM
now Senate leaders announce two-year budget deal
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just the headline, and a 'but':
"But the plan still needs to pass the House, where it's already facing strong headwinds."

let's wait and see
and while waiting, inside
Senate reaches budget deal with huge defense boost
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there're some details which emerged:
Senate leaders have reached a two-year deal that would set defense spending at $700 billion for 2018 and $716 billion for 2019.

Those top-lines, part of a deal announced by Senate leaders Wednesday afternoon, hews to those authorized by National Defense Authorization Act for 2018 and
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.

Not all of the details were announced immediately, as bipartisan talks continued, but sources close to them said spending limits for defense and non-defense combined would be raised by $300 billion over two years.

It was not immediately clear exactly how the deal will address budget caps and how much of the defense funding will be sought as cap-exempt Overseas Contingency Operations funding.

The caps, excluding OCO or Department of Energy funding, limit the Defense Department’s base budget to $549 billion for fiscal 2018 and $562 billion for fiscal 2019.

The emerging deal still may face opposition from
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over proposed increases to the non-defense side of the budget and from
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.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a Senate floor speech the agreement would, “unwind the sequestration cuts that have hamstrung the military and jeopardized our national security.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the emerging deal could be a clean break from the budget dysfunction that has gripped Washington for years.

“After months of fiscal brinkmanship, this budget deal is the first real sprout of bipartisanship. and it should break the long cycle of spending crises that have snarled this congress and hampered our middle class,” Schumer said.

The deal was hailed by defense advocates emerging from a meeting with McConnell on Wednesday afternoon.

“I’d rather we didn’t have to do as much on non-defense, but this is an absolute necessity, that we’ve got these numbers,” said the Senate Armed Services Committee’s No. 2 Republican, Sen. Jim Inhofe, of Oklahoma.

“To those who believe sequestration has done a lot of damage to the military, this is the best news I’ve heard,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, calling the increases “substantial, much needed.”

Graham said the increase would address readiness, a maintenance backlog and manpower increases, saying “This is the biggest step toward rebuilding the military I’ve seen since 2011.”

“There is an increase for non-defense spending, maybe more than some would like, but I’m okay with that,” Graham said. “The FBI could use the money.”

Whether the deal will lift the debt ceiling ahead of a mid-March deadline, had not been finalized, according to the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, Sen. John Cornyn, of Texas.

Lawmakers must still reach an agreement to pass a continuing resolution that averts a shutdown when the last one expires on Thursday.

The chairmen of the armed services committees, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., voiced support in a joint statement Wednesday. The $700 billion top-line reflects the amount authorized by their panels’ annual defense policy bill.

“This budget agreement is indispensable for our national security,” they said. “Without it, our military would not be able to defend our nation, as Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and our military leaders have repeatedly warned.”
 
Yesterday at 8:20 PM
Today at 12:24 PM
now Senate leaders announce two-year budget deal
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just the headline, and a 'but':
"But the plan still needs to pass the House, where it's already facing strong headwinds."

let's wait and see
and "I am optimistic" that the House and Senate will approve the deal, Mattis said in a rare appearance in the White House briefing room ...:
Mattis on Two-Year Budget Deal: 'We Will Spend the Money Wisely'
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inside the article mostly covering political talks Senate poised to pass deal with $1.4T for Pentagon, shifting to House fight
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:

"Lawmakers are expected to vote Thursday on a
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that would allow appropriators to draft more detailed spending plans."

I can't imagine I would woke up tomorrow into yet another shutdown (I know I didn't think there would be a shutdown two weeks ago, but this time it'd be too much)
 
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