The MDA request includes $105 million for the Long Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), slightly more than the $103.5 requested in FY24. LRDR, deemed a critical capability by US Northern Command (NORTHCOM)/NORAD leaders, will transfer to the Space Force to begin operations in FY25.
The combination of delaying F/A-XX development and shutting down F/A-18 production may not go well for Navy leadership when they testify to lawmakers.
Across the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, the Pentagon will purchase 21 fewer fighter jets than originally expected for the 2025 fiscal year, dropping a planned buy of 107 to 86.
Breaking Defense has you covered for all the news of the Pentagon’s fiscal 2025 budget rollout, and this handy landing page of our stories will get you where you need to go.
Navy brass and lawmakers go back-and-forth every year about early ship retirements. This year looks like it will be no different.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall explained that the “small decrease in the number for the Space Force” isn’t itself quite reflective of reality, as there are mitigating circumstances that lessen the blow.
“We’re very, very fixated on being competitive with the pacing challenge [of China],” said Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. “I think the budget that we’ve submitted moves us forward — not quite as fast as we would like to, but it moves us forward in the right direction while maintaining current capabilities that are essential to the nation.”
The Extended Range Cannon Artillery (ERCA) platform joins the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) on the budget cutting room floor for America’s largest service.
“We kind of depend on having [that] ‘24 bill finish and finish in a way that looks a lot like what we asked for. Otherwise, we’re going to have to go back to the drawing board on a couple of fronts,” said a senior defense official.
“On an annual basis, we have a CR, half the year’s gone,” the undersecretary for Research & Engineering said. “Our adversary doesn’t have the same constraints.”
Sweden brings to the alliance high-tech, high north fighting capabilities, but says it won’t host nuclear weapons as part of NATO’s deterrence strategy.