Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy, confirmed during Monday’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review rollout briefing what other senior officials have said recently that the Gates Pentagon plans a portfolio approach rather than a single Next Generation Bomber platform (killed in the Fiscal 2010 budget). Flournoy explained, “One of the insights that came out of this QDR was that we needed to take a much more in-depth look at the full range of capabilities for long range ISR and precision strike.” (See Modest Growth for LRS funding outlook.) Pentagon leaders have decided to make some investments in “technological opportunities” in the next several years, but they want to take some time to “get this right and to study it in much more depth,” Flournoy said. She expects to see real money in a program beginning in Fiscal 2012.
Looking to make a quick start on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sweeping “FORTRESS America” program to make every military base in the U.S. more self sufficient, the Pentagon is dialing up its efforts in an area the Air Force has been working for several years: energy resilience and independence.