The Defense Department is making a large investment in research and development in an effort to address future threats. The Pentagon’s Fiscal 2017 budget request includes $72 billion in research and development, which is more than Apple, Intel, and Google spent on R&D last year, combined, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday at a Center for a New American Security event in Washington, D.C. This includes future weapons systems, such as the Air Force’s B-21 bomber, and updates to DOD’s personnel infrastructure to better prepare it for the future. The Pentagon not only needs to make its hardware more modern; it also needs to be agile to address current and future threats. This is the driving force behind Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford’s push to reform the Goldwater-Nichols Act to help the Secretary “synchronize globally” and “enhance the ability to move rapidly” across combatant commands to better respond to threats. Carter has repeatedly met with NATO defense ministers recently to push for more global support to ensure a lasting defeat to ISIS, because “the sooner we deliver a lasting defeat, the safer we make our homelands and people,” Carter said.
The U.S. military has accepted six new F-35 fighters without radars installed—but none so far for the Air Force. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Masiello, the head of the F-35 Joint Program Office, told lawmakers June 23 that the Marines have to date accepted six short takeoff and vertical landing…