Sen. John McCain last week fresh off the Sept. 30 defeat of his first amendment to kill the additional 10 C-17 airlifters that Senate appropriators included in the 2010 defense spending bill introduced two new amendments—splitting into two parts his original amendment, which would have eliminated the additional C-17s and put that money in operations and maintenance. The first new amendment (SA 2580) would strike the 10 additional C-17s, and the second (SA 2581) would increase O&M funding. Part of McCain’s pitch has been that appropriators robbed Peter (O&M) to pay Paul (more C-17s), but during the extensive floor debate on the first amendment, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that was not the case. Continue
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week released strategies meant to focus the Pentagon’s “alphabet soup” of innovation organizations and proliferate artificial intelligence—moves that experts say could provide the structure needed to make the military’s efforts to integrate and field new technology more effective.
