Topic: Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments
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How 'fiscal cliff' is already hitting defense industry
Although lawmakers have been moderating dire predictions, some small businesses are talking about layoffs if no deal on the fiscal cliff is reached. And some have already lost contracts.
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Why Pentagon won't say how it would cut $55 billion starting Jan. 1
The Pentagon may finally be planning for dreaded spending cuts set to take effect in the new year, though it is mum on any specifics. It wants Congress to come up with a different solution to US deficit spending.
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Sub fire could have ripple effects for Navy fleet
The Navy is evaluating whether it's worth spending millions of dollars to repair the USS Miami, the nuclear-powered submarine damaged in a fire in a Maine shipyard. If the submarine is scrapped, the fleet could feel the effects for years.
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Why Pentagon, facing 'doomsday' spending cuts, refuses to plan for them
Pentagon brass say they won't even brook the possibility that $487 billion in mandated spending cuts – their 'doomsday' scenario – will actually come to pass. But if Congress doesn't blink, say analysts, the Pentagon will be in dire straits.
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Pentagon budget: Does it pit active-duty forces against retirees? (+video)
Personnel costs in the Pentagon’s base budget have grown enormously over the past decade. Now, officials are trying to making tough choices about where to make cuts.
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Pentagon to abandon two-war strategy, but at what cost to US security?
The Pentagon has long said it must be prepared to fight two wars at once. Budget cuts and changing global threats mean that standard is no longer practical, experts say.
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Pentagon 'doomsday'? Or are super committee failure fears overblown?
Pentagon leaders have said the automatic cuts set to kick in now that the deficit super committee has failed would be catastrophic. But in reality, the cuts might not be too bad, experts say.
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Five ways 9/11 has transformed the US military
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, fundamentally transformed the way the United States military wages war. With the invasion of Afghanistan and, months later, Iraq on the heels of 9/11, the wars have caused the Pentagon to rethink the way it fights, how it spends money in times of crisis, and what it values in both its highest and lowest-ranking commanders. The Monitor asked experts to weigh in on the Top 5 ways in which 9/11 has changed the US military.
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Why defense spending keeps rising. (Hint: It's not just the wars.)
President Obama wants $400 billion in cuts to defense spending in the years ahead. But Pentagon budgets keep growing because of the rising cost of maintaining personnel and veterans' benefits.
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Osama bin Laden dead, but no 'peace dividend'
Osama bin Laden death cheered many Americans, but not US markets or economists. Osama bin Laden death will have little effect on business or military spending.
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With Obama's speech, momentum gathering to cut defense spending
Like Medicare and Social Security, cutting defense spending has been something of a 'do not enter' zone for many lawmakers. But that may be changing.
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New Afghan war plans could cost US taxpayers an extra $125 billion
At the NATO summit, President Obama's push to soften troop withdrawal deadlines could bring remaining war costs to $413 billion, according to one independent analyst.
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Why would Defense Secretary Robert Gates want to retire?
Robert Gates indicated in an interview published Monday that he plans to leave his job next year. Here are three things that might be factors in his decision.
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Cuts to US defense budget look inevitable
Defense expenditures amount to nearly 5 percent of US GDP -- well above the less than 2 percent of GDP spent by such allies as Canada, Germany and Britain. Analysts predict the US will have to cut military spending significantly in the next few years.
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Defense secretary signals he'll reassess Navy, Marine Corps programs
The Marine Corps' amphibious Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and the Navy's big aircraft carrier fleet are examples of programs ripe for reevaluation, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday.
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Defense budget: After Afghanistan and Iraq withdrawal, a peace dividend?
An Afghanistan and Iraq withdrawal could trim billions of dollars from the US defense budget.
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What can Robert Gates achieve in extra year at Pentagon?
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced recently that he will stay on at least another year. That will help him shepherd some of his Pentagon reforms – and perhaps start new ones.
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Obama's Afghanistan war plan: How will he pay for it?
It will cost an additional $30 billion a year. Some antiwar Democrats in Congress talk of a 'war tax,' but the most likely option to fund Obama's Afghanistan war plan is to keep borrowing.
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MRAP trucks: Afghan savior or boondoggle?
The vehicle saved soldiers in Iraq. Now it's getting a $2 billion makeover for Afghanistan.
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Obama's defense budget shifts focus to Afghanistan and Pakistan
The administration also ends accounting practices that kept war funding from public scrutiny.
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Defense spending as 'stimulus'?
Pentagon's generous budget is not likely to see cuts soon, even if Iraq war starts to wind down.
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Will Obama's war strategy produce a peace dividend?
A move out of Iraq could save America $370 billion.
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Cold war echo: Russian military maneuvers with Venezuela
Russia sent two long-range bombers to Venezuela Wednesday and will send warships and soldiers for joint exercises in November.
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Troubled Air Force tanker program halted
Defense Secretary Robert Gates calls the aircraft procurement effort too flawed to continue.
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Air Force shake-up may lead to deeper overhaul
Secretary Gates is likely to nominate a new civilian chief in days.
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