The White House wants $65 million in fiscal 2019 for the Department of Energy's work on the low-yield ballistic-missile warhead called for in the latest Nuclear Posture Review, a weapon Congress must authorize before the agency can start building it.The Donald Trump administration made the funding request official Friday in proposed amendments to the spending request it released in March for the budget year starting Oct. 1.“At the time the FY 2019 Budget was transmitted to the Congress, the details…
Upgrades to the GPS ground system–the Architecture Evolution Plan (AEP)–is an option under consideration by the Defense Department’s space acquisition chief, as problems continue in fielding the GPS Next Generation […]
Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday, with the White House’s backing, his panel will move “expeditiously” on crafting a second reconciliation bill, citing priorities for defense and […]
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday acknowledged the Pentagon could potentially ask Congress for $200 billion in supplemental funding to support the ongoing operation against Iran and replenish munitions used […]
U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) used a counter small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS) flyaway kit (FAK) in the early hours of the strikes against Iran on Feb. 28, according to Air […]
The White House wants $65 million in fiscal 2019 for the Department of Energy’s work on the low-yield ballistic-missile warhead called for in the latest Nuclear Posture Review, a weapon Congress must authorize before the agency can start building it.
The Donald Trump administration made the funding request official Friday in proposed amendments to the spending request it released in March for the budget year starting Oct. 1.
“At the time the FY 2019 Budget was transmitted to the Congress, the details of the NPR [Nuclear Posture Review] were still being defined, and were not ready for inclusion in the FY 2019 Budget,” Mick Mulvaney, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a budget amendment package dated Friday. [full amendments package on whitehouse.gov].
As expected, DoE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) will create the new low-yield warhead by modifying some existing W76 warheads currently used by the Trident II D-5 missiles carried aboard Ohio-class submarines.
The NNSA is in the middle of a separate life-extension program for the W76 warhead and wants to use the assembly lines built for that work to do the low-yield modification, Mulvaney wrote in his letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.).
The 2019 funding for the weapon modification would come out of the budget for the NNSA’s Defense Programs, though Mulvaney did not identify the operations that would be cut for the low-yield warhead’s sake.
The NNSA cannot begin design work on the low-yield warhead without congressional authorization either as part of a budget bill or in separate legislation such as the annual National Defense Authorization Act.
Democrats in Congress have bucked at the Trump administration’s desire to build low-yield warheads. Along with the low-yield ballistic missile warhead mandate, the Nuclear Posture Review directs the NNSA and the Pentagon to study a low-yield option for a future sea-launched cruise missile.
After lawmakers decided against including major “right to repair” reforms in the latest defense policy bill, a senior Army official has said the service is continuing its push for authorities […]
By 
