You can smell the fear and worry here at the annual Geoint conference. The budget cuts that Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper outlined yesterday may be as deep as $40 billion over the next 10 years, sources here say. The consensus number is closer to $25 billion, but more than three sources cited $40 billion.
How much of that comes from next year’s budget is, at this point, anyone’s guess. For purposes of scale, the intelligence community spent $80.1 billion in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 last year. Clapper told the Geoint annual conference yesterday that the intelligence community faces “double digit cuts” over the next decade.
The magnitude of the intelligence cuts– however deep they really are — has executives grasping for information and reassurance where they can find it. One of the biggest targets in the intelligence world may be two companies — Digital Globe and GeoEye.
Colin Clark
Posts by Colin Clark
After a decade of enormous budget increases the American intelligence community’s budget will probably decline by billions of dollars, Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper said here.
Clapper told more than 3,000 people at the annual Geoint conference that the intelligence community’s budget had been handed in to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget. “We are all going to have to give at the office,” Clapper said. The bulk of the cuts will come from accounts labeled information technology, he said. Keep reading →
Washington: Defense Secretary Leon Panetta made a safe choice and elevated the head of Pentagon acquisition to serve as his deputy. Ash Carter will lead the Pentagon’s enormously difficult efforts to cut the budget without gutting America’s military capabilities.
The nomination of Carter, who has won consistent praise from defense lawmakers for his oversight of the Joint Strike Fighter program and other major defense programs, was announced by the White House this afternoon. The deputy defense secretary runs the Pentagon day to day, oversees major acquisition decisions and serves as the department’s top finance officer. Keep reading →
This article appears courtesy of Breaking Defense.
America does not need a stealthy long-range bomber able to penetrate deep into remote, well-defended places, America’s No
. 2 military officer said this morning. The country, Marine Gen. James “Hoss” Cartwright said, cannot afford to buy an upgraded nuclear triad of new bombers, new intercontinental ballistic missiles and new nuclear missile submarines. Keep reading →