---
title: Pentagon Times
description: Pentagon Times covers the Pentagon, US defense policy, the intelligence community and veterans affairs — budgets, contracts, programs and benefits — with every figure sourced.
canonical_url: https://pentagontimes.com/
author: null
date_published: null
date_modified: null
section: null
publisher: VUGA Enterprises LLC
---

# Pentagon Times

Pentagon Times covers the Pentagon, US defense policy, the intelligence community and veterans affairs — budgets, contracts, programs and benefits — with every figure sourced.

## [Pentagon's Quantum Problem: Deadlines Set for 2030, Inventory Still the First Hurdle](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/pentagon-s-quantum-problem-deadlines-set-2030-inventory-still-first/)

The White House has fixed dates for post-quantum cryptography. Defense officials say the harder work is knowing what to protect, and finding the maintenance windows to do it.

## [Pentagon Puts FY26 Intelligence Spend at $30.9B as FY27 Request Hits $50B](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/pentagon-puts-fy26-intelligence-spend-at-30-9b-as-fy27-request-hits-50b/)

The appropriated military intelligence figure is the highest in recent history, but the next budget asks for far more.

## [Defense Contract Cost Overruns Explained: Nunn-McCurdy Breaches and What Triggers Them](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/defense-contract-cost-overruns-explained-nunn-mccurdy-breaches-what/)

A 1980s law forces the Pentagon to tell Congress when a weapons program's costs spiral out of control.

## [Pentagon Awards $21 Million to Startup Biosphere for 20,000-Liter Bio-Brewery](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/pentagon-awards-21-million-startup-biosphere-20-000-liter-bio-brewery/)

The biotech startup will brew military chemicals with engineered microbes, with commissioning set for late 2027.

## [Defense Sequestration — Sequestration Explained: How the Budget Control Act Caps Still Shape Defense Spending](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/sequestration-explained-how-budget-control-act-caps-still-shape-defense/)

The across-the-board cuts written into the 2011 Budget Control Act expired for discretionary spending in 2021, but the mechanism still reaches parts of the defense budget.

## [Continuing Resolutions Explained: What a CR Actually Stops, Delays, and Funds](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/continuing-resolutions-explained-what-cr-actually-stops-delays-funds/)

When Congress misses the spending deadline, a CR keeps the Pentagon open at last year's rates — and freezes most of the rest.

## [VA Disability Ratings Explained: How Percentages Are Calculated and Combined](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/va-disability-ratings-explained-how-percentages-are-calculated-combined/)

The 0–100 percent schedule, the combined ratings table, and the bilateral factor — and why two 50 percent ratings do not add to 100.

## [Military Autonomy Needs Proof. Edison Aerospace Builds It In.](https://pentagontimes.com/cover-story/military-autonomy-needs-proof-edison-aerospace-builds-it/)

A Miami aerospace company is proposing autonomy, machine vision, and secure-network concepts across the services, all built on one rule: when a machine acts, people must be able to see why.

## [A Small Aerospace Firm Wants to Give Every Wildland Firefighter a Guardian in the Sky](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/a-small-aerospace-firm-wants-to-give-every-wildland-firefighter-a-guardi/)

A wildland firefighter can be close enough to the incident command post that commanders see smoke rising from the same hillside, and still be impossible to locate.

## [Defense Appropriations Enter Fall 2026 on a Stopgap: What Happens Next](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/defense-appropriations-enter-fall-2026-stopgap-what-happens-next/)

Defense appropriations for fiscal 2027 entered the fall on a stopgap: House lawmakers advanced a continuing resolution on September 1, 2026, following the Senate, extending funding to December 11 and holding the Pentagon at fiscal 2026 levels, per published coverage of the vote. The full-year…

## [Federal IT Modernization Faces Aging Systems, Flat Funding and Transfer Authority](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/federal-it-modernization-faces-aging-systems-flat-funding-transfer/)

Federal IT modernization is caught between two facts: the Government Accountability Office reported in July 2025 that the 11 most critical federal legacy systems are up to 60 years old and mostly lack modernization plans; for fiscal 2027, the White House proposes no new Technology Modernization…

## [How Declassification Actually Works: Executive Order 13526 and Its Oversight](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/how-declassification-actually-works-executive-order-13526-its-oversight/)

Declassification in the United States is governed by Executive Order 13526, signed December 29, 2009, which sets classification levels, declassification rules, and the boards that review refusals. The order's core bargain is an ending: under its automatic declassification provisions, most…

## [GAO Finds Pentagon Reviewed Only 4 of 27 Defense Agencies Since 2018](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/gao-finds-pentagon-reviewed-only-4-27-defense-agencies-since-2018/)

The Pentagon has reviewed only 4 of its 27 defense agencies and DOD field activities since 2018 and never reported the results to Congress, according to a Government Accountability Office report dated September 3, 2026. GAO issued four open recommendations and said the department provided no…

## [GAO: One in Four F-35s Fully Mission Capable as Readiness Falls](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/gao-one-four-f-35s-fully-mission-capable-as-readiness-falls/)

Only about one in four US F-35s was fully mission capable in fiscal year 2025, per the Government Accountability Office's June 11, 2026 review: the fleet's mission capable rate fell from 67 percent in FY2021 to 44 percent in FY2025, and the full mission capable rate from 38 percent to 25…

## [How a Foreign Military Sale Actually Reaches the Federal Register](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/how-foreign-military-sale-actually-reaches-federal-register/)

A foreign military sale becomes public when the Defense Security Cooperation Agency posts a formal notification — in 2026, frequently as a Federal Register notice rather than a standalone press release. Ten such notices appeared on June 1, 2026 alone, including Transmittal No. 26-0Z, under a…

## [FAR Council's First Overhaul Rules Would Rewrite Federal Acquisition Regulation Entirely](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/far-council-s-first-overhaul-rules-would-rewrite-federal-acquisition/)

The Federal Acquisition Regulation Council opened the formal rewrite of the FAR (the rulebook governing most federal purchasing) on June 23, 2026, publishing the first four of twelve proposed overhaul rules in the Federal Register under Executive Order 14275, Restoring Common Sense to Federal…

## [How the Pentagon Financial Audit Actually Works and Why It Keeps Failing](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/how-pentagon-financial-audit-actually-works-why-it-keeps-failing/)

The Pentagon's annual financial audit has ended in a disclaimer of opinion every year since the first departmentwide audit in 2018, most recently in November 2024, when the department could not fully account for its roughly $824 billion budget. Nine of 28 component sub-audits passed in fiscal…

## [Senate-Passed Stopgap Would Fund Government Through December 11, 2026](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/senate-passed-stopgap-would-fund-government-through-december-11-2026/)

The Senate on August 8, 2026 passed its amended H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, extending funding at fiscal 2026 rates until full-year appropriations or December 11, 2026, per the engrossed text on GovInfo. The bill now awaits the House, which returns with the…

## [Civil Service Reform Returns: Schedule Policy/Career and the New Federal Accountability Rules](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/civil-service-reform-returns-schedule-policy-career-new-federal/)

Federal workforce policy changed twice in mid-2026 on the public record: Executive Order 14410 of June 3, 2026 created Schedule Policy/Career in the excepted service, and a Merit Systems Protection Board final rule published September 3, 2026 ended the Board's deference to agency penalty choices…

## [Ebbing Air National Guard Base Emerges as the Pentagon's Allied F-35 Training Hub](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/ebbing-air-national-guard-base-emerges-as-pentagon-s-allied-f-35/)

Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, Arkansas, is on track to host 36 F-35s and 12 F-16 aircraft once a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement is finalized, an expansion adding 271 personnel and 325 dependents, per an April 17, 2026 Talk Business & Politics report. The base has…

## [The Defense Contractor Landscape Explained: Who Actually Builds for the Pentagon](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/defense-contractor-landscape-explained-who-actually-builds-pentagon/)

The Pentagon buys from a defense industrial base — the network of organizations and facilities that supplies the department, per the Congressional Research Service — whose top tier is a handful of prime contractors. The 41 U.S. companies in SIPRI's ranking of the world's 100 largest arms…

## [Army Hits Fiscal 2026 Recruiting Goal Four Months Early With 61,500 Contracts](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/army-hits-fiscal-2026-recruiting-goal-four-months-early-with-61-500/)

The Army met its fiscal 2026 active-duty recruiting goal four months before the September 30 fiscal year end, signing contracts with more than 61,500 future soldiers, per a May 23, 2026 Army announcement. The milestone is the service's third consecutive year hitting its enlistment target, after…

## [Senate Armed Services Panel Hears Pentagon Comptroller Nominee Hurst on 2028 Audit](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/senate-armed-services-panel-hears-pentagon-comptroller-nominee-hurst/)

The Senate Armed Services Committee held a confirmation hearing on July 14, 2026 for four Pentagon nominees, including Jules W. Hurst III as Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), per the committee's official notice. Hurst, acting comptroller until May 2026, told senators he would push for a…

## [How Inspectors General Oversee Intelligence Agencies Under Federal Law](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/how-inspectors-general-oversee-intelligence-agencies-under-federal-law/)

Oversight of the U.S. Intelligence Community runs through inspectors general armed with federal statute: the Intelligence Community Inspector General, an office within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, conducts independent audits, investigations, inspections and reviews across…

## [PACT Act Implementation Explained: Presumptions, Screenings, and Claim Records](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/pact-act-implementation-explained-presumptions-screenings-claim-records/)

The PACT Act — the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 — is perhaps the largest benefit expansion in Department of Veterans Affairs history, covering veterans exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxic substances.…

## [How the Pentagon Manages Its Civilian Workforce, From Hiring to Reductions](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/how-pentagon-manages-its-civilian-workforce-from-hiring-reductions/)

The Defense Department reshaped its federal civilian workforce in 2025 through a Deferred Resignation Program, a Voluntary Early Retirement Authority, and a September 2025 memo that compressed removal procedures. Department civilians are governed by civil-service law, not military personnel…

## [How VA Education Benefits Actually Work: GI Bill Rules, Rates, and Eligibility Explained](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/how-va-education-benefits-actually-work-gi-bill-rules-rates-eligibility/)

The Post-9/11 GI Bill is the largest of the VA's education programs, and its dollar limits move every year: for the 2025-2026 academic year, effective August 1, 2025, VA raised the maximum tuition and fee amounts payable, per a Federal Register notice published July 3, 2025. The governing rules…

## [Pentagon Posture Review Puts Europe Force Levels Back on the Negotiating Table](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/pentagon-posture-review-puts-europe-force-levels-back-negotiating-table/)

The Pentagon's Europe posture is formally under review again: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new review of U.S. force posture in Europe at a June 2026 meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, warning that allies short on defense commitments will face consequences, per published…

## [How Intelligence Community Reorganizations Actually Work From the Documented Record](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/how-intelligence-community-reorganizations-actually-work-from/)

The Central Intelligence Agency's best-documented modern reorganization took effect in 2015, when Director John Brennan created ten mission centers and a fifth directorate for digital innovation, per a CIA release dated October 1, 2015. The structure put analysts, operators, and support staff…

## [VA National Cemetery Burial Eligibility and Memorial Benefits Explained From the Rules](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/va-national-cemetery-burial-eligibility-memorial-benefits-explained/)

Burial in a VA national cemetery is open to veterans who did not receive a dishonorable discharge, to service members who died on active duty, and to qualifying spouses and dependent children, under eligibility rules published by the Department of Veterans Affairs and last updated May 6, 2025.…

## [House Appropriators Release $1.072 Trillion FY27 Defense Bill Ahead of Markup](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/house-appropriators-release-1-072-trillion-fy27-defense-bill-ahead/)

The House Appropriations Committee released its fiscal year 2027 defense appropriations bill on June 10, 2026, providing a total discretionary allocation of $1.072 trillion, with a closed subcommittee markup set for June 11, per the committee's release. The topline tracks an administration…

## [Lockheed Weapons Contracts Top $1 Billion in May as Pentagon Industrial Push Accelerates](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/lockheed-weapons-contracts-top-1-billion-may-as-pentagon-industrial/)

Lockheed Martin collected more than $1 billion in defense contracts in late May 2026, headlined by an $879 million F-35 armaments order issued May 18 by Naval Air Systems Command, per the Fort Worth Report. A separate $8-to-$9 billion production investment broke ground in Alabama the same month.

## [Clearance Adjudication: How the Security Clearance Process Actually Works, From Application to Adjudication](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/how-security-clearance-process-actually-works-from-application/)

A security clearance is a formal determination that a person is eligible for access to classified information, made after a federal background investigation and a separate adjudication decision by the sponsoring agency. The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency conducts most…

## [VA Health Care Eligibility Explained: Priority Groups, Service Minimums, and Enrollment](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/va-health-care-eligibility-explained-priority-groups-service-minimums/)

Most veterans who served in the active military, naval, or air service and did not receive a dishonorable discharge can enroll in VA health care, provided they completed 24 continuous months of service, per VA guidance updated April 3, 2026. Once an application is processed, each enrollee is…

## [How the VA Appeals Process Actually Works After a Denied Claim](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/how-va-appeals-process-actually-works-after-denied-claim/)

A denied VA disability claim can be challenged through three published lanes: a supplemental claim with new evidence, a higher-level review of the same record, or a Board appeal decided by a Veterans Law Judge. The Board of Veterans' Appeals dispatched 116,192 appeals in fiscal year 2024, a…

## [Authorization Versus Appropriation: Why the Pentagon Gets Permission and Money Separately](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/authorization-versus-appropriation-why-pentagon-gets-permission-money/)

Congress gives the Pentagon permission and money in two separate laws: the authorization act sets policy and ceilings, while appropriations acts provide the funds. The FY2026 NDAA was signed December 18, 2025 as Public Law 119-60, per GovInfo — even as the department emerged from a 43-day…

## [Veteran Employment Programs Explained: Transition, Readiness Benefits, and the 2026 Job Market](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/veteran-employment-programs-explained-transition-readiness-benefits/)

More than 200,000 service members leave active duty each year into a patchwork of federal employment programs, the Transition Assistance Program, VA's Veteran Readiness and Employment, and veterans' federal hiring preference. The market backdrop is strong: veteran unemployment was 3.5% in 2025,…

## [VA Home Loan Rules Explained: Entitlement, Loan Limits, and Funding Fees](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/va-home-loan-rules-explained-entitlement-loan-limits-funding-fees/)

The VA home loan program's basic entitlement is $36,000 — not a borrowing cap but the maximum the VA will pay a lender on loans of $144,000 or less, per VA published guidance. With full entitlement there is no loan limit, and the one-time funding fee runs 2.15 percent for first-time use with a…

## [How Congress Oversees the Intelligence Community: Committees, Budgets and Briefings](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/how-congress-oversees-intelligence-community-committees-budgets/)

Congress oversees the intelligence community mainly through two committees — Senate and House intelligence panels — wielding an annual authorization, classified budget review and closed briefings. The FY2026 Intelligence Authorization Act was enacted December 18, 2025 as Division F of the…

## [GAO Finds DOGE Wall of Receipts Savings Claims Unsupported, Including Pentagon Contract](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/gao-finds-doge-wall-receipts-savings-claims-unsupported-including/)

The Government Accountability Office reported on August 6, 2026 that the Department of Government Efficiency's Wall of Receipts claimed $110 billion in savings across contracts, grants, and leases as of July 7, 2026, but that "some savings estimates are incorrect or lack supporting evidence,"…

## [VA Disability Claims Process Meets a $488.2 Billion Fiscal 2027 Budget Request](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/va-disability-claims-process-meets-488-2-billion-fiscal-2027-budget/)

The Department of Veterans Affairs is requesting $488.2 billion for fiscal 2027, a 7.7 percent increase above the 2026 enacted level, per the department's April 2026 Budget in Brief. Of that, $337.6 billion is mandatory benefit funding, per VA's budget office — the accounts behind disability…

## [How Military Recruiting Actually Works: Goals, Quality Gates, and Congress](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/how-military-recruiting-actually-works-goals-quality-gates-congress/)

Military recruiting works as a yearly race between congressionally set end strength and the services' accession goals: the Army signed 62,050 recruits against a 61,000 goal in fiscal year 2025, per published service figures. Congress shapes the system through end-strength law and monitors it…

## [How the Intelligence Community's Annual Threat Assessment Cycle Actually Works](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/how-intelligence-community-s-annual-threat-assessment-cycle-actually/)

The U.S. intelligence community's public threat picture arrives each year through the Annual Threat Assessment, published as the Director of National Intelligence's opening statement at open worldwide-threats hearings. On March 25, 2025, the Senate Intelligence Committee heard from the DNI, CIA,…

## [Pentagon Acquisition Reform Again: Portfolio Executives Would Replace Program Offices](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/pentagon-acquisition-reform-again-portfolio-executives-would-replace/)

The Department of Defense announced an Acquisition Transformation Strategy on November 7, 2025, that would replace the program executive offices at the center of Pentagon buying with "portfolio acquisition executives" empowered to decide and accountable for delivery, Defense Secretary Pete…

## [Why Defense Logistics and Sustainment Costs Decide Whether Forces Can Fight](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/why-defense-logistics-sustainment-costs-decide-whether-forces-can-fight/)

Logistics and sustainment — the depots, repair parts, ships, and stored supply stocks behind combat forces — are the cost center that decides whether a force can keep fighting, a constraint the Government Accountability Office documented in 2008 and November 2025 commentary revived.

## [How NATO Burden-Sharing Actually Works: From Wales 2 Percent to Hague 5](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/how-nato-burden-sharing-actually-works-from-wales-2-percent-hague-5/)

All 32 NATO allies committed in June 2025 to invest 5 percent of GDP annually in defense by 2035 — at least 3.5 percent on core defense requirements and up to 1.5 percent on defense- and security-related spending — per the Hague Summit Declaration dated June 25, 2025. That superseded the 2014…

## [Open-Source Intelligence Explained: How the IC Handles Public Data](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/open-source-intelligence-explained-how-ic-handles-public-data/)

Open-source intelligence, or OSINT, is intelligence derived from publicly or commercially available information rather than classified collection. The US Intelligence Community published its first OSINT strategy in March 2024 and followed it in December 2024 with citation standards covering…

## [Space Reconnaissance Budgets Explained: How the Pentagon Funds Its Satellite Fleet](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/space-reconnaissance-budgets-explained-how-pentagon-funds-its-satellite/)

American space reconnaissance is financed through two merged channels: classified National Intelligence Program money for the National Reconnaissance Office's satellites, and unclassified defense budget lines for the launch and ground infrastructure around them. The one hard public number is…

## [How the VA Budget Cycle Actually Works, From Request to Enacted Dollars](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/how-va-budget-cycle-actually-works-from-request-enacted-dollars/)

The Department of Veterans Affairs budget runs on the federal fiscal calendar: a request assembled the year before, one appropriations bill in Congress, and money that lands mostly in mandatory benefit accounts funded by formula. For fiscal 2027, VA is requesting $488.2 billion, a 7.7 percent…

## [Intelligence Budget Process Explained: What the $81.9 Billion NIP Request Covers](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/intelligence-budget-process-explained-what-81-9-billion-nip-request/)

The fiscal 2026 National Intelligence Program (NIP) request was $81.9 billion, disclosed by the Director of National Intelligence on June 4, 2025 under 50 U.S.C. 3306. The fiscal 2026 intelligence authorization was enacted December 18, 2025 as Division F of the defense bill, per the Senate…

## [HASC $1.15 Trillion Bill and DFARS Rewrite Show Pentagon Industrial Policy in Motion](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/hasc-1-15-trillion-bill-dfars-rewrite-show-pentagon-industrial-policy/)

Pentagon industrial policy in mid-2026 runs through three instruments at once: a $1.15 trillion House authorization bill that would permit multiyear procurement of munitions, fighters, and destroyers; a Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement rulemaking on printed circuit board…

## [POM Explained: How the Pentagon Builds Its Five-Year Defense Spending Plan](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/pom-explained-how-pentagon-builds-its-five-year-defense-spending-plan/)

The Program Objective Memorandum is the Pentagon's draft five-year spending plan: the funding proposal each component sends the Secretary of Defense in the programming phase of Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution, or PPBE, per the Congressional Research Service. The POM adjusts…

## [How the VA Family Caregiver Program Actually Works: Eligibility, Stipends, Rules](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/how-va-family-caregiver-program-actually-works-eligibility-stipends/)

The Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) pays a monthly stipend to family caregivers of veterans rated 70 percent or higher who need in-person personal care for at least six continuous months, per the Department of Veterans Affairs published program guidance. Its…

## [BAH Explained: How Military Housing Allowances Are Set and Overseen](https://pentagontimes.com/veterans/bah-explained-how-military-housing-allowances-are-set-overseen/)

Basic Allowance for Housing, or BAH, is the monthly allowance that lets members live off base, and its legal basis is 37 U.S.C. 403, amended directly by Congress whenever the benefit changes. The housing it touches is largely private: private companies own and operate 99 percent of family…

## [How Congress Gets Its Intelligence Briefings: The Annual Reporting Calendar](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/how-congress-gets-its-intelligence-briefings-annual-reporting-calendar/)

Congress receives intelligence through a fixed annual calendar: a public worldwide threats hearing each spring, continuous notifications to the two intelligence committees, and budget documents the law requires on deadline. On March 18, 2026, the Director of National Intelligence released the…

## [House Vote Shows How an Agency Renaming Actually Becomes Law](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/house-vote-shows-how-agency-renaming-actually-becomes-law/)

The House voted 216-212 on July 22, 2026 to pass a defense policy bill designating the Department of Defense as the Department of War — the first time either chamber has approved the renaming in legislation, per Federal News Network. The vote illustrates the governing rule: executive orders…

## [Nuclear Triad Modernization Explained: What $60 Billion Buys Each Year](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/nuclear-triad-modernization-explained-what-60-billion-buys-each-year/)

The US nuclear triad is the three-legged structure of strategic forces maintained since the early 1960s: land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles on missile submarines, and heavy bombers. The fiscal 2026 budget request includes roughly $60…

## [Stockpiling and Industrial Reserve Policy Explained Through the Defense Production Act](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/stockpiling-industrial-reserve-policy-explained-through-defense/)

Stockpiling and industrial reserve policy in the United States run primarily through the Defense Production Act of 1950, a statute that gives the President authorities to maintain and enhance the domestic industrial base, per the Congressional Research Service. Its Title III wing finances…

## [Defense Transaction: How Other Transaction Authority Lets the Pentagon Fund Defense Startups](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/how-other-transaction-authority-lets-pentagon-fund-defense-startups/)

Other transaction agreements are contracting instruments the Department of Defense uses to buy prototypes and initial production outside most federal acquisition rules, under 10 U.S.C. 4022. Prototype obligations exceeded $16 billion in fiscal year 2024, per a GAO report dated September 3, 2025…

## [War Reserves and Prepositioned Stocks: How the Pentagon Stores Combat Power Abroad](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/war-reserves-prepositioned-stocks-how-pentagon-stores-combat-power/)

War reserves and prepositioned stocks are combat equipment stored in advance at strategic locations, on land and aboard afloat ships, so units can deploy in days rather than the weeks shipping from home would take, per the Government Accountability Office's published description of the Army…

## [Senate Airland Panel Presses Army on Modernization Ahead of FY2027 NDAA](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/senate-airland-panel-presses-army-modernization-ahead-fy2027-ndaa/)

The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Airland heard testimony on Army force modernization on June 16, 2026, in review of the Defense Authorization Request for Fiscal Year 2027. Witnesses were Jesse D. Tolleson, Jr., principal deputy assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, and…

## [Executive Order 14423 Creates Space Academy Commission With 120-Day Deadline](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/executive-order-14423-creates-space-academy-commission-with-120-day/)

Executive Order 14423, signed August 28, 2026, establishes a Presidential Commission on the United States Space Academy, chaired by the NASA Administrator and directed to report to the President within 120 days, per the Federal Register text published September 3, 2026. The order creates a…

## [HII Christens Future USS George M. Neal, Fourth Flight III Destroyer at Ingalls](https://pentagontimes.com/defense-news/hii-christens-future-uss-george-m-neal-fourth-flight-iii-destroyer-at/)

HII christened the future USS George M. Neal (DDG 131), the fourth Flight III Arleigh Burke-class destroyer built at its Ingalls Shipbuilding division in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on Saturday, July 11, 2026. The ship honors a Korean War aviation machinist's mate third class who received the Navy…

## [How Intelligence Agencies Decide What Declassified Records the Public Can Read](https://pentagontimes.com/intelligence/how-intelligence-agencies-decide-what-declassified-records-public-can/)

Intelligence agencies release records to the public chiefly through the Freedom of Information Act and mandatory declassification review, both governed by published regulation, and the Central Intelligence Agency's own processing rules were last rewritten in a final rule published April 17,…

## [How Military Construction Funding Actually Works: From Pentagon Request to Ribbon](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/how-military-construction-funding-actually-works-from-pentagon-request/)

Military construction is financed through dedicated MILCON (military construction) appropriations that fund new facilities, separate from the renovation-focused accounts that maintain existing ones. The FY2026 request for the combined pools stood at $18.893 billion, per a Congressional Research…

## [How Military Construction Budgeting Works, From Installation Need to Funded Project](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/how-military-construction-budgeting-works-from-installation-need-funded/)

Military construction, or MILCON, reaches a funded project through a five-to-seven-year process that starts with an installation commander's identified facility need and ends with Congress authorizing and appropriating each major project by name, per the Congressional Research Service's primer…

## [The US Defense Industrial Base Explained: Supply Chains, Capacity, and Oversight](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/us-defense-industrial-base-explained-supply-chains-capacity-oversight/)

The US defense industrial base is the network of public and private facilities, suppliers, and workers that builds and sustains American weapons, and its weakness is visibility: GAO reported July 24, 2025 that DOD supply chain efforts are uncoordinated and give little insight into most…

## [OPM Final Rule Moves Reduction-in-Force Appeals From MSPB to OPM](https://pentagontimes.com/government-news/opm-final-rule-moves-reduction-force-appeals-from-mspb-opm/)

The Office of Personnel Management published a final rule on August 3, 2026 that moves reduction-in-force appeals from the Merit Systems Protection Board to OPM itself, effective September 2, 2026, per the Federal Register. The rule covers employees furloughed more than 30 days, separated, or…

## [How Multiyear Procurement Actually Works: Statutory Tests, Savings, and Cancellation Costs](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/how-multiyear-procurement-actually-works-statutory-tests-savings/)

Multiyear procurement (MYP) lets the Pentagon buy several years of weapons in one contract, and Congress permits it only for a limited number of programs, per the Congressional Research Service. Compared with annual contracting, CRS estimates the mechanism has "the potential for reducing weapon…

## [Announced Versus Actual: Why Weapon Program Schedules Keep Slipping](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/announced-versus-actual-why-weapon-program-schedules-keep-slipping/)

The expected time for major defense acquisition programs to deliver an initial capability rose by 18 months in the past year, to almost 12 years from a program's start, per GAO's Weapon Systems Annual Assessment of June 11, 2025. Combined estimates for 30 major programs rose $49.3 billion, with…

## [NDAA Process Explained: How the FY2026 Defense Authorization Became Law](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/ndaa-process-explained-how-fy2026-defense-authorization-became-law/)

The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act became law on December 18, 2025, when President Donald Trump signed S. 1071 as Public Law 119-60, per the GovInfo record of the enacted statute. The Senate had cleared the final text the day before, 77-20, ending a six-month path begun June 9, 2025.

## [How the Defense Authorization Timeline Actually Works From Request to Enacted NDAA](https://pentagontimes.com/policy/how-defense-authorization-timeline-actually-works-from-request-enacted/)

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) authorizes appropriations for the Department of Defense, nuclear weapons programs of the Department of Energy, and other defense-related activities — but does not itself provide budget authority, per the Congressional Research Service. Fiscal 2025…

## [Pentagon Budget Justification Documents Explained as Shutdown Enters Week Six](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/pentagon-budget-justification-documents-explained-as-shutdown-enters/)

The Pentagon's budget justification documents — the service-by-service books explaining what each requested dollar buys — have no appropriations bill to accompany them this fall, because the lapse that began October 1, 2025 has left the department on shutdown rules instead of enacted fiscal 2026…

## [Pentagon Contract Awards Keep Moving in Week Five of the Record Shutdown](https://pentagontimes.com/defense/pentagon-contract-awards-keep-moving-week-five-record-shutdown/)

Most Pentagon contracts keep running during the shutdown that began October 1, 2025, because DoD's September 2025 guidance says contracts are not terminated or paused unless new funding is needed or the work lacks excepted status. As of November 4, day 35 of the lapse, the effect is uneven, not…