2020 defense budget ignites conflicts between supporting legacy weapon systems and new approaches like cyber

WASHINGTON – The battle between past and future is the hidden drama within the gargantuan $750 billion fiscal 2020 defense budget proposal. Nearly everyone favors high-tech weapons to combat great-power adversaries in the new millennium, in principle. But meanwhile, the military-industrial-congressional complex, as the late Sen. John McCain termed it, keeps pumping vast sums to sustain legacy weapons systems. Stars and Stripes reports. Continue reading original article

The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:

15 March 2019 -- Sen. Mark Warner is all for defense modernization. But just don’t touch those aircraft carriers, six of which are based in Norfolk.

The Virginia Democrat had said a year ago year that rather than investing in 20th-century military technology, he wanted to discuss “a reallocation of some of those resources” to deal with the 21st-century challenge of cyber threats. But when the Navy this week proposed to retire the carrier USS Harry S. Truman, to save money for modernization, Warner urged it to “reassess the decision.”

The 2020 budget, shaped by acting Secretary of Defense Pat Shanahan, does propose some important changes. Spending for space programs will increase about 15 percent, and cyber programs will rise 10 percent. Yes, the Navy wants to add two new carriers while dropping the Truman, but it also proposes to build two big drone warships and some unmanned subs. The Army plans to cut or reduce 93 outmoded programs for vehicles, weapons and helicopters to make room for modernization.

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Related: Pentagon seeks $104.29 billion military research budget for 2020 -- an increase of 8.7 percent

Related: 2019 DOD budget proposes $686.1 billion in military spending: largest Pentagon budget ever?

John Keller, chief editor
Military & Aerospace Electronics

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