The defense budget runs on a two-year clock that starts inside the building long before Congress votes — and a missed appropriations bill, not a design flaw, is what most often freezes program money.
Henrik Larsen
The formal acquisition system runs a weapon from a documented military need to full production through a series of gated reviews — and the gates, not the hardware, set the schedule.
Asha VenkataswamyTwo aircraft in an open, instrumented test campaign since November 2023 — the program is flying earlier than its predecessors did, but the fielding date still rests on testing no one can compress.
Nils AndersenGAO's latest review of nearly five decades of stopgap funding finds the same pattern every time: schedule delays, cost growth, and administrative drag across programs from the Amphibious Combat Vehicle to the F-35.
Henrik LarsenWhat changed, what the primary record says, and what remains uncertain.
The formal acquisition system runs a weapon from a documented military need to full production through a series of gated reviews — and the gates, not the hardware, set the schedule.
Asha Venkataswamy
The defense budget runs on a two-year clock that starts inside the building long before Congress votes — and a missed appropriations bill, not a design flaw, is what most often freezes program money.
Henrik Larsen
Other Transaction Agreements let the Defense Department negotiate prototype and research deals outside the Federal Acquisition Regulation, a tool that has grown sharply since the mid-2010s but comes with its own oversight gaps.
Nils Andersen