House legislators pressed Defense Department leaders Thursday to clarify the department’s actual “top line” in its Fiscal 2015 budget request. The 2015 proposal requests $495.6 billion, but that number does not reflect an additional request for some $26 billion from the so-called Opportunity Security and Growth Initiative, which officials hope to use to buy back some modernization and readiness accounts, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told members of the House Armed Services Committee. In addition, the 2015 budget follows the caps agreed to in the Bipartisan Budget Act last December, but asks for $115 billion above sequester caps in the President’s five-year Future Years Defense Plan. Hagel noted DOD did not get any adjustment in its numbers until the BBA was passed in December, and rather than planning for a whole new FYDP, the department decided to take some cuts now and defer others for later. “That’s why the President has asked for $115 billion more, over the (FYDP),” Hagel said. Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale added that the five-year plan shows a gap because of sequester-related uncertainty. “If Congress appropriates at a higher level, we will fix the plans,” he said.
The Air Force conducted its first successful test of the Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, on May 14, snapping a streak of three consecutive failed tests and giving the beleaguered hypersonics program a much needed boost. Off the coast of Southern California, the AGM-183A ARRW separated from the wing…