Based in Washington, Michael Bruno is Aviation Week Network’s Executive Editor for Business. He oversees coverage of aviation, aerospace and defense business issues, and is editor in chief of Aviation Week Executive Intelligence newsletters. Beyond reporting, Bruno helps organize related Aviation Week conferences, hosts podcasts and webinars, and speaks publicly as a subject matter expert on industry issues. Since joining Aviation Week in 2005, he has won several Jesse H. Neal and Aerospace Media awards. He has a master's degree from Syracuse University and a bachelor's from Vanderbilt University.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld once argued forcefully against congressional proposals to expand the U.S. Army to ease the strain of occupying Iraq. "We simply do not expect to have 100,000, 120,000 troops in a single country permanently deployed," he said. That was nearly three years ago. Last week, Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker revealed the Army is budgeting to keep 120,000 soldiers in Iraq--plus 20,000 Marines--through 2010.
Funding for shorter-term, conceivably less antagonist prompt global strike alternatives -- compared with the Defense Department's desire to refit some Trident nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles -- could be funded in the next supplemental request or fiscal 2007 reprogramming efforts.
Congress is tightening the purse strings on the aerospace and defense industry's revenue stream with new efforts to push contracting performance, reaffirm the use of award and incentive fees and even recompete programs when they breach cost estimates. Besides having to squeeze more out of plateauing military budgets, the new standards--part of the Fiscal 2007 defense authorization measure--reflect growing congressional concern over program spending while the country is at war.
