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.
If enacted for fiscal 2016, the combined $534.3 billion “baseline” and $50.9 billion off-book Overseas Contingency Operations requests would be an increase of almost $25 billion, around 4%, over the current fiscal year’s total.
Financial and defense analyst reaction to the Obama administration’s fiscal 2016 defense budget request and five-year spending blueprint on Feb. 2 was largely muted, tempered by the reality that Washington is a gridlocked capital and President Barack Obama’s spending-growth proposal represents just the latest step in a marathon that may not end. The reason is because while Congress generally wants to spend what is requested or more, no one can agree how to do so.
The Obama administration’s budget blueprint for the next five fiscal years will try to kick-start the long-awaited defense technology push at the Pentagon.
