The Pentagon failed to get a “clean opinion” in its first departmentwide financial audit, Federal News Network reported Thursday.

A team of 1K independent auditors and representatives from the Defense Department’s office of inspector general evaluated over 90K sample items and found that information technology weaknesses were some of the top issues identified in the audit.

Those IT gaps include issues over security management, system changes and inadequate access controls.

Auditors found that DoD does not have a “universe of transactions” or documentation needed to back a financial statement balance; lacks systems to demonstrate the value or existence of its equipment or property; and does not have plans for corrective actions to deal with material deficiencies.

“As expected, this audit has uncovered a number of matters that Congress and the Pentagon must work together to address,” Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement published Thursday.

Thornberry added the audit should serve as an “opportunity” to advance DoD’s reform initiatives and “should not be used as an excuse for arbitrary cuts that reverse the progress we have begun on rebuilding our strength and readiness.”

The report said DoD IG will issue in December a full report to shed light on the audit’s overall findings.
 

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said potential cuts in the agency’s fiscal 2020 budget could have an impact on space exploration programs, SpaceNews reported Thursday.

“If that materializes, no, we’re not going to have what we need to go to the moon,” he said Thursday at a National Space Council meeting of the users’ advisory group in Washington.

He mentioned that the White House has asked NASA to come up with a proposed 5 percent reduction or approximately $1B in savings for its next fiscal budget slated for release in February.

Bridenstine noted that he would not reprogram funds from other NASA programs in order to support the agency’s exploration plans.

He also expressed optimism about NASA’s potential collaboration with international partners to advance its exploration strategy including lunar missions, according to the report.
 

A top U.S. Air Force official has said the service is already benefiting from the acquisition reforms approved by Congress, particularly in its programs to get new jet trainers, helicopters and satellite systems, National Defense Magazine reported Wednesday.

Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen Wilson said the service recently saved $13B in the acquisition process for new T-X jet trainers, a UH-1N Huey helicopter replacement and a GPS III satellite. 

“With recent authorities that Congress gave us… we have been able to save a substantial sum of money,” he said at a recent Air Force Association event in Arlington, Va. 

The service also expects the new buying authorities to cut the time to buy the aircraft and satellite by 62 years. 

“We are focused on how do we bring capability to the warfighter faster and smarter,” Wilson said.

Meanwhile, Air Force officials are preparing a report on electronic warfare for senior leaders as part of its modernization efforts. The service plans to release the report in January, according to Wilson.

The chair of the Department of Political Science at Boston University estimates that, as of fiscal year 2019, the U.S. will have to spend $5.9T to pay for all the wars the country has been involved in following the 9/11 terror attacks.

Professor Neta Crawford, who also serves as the director of the Costs of War Project at BU, breaks down this cost projection in detail in a recently-released paper titled “United States Budgetary Costs of the Post-9/11 Wars Through FY2019: $5.9 Trillion Spent and Obligated”.

Crawford’s computation factors in not just the Defense Department’s war funding since FY 2001, which, on its own, amounts to roughly $1.9T as of FY 2019, but also war-related expenses across the federal government — such as those incurred by the State Department and the Homeland Security Department — bringing the running total to roughly $4.9T.

Crawford then incorporates the cost of having to take care of U.S. veterans in the next few decades, an obligation that the professor says would amount to around $1T.

Crawford notes, however, that actual costs would likely be higher since there is no projected end date for U.S. overseas contingency operations.

Crawford estimates an additional $808B in war expenses through FY2023.

The U.S. Navy plans to add Virginia Payload Module missile tubes to its existing and future Virginia-class submarines to give the ships the ability to deploy new missiles and unmanned undersea vehicles, USNI News reported Wednesday. 

Rear Adm. John Tammen, director of undersea warfare on the chief of naval operations’ staff, said the service is developing a next-generation land-attack weapon that would replace the Tomahawk land-attack missile as one of the principal weapons on the submarines.  
The new missile will also support the future Block VI and VII Virginia-class submarines and the SSN(X) ship of the Navy. 

George Drakeley, the Navy’s program executive office for submarines executive director, said the plan comes amid the “great power competition” with Russia and China.

“We need to be focusing on other potential capabilities,” he added.