Prior to joining Breaking Defense, Justin Katz reported on the Navy and Marine Corps as an associate editor for Inside Defense, where he focused on the services' largest acquisition programs and congressional committees overseeing them. Justin has also covered the federal government's cybersecurity policies and programs for FCW and a worked as a general news reporter in both Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Katz graduated from Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla., in 2015 with a degree in communications focusing on journalism and is a native of Long Island, N.Y.
jkatz@breakingmedia.com
“[I] also want you to know that the Department of the Navy is holding companies accountable for poor performance and misconduct,” Secretary Carlos Del Toro said in an unusually pointed keynote speech.
“How long can our magazines maintain this?” Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl said of using million-dollar missiles to knock down less expensive drones.
Lawmakers have been focused on reaching a 355-ship fleet. Adm. Lisa Franchetti said she supports a bigger Navy, but the ship count can’t be the bottom line.
“What I will guarantee from [a] Marine Corps perspective is all the information, all the data will be duly analyzed and treated to get that airplane back into flight as soon as possible,” said Gen. Christopher Mahoney, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.
A Navy spokesperson told Breaking Defense adding PAC-3 to the surface force’s arsenal would not fill a capability gap, but supplement the current inventory of surface-to-air interceptors.
