Roger Zakheim, left, Washington director of the Ronald Reagan Institute, speaks with House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash., on April 13, 2021. Reagan Institute Photo
The central question facing Pentagon acquisition isn’t the size of the budget top line or the number of ships in the Navy, but how to get the maximum capability for the defense dollar, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Tuesday.
“How do we start spending the money better,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) asked at a Tuesday Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment and Ronald Reagan Institute event. Discussions of a “355-ship Navy, 500-ship Navy [and larger Air Force] drives me insane. Talk about capability.”
Smith put the expected Biden budget request for national security, which will be sent to Congress later this spring, at above $750 billion. He included the…
