Defense news

• Pakistan’s burgeoning arms industry is a strategic opportunity for the US

  03-02-2026 21:28 via defenseone.com
  U.S. policymakers need to energize their engagement with the midtier arms producers fighting for a larger slice of the global arms market. They should look most urgently at Pakistan, whose cost-effective weapons and growing ties to China make it a country of increasing geopolitical importance.Islamabad's expanding defense industry, exemplified by its JF-17 fighter jet, has drawn interest[BP1]  from buyers across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Pakistan has demonstrated [BP2] an abil
  
  Read more

• Partial shutdown ends less than four days after it began—except for DHS

  03-02-2026 20:18 via defenseone.com
  Federal agencies are set to reopen after the House on Tuesday approved a spending package funding those forced to close their doors over the weekend, ending the shutdown less than four days after it began. All but the Homeland Security Department, which will be funded on a stopgap basis through Feb. 13, will now receive their full fiscal 2026 appropriation. Employees across a slew of agencies impacted by partial shutdown were sent home on furlough on Monday, but will now return to work&mdas
  
  Read more

• Space-based interceptors make even less sense now

  03-02-2026 18:50 via defenseone.com
  The rationale behind Golden Dome’s mandate for space-based boost-phase defense made some sense. If orbiting interceptors could hit an enemy missile very early in flight—before it could deploy countermeasures—they would avoid the Achilles’ heel of defense systems that target missiles in midcourse. But now the Pentagon and contractors are proposing to also use space-based interceptors for midcourse defense, which would jack up the cost while defeating the purpose of going t
  
  Read more

• The D Brief: Munitions makers, investing; DOD’s new science board; Troops won’t go to MN; Venezuela plan reflects Iraq lessons; And a bit more.

  03-02-2026 17:43 via defenseone.com
  American munitions makers are working to increase production capacity. Although Congress didn’t much bend to the White House’s last-minute request for a munitions-funding boost, defense executives say it’s enough to persuade them to pour more of their own funds into boosting production, Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams and Thomas Novelly reported Monday. “We've been getting the demand signals from the customer set long before now, whether that's the amount of m
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• New science and innovation board comes as Pentagon cuts science research elsewhere

  03-02-2026 11:03 via defenseone.com
  The Pentagon’s new science and innovation board, announced last week, merges the Defense Innovation Board with the Defense Science Board to “streamline” how the department addresses the hardest technological and scientific national security challenges. But it comes on the heels of cuts that could undermine future scientific and innovation progress for the Defense Department, creating new opportunities and new hurdles to long-standing Pentagon goals.Streamlining is a persistent
  
  Read more

• New science-and-innovation board arrives as Pentagon cuts research

  03-02-2026 11:03 via defenseone.com
  The Pentagon’s new science and innovation board, announced last week, merges the Defense Innovation Board with the Defense Science Board to “streamline” how the department addresses the hardest technological and scientific national security challenges. But it comes on the heels of cuts that could undermine scientific and innovation progress.Streamlining is a persistent target for the Pentagon. But it’s one that it has had trouble achieving in previous years, accordin
  
  Read more

• New Pentagon science-and-innovation board arrives as administration cuts research funding

  03-02-2026 11:03 via defenseone.com
  The Pentagon's new Science, Technology, and Innovation Board—a merger of the decade-old Defense Innovation Board and the 70-year-old Defense Science Board—is meant to “streamline” the department's approach to the hardest technological and scientific national-security challenges. But it comes on the heels of Trump-administration cuts that could hinder those efforts.Streamlining is a persistent target for the Pentagon. But it’s one that it has had troub
  
  Read more

• Primed for production

  03-02-2026 10:58 via defenseone.com
  Congress didn’t give the White House all the munitions funding it asked for, but defense executives say it’s enough—along with the administration’s goading and global instability—to persuade them to pour more of their own funds into boosting production. In a last-minute request, the Trump administration asked lawmakers to bump munitions spending spread out over multiple years by more than $28.8 billion. Congress, which last summer allocated an extra $25 billion
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Munitions makers say they've been persuaded to invest more in production capacity

  03-02-2026 10:58 via defenseone.com
  Congress didn’t give the White House all the munitions funding it asked for, but defense executives say it’s enough—along with the administration’s goading and global instability—to persuade them to pour more of their own funds into boosting production. In a last-minute request in December, the Trump administration asked lawmakers to bump munitions spending for the next few years by more than $28.8 billion. Congress, which last summer allocated an ext
  
  Read more

Follow @Defense_news_us on Twitter!