Defense news

• ‘We’re closer to the end': Lawmakers signal some progress in bipartisan talks to end shutdown

  04-11-2025 23:21 via defenseone.com
  A bipartisan group of lawmakers said on Tuesday they have made slight progress toward ending the government shutdown, which is poised to become the longest in U.S. history after another failed vote will drag it into its 36th day. Senators are getting closer to an agreement on a package of full-year appropriations bills for certain agencies and an accompanying stopgap bill to reopen the rest of government until a to-be-determined date. Lawmakers in both parties suggested many details still n
  
  Read more

• Unveiling acquisition overhaul, Hegseth tells industry to get with the program

  08-11-2025 04:23 via defenseone.com
  FORT MCNAIR—Move faster and invest more, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told hundreds of defense-industry executives on Friday—or we just might make you. Hegseth, who spoke for more than an hour to a packed auditorium at the National War College, formally unveiled a slew of policy changes intended to replace his department’s Cold War-era acquisition processes with ones that value speed over rigid requirements. The secretary described the gathering as an opportunity to look
  
  Read more

• Pacific soldiers push forward with transformation, with an eye on China

  07-11-2025 22:10 via defenseone.com
  HONOLULU—The greatest risk the Army has in the Indo-Pacific region is inaction—“being late” when a crisis or conflict emerges, out of position, not fast enough, “or even worse, doing nothing at all,” said U.S. Army Pacific commander Gen. Ronald Clark.The command is the “Army’s innovation testbed,” Clark said, and continuous transformation is imperative. “So as leaders, we have to become comfortable with failing fast, iterating quickly,
  
  Read more

• The D Brief: Buildup near Venezuela continues; War plans for Nigeria; China’s 3rd carrier; Powder sickens 7 at Andrews; And a bit more.

  07-11-2025 17:16 via defenseone.com
  The United States military says it destroyed another alleged drug-trafficking boat in the waters off Latin America on Thursday. “The vessel was trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean and was struck in international waters. No U.S. forces were harmed in the strike, and three male narco-terrorists—who were aboard the vessel—were killed,” Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced on social media, accompanied by a 20-second video of the violence, which legal experts and critics d
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Defense tech companies will weather the shutdown. But what happens next?

  07-11-2025 10:50 via defenseone.com
  From DOGE’s initial descent to the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, defense contractors are weathering policy changes at different rates during the first leg of the second Trump administration. But while larger companies are thriving, smaller companies—the very ones the White House and Pentagon want to court—have a bumpier ride. Leidos, which ranks No. 15 in global defense companies, is doing well this year. CEO Thomas Bell touted higher revenue—up about
  
  Read more

• Space Force astronauts? New report says guardians in space would be asset for future ops

  07-11-2025 05:36 via defenseone.com
  Today, guardians go to space only in popular misconception, but tomorrow? There might be solid tactical reasons to put Space Force personnel in orbit, argues a new report from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “The adaptability and flexibility of human decision-making, as well as their ability to conduct a variety of mission operations, could present fundamental challenges to an adversary’s decision calculations,” the report said. Thursday’s report,
  
  Read more

• The Pentagon must activate this powerful, underused approach to acquisition

  07-11-2025 02:02 via defenseone.com
  As Secretary Pete Hegseth pushes to speed up the development and fielding of new weapons and systems, he should look to a powerful, yet underused tool: modular open systems approach.The law already requires MOSA to be used in major warfighting programs “to the maximum extent practicable” and Secretary Hegseth’s own Systems Engineering and Architecture office has been pushing the approach since February. It is direction that, if enforced, could do more to speed acquisitions and
  
  Read more

• Pentagon policy shop shifts story on pause in Ukraine aid again

  06-11-2025 21:02 via defenseone.com
  A senior advisor and former deputy to the Pentagon’s undersecretary for policy told senators on Thursday that his office “neither ordered nor even recommended a pause to any weapons shipments to Ukraine” over the summer, contrary to the press reporting from the time, but also in contrast to testimony from his colleague on Tuesday and statements from the Pentagon on July 2.For a second day, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee tried to find some clarity on recent Penta
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• The D Brief: Acquisition reforms, debated; Boat-strike briefing; US troops to Damascus; China’s mini drone carrier; And a bit more.

  06-11-2025 17:19 via defenseone.com
  Experts see promise, risk in draft of Pentagon acquisition reforms. A six-page draft memo to military leaders is circulating ahead of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s planned Friday speech about acquisition reform, and experts, industry figures, and current and former procurement officials have thoughts. Some see promise, like Arnold Punaro: "If fully implemented, these reforms will finally break the long-standing paradigm that has defined and constrained defense acquisition for decad
  
  Read more

• Exercise underscored need for AI, autonomy, C2, and networks

  06-11-2025 01:43 via defenseone.com
  HONOLULU—Pacific Air Forces’s massive REFORPAC exercise in the Pacific this summer “identified the capabilities that we need to win in this theater,” the command’s deputy leader said last week: namely, artificial intelligence, autonomy, machine learning; improved command and control capabilities; and resilient cyber networks “that can communicate securely in expeditionary environments and survive relentless attacks.”Speaking at the AFCEA TechNet Indo-Pac
  
  Read more

• Draft list of attendees for Hegseth acquisition-reform speech shows wide industry interest

  05-11-2025 23:35 via defenseone.com
  When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth takes the National War College stage to talk about proposed acquisition reforms on Friday, he will have the full attention of many companies aiming to boost their sales to the Pentagon. The list includes both newer and more established defense contractors, as well as notable consumer tech companies like Facebook parent company Meta and consumer AI company Anthropic. At least some of Hegseth’s proposed changes are laid out in a six-page draft memo to
  
  Read more

• Experts see promise, risk in Pentagon’s draft acquisition reforms

  05-11-2025 21:14 via defenseone.com
  Some experts see promise in the sweeping acquisition reforms prescribed by a draft Pentagon memo that is circulating ahead of the defense secretary’s planned Friday speech on the topic, but others see risk.Defense One reviewed and verified a copy of the six-page draft on Tuesday, which pitched the overhaul as a “historic opportunity to restore deterrence in the face of an increasingly dangerous security environment” by cutting internal review processes, reorganizing acquisition
  
  Read more

• Who’s Who in Defense: Scott DesJarlais, Chairman, House Armed Services (HASC) Strategic Forces Subcommittee

  05-11-2025 20:54 via breakingdefense.com
  DesJarlais leads a subcommittee that oversees critical DoD operations.
  
  Read more

• The Pentagon’s fiber future: How DoD networks race to meet new demands

  05-11-2025 20:54 via breakingdefense.com
  [Sponsored] Outdated networks are colliding with the rise of AI and cloud, pushing the Pentagon to more secure low-latency transport.
  
  Read more

• US slams ‘discriminatory’ draft EU space law as imperiling NATO cooperation

  05-11-2025 20:40 via breakingdefense.com
  The State Department’s damning critique argues that, if enacted, the draft law would imperil cooperation on “space weather, remote sensing, space exploration, spaceflight safety, space debris mitigation and remediation, [and] communications.”
  
  Read more

• India, Israel sign new MOU on defense tech

  05-11-2025 19:03 via breakingdefense.com
  “We view India as a first-rate strategic partner and are determined to continue deepening cooperation in the fields of defense, technology, and industry,” an Israeli statement reads.
  
  Read more

• Four defense primes team up to pitch development of SSN-AUKUS combat system

  05-11-2025 17:52 via breakingdefense.com
  BAE Systems, Raytheon Australia, General Dynamics Mission Systems and Thales said they would work collaboratively to design a tri-national command system as a “shared solution for Australia and the UK which builds on General Dynamics’ existing AN/BYG-1 system” used by the US.
  
  Read more

• The D Brief: A narrower natsec focus; ‘Pigpen-like mess’ at DOD; DC Guard deployment extended; Shutdown sets record; And a bit more.

  05-11-2025 17:23 via defenseone.com
  Another boat attack. The U.S. military killed two more people in an alleged drug-trafficking boat in an unspecified location off the Pacific coast of Latin America, Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday with an 18-second video posted to Twitter. “No U.S. forces were harmed in the strike, and two male narco-terrorists—who were aboard the vessel—were killed,” Hegseth said. To date, at least 66 people have been killed in 16 strikes on 17 typically small boa
  
  Read more

• Inside six helo companies gunning for the Army’s Flight School Next program

  05-11-2025 16:45 via breakingdefense.com
  With Flight School Next, the Army is looking to shake up the way it acquires both the aircraft and the curriculum.
  
  Read more

• ‘Greatest vulnerability’: Australian Navy chief says protecting undersea cables is ‘existential’

  05-11-2025 15:12 via breakingdefense.com
  Experts warned there’s no single government agency in charge of monitoring, defending and repairing the cables, and no effective deterrent strategy.
  
  Read more

• Italian Army orders first armored vehicles from Rheinmetall-Leonardo joint venture

  05-11-2025 14:00 via breakingdefense.com
  Rome will get five Rheinmetall Lynx KF-41 vehicles with Lance turrets, followed by 16 “newly configured vehicles equipped with the same chassis and Leonardo’s Hitfist 30mm turret.”
  
  Read more

• Lockheed Martin Australia awards Moog contract to develop GMLRS rocket component

  05-11-2025 12:57 via breakingdefense.com
  “It’s a critical time right now that Australian industry has actually got a hand up to say, ‘Hey, we’re here to help,'” a Lockheed executive said.
  
  Read more

• Shield AI’s X-BAT drone to be powered by same GE engine as F-15, F-16 fighters (Exclusive)

  05-11-2025 12:00 via breakingdefense.com
  The announcement marks the first official partnership for GE on a drone wingman platform.
  
  Read more

• Pentagon policy shop stonewalling Congress, Republican senators say

  04-11-2025 23:21 via breakingdefense.com
  “I can’t even get a response, and we’re on your team!” an exasperated Sen. Dan Sullivan told a Trump administration nominee.
  
  Read more

• China is already dominating the data war in the Pacific, experts say

  04-11-2025 23:05 via defenseone.com
  HONOLULU—Nine months into the second Trump administration, an acting defense secretary from President Trump’s first term said he thought “we’d be a lot further along” toward a nimbler military.“I’m seeing a lot of marketing coming out of the department, and not a lot of outcomes,” Chris Miller said during a panel at the AFCEA TechNet Indo-Pacific conference last week. Miller, who served as acting defense secretary from November 2020 to January
  
  Read more

• From on-orbit to launch, Space Force needs more focus on dynamic space operations

  04-11-2025 22:44 via breakingdefense.com
  Building dynamic space operations concepts will be necessary to force “flexibility,” and provide capabilities for “maneuver and surprise” on orbit, the new report by the Mitchell Institute says.
  
  Read more

• Pentagon’s policy shop is ‘a pigpen-like’ mess: Sen. Cotton

  04-11-2025 21:23 via defenseone.com
  Congress’s simmering discontent with the Pentagon’s recent decision-making and lack of transparency with its lawfully-mandated oversight body boiled over during a routine nomination hearing Tuesday, one of the few venues lawmakers have had to get answers from defense officials since the second Trump administration began in January. Austin Dahmer was ostensibly before the committee to answer questions about how he would tackle the job of assistant secretary for strategy, plans, a
  
  Read more

• Pentagon’s policy shop is ‘a Pig Pen-like’ mess: Sen. Cotton

  04-11-2025 21:23 via defenseone.com
  Congress’s simmering discontent with the Pentagon’s recent decision-making and lack of transparency with its lawfully-mandated oversight body boiled over during a routine nomination hearing Tuesday, one of the few venues lawmakers have had to get answers from defense officials since the second Trump administration began in January. Austin Dahmer was ostensibly before the committee to answer questions about how he would tackle the job of assistant secretary for strategy, plans, a
  
  Read more

• Pentagon’s policy shop is a ‘Pigpen-like mess': Sen. Cotton

  04-11-2025 21:23 via defenseone.com
  Updated: 5:42 p.m.Congress’s simmering discontent with the Pentagon’s recent decision-making and lack of transparency with its lawfully-mandated oversight body boiled over during a routine nomination hearing Tuesday, one of the few venues lawmakers have had to get answers from defense officials since the second Trump administration began in January. Austin Dahmer was ostensibly before the committee to answer questions about how he would tackle the job of assistant secretary for
  
  Read more

• NATO must innovate like Ukraine or risk losing a fight with Russia: Swedish official

  04-11-2025 20:31 via breakingdefense.com
  What has been observed in Ukraine is a “masterclass in accelerated adaptation” and a clear sign that the “side that learns fastest wins,” Commander of the Swedish Air Force Jonas Wikman said.
  
  Read more

Follow @Defense_news_us on Twitter!