Defense news

• Will TransDigm again pay back the Pentagon? ‘It’s not a yes or no answer’

  19-01-2022 22:00 via breakingdefense.com
  
  “Our message to TransDigm today is simple: pay back the money,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY and chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
  
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• Blue Origin rocket explosion shows ‘fragility’ of national-security launch plans

  05-06-2026 05:30 via defenseone.com
  
  Hours after a Blue Origin rocket blew up on a Florida launch pad last month, a SpaceX rocket lofted a military payload from a nearby site—neatly illustrating concerns about whether the commercial launch industry can actually add providers quickly enough to match the Pentagon’s accelerating demands.The incident should be “a moment to step back and reassess the fragility of our space launch infrastructure” and how little competition exists for the nation’s military la
  
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• GOP lawmakers axe provision to limit the use of JAGs in civilian roles

  05-06-2026 05:20 via defenseone.com
  
  House Republicans axed a provision to the annual defense policy bill that would have ended the Trump administration’s practice of using the military’s uniformed lawyers from serving as immigration judges and special U.S. attorneys in Democrat-run cities.Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo, proposed the amendment during the House Armed Service Committee's markup of the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday afternoon. The provision would have amended U.S. law to clarify that the judge adv
  
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• Putin allies wishcast nuclear war, America in crisis, and real-estate deals

  05-06-2026 05:04 via defenseone.com
  
  Allies of Russian leader Vladimir Putin are openly advocating nuclear war and wishcasting for a diminished United States even while boasting about better trade relations.The venue was the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, a Putin-backed conference that took place on Wednesday against a backdrop of billowing smoke from a Ukrainian drone attack at a nearby oil terminal. The forum, which featured presentations by Russian oligarchs and elites, also attracted high-ranking Russian officials
  
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• Cyber Innovation Warfare center will pair industry side-by-side with operators

  04-06-2026 20:51 via breakingdefense.com
  Elements of the concept are already operational today.
  
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• Amendment to eliminate funds for Trump-class battleship falters in HASC defense bill markup

  04-06-2026 20:34 via breakingdefense.com
  “Whatever the number is [for the BBG(X) program], I’m going to give you right one of the surest fire Kalshi bets you will ever have: Take the over,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash.
  
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• Brazil plans to buy 20 more Gripen fighters

  04-06-2026 18:15 via breakingdefense.com
  Gen. Marcelo Kanitz Damasceno, the Brazilian air chief, told Breaking Defense that the need for extra jets was born from a serious look at Brazil’s air power.
  
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• Pentagon’s Cyber Defense Command drafting plan to defend critical infrastructure

  04-06-2026 17:26 via breakingdefense.com
  DoD Cyber Defense Command is working to develop a joint task force for defense of critical infrastructure.
  
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• A Navy carrier is about to deploy with a robot ship. Could it change the service forever?

  04-06-2026 16:50 via breakingdefense.com
  Experts said that this deployment could lay the foundation for how the Navy develops its concept of operations for unmanned systems.
  
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• How to boost defense aviation in an election year? Sen. Budd has a few ideas.

  04-06-2026 16:01 via breakingdefense.com
  North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd outlines his concerns for defense firms as lawmakers get closer to the midterm elections.
  
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• Thales ramps up guided rocket production to address increased ME demand

  04-06-2026 15:07 via breakingdefense.com
  “We more than doubled the [production] number, considering the situation at the moment in the Middle East,”  a company executive told Breaking Defense.
  
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• Lawmakers demand answers about $620M Pentagon loan to firm tied to Trump Jr.

  04-06-2026 03:35 via defenseone.com
  
  A group of lawmakers demanded answers from the White House this week following a ProPublica investigation revealing that a top aide to the president intervened to secure a $620 million Pentagon loan to a startup linked to the president’s eldest son.ProPublica’s reporting “reveals a staggering level of corruption and influence peddling that superseded this process, enriching the President’s son at the expense of U.S. national security and taxpayer dollars,”
  
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• Trump strips civil-service protections from thousands of feds

  03-06-2026 22:13 via defenseone.com
  
  Some 8,000 career federal workers will be stripped of civil-service protections under a Wednesday executive order to convert their jobs into at-will employment.President Trump's edict marks the culmination of a years-long push to make it easier to fire federal employees in “policy-related” jobs by removing them from the federal government’s competitive service and placing them in a new job category, initially called Schedule F and now referred to as Schedule Poli
  
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• Air Force awards GE, Rolls-Royce for ‘medium thrust’ drone engines

  03-06-2026 21:31 via breakingdefense.com
  The two engine makers will advance designs to power medium thrust class drones, an Air Force spokesperson told Breaking Defense.
  
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• Marine Corps’ Harrier completes final flight following SOUTHCOM deployment

  03-06-2026 20:39 via breakingdefense.com
  The Marine Corps is moving through its Tactical Aircraft Transition Plan as it plans to fully adopt fifth-generation aircraft across the entire fleet. 
  
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• The biggest industry, training hurdles for making drone wingman a reality

  03-06-2026 19:27 via breakingdefense.com
  In our final video looking at manned-unmanned teaming, we consider likely changes ahead for defense manufacturers as the US increasingly partners with drones in combat.
  
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• Trump's choice of acting intel chief threatens fragile surveillance-powers deal

  03-06-2026 18:55 via defenseone.com
  
  President Donald Trump’s decision to name William Pulte as acting director of national intelligence is threatening a fragile Senate deal to extend a contentious surveillance authority.On Tuesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., asked Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to press the White House to reverse the appointment of Pulte, who has no national-security background but does have a record of targeting Trump’s political adv
  
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• Anduril teams with Elbit America for Army’s self-propelled howitzer competition 

  03-06-2026 18:41 via breakingdefense.com
  Anduril joins the US subsidiary of Israeli company Elbit along with OshKosh Defense for the team’s offering for the highly anticipated competition.
  
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• Army, J-7 to test new sensor with high-altitude balloon in coming days

  03-06-2026 17:08 via breakingdefense.com
  The Wallabee prototype is set to provide the Army and the J-7 with more intelligence-gathering capabilities in the stratosphere.
  
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• The US is delaying weapon sales to allies. Will there be long-term impact?

  03-06-2026 16:02 via breakingdefense.com
  A number of factors may “lead even long-standing allies and partners to question whether or not it’s wise to continue to depend on the United States for essential defense articles and services,”one analyst said.
  
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• A Cyber Force budget would require at least $10 billion, new commission report says

  03-06-2026 12:00 via breakingdefense.com
  The Commission on US Cyber Force Generation released its report outlining what a new military service could look like.
  
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• How AI is shaping the future of geospatial intelligence

  02-06-2026 23:33 via breakingdefense.com
  From AI adoption and explainability to new commercial satellite contracts, Breaking Defense’s latest eBook brings together reporting from GEOINT 2026 on how intelligence leaders are shaping the future of space-based geospatial intelligence.
  
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• New bill aims to regulate military uses of AI

  02-06-2026 20:15 via defenseone.com
  
  A new bill would restrict the Pentagon’s use of AI in operations and heavily regulate its use on fully-autonomous weapons, for domestic surveillance, and with nuclear weapons. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., announced “The Secure and Accountable Military AI Act” on Tuesday. Other lawmakers have not joined the legislation, and her office confirmed she plans to offer elements of the bill as amendments to the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act.&
  
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• Trump signs business-friendlier version of AI executive order

  02-06-2026 19:02 via defenseone.com
  
  Federal agencies must expand oversight of advanced AI systems under a cybersecurity-focused artificial intelligence executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Tuesday, the administration’s latest attempt to foster innovation while addressing fears of AI-enabled cyber attacks.The directive orders less federal oversight of AI models than an proposed version that was scuttled two weeks ago after industry complaints of overregulation.The order encour
  
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• Trump appoints housing official to be acting director of national intelligence

  02-06-2026 16:26 via defenseone.com
  
  President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is appointing Federal Housing Finance Agency director William Pulte to serve as acting director of national intelligence, replacing outgoing director Tulsi Gabbard.The choice is unusual for the nation’s top spy official, who would oversee the CIA, NSA, and 16 more intelligence agencies. Also unusual: Pulte will keep his job at FHFA and his chairmanship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Trump said in a Truth Social post. Pulte, wh
  
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• Desert e-bike race ‘the perfect’ place to test military-vehicle AI

  02-06-2026 07:29 via defenseone.com
  
  Pilot Racing, a team in the upcoming Baja 1000 dirt-bike race will bring a special advantage: AI that prescribes when a rider should pit, long before the need becomes obvious.The thousand-mile trek through California and Mexico is “the perfect” environment to test GDIT’s logistics-and-maintenance AI before it heads off to rough and disconnected battlefields, a company representative said. GDIT is teaming with AWS on Project Celerity, an AI-enabled platform for managin
  
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• Thanks largely to robots, Ukraine is now talking about winning, not just surviving

  02-06-2026 06:20 via defenseone.com
  
  PRAGUE, Czech Republic–A small but growing number of European officials and analysts are saying what four years ago was unthinkable: Ukraine isn’t just surviving its grueling war with Russia, it is in some ways thriving and may even be on a path to victory.This isn’t yet captured in headlines—for example, about last weekend’s barrage of Russian drones and missiles around Ukraine—but in the details, like how some 90 percent were intercepted.Several long-term tr
  
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• Ready, fire, aim: Pentagon cut workforce with little analysis before or since

  01-06-2026 22:48 via defenseone.com
  
  Pentagon leaders cut their department’s workforce by more than 10 percent with little regard for the effects—and still has no plans to assess them, according to a congressional watchdog report released on Friday. The department shed 78,000 civilian employees in 2025 through a mix of voluntary resignations, involuntary layoffs, and a hiring freeze that resulted in nearly 60,000 fewer new hires than in recent years.“But we found that DOD didn’t consistently analyze the
  
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• The Navy wants next-generation munitions, so it’s spending millions on innovation hubs

  01-06-2026 22:41 via defenseone.com
  
  Updated: June 2.Replenishing munitions stockpiles doesn’t end with simply producing more of them. There are persistent challenges with mixing, manufacturing, integrating and discovering new energetic materials—the chemical compounds that make up explosives, propellants, and munitions. On Thursday, the Navy broke ground on a new facility to help. The Maryland Energetics Innovation Hub is meant to furnish lab space where companies can test new tech, such as high-performance comput
  
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• Q&A with SOUTHCOM commander Gen. Frank Donovan

  30-05-2026 03:07 via defenseone.com
  
  Until recently, Gen. Frank Donovan ran the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group, the white-hot center of the Pentagon’s drive for affordable mass and battlefield robots. Now he’s in charge of U.S. Southern Command, which is working hard to put the DAWG’s products to use. Defense One sat down with Donovan during SOF Week in Tampa. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.Q: You’re an expert in autonomous warfare, as a former leader of the DAWG—for which a ne
  
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