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Emergent BioSolutions was awarded a 5-year, $235.8 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to supply the anthrax vaccine BioThrax to the various branches of the military. Under the terms of the deal, Emergent is guaranteed a purchase minimum of $20.1 million, with future orders estimated to be worth at least $20 million for each following year. Beyond the initial 5-year term, the contract has a 5-year option that could extend the deal to 2033. In all, the procurement pact could be worth up to $235.8 million, the company said in a Jan. 11 release. “Emergent is proud to...

Judicial Watch announced today it received 345 pages of records from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), a component of the U.S. Department of Defense, revealing that the United States funded anthrax laboratory activities in a Ukrainian biolab in 2018. Dozens of pages are completely redacted, and many others are heavily redacted. The records show over $11 million in funding for the Ukraine biolabs program in 2019. The records were obtained in response to a February 28, 2022, Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Defense Threat Reduction Agency for records regarding the funding of Black &...

Although our Founders correctly recognized that the overriding responsibility of the president is to secure our liberties by “protect[ing] and defend[ing] the Constitution,” in this modern era most Americans likely would consider that the most important job of the president is to serve as “commander-in-chief” of the armed forces, and thereby protect the nation’s security. If so, the new Biden administration is establishing a rather odd vision for how the Department of Defense will meet its responsibilities in this regard. The national defense priorities of this administration, as revealed in public documents issued already by the president and his chosen...

Several high profile members of the Defense Policy Board were removed on Wednesday by the Trump administration, in yet another purge of longstanding foreign policy experts and national security establishment figures in the final days of the Trump era, according to three defense officials. Members who were suddenly removed include former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger, former ranking member of the House Intelligence committee Jane Harman and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, two of the officials said. The Defense Policy Board is an outside advisory group of former high profile national security officials who "provide the...

Over the last 8 years, in addition to fighting Obama's numerous wars, the US army has served as a gigantic social sciences lab under this president. Gays can serve openly, as can transgender people. The government will even pay for some gender reassignment surgeries for trans soldiers. Women are now eligible for some combat roles, including special forces. It seems that President Obama has cared more about imposing his cultural agenda on the military rather than winning wars. Now, in the waning days of the administration, the army has decided to take the idea of a "uniform" and turn it...

In a stunning display of callousness, the Defense Department has announced that thousands of soldiers — many serving as commanding officers in Afghanistan — will be notified in the coming weeks that their service to the country is no longer needed. Last week, more than 1,100 Army captains — the men and women who know best how to fight this enemy because they have experienced multiple deployments — were told they’ll be retired from the Army. The overall news is not unexpected. The Army has ended its major operations in Iraq and is winding down in Afghanistan. Budget cuts are...

... The Professor of Communication and Information Science, Jeffrey Hancock, who Mr. Rosen mentions above, has a history of working with the U.S. military, specifically the Minerva Institute. ... A US Department of Defense (DoD) research program is funding universities to model the dynamics, risks and tipping points for large-scale civil unrest across the world, under the supervision of various US military agencies. The multi-million dollar program is designed to develop immediate and long-term “warfighter-relevant insights” for senior officials and decision makers in “the defense policy community,” and to inform policy implemented by “combatant commands.” Launched in 2008 – the...

Can you believe this guy? Who is he representing, the president of the troops he is supposed to stand up for? Last time I checked our Marines are plenty disciplined and far from entitled. http://americanmilitarynews.com/2014/04/top-enlisted-leader-marine-corps-says-lower-pay-marines-will-raise-discipline/

The Obama administration may not be lending arms to dissidents in the Middle East, but it is offering aid in another critical way: helping them surf the Web anonymously as they seek to overthrow their governments. Federal agencies - such as the State Department, the Defense Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors - have been funding a handful of technology firms that allow people to get online without being tracked or to visit news or social media sites that governments have blocked. Many of these little-known organizations - such as the Tor Project and UltraReach- are unabashedly supportive of...

Back home, supporters of the conservative tea party movement clamoring for the debt-ridden federal government to slash spending say nothing should be off limits. Tea party-backed lawmakers echo that argument, and they are not exempting the military's multibillion-dollar budget in a time of war. That demand is creating hard choices for the newest members of Congress, especially Republicans who owe their elections and solid House majority to the influential grass-roots movement. Cutting defense and canceling weapons could mean deep spending reductions and high marks from tea partiers as the U.S. wrestles with a $1.3 trillion deficit. Yet it also could...

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the federal government was ready to investigate solutions to nearly every terrorist threat to civilian aviation. Nearly 10 years later, there has been a subtle shift away from some high-tech solutions to real but low-probability threats. In the case of shoulder-launched missiles aimed at commercial airliners, the government has changed tactics from gadgetry to policy; the White House and Congress this year quietly stopped funding laser-jamming equipment that could scramble missiles as they track the heat of aircraft.

Virginia officials reacted with bipartisan dismay on Monday to Defense Department budget shifts that will cost the state thousands of jobs in coming years and will dramatically impact the economies of the Norfolk area and Northern Virginia. Most of the immediate reaction revolved around Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates's proposal to close the U.S. Joint Forces Command. It is a major employer in Hampton Roads, including Norfolk and Virginia Beach, whose elimination could translate into the loss of 6,100 military, civilian and contractor jobs in the region. But a proposal to slash the Pentagon's budget for military contractors over the...

Extending development by three years on two F-35 variants would not be enough to keep the restructured programme on track. But Lockheed Martin's flight-test programme gained significant new resources to reduce the risk of further delays in the overall restructuring announced on 1 February. Namely, the US Department of Defense will buy another flight-test aircraft in the fourth lot of low-rate initial production (LRIP). The US Marine Corps and US Navy also would "loan" three operational aircraft to Lockheed to participate in the flight-test programme. Doug Pearson, Lockheed vice-president for the F-35's integrated test force, explains how the new resources...

The Army has dropped the Vietnam-era name "psychological operations" for its branch in charge of trying to change minds behind enemy lines, acknowledging the term can sound ominous. The Defense Department picked a more neutral moniker: "Military Information Support Operations," or MISO. U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Ken McGraw said Thursday the new name, adopted last month, more accurately reflects the unit's job of producing leaflets, radio broadcasts and loudspeaker messages to influence enemy soldiers and civilians. "One of the catalysts for the transition is foreign and domestic sensitivities to the term 'psychological operations' that often lead to a misunderstanding...

The Pentagon would consider a military response in the case of a cyber attack against the United States, a US defense official said on Wednesday. Asked about the possibility of using military force after a cyber assault, James Miller, undersecretary of defense for policy, said: "Yes, we need to think about the potential for responses that are not limited to the cyber domain." But he said it remained unclear what constituted an act of war in cyberspace. "Those are legal questions that we are attempting to address," Miller said at a conference in Washington, adding that "there are certainly a...

Tomorrow’s speech by Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Eisenhower Library will mark another milestone in his continuing effort to remake the U.S. military, this time with a renewed emphasis on how tight money is and how Congress must stop ruining the Pentagon’s best laid plans by inserting unwanted funding. One of the biggest burdens Congress places on the Pentagon budget is the pay raise they insist on giving troops every year, along with benefits increases. He’ll also press the four services and the rest of the Pentagon to tighten up their own management. When Gates told the Navy that...

Military Advantage: Our defense secretary proposes doing what no other foreign adversary has done: sink the U.S. Navy. We don't need those billion-dollar destroyers, he says. Meanwhile, the Chinese navy rushes to fill the vacuum. Once Britannia ruled the waves, later to be replaced by America and its Navy. From the Battle of Midway to President Reagan's 600-ship fleet that helped win the Cold War, naval supremacy has been critical to the protection and survival of our nation. Which is why we find the recent remarks of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the Navy League at the Sea-Air-Space expo so...

Airmen's traumatic battlefield injuries may be more effectively treated by using a new light-activated technology developed as a result of research managed by Air Force Office of Scientific Research and supported by funds from the Office of the Secretary of Defense This new treatment for war injuries includes using a process or technology called Photochemical Tissue Bonding, which can replace conventional sutures, staples and glues in repairing skin wounds, reconnecting severed peripheral nerves, blood vessels, tendons and incisions in the cornea. Harvard Medical School professor and Massachusetts General Hospital Wellman Center researcher, Dr. Irene Kochevar and her colleague at Wellman,...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday called into question the Navy's heavy and expensive arsenal of ships and subs. In a speech before naval officers and contractors, Gates did not say he was planning to cut any programs or its budget. But he did say the military must rethink whether it can afford such a massive naval fleet at a time when the Army and Marine Corps need more money to take care of troops and their families. "Do we really need 11 carrier strike groups for another 30 years when no other country has more than one?" Gates asked....

The Defense Department is reassessing its view of unmanned aerial vehicles – a key component of modern combat operations – and deciding what the military needs from UAVs beyond their traditional use as a platform to gather intelligence and fire weapons. The next-generation UAVs will need to take on additional duties including cargo transport, refueling and possible medical applications, and they will need to be interoperable with different platforms, users and military services, DOD officials said at an Institute for Defense and Government Advancement summit on UAVs this week in Vienna, Va. “UAVs are 99 percent [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance]...