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A venture capital executive with ties to defunct solar company Solyndra has been hired as the new chief of the Defense Department program heading up the Pentagon’s renewable energy push. Arati Prabhakar, a former partner at U.S. Venture Partners, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that backed Solyndra, has been named the new director of DoD’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Prabhakaker will administer DARPA’s roughly $3 billion budget, some of which will likely continue funding projects in renewable energy. While there is no indication that Prabhakar was involved with Solyndra during her time at USVP, her appointment to...

The Pentagon’s controversial plan to hit terrorists half a planet away suffered a setback this weekend, after an experimental hypersonic glider disappeared over the Pacific Ocean. In its first flight test. the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) was supposed to be rocket-launched from California to the edge of space.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2007 – Fallen Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy was inducted today into the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes during a ceremony that honored the lone Medal of Honor recipient from the war in Afghanistan. (Video) Maureen and Daniel Murphy stand next to a framed picture and Medal of Honor citation during a ceremony where their son, Navy Lt. Michael P. Murphy was inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon, Oct. 23, 2007. Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A. Burgess, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Unveiled today, Murphy’s is the only...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2007 – When it is completed in about a year from now, the Pentagon Memorial will commemorate the sacrifice of not only the 184 victims who died here, but also those who perished at the other Sept. 11, 2001, attack sites in New York City and Pennsylvania, Deputy Secretary Gordon R. England said here today. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England speaks at a ceremony held at the Pentagon Memorial site, Sept. 7, 2007, in honor of those who lost their lives in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack against the Pentagon. Defense Dept. photo by...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2006 – They were young and old, college students and retirees, rural visitors and city natives, government employees and private-sector workers, uniformed military personnel and civilians, black and white, Asian and Hispanic; but they all shared a common sense of purpose today. They all wanted to see the Pentagon’s 9/11 memorial. They all wanted to pay tribute to the memory and cause of those who died, on Sept. 11, 2001. For only the second time, Pentagon officials today allowed the general public access to the building’s memorial to the 184 people killed when American Airlines flight 77...

Pentagon's satellite-saving plan could backfire 16:37 15 August 2006 NewScientist.com news service Jeff Hecht Protecting hundreds of low-Earth-orbit satellites from destruction seems a laudable idea, and the US Pentagon wants to do just that. But the scheme could backfire, by shutting down civilian and military communications and impairing Global Positioning System signals. The Pentagon is concerned that a high-altitude nuclear explosion or an intense solar storm could fill near-Earth space with charged particles, crippling the operation of many satellites. It has proposed a plan called “radiation belt remediation” to clean it up. The idea is to orbit satellites that would...

WASHINGTON, June 15, 2006 – In a solemn ceremony under sunny skies, the ground that nearly five years ago was the scene of a catastrophic attack was today dedicated to the memory of those who were killed. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld speaks to the audience at the June 15 site dedication ceremony to mark the beginning of work on the Pentagon Memorial at the site where 184 innocent lives were lost when terrorist hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, USN  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 6, 2005 – Naval Reserve Lt. Cmdr. Ty Redmon starts each day at the Military Severely Injured Center with a new life-changing challenge. Each case that comes across Redmon's desk involves helping a severely injured Reserve, Guard or active sailor, mostly due to action in Iraq and Afghanistan. He may help get military orders for relatives to stay bedside, wrangle with the Defense Finance and Accounting Service on pay issues, or simply provide a list of free child care centers injured troops' hometowns. "You can't put a cookie-cutter pattern on people that are hurt," Redmon said. "And...

White House challenges Pentagon's role in Iraq By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 07/10/2003) President George W Bush has ordered the White House to take tighter control over American operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, an apparent sign of dissatisfaction with the Pentagon-led efforts on the ground. His national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, is to head an "Iraq stabilisation group", giving the White House a more active role. President Bush listens to national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in the Oval Office The change was seen as the closest the administration has come to acknowledging that the Pentagon's post-war mission in Iraq...

Pentagon's top investigator will lead inquiry into accident By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 03 February 2003 NASA turned yesterday to a retired four-star admiral who led the inquiry into the October 2000 terrorist attack on the destroyer USS Cole at Aden to head an independent commis-sion examining the Columbia space shuttle disaster. Harold Gehman, with 35 years of active duty in the navy, is regarded as one of the Pentagon's wisest and most experienced investigators. He has a career of high military appointments behind him – the most recent as Nato's supreme allied commander for the Atlantic, in charge of...