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WASHINGTON — The results of four command investigations related to serious mishaps during the Harry S. Truman carrier strike group’s recent deployment point to inadequate training and poor performance by ship crews as well as their commanders, according to newly released Navy investigation reports.The reports, which were heavily redacted for public consumption, paint a picture of strike group sailors and officers who erred in their judgment and failed to communicate properly while under exceedingly high pressure and operational tempo as the strike group was conducting operations to counter Houthi rebel attacks in and around the Red Sea.The investigations released today...

AUSA 2025 — The Army’s Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George announced Tuesday that Western Hemisphere Command, which will combine the Army North Command, Army South Command and Force Command (FORSCOM), will be stood up before the end of the year.The move to stand up the new command comes as the service has been making strides to slim down the size of its headquarters and cut the number of four-star general officer billets as part of its larger continuous transformation effort. Earlier this month, the Army combined Futures Command with Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), into one command dubbed the...

WASHINGTON — In keeping with his penchant for shocking the defense industry, President Donald Trump today seemingly revealed plans to develop a twin-engine version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter known as the F-55, as well as an upgraded “F-22 Super.”But former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said he was “mystified by Trump’s comments,” and analysts said that what the president described would be a highly challenging engineering endeavor on par with creating a clean-sheet aircraft. They also questioned the wisdom of spending scarce budget dollars on a twin-engine advanced F-35 when the newly announced F-47 is already planned to...

CINCINNATI — The man who ran his car into a Hamilton County sheriff's deputy working a traffic detail near the University of Cincinnati, killing him, was the father of a man shot and killed by a Cincinnati police officer one day prior, Chief Teresa Theetge said during a press conference Friday evening.Cincinnati police said 38-year-old Rodney Hinton Jr. was arrested for aggravated murder following the deputy's death. Hinton is the father of 18-year-old Ryan Hinton, who an officer shot and killed Thursday morning during a pursuit involving a stolen vehicle.Rodney Hinton Jr. appeared in court Saturday morning, with dozens of...

WASHINGTON — Boeing has won an Air Force contract to develop the first ever sixth-generation fighter, dubbed the F-47, which is seen as critical to maintaining America’s air supremacy over China, President Donald Trump announced today.The aerospace giant’s victory in the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program is a game-changer for Boeing, whose defense business has suffered billions of dollars in losses in recent years stemming from a series of ill-performing fixed-price contracts. In particular, the win gives Boeing the opportunity to build a new fighter jet at a time when its F/A-18 line is nearing closure, a...

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following report was originally published on July 1, 2024 under the title “As Air Force deliberates sixth-gen fighter plans, much is at stake for Boeing,” at a time when the future of the Air Force’s Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) effort was in question. With today’s announcement that Boeing has won the NGAD contract to build the fighter jet now dubbed the F-47, Breaking Defense is reupping the story, as it gives insights into just how important winning this competition was for the future of Boeing’s defense arm.ST LOUIS, Mo., and WASHINGTON — It’s no secret that Boeing...

The Air Force canceled its premiere acquisition seminar and collaborative meeting with industry for 2025 to comply with Trump administration efficiency directives, the Air Force Materiel Command’s Life Cycle Management Center said March 11. The Life Cycle Industry Days 2025 event was to be held the Convention Center in Dayton, Ohio, July 28 and 29.“Based on Air Force guidance on mission-critical categories of exempted travel consistent with Executive Order 14222, ‘Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Cost Efficiency Initiative’, and in consultation with the Dayton Development Coalition and representatives of the State of Ohio, we have canceled the 9th...

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “disestablishing” the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, a key office responsible for high-level strategic analysis, according to a memo obtained by Breaking Defense.The memo, dated today and signed by Hegseth, directs the Pentagon’s Performance Improvement Officer and Director of Administration and Management to reassign all civilian employees to other “mission critical positions” inside the department, while military personnel will return to their service to receive new billets.Simultaneously, the Pentagon’s top acquisition official is directed to “ensure that the necessary steps are taken” by department contracting authorities to terminate “all ONA contracts awarded for...

On Sunday 23 February, NBC News reported that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had dismissed his Senior Military Advisor, Air Force Lieutenant General Jennifer M. Short - “effective immediately.”Following the dismissals of General CQ Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General James Slife, Air Force vice chief of staff, and Admiral Lisa Franchetti, Chief of Naval Operations, as well as the three service Judge Advocate Generals. This level of turbulence in the military’s top ranks is unprecedented.This is not normal or routine – and while these appointments are naturally approved by the President, they are not political appointments,...

WASHINGTON — Former chief information security officer (CISO) for acquisition and sustainment at the Department of Defense is headed back to the Pentagon — this time as DoD’s CISO — following her previous suspension from the department for allegedly disclosing classified data.Katie Arrington served as a state lawmaker for South Carolina and had an unsuccessful bid for Congress before taking her post in 2019 as the chief information officer for A&S during President Donald Trump’s first administration. She played an active role in standing up the department’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program before she was put on administrative leave...

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth today announced he was removing Adm. Lisa Franchetti as the chief of naval operations, unceremoniously ending early the tenure of the first woman to become a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.In addition, Hegseth said he would be replacing Gen. James Slife, the Air Force’s No. 2 officer, as well as replacing the top Judge Advocate General for the Army, Air Force and Navy.“I am also requesting nominations for the positions of Chief of Naval Operations and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff. The incumbents in these important roles, Admiral Lisa Franchetti...

WASHINGTON — After four decades in uniform, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown was unceremoniously ushered from his post nearly two-and-a-half years early tonight via a social media message by President Donald Trump.His unprecedented replacement: John Caine, a retired three-star Air Force officer.“I want to thank General Charles “CQ” Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. “He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him...

WASHINGTON — While the Department of the Air Force has not revealed the impetus behind its unusual Jan. 16 announcement that Space Development Agency chief Derek Tournear has been placed on administrative leave, Breaking Defense has learned that the move is related to an ongoing bid protest by Viasat over an recent SDA contract award. According to several sources involved, Tournear allegedly stepped afoul of DoD contracting procedures in the runup to SDA’s Aug. 16 award of two prototype agreements worth approximately $424 million in total to York Space Systems and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, a subsidiary of Terran Orbital, out...

EDWARDS AFB, Calif.— Congress wants more information from the Pentagon on what authorities and technologies it needs to protect military installations from the threat of drone incursions, as a spate of high-profile incidents spark concerns that adversaries could use drones to exploit weaknesses in US base security. The compromise version of the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, released on Saturday, includes several provisions aimed at improving the US military’s response to potential drone threats to its installations, including the creation of a counter-drone strategy. In addition to the mandate for the strategy — which was originally included in the...

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — United Launch Alliance (ULA) expects to gain Space Force certification for national security payloads within a few months, company CEO Tory Bruno told Breaking Defense in a recent interview.Speaking in California, Bruno said he expects certification “momentarily,” though he noted that “’momentarily,’ in our world, that means this month, next month, next few months.”He added that no further testing of the Vulcan Centaur will be needed to meet certification, saying the company has met all the requirements from the Pentagon.Two well-executed launches are requisite to achieve certification for carrying payloads under the Space Force’s National Security...

WASHINGTON — When President-elect Donald Trump’s new defense secretary takes the reins of the Pentagon next year, they may quickly be faced with an internal debate to settle: whether the Army should continue with its traditional role of providing defenses for air bases, or whether the Air Force steps up to the task on its own.At the core of the issue is not only the capabilities brought to the fight by each service, but how they will be funded. The Army has traditionally been charged with defending air bases, which is part of the reason why systems like Patriot and...

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has long pushed back against the establishment of a new military service dedicated to cyberspace, but with President-elect Donald Trump on his way back to the White House, a separate cyber force has a real shot at becoming a reality, according to experts and to lawmakers who support the move.“This change in administration potentially could give more impetus to the creation of a separate cyber service,” Quentin Hodgson, formerly the Pentagon’s director of Cyber Plans, told Breaking Defense. “[Trump] did that with the Space Force. It was something that the Department of Defense didn’t want, but...

WASHINGTON — After protracted negotiations, the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have reached an informal agreement, known as a “handshake deal,” for the next two production lots of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the parties confirmed to Breaking Defense.“We have reached an initial agreement as part of ongoing negotiations for the Lot 18/19 Air Vehicle Production Contract,” the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) and Lockheed said in a joint statement.The statement did not share final quantities or prices, saying only that those figures will be disclosed “when a final agreement is signed.” The news was first reported by Air & Space...

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s stated plans to tee up the firings of thousands of federal employees has shaken many in the career workforce and is damaging productivity, the Pentagon’s chief accountant warned today.Mike McCord, the Pentagon comptroller, also predicted the current continuing resolution would stretch until March and the fiscal 2026 budget will not arrive before April or May.Near the end of his first term in office, Trump signed an executive order reclassifying thousands of government employees — often the type who typically remain in place regardless of presidential administration — as new “Schedule F” staff without employment protections,...

President-Elect Donald Trump enacted pro-nuclear policies during his first term and has supported an “all-of-the-above” energy policy during the campaign. At a campaign rally in Michigan on Aug. 29, he stated, “Starting on day one, I will approve new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries, new power plants, new reactors and we will slash the red tape. We will get the job done.”This is exactly the posture needed to meet energy power demands — especially on the national security front, where the threats to energy infrastructure are all too real. We worked with our colleagues at the Pentagon, the Department of...