Free Republic

Five aviation companies are under contract to develop armed, unmanned aircraft and control systems for use on the Navy’s fleet of 11 aircraft carriers, USNI News has learned.General Atomics, Boeing, Anduril and Northrop Grumman are on contract for the conceptual design of the so-called collaborative combat aircraft, or CCA, according to a Navy presentation reviewed by USNI News. Lockheed Martin is under contract to build the common control system.The Navy wants “uncrewed, modular, interoperable, interchangeable and versatile platforms” that it can field from an aircraft carrier, reads the slide from Naval Air Systems Command’s program executive office for unmanned aviation...

The Capitol Hill battle over Jeffrey Epstein is poised to heat up when Congress returns to Washington next month. While GOP leaders left town early to avoid the radioactive issue, the conspiracy-ridden saga is set to ramp back up come September for a number of reasons. A bipartisan pair of lawmakers have vowed to force a vote on their resolution requiring the administration to release the federal files it’s withholding and plan to bring survivors of Epstein’s abuse to Capitol Hill in the first days of Congress’s return. Separately, a number of court cases surrounding the fate of those files...

A federal judge on Monday denied the Department of Justice’s request to unseal grand jury materials in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case. In his 31-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, a Barack Obama appointee, says that the grand jury materials do not identify anyone other than Epstein or Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. The DOJ request came as supporters of President Donald Trump have pushed for more disclosures related to Maxwell and her co-conspirator Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased financier and accused sex trafficker. Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi last month to release "any and...

The U.S. Navy and the Pentagon are locked in a public struggle over the F/A-XX sixth-generation fighter, a program the DoD moved to defund in favor of the Air Force's F-47. The Navy argues the F/A-XX is essential to overcome the critical range limitations of its current F/A-18 and F-35 air wing, keeping its aircraft carriers viable against long-range Chinese "carrier killer" missiles.

Maurene Comey lashed out at Trump in a message to colleagues after she was fired. Maurene Comey, daughter of James Comey, was fired as a federal prosecutor in the Manhattan US Attorney’s office on Wednesday. “There was no specific reason given for her firing from the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York, according to one of the people who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters,” the AP reported. Maurene Comey didn’t call out Trump by name, but she attacked the president and his administration in a message after being...

One of Donald Trump’s popular campaign promises was to work on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, so we could see how many people still in power were clients of the infamous child trafficker. In a new mystifying message, Trump not only supported his attorney general in not releasing the files; he bashed his own base.Voters love Trump for defying the Deep State, for promising to drain the swamp, for vowing to track down criminals — especially child abusers. He was elected on promises of enforcing the law against criminals. Now Attorney General Pam Bondi is claiming that the Epstein files...

Donald Trump and his allies have the U.S. census in their sights as they continue to pursue their anti-democratic visions for the country. Touring a controversial new immigrant detention center in Florida on Tuesday, Donald Trump excitedly backed a proposal from far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., that would drastically alter the U.S. electoral map if implemented. Greene said Monday that her proposal, which she said she will introduce in the House, would require the Census Bureau to “immediately” conduct a new census — even though the census takes place every 10 years, with the next one set for 2030....