News
Pentagon fails financial audit for 8th year in a row
The Pentagon failed its financial audit for the eighth consecutive year, the Defense Department said Friday, highlighting the ongoing systemic challenge the nation’s largest federal agency faces in fully accounting for its assets. The department has received a failing grade on every audit since Congress mandated annual reviews beginning in 2018, and is the only one of the government’s 24 major age...[Read More]
Pentagon freezes out Anthropic as it signs deals with AI rivals
The Department of Defense announced on Friday that it had struck deals with seven leading artificial intelligence companies to deploy their systems within classified Pentagon networks. Included in the roster of partnerships — intended for “lawful operational use” — are SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft and Amazon Web Services. “These agreements accelerate the transformation tow...[Read More]
Pentagon has ‘kicked off’ review of US force posture in Europe
The Pentagon has formally launched the Europe force posture review Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last month, beginning a process to examine U.S. military troop presence, force posture and basing across Europe. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby announced on X Tuesday that the Defense Department had “kicked off” the review Hegseth unveiled during the NATO defense minist...[Read More]
Pentagon identifies American soliders killed in Iranian attack in Jordan
The Pentagon released the identities Monday of the two soldiers killed in action late last week in an Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack in Jordan. U.S. Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, died July 17 and July 18, respectively, according to a Department of Defense release. The active-duty soldiers were killed d...[Read More]
Pentagon identifies seventh soldier killed in action during Operation Epic Fury
The Defense Department has identified a seventh service member to be killed in action amid ongoing combat operations against Iran. Sgt. Benjamin N. Pennington, 26, of Glendale, Kentucky, succumbed to his wounds on March 8, the Pentagon announced, after being wounded during a March 1 enemy attack at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia. Pennington was assigned to 1st Space Battalion, 1st Space Brig...[Read More]
Pentagon identifies six airmen killed in KC-135 crash in Iraq
The Pentagon has identified six service members who were killed on March 12 when a U.S. Air Force KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed during combat operations against Iran. Maj. John “Alex” Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama; Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington; and Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky, were killed in the crash, the Pentagon announced. They were assi...[Read More]
Pentagon identifies soldier killed in controlled detonation of Iranian drone
The Pentagon identified on Tuesday the soldier who was killed Saturday in northern Iraq during the controlled detonation of an Iranian one-way attack drone. Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, was killed in action during the detonation of unexploded ordnance at Erbil Air Base, Iraq, a release states. Lt. Gen. John L. Rafferty, commanding general of Army Air and Miss...[Read More]
Pentagon inks deals with Boeing, RTX to boost production of SM-3 components
The Pentagon signed two framework agreements Friday with Boeing and RTX to expand production of critical components for the Standard Missile-3, the Navy’s primary ship-launched interceptor against ballistic missiles. The deals cover avionics and ejector assemblies Boeing supplies to prime contractor Raytheon, an RTX business, for both the SM-3 Block IB and the newer Block IIA. Both variants operat...[Read More]
Pentagon is embracing Musk’s Grok AI chatbot as it draws global outcry
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Monday that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok will join Google’s generative AI engine in operating inside the Pentagon network, as part of a broader push to feed as much of the military’s data as possible into the developing technology. “Very soon we will have the world’s leading AI models on every unclassified and classified network throughout ou...[Read More]
Pentagon launches Office of Religious Affairs, will report directly to Hegseth
The Pentagon is launching a religious affairs office to address what Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth calls a loss of religious community within the military after an era of “political correctness.” Reporting directly to Hegseth, the Office of Religious Affairs, or ORA, is meant to offer service members “first-class religious support,” according to the defense secretary. Hegseth first announced t...[Read More]
Pentagon let CBP use anti-drone laser before FAA closed El Paso airspace: Report
The Pentagon allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to use an anti-drone laser earlier this week, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to suddenly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details. The confusing arc of events began as the FAA announced it was shut...[Read More]
Pentagon looks to AI to identify space and missile threats
Missile defense in wartime involves many complications. Human operators must deal with high-speed objects, short timelines and sensor data that isn’t always clear. The Pentagon now wants artificial intelligence that can cut through the confusion. It’s seeking “AI-based software tools to turn fragmented sensor data into a continuously updated understanding of space and missile threats fast enough t...[Read More]