News
Pentagon stages first ‘Top Drone’ school for operators to hone skills
The Pentagon last month held its first “Top Drone” school for drone pilots to demonstrate their skills in a threat-representative environment. The event took place as part of the Defense Department’s Technology Readiness Experimentation, or T-REX, a semiannual showcase and evaluation staged at Camp Atterbury in Indiana. The event aims to validate prototypes built to fill urgent capability gaps acr...[Read More]
Pentagon still failing to secure health records of top officials, audit finds
The Department of Defense is still failing to safeguard the electronic health records of top government officials, according to a new watchdog report. In 2021, a DoD Inspector General audit found that snoopers were able to access the protected health information, or PHI, of “well-known DOD personnel.” Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs found that VA staff — often out of simple curiosity...[Read More]
Pentagon takes step toward potentially privatizing commissaries
Commissary officials have taken the first step toward the potential privatization of the military grocery stores, seeking input from the commercial grocery industry on whether they could take over the operation of 178 commissaries across the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. The Defense Commissary Agency released an official Request for Information, or RFI, on sam.gov, the...[Read More]
Pentagon taps 25 firms for small, cheap attack drone competition
The Pentagon on Tuesday announced 25 small technology and drone companies that will compete for a chance to quickly field thousands of low-cost one-way attack drones for the military. Kratos SRE Inc., a subsidiary of Kratos Defense, and Halo Aeronautics are among the more than two dozen vendors taking part in the first phase of the Defense Department’s Drone Dominance Program, the department said ...[Read More]
Pentagon taps 25 firms for small, cheap attack drone competition
The Pentagon on Tuesday announced 25 small technology and drone companies that will compete for a chance to quickly field thousands of low-cost one-way attack drones for the military. Kratos SRE Inc., a subsidiary of Kratos Defense, and Halo Aeronautics are among the more than two dozen vendors taking part in the first phase of the Defense Department’s Drone Dominance Program, the department said ...[Read More]
Pentagon taps Google Gemini, launches new site to boost AI use
The Defense Department on Tuesday launched a major push to get military personnel, civilian employees and contractors to use generative artificial intelligence capabilities, located on its own website. Google Cloud’s Gemini for Government is the first AI capability to be launched on GenAI.mil, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video posted on social media Tuesday. “The future of American wa...[Read More]
Pentagon tells lawmakers it needs $80 billion for Iran war, other expenses: WSJ
The U.S. Department of Defense needs $80 billion to cover costs from the Iran war as well as other non-war-related bills, Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg told lawmakers in phone calls this week, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. A full U.S. supplemental request, which will include money for the Pentagon as well as non-defense priorities...[Read More]
Pentagon temporarily rescinds guidance on testosterone screening for US troops
The Pentagon is temporarily rescinding recently published clinical guidance for a new, mandatory testosterone-deficiency screening policy for service members aged 30 and older, a U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday. On Wednesday, the Pentagon posted the “Clinical Guidance for Health and Human Performance Optimization” on its website. By Thursday, the memo and an accompanying statement from spok...[Read More]
Pentagon to cut ties with Columbia, Yale, Brown and others Hegseth accuses of ‘wokeness’
The Pentagon will forbid members of the military from attending Columbia, Yale, Brown and other universities starting next school year amid a campaign to cut ties with institutions that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called “factories of anti-American resentment.” Hegseth announced the policy in a video posted to social media on Friday, three weeks after he said the military was cutting ties with ...[Read More]
Pentagon to deploy roughly 200 troops to Nigeria
The United States is preparing to send troops to Nigeria where they will train the country’s armed forces as they battle an Islamist insurgency, authorities in Lagos said recently. Roughly 200 troops are expected to be deployed in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official. They will supplement a small team of American military officers already embedded with Nigerian forces. The Wall Street Jo...[Read More]
Pentagon to deploy roughly 200 troops to Nigeria
The United States is preparing to send troops to Nigeria where they will train the country’s armed forces as they battle an Islamist insurgency, authorities in Lagos said recently. Roughly 200 troops are expected to be deployed in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official. They will supplement a small team of American military officers already embedded with Nigerian forces. The Wall Street Jo...[Read More]
Pentagon to roll out new test to assess troops’ cognitive performance
The Defense Department is updating its Cognitive Monitoring Program to include a next-generation capability to meet increased operational demands and reflect matured science. The department will transition from the current Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics, or ANAM, to an “improved capability” through a phased implementation effective immediately, according to a June 9 Pentagon memor...[Read More]