News

The cherry blossoms are in bloom; glints of hope are still fresh in fans’ eyes; beer is flowing; hot dogs are being consumed at alarming rates— it’s baseball time. But amid the festivities is a tradition, now in its third year, that intersects America’s favorite pastime and military service. Ahead of Opening Day, Arlington National Cemetery placed official MLB baseballs — courtesy of the Nationals...[Read More]

Fought on the night of June 9-10, 1965, the Battle of Dong Xoai was, as was often the case in the Vietnam War, hard to pin down as to the winner. One thing is certain, however. It produced two Medals of Honor — and one had the unique distinction of being a Seabee. Marvin Glen Shields was born in Port Townsend, Washington, on Dec. 30, 1939. After high school his family moved in 1958 to Hyder, Alask...[Read More]

Twenty-six days after the Pentagon’s deadline for defense companies to propose faster weapons production, the Defense Department has not publicly disclosed how many companies responded or what production timelines they offered. Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg gave industry leaders until Aug. 26 to submit plans for “significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased p...[Read More]

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Laser Wars, a newsletter about military laser weapons and other futuristic defense technology. Subscribe here. For decades, the U.S. military’s dream of high-energy laser weapons has been perpetually “five years away.” Now, the Pentagon says it wants to finally make them an operational reality within the next three. Speaking on a panel at the Nation...[Read More]

Pentagon leaders increasingly argue that future wars will be won by the force that can sense, decide and act faster than its enemy. Lessons from Ukraine and growing concerns about potential conflict with China have intensified the Defense Department’s focus on what officials call “information and decision advantage” — the ability to make informed decisions quicker and more accurately than an adver...[Read More]

The research infrastructure that underpins America’s prowess in defense technology is “deteriorating,” according to a Department of Defense report released Wednesday. One reason is that research funds are being diverted to operations. The Pentagon’s “research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) infrastructure is deteriorating and weakening the Department’s ability to maintain a technica...[Read More]