Biotech boosters win big in both HASC, SASC defense policy bills for FY26
Both the House and Senate Armed Services Committees voted to streamline Pentagon procurement of biologically-derived materials, from first aid treatments to novel explosives.
Pentagon
The US Army’s second rebirth: From post-Vietnam to post-GWOT
In this op-ed, AEI’s John Ferrari offers advice for keeping the Army’s transformation initiative on track — starting with the budget.
Anthropic, Google and xAI win $200M each from Pentagon AI chief for ‘agentic AI’
The three new contracts come on top of last month’s equal award to OpenAI, bringing the Chief Digital & AI Officer’s investment in cutting-edge commercial “frontier AI” to a total of $800 million.
Trump announces plan to sell NATO countries weapons for Ukraine
“This is, again, Europeans stepping up. … This is only the first wave, there will be more,” said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Post success at The Hague summit, the real NATO work remains
Joshua Huminski in this op-ed explores next steps now that NATO allies have signed an agreement to spend 5 percent GDP on defense.
Congressionally Established DoD Progress Payment Pilot Program On Hold
Section 874 of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act authorized the DoD acquisition chief to “establish and implement a pilot program to incentivize contractor performance by paying covered contractors […]
Hegseth orders military to ‘unleash’ use of small drones in new memo
“While global military drone production skyrocketed over the last three years, the previous administration deployed red tape. US
units are not outfitted with the lethal small drones the modern battlefield requires,” Hegseth wrote.
Defense Department Seeks Public Input On Trump’s Acquisition Reform Order
The Defense Department on Wednesday asked for public comment on a presidential directive to reform how the department acquires stuff, including mandating a preference for commercial solutions. The public has […]
From fighter jets to space systems: Military sends lawmakers over $20B-worth of unfunded priorities
Breaking Defense has obtained a series of the Pentagon’s Unfunded Priority Lists, non-public documents that outline what the services and COCOMS would do with extra money.
The U.S. Has 40,000 Troops in the Middle East
CIPHER BRIEF REPORTING — Recent U.S. strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities propelled the some 40,000 American forces in the region into the spotlight over fears of retaliation and sparked fresh debate about the scope and nature of their deploymen…