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Military Times
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[l] at 6/20/25 2:55pm
SAN FRANCISCO — California’s challenge of the Trump administration’s military deployment in Los Angeles returned to a federal courtroom in San Francisco on Friday for a brief hearing after an appeals court handed President Donald Trump a key procedural win.U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer put off issuing any additional rulings and instead asked for briefings from both sides by noon Monday on whether the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil, is being violated in Los Angeles.Newsom said in his complaint that “violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is imminent, if not already underway” but Breyer last week postponed considering that allegation.The hearing comes a day after the 9th Circuit appellate panel allowed the president to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed in response to protests over immigration raids.The history of presidents activating US troops on American soilThe appellate decision halted a temporary restraining order from Breyer, who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Breyer also asked the lawyers on Friday to address whether he or the appellate court retains primary jurisdiction to grant an injunction under the Posse Comitatus Act.California has sought a preliminary injunction returning control to Newsom of the troops in Los Angeles, where protests have calmed down in recent days.Trump, a Republican, argued that the troops have been necessary to restore order. Newsom, a Democrat, said their presence on the streets of a U.S. city inflamed tensions, usurped local authority and wasted resources.The demonstrations have appeared to be winding down, although dozens of protesters showed up Thursday at Dodger Stadium, where a group of federal agents with their faces covered, traveling in SUVs and cargo vans, had gathered at a parking lot. The Los Angeles Dodgers organization asked them to leave, and they did.On Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass lifted a curfew in downtown Los Angeles that was first imposed in response to vandalism and clashes with police after crowds gathered in opposition to agents taking migrants into detention.Trump federalized members of the California National Guard under an authority known as Title 10.Title 10 allows the president to call the National Guard into federal service when the country “is invaded,” when “there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government,” or when the president is otherwise unable “to execute the laws of the United States.”Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which he said allows presidents to control state National Guard troops only during times of “rebellion or danger of a rebellion.”“The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of ‘rebellion,’” wrote Breyer, a Watergate prosecutor who was appointed by President Bill Clinton and is the brother of retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.The Trump administration argued that courts can’t second-guess the president’s decisions. The appellate panel ruled otherwise, saying presidents don’t have unfettered power to seize control of a state’s guard, but said that by citing violent acts by protesters in this case, the Trump administration had presented enough evidence to show it had a defensible rationale for federalizing the troops.For now, the California National Guard will stay in federal hands as the lawsuit proceeds. It’s the first deployment by a president of a state National Guard without the governor’s permission since troops were sent to protect Civil Rights Movement marchers in 1965.Trump celebrated the appellate ruling in a social media post, calling it a “BIG WIN” and hinting at more potential deployments. “All over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done,” Trump wrote.Newsom, for his part, has also warned that California won’t be the last state to see troops in the streets if Trump gets his way. “The President is not a king and is not above the law. We will press forward with our challenge to President Trump’s authoritarian use of U.S. military soldiers against citizens,” Newsom said.Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance was traveling to Los Angeles on Friday to meet with U.S. Marines who also have been deployed to protect federal buildings, his office announced.

[Category: / Pentagon & Congress] [Link to media]

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[l] at 6/20/25 2:01pm
The U.S. Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier will deploy next week to Europe, as a growing conflict between Iran and Israel wages on.The carrier Gerald Ford is expected to depart Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, next week and travel to the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations — a component of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa that encompasses the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding areas — according to a defense official.The carrier is embarking as part of a regularly scheduled deployment, and the move is not in response to rising tensions in the Middle East, according to the official.US troops, bases in Middle East could be targets in conflict with IranThe Ford will deploy with its strike group, which includes Carrier Air Wing 8 and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers Mitscher, Mahan and Bainbridge, the official said.The destroyer Winston S. Churchill will also deploy as part of the strike group, according to a Navy release. The destroyer Forrest Sherman deployed from Naval Station Norfolk last month, according to the same release.The carrier Nimitz recently left the South China Sea and headed toward the Middle East to replace the Carl Vinson Strike Group for a regularly scheduled deployment, though the carrier skipped a port call in Vietnam to expedite the voyage in light of the burgeoning conflict between Israel and Iran.Israel launched airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, destroying sites, and killing nuclear scientists and senior military leaders, on June 13. Iran has since retaliated with missile strikes, hitting an Israeli hospital Thursday, while the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that U.S. intervention would result in “irreparable damage” to the U.S.President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he will decide within two weeks whether the U.S. military will strike Iran, a choice that reportedly hinges on Tehran’s willingness to engage in negotiations over its nuclear program.Iran’s main nuclear facility, Fordo, is buried deep within the mountains 60 miles southwest of Tehran and can likely only be reached by bunker-buster bombs that the United States is in sole possession of.

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[l] at 6/20/25 12:43pm
The Defense Department terminated the contract with HomeSafe Alliance, the company hired to manage military moves, citing its inability to perform the work, officials announced Wednesday.HomeSafe had been awarded the Global Household Goods Contract, worth potentially up to $17.9 billion over nine years, to implement a new process for moving service members’ and their families household goods.The contract was terminated due to HomeSafe’s “demonstrated inability to fulfill their obligations and deliver high quality moves to service members,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in an announcement Wednesday.Although HomeSafe will be ceasing operations, company officials said they will complete all moves currently in progress for service members and their families. Meanwhile, industry representatives said moving companies are “working feverishly” to cover as many military household goods shipments as possible under the legacy system.The contract, awarded in 2021, was aimed at fixing long-standing problems with missed pickup and delivery dates, broken and lost items and claims. However, amid the contract’s rocky rollout this year, families reported delays in getting their household goods picked up and delivered.In a statement to Military Times, HomeSafe said it disagrees with U.S. Transportation Command’s decision to terminate the contract.“HomeSafe is confident it performed to the fullest extent possible considering the limitations placed on it,” company officials said in a release. Officials said they were disappointed they didn’t have the opportunity to engage with the task force “prior to the contract being terminated without warning.”In May, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered several changes to the system, including creating a PCS task force and increasing the reimbursement rate for troops and families who decide to move all or part of their household goods themselves to 130% of what the government would have paid under the GHC contract.“We know it’s not working and it’s only getting worse. We’ve heard your concerns about contractor performance quality and accountability. We hear you loud and clear. That’s why we’re taking decisive action immediately,” Hegseth said in a video posted on X in May. In a memo released Wednesday, Hegseth appointed Army Maj. Gen. Lance G. Curtis to lead the PCS task force. The task force “is currently reviewing the entire PCS process to rapidly identify additional actions to better the moving experience now,” according to the announcement. The group is tasked with submitting recommendations for longer-term solutions no later than Sept. 5.As the peak military moving season is now in full swing, defense officials have also implemented changes to address the issue of finding enough movers to handle the volume of moves. That includes reverting all moves to be handled under the legacy system. Service members moving themselves may also be reimbursed 100% of the government rate under the legacy system.TRANSCOM, which had been gradually ramping up the volume of moves with HomeSafe since April 2024, had expected to move all domestic shipments under the new contract by this year’s peak moving season, but it scrapped that plan earlier this year as problems began to mount with HomeSafe’s ability to provide enough capacity to pack, load, truck and unload service members’ belongings.This move was a ‘living nightmare’ — and it’s just one example from a brutal PCS season for troops, familiesMovers for America, an organization of large and small independent contractors and businesses that move military families, said it “[commends] the Defense Department for its decisive leadership to address the failed Global Household Goods Contract.”The GHC’s attempt to reform the moving process “resulted in the worsening of Permanent Change of Station moves, with a rigid structure that ignored the economic and logistical realities of military moves,” stated the organization, which has opposed the GHC.The International Association of Movers also supports DOD’s decision to act quickly on the GHC, “in an attempt to stabilize peak season moves for our service members,” said Dan Bradley, vice president of government and military relations for the organization. Movers are facing an uphill battle this late into peak season to recover from the instability and unknowns of this year, Bradley said, “but our members are working feverishly to cover as many shipments as they can under the current constraints.”A number of moving companies have declined to participate in the new GHC system, citing lower rates than they’ve been traditionally paid.“From the program’s start, HomeSafe has also faced staunch opposition from certain legacy movers,” company officials stated.

[Category: / Pentagon & Congress] [Link to media]

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[l] at 6/20/25 11:30am
The Navy is continuing to show signs of improving integration of autonomous warfighting capabilities as this year’s Baltic Operations exercise draws to a close. The exercise, which ran in the Baltic Sea region from June 5-20, featured about 9,000 personnel, over 40 vessels and 25 aircraft, and was aimed at preparing for an array of cutting-edge maritime fighting scenarios. Included in the BALTOPS exercise alongside anti-submarine warfare and countermine operations were missions featuring unmanned surface vessels and underwater vehicles. At the center of those modernization capabilities has been U.S. 6th Fleet’s Commander, Task Force 66, which during the exercise deployed robotic and autonomous systems, or RAS, to simulate “attacks” against larger surface vessels, including the Blue Ridge-class command ship Mount Whitney and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Paul Ignatius. Among the unmanned tech used was the craft known as the GARC, a 16-foot autonomous surface vessel that can maneuver at high speeds. Challenges posed by such vessels improved the tactical responses of those aboard larger warships, according to a service release.“The thing is, ‘unmanned’ isn’t completely unmanned,” Lt. Jay Faylo, unmanned systems director for CTF 66, said in a release. “There’s a lot of manpower that goes into making these systems work — maintaining the platforms, developing the software and providing the right amount of oversight and direction during operations.” The Navy is increasing its investment in new technology to expand not only manufacturing power but options for maritime battle scenarios. Last month, the sea service conducted the first-ever launch of a Solid Fuel Integral Rocket Ramjet, or SFIRR, from an unmanned aerial vehicle. Earlier this year, the Pentagon released a call for a new autonomous underwater vessel called the CAMP, while private industry, including outfits like HavocAI and Saronic Technologies, have announced the development of new unmanned vessels.

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[l] at 6/20/25 9:41am
Following a decade-long recovery and identification mission led by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency — and more than 80 years since he was killed in the hellish Guadalcanal campaign — U.S. Marine Corps Pvt. Charmning Rowe returned home this month.“Today we close the chapter on a story that began in 1942 and bring home a hero,” said Sgt. Matthew Wedding, the Marine charged with escorting Rowe’s remains. “This mission embodies our commitment to never forget and to fulfill our promise to bring every Marine home.”A native of Orlovista, Florida, Rowe enlisted in the Marine Corps on Jan. 20, 1942, just six weeks after the United States’ entry into World War II. Following recruit training at Parris Island, South Carolina, Rowe was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Division. The American campaign to wrest the island of Guadalcanal from the Japanese began on Aug. 7, 1942. The first land campaign of the Pacific, Guadalcanal was to play an outsized roll in turning the Japanese tide in the war. It was, as historian John D. Lukacs writes, “America’s first steps toward the ultimate, unconditional victory over Japan almost exactly three years later.” Between July 1942 and February 1943, the U.S. won the naval battle, the air battle and the land battle — initially with nothing more than sheer tenacity and courage, but then by grinding down the enemy with increasingly superior lines of supply.At just 21 years old when he arrived on Guadalcanal on Sept. 18, 1942, Rowe was among those many green recruits facing down a ruthless enemy. He would be killed only six days later. During a patrol southwest of the vital Henderson Field, Rowe engaged in a firefight with Japanese forces near Mount Austen. Rowe and three other Marines — Pvt. Randolph R. Edwards, Pfc. Erwin S. King, and Pfc. Morris E. Canady — were killed by enemy gunfire and buried in hasty battlefield graves dug by his fellow Marines. The graves were known as Hill X and Hill Y. Six other fallen Marines would shortly be buried alongside the men.However, according to the Marine Forces Reserve, “despite post-war efforts by the American Graves Registration Service in the late 1940s, none of the 10 Marines buried at Hills X and Y were recovered. In 1949, Rowe was officially declared ‘non-recoverable.’”In 2012, the case was reopened by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency following new intelligence that revealed postwar recovery teams may have searched the wrong locations due to mislabeled records, the Marine Forces Reserve wrote.A 1942 aerial map that had gone previously unnoticed and unused in a Hawaiian museum archive held the key to locating Rowe and his fellow Devil Dogs. In 2016, excavation efforts resumed, leading to the discovering of human remains and military artifacts. On June 5, the remains of Rowe were, at long last, repatriated to his family in Orlando.“This mission highlights the institution’s commitment to never leaving a Marine behind,” said 1st Sgt. Juan Duque, inspector-instructor, 4th Marine Logistics Group.

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[l] at 6/20/25 9:13am
A company working with the Marine Corps recently completed its first autonomous test flight of a helicopter as part of a Marine logistics program.Near Earth Autonomy completed the test flight using a Leonardo AW139 helicopter under the Marine Corps Aerial Logistics Connector program, according to Defence Blog.The May flight was the first time the company used its onboard autonomy stack to control the flight, company officials told Defence Blog.“This flight showcases Near Earth Autonomy’s leadership in developing trusted autonomy for real-world operations,” said Dr. Sanjiv Singh, CEO of Near Earth Autonomy. “By directly controlling the AW139’s flight modes with our autonomy system, we’ve shown that scalable autonomous logistics using existing platforms is not just possible, it’s happening now.”The ALC program is working to deliver an autonomous aerial logistics system that “enhances military readiness and operational flexibility.” Future tests are planned to expand on autonomy features with automated route planning, obstacle avoidance and logistics system integration. The test used the Honeywell-owned AW139 as a testbed outfitted with avionics that interfaced directly with the autonomy package. Leonardo, the original manufacturer of the aircraft, provided engineering support for systems integration.“This successful demonstration is a major step in creating brand new possibilities for not only the USMC, but potentially other helicopter operators as well,” said Bob Buddecke, President of Electronic Solutions at Honeywell Aerospace Technologies. “Together with Near Earth Autonomy and Leonardo, we’re showing how existing aircraft can be adapted with trusted avionics to support the next generation of defense logistics,” he added. “Uncrewed aircraft will be vital in keeping service men and women safe in contested environments, and we are one step closer to realizing that vision.”Near Earth Autonomy also received a $790,000 Navy contract to deliver miniaturized autonomy service for the Marine Corps’ Tactical Resupply Unmanned Aircraft System program in April.The drone allows for rapid resupply and routine distribution with high speed and precision, Near Earth Autonomy told the Robot Report.“The Firefly autonomy system is designed to give the U.S. Marine Corps a critical edge in contested and complex environments,” Singh said. “By enabling autonomous resupply without the need for pre-mapped routes or clear landing zones, we’re reducing risk to personnel and ensuring that essential supplies reach frontline units faster and more reliably than ever before. “This capability enhances operational agility and strengthens the Marines’ ability to sustain missions in the most challenging conditions.”The April award is part of a larger $4.6 million contract.Near Earth’s technology allows aircraft take off, fly and land autonomously with or without GPS.The company’s Firefly system provides advanced environmental perception and intelligent flight capabilities. Those allow the system to detect hazards such as trees, buildings, rocks and vehicles. It can identify safe flight paths and landing zones, allowing for mission planning without prior knowledge of the obstacles. And maintain a high cargo capacity and range.

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[l] at 6/20/25 8:40am
The Naval Sea Systems Command engineering directorate has streamlined a manufacturing process to allow for the 3-D printing of parts for Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Recent NAVSEA guidance allows waterfront engineers to use additive manufacturing, better known as 3-D printing, to produce vessel parts and components classified as low-risk — meaning parts that are not vital to the safety and function of the ship. The parts were manufactured for the guided missile destroyer Arleigh Burke — the lead ship of its class — by the Spain-based Forward Deployed Regional Maintenance Center (FDRMC) Detachment Rota in collaboration with Spanish allies. “We have empowered and equipped our waterfront and forward-deployed engineers and maintainers that directly support our warfighters,” said Rear Adm. Pete Small, NAVSEA chief engineer, in a release. “This project executed with our Spanish allies further proves the significant readiness AM generates for our ships, restoring a critical system while meeting the compressed timeline for the ship’s forward-deployed patrol.”The destroyer Arleigh Burke had a pair of leaky eductors, or jet pumps, in its vacuum collection holding and transfer (VCHT) system, according to the release. Both needed to be replaced prior to the vessel returning to patrol duty to stop the system from potentially failing during deployment. While eductors are traditionally made of cast bronze and take nearly a year to produce, 3-D printing the parts shortened the manufacturing process by 80%. The total process, including the planning phase, took only two months. The 3-D printing manufacturing itself took only seven days to produce the pumps prior to installation. Speeding up the part replacement allowed the ship to be on time for its upcoming scheduled patrol in the U.S. Sixth Fleet area of operations. Although 3-D printing has been in use for some time, NAVSEA’s move to expedite the process of parts manufacturing comes at a time when the Navy is suffering from a lagging shipbuilding industry and is being urged to modify manufacturing and repair processes overall. At a June 10 hearing, Sen. Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Service Committee, described the current state of naval shipbuilding as “in an abysmal condition overall” despite some recent improvements.

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[l] at 6/20/25 8:11am
In 1917, an Army review board rescinded the Medal of Honor that had been awarded to Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, an Army surgeon and former prisoner of war, more than half a century earlier. Walker refused to send the medal back, wearing it proudly for the remaining two years of her life. So her family has a sense of how she’d respond to President Donald Trump’s June 10 announcement that nine Army bases renamed in 2023 — including one honoring her — would revert to their original names, initially given to commemorate Confederate Civil War generals. Of the nine bases given new namesakes two years ago, only Fort Walker commemorated a Union hero from the Civil War. “I don’t think this would surprise her,” Greg Therriault, a descendant of Walker’s sister Luna, told Military Times. “I think she’d be angry, as I am, but I don’t think she’d be surprised.” While Walker never had her own children, some of her closest living relatives are committed to preserving her story: that of a bold maverick who lived by her convictions and had little use for social norms and arbitrary limitations. The only female doctor in her 1855 graduating class at Syracuse Medical College in New York, Walker was determined to serve in the Army as a surgeon after the Civil War began six years later. Initially rebuffed, she refused to go home and volunteered her services to the Army, instead, until finally being granted an official post as a surgeon in 1863. After months of treating Union soldiers at great risk to herself, Walker was captured by Confederate troops in 1864 and held as a prisoner of war for four months, suffering permanent damage to her eyes and lungs in a prison notorious for its filthy conditions. When the Civil War ended the following year, President Andrew Johnson, seeking to honor Walker’s unique contribution to the war, settled on awarding her the Medal of Honor. Walker was in her 80s when she received word that her medal had been revoked during a period of “toxic nationalism,” said Michelle Marra, another Walker relative. “This feels familiar, of our government giving honor and revoking it,” said Marra, who’s descended from Walker’s sister Vesta. “And so my kind of thought is, good people always rise to the top, regardless of what goes on on a day-to-day basis.” Long after Walker’s death, her act of resistance was rewarded: President Jimmy Carter formally reinstated her Medal of Honor in 1977. That restoration took place because of a petition championed by other Walker family members. Marra said she suspected the recent renaming would prompt another petition. “I just find it sad and wasteful, how much work and thought was put in by the base naming commission,” she said. “But I have hope that eventually, when things in America change, that we will have the opportunity to have a base named for her again.” Fort Walker, Va., will once again be Fort A.P. Hill, the Army confirmed after Trump’s announcement. But the name will now honor three Civil War Union soldiers, with surnames Anderson, Pinn and Hill, rather than the original namesake — a Confederate general who was killed by Union troops in 1865. Walker’s legacy survives in other ways. She was honored with a postage stamp in 1982 and inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000. Last year, the U.S. Mint issued a commemorative quarter with her image in an event that family members said had a large and celebratory turnout. In recent years, Walker’s flouting of the gender norms of her time has attracted fresh interest to her story. She insisted on wearing pants in her work as a surgeon, and at times was mocked and harassed for her choice of conventionally masculine clothing. Marra, who spent 17 years as an Army spouse and said she’d met other Medal of Honor recipients over the years, said Walker was always proud to be a woman, and even opted at times to wear her long hair down when tending to soldiers. But, she said, Walker’s gender is a lesser part of her story. “What the story should be is what she has done for our nation, not her gender,” Marra said. “That said, it really, really hurt, and I was very disappointed earlier this year when I saw web pages dedicated to her in our federal government taken down. Seeing those 404 codes, that was disappointing. And that seems silly to be erasing the digital footprint of someone who has been held in such high regard until now.” George DeMass, a historian for Walker’s hometown of Oswego, N.Y., where her Medal of Honor remains on display, said he suspected she might enjoy, on some level, the furor over a base bearing her name. “She lived in controversy all her life, and now, 100 years after her death, she’s in controversy,” he said. Therriault plans to take a page from Walker’s own playbook and resist the renaming on his own terms. “They can change signs and they can do what they want, and they will,” he said, “but it’s still Fort Walker to me.”

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[l] at 6/20/25 8:09am
LYMAN, DONETSK REGION- “I don’t need your f***ing American shells,” Vadim Adamov muttered as he packed the Pringles can full of sulphate and plastic explosive. It was early 2024, and he had been fighting outside Avdiivka, a small town near the occupied city of Donetsk that had been a major Russian target since the start of the war. It had been a nearly impenetrable fortress, and the Russians had expended an extraordinary collection of men and armor trying to capture it. Adamov usually packed explosives into ready-made metal containers, but the unit had run out. So, after finishing snacking on chips from the tubed Pringles can, he got to work re-filling it. And it worked. With the help of neighboring drone spotting units, Adamov flew the drone into the sky and dropped the Pringles can onto a Russian armored vehicle. The hit disabled the vehicle, which was then finished off by additional impacts. The drone Adamov used was a DJI Mavic, which retails for a few thousand dollars. The explosives, meanwhile, cost less than a hundred. Pringles in Ukraine go for about a $1.50. Together, the combination is capable of destroying armored vehicles that cost hundreds of thousands to make. Although Avdiivka would fall just over a month later, Adamov had learned a valuable lesson. Ukraine could not always rely on its allies, but it could use quick thinking and ingenuity to stifle Russian advances. SPIDERWEBWhen Ukraine smuggled hundreds of drones in container trucks into Russia to destroy strategic bombers and spy planes — a June 1 assault known as Operation Spiderweb — they were carrying out a similar sort of DIY assault, albeit on a scale that shocked the world. Near the front line in the Ukrainian city of Lyman, drone unit pilots flipped through videos of Russian weapons and armor positions being destroyed. In the background, a pilot trained on an FPV, or first-person view, drone, strapping the now distinctive goggles onto his face, controller in hand, while maneuvering the drone through various obstacles. Here, the entire process has been gamified. Rankings are offered, online medals awarded and financial and equipment bonuses doled out for confirmed kills of Russian equipment. “The best thing to do if you hear one is to play dead,” one drone pilot said, pointing out that many of the platforms navigate through motion sensing. However, he added with a shrug, if the drone gets that close you are probably dead already. NECESSITYIn his poem Arithmetic on the Frontier, Kipling uses the example of a well-educated, highly trained British imperial civil servant killed in India with a hastily assembled threadbare rifle. “Two thousand pounds of education,” Kipling wrote, “falls to a ten-rupee jezail.” Warfare in the 21st century still has much in common with the 19th. When the Ukraine-Russia war began in 2022, drones had already become a fixture of modern warfare. While variants that were used in more recent operations like the Global War on Terror were behemoths, hobbyists who employed smaller drones for amateur photography soon realized they could be used in scouting missions. The platforms showcased their capability early in the war, when they guided Ukrainian artillery onto an enormous Russian armored column in the Kyiv suburb of Brovary. From there, it didn’t take long for Ukrainians like Vadim Adamov to realize that drones could carry small explosives to be dropped from overhead or flown into an enemy like a Kamikaze. When U.S. aid temporarily dried up at the end of 2023, necessity became the mother of invention. A subsequent shortage of artillery shells turned Ukrainian attention to the less expensive drone as their centerpiece of defense. Ukraine produced 2.2 million drones last year. They expect to make as many as 5 million this year. These drones are not just FPVs used for targeting or reconnaissance, but platforms designed for use on land and sea. A February 2025 conference in central Kyiv, hosted by an organization called BraveOne, showcased the latest in extraordinary unmanned development. There, Sasha Rubina, a Kharkiv-born tech designer for Ukrainian Unmanned Technologies, showed off a UGV, or unmanned ground vehicle, that could be driven remotely and carry food or ammunition to soldiers fighting on the front line. “The idea is that the person controlling it is in a safe place,” Rubina said. “The less soldiers used on the battlefield itself, the more lives we save and protect our medical personnel.” OFFSETTING WEAKNESSESSuch innovations continue to be critical as Ukraine pushes to offset battlefield weaknesses elsewhere. Since the failure of the counteroffensive of summer 2023, the nation’s military has suffered serious manpower shortfalls, especially among its infantry ranks. The psychological toll of blood, mud and anguish has washed away much of what was once the hope for an inevitable, hard-fought victory. And any cautious optimism that suggested U.S. President Donald Trump would come down hard on Russia has been dashed against the rocks. With progress at the negotiating table negligible, Ukraine and Russia continue to be locked in a seemingly endless arms race to both produce and upgrade drones and other battlefield technologies. It is a tech chess game of sorts, each move eliciting a counter. In one instance, Ukrainian soldiers began carrying jammers capable of cutting live-feed connections between the Russian pilot and drone, a move that would disable the platform mid-flight. Russians responded by equipping drones with spools of fiber-optic cable less than a millimeter wide, allowing them to withstand jamming efforts. Now, Ukrainian trenches, buildings and even roads are often covered with physical netting. ONE STRIKE AT A TIMETraveling through Ukraine today reveals basements, back garages and commercial printing factories that have been turned into drone-production facilities. While the cost of premade DJI Mavic drones continues to drop, amateur, yet increasingly innovative technicians, many of them just teenagers, are finding it cheaper to import the individual parts — rotor blades, batteries and cameras — to build themselves. In many ways, the national drone-production effort appears as the modern-day opposite of the Manhattan Project. Instead of a super weapon, Ukraine is endeavoring to produce millions of tiny explosives to degrade Russian forces one strike at a time. Whoever masters mass production and deployment of these drones will likely gain the advantage in the war. “Strike hard who cares — shoot straight who can," Kipling wrote. “The odds are on the cheaper man.”

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[l] at 6/20/25 7:26am
Soldiers with the 10th Mountain Division recently tested a new machine gun optic for the Mk 19 40mm grenade launcher.The new XM152 Mounted Machine Gun Optic, tested in early June, enhances engagement capabilities in two ways, the Army said. First it offers a wide field-of-view holographic reticle for rapid, close-range target acquisition, and second, adds a three-times magnifier to extend the effective range and improve accuracy, according to an Army release.The 10th Mountain soldiers received instruction from the Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, or TACOM, before testing it on the range.“This optic is important because we need first-round hit probability,” said Tyler Griffeth, a training instructor with TACOM. “A lot of times with the Mark 19 using the iron sights, the soldiers are really focused on the iron sight when we really need the big picture, and that’s the battlefield.“This now switches it to where the soldier can be more threat-focused, which will increase their first-round hit probability and their overall lethality. Now that technology like this becomes available to the soldier, we’re going to get out there and get more lethal.”Following familiarization training, soldiers engaged targets on the range with the new optic.“I feel like with this new optic, I’m very confident in the Mark 19 system, it was much easier to hit the farther ranges and was able to destroy the target as needed,” Sgt. Trever Linberg, a helicopter repairman with the 10th Mountain Division. “With this optic, I could qualify much easier, it took a lot less rounds.”

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[l] at 6/19/25 6:00pm
For over two decades, Peter Griffin has wreaked havoc on Quahog with unapologetic flair. He’s fought giant chickens in public intersections, started multiple cults and once launched his own cable news network that nearly caused a civil war. To the average Family Guy viewer, he’s a buffoon at best and a walking inspector general complaint at worst. But to those who’ve served in the military, Peter’s real problem isn’t his behavior — it’s his lack of a competent public affairs officer. Suppose Peter Griffin were in a military unit. He’d be the kind of troop whose name always comes up during the morning briefing. “Sir, you’re going to see a video later today — we’ve already contacted PAO.” He’s the kind of guy who makes national headlines before command even hears about it. And yet, somehow, he’d never get kicked out. Why? Because someone on staff — likely an overworked O-3 with a public affairs MOS — would be running damage control 24/7. Let’s be clear: Peter doesn’t need a moral compass. He needs a communications strategy. When Peter pretends to be mentally disabled to compete in the Special Olympics (“Peter’s Got Woods”), a good PAO could’ve anticipated media blowback and pushed a story about “inclusive fitness training” — a pilot program gone off the rails, yes, but built on “good intentions.” When he created a militia to invade a neighboring town, a strong PAO could’ve flagged the risks, coordinated with local officials and rebranded the event as a “historic live-fire reenactment.” Peter’s greatest liability, meanwhile, is his inability to shut up when a camera is rolling. No one in the Griffin household has been media-trained. Lois operates like a political spouse from the 1990s — always caught in the frame, looking vaguely ashamed. Chris and Meg provide contradictory statements that fuel follow-up questions. Stewie, though arguably the most strategic thinker in the family, insists on using his interviews to threaten public officials. Only Brian, the anthropomorphic dog, has shown any capability to stay on message, though even he has a checkered past. In “The Thin White Line” (Season 3, Episode 1), Brian joins the police force as a drug-sniffing dog, only to develop a cocaine addiction that spirals into a rehab stint. While he’s often portrayed as the intellectual of the group, his track record with responsibility isn’t exactly spotless, making him more of a liability than an asset in any real-world public affairs office. In the military, perception is often reality. It doesn’t matter what happened — it matters what people think happened. Peter’s storyline has never been adequately controlled. A competent PAO would reframe the chaos: Peter drunkenly drives a tank through downtown? A “community outreach event gone awry,” with a statement that he was “testing equipment for public engagement readiness” Peter fakes a medical emergency to get out of work? “A training simulation revealed critical gaps in first responder coordination” Peter starts his own church? Distribute a pre-written statement about “faith-based resilience initiatives” Peter needs a 39-year-old E-7 with an English degree, a perfectly curated LinkedIn and an Excel sheet of talking points for every imaginable scenario. The military, to be sure, has managed far worse than Peter Griffin. Public affairs officers have had to explain away TikToks, field-grade DUI charges and even the leak of classified war plans. The right PAO would take proactive steps in Peter’s case: establish redlines for what he can and can’t say in public, create a crisis comms checklist — “Did he offend a protected class? Was alcohol involved? Were there chickens? — and develop a cadence for how often to leak positive stories to massage the previous week’s disaster. And if that fails, there’s always the Joint Task Force standby: distract the public with a viral dog adoption post, or yet another video of leadership working out with the troops. In military culture, PAOs are often overlooked until it’s too late. They’re brought into meetings after decisions are made, not before. They’re viewed as paper-pushers, not battlefield multipliers. But if the last 20 years of warfare — and the last 20 seasons of Family Guy — have taught us anything, it’s this: information dominance is everything. In today’s media environment, stories spread faster than the facts. Given proper messaging support, Peter could be seen as a devoted father, a misunderstood neighbor and a spirited participant in local affairs — not a walking Article 15. Until then, the memes will write themselves. And somewhere in Quahog, a fictional public affairs officer is crying into their ASU jacket, wondering why they ever left college for this.

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[l] at 6/19/25 9:33am
The U.S. is shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel from Iranian attacks as President Donald Trump warns Tehran to step back from the conflict.Trump’s social media posts saying his patience with Iran was “wearing thin” have raised the possibility of deepening U.S. involvement, perhaps by using the bunker-busting bomb to strike a key Iranian nuclear site built deep underground in the mountains.Israel doesn’t have the massive munition it would take to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, or the aircraft needed to deliver it. Only the U.S. does.As America’s national security leaders discuss the next steps, the Pentagon has moved to ensure that its troops and bases in the region are protected.Here’s a look at the U.S. military presence in the Middle East:US aircraft moving to the Middle EastIn a social media post, Trump warned that “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran.”U.S. officials insisted as of Tuesday that the American military has not taken any offensive actions against Iran, only defensive strikes to take out incoming Iranian missiles to protect Israel.Additional U.S. fighter jets and refueling tankers have been deployed to the region, but officials have declined to provide specific numbers. Fighter jets have joined in launching strikes to defend Israel, but officials said Tuesday that no American aircraft were over Iran.Aurora Intel, a group that reviews open source information in real time in the Middle East, said the U.S. Air Force had put additional refueling aircraft and fighter jets in strategic locations across Europe, including England, Spain, Germany and Greece. The information was obtained from public aviation tracking websites.On Tuesday, the U.S. relocated a dozen F-16s from a base in Italy to Prince Sultan, in Saudi Arabia, Aurora Intel said.U.S. fighter jets have been patrolling the skies around the Middle East to protect personnel and installations, and bases in the region are on heightened alert and are taking additional security precautions, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not provided any details, but said on Fox News Channel late Monday that the military movements were to “ensure that our people are safe.”Warships taking out Iranian missiles and ready to protect US basesAmerican warships also are shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles targeting Israel, with the USS The Sullivans and the USS Arleigh Burke launching strikes over the weekend.The Sullivans has been joined in the Eastern Mediterranean this week by the USS Thomas Hudner to continue those defense strikes, while the Arleigh Burke has moved away from the area, according to a U.S. official.The USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier is in the Arabian Sea with the four warships in its strike group. They are not participating in the defense of Israel. But they are positioned to provide security for U.S. troops and bases along the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf.The USS Nimitz has been long scheduled to take over for the Carl Vinson and is heading west from the Indo-Pacific region toward the Middle East. The official said it is slated to arrive by the end of the month, and the two carriers would likely overlap at least for a short time before the Vinson heads home to San Diego.The USS Gerald R. Ford is sailing for the European theater of command in a week as well. While the deployment was already scheduled and was not in response to the conflict, the presence of the aircraft carrier, with its accompanying warships, will give the president the option of a third carrier group in the region if needed.There also are destroyers in the Red Sea, and others are based in the Western Mediterranean and participating in exercises in the Baltic Sea.US troops are on heightened alert and families are allowed to leaveThe forces in the region have been taking precautionary measures for days, including having military dependents voluntarily leave bases, in anticipation of potential strikes and to protect personnel in case of a large-scale response from Tehran.Officials said they were not aware of many families actually leaving.Typically around 30,000 troops are based in the Middle East, and about 40,000 troops are in the region now, according to a U.S. official.That number surged as high as 43,000 last October in response to heightened tensions between Israel and Iran as well as continuous attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.The B-2 and the bunker busterThe Air Force’s B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is the only aircraft that can carry the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, known as the bunker buster.The powerful bomb uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets — and then explode.There are currently no B-2 bombers in the Middle East region, although there are B-52 bombers based at Diego Garcia, and they can deliver smaller munitions.If tapped for use, the B-2 bombers would have to make the 30-hour round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, refueling multiple times.

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[l] at 6/18/25 5:31pm
Navy Secretary John Phelan took to social media Wednesday evening to announce that the Navy had reached its enlistment goal for fiscal 2025.The Navy met its goal three months ahead of schedule, recruiting 40,600 sailors, according to a post on X.“This is a critical time in history, the world is more complex and more contested than it has been in decades and our ability to respond starts with our greatest asset, our people,” Phelan said in a video accompanying the post.Phelan touted the milestone as emblematic of the service’s recruiting efforts. “To achieve recent recruiting success, Navy Recruiting Command established a Recruiting Operations Center to monitor data in real time,” the Navy said in a release Wednesday. “The Navy also implemented the Future Sailor Preparatory Course to improve accession success, streamlined medical waiver reviews, and identified and removed barriers to recruiter productivity.” The service has implemented other changes in recent years, including raising the enlistment age to 41 and eliminating the high school diploma requirement, in an effort to attract more sailors, as recruiting struggles have plagued the U.S. military.Trump taps Fleet Forces head as Navy’s next chief of naval operationsAfter missing its recruiting targets for the first time in fiscal 2023, the Navy bounced back in fiscal 2024, surpassing its accessions target of 40,600 recruits with 40,978 new sailors.As part of the fiscal 2024 turnaround, the Navy refilled its drained delayed entry program — a program that allows recruits time between signing up to serve and becoming active duty — while deciding to accept more recruits who scored in the bottom 30% in testing. The service at the time also attributed success to “data-driven decision-making,” cutting down the time to process medical waivers and “expanding opportunities.”Editor’s note: This story has been updated with details from a Navy release.

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[l] at 6/18/25 3:42pm
U.S. Marines and sailors worked alongside Latvian Army troops recently to clear woods and build a warren of trenches for countering potential drone threats — both as practice for real-world deployments and to test new battlefield tactics.Marines from the 8th Engineer Support Battalion and Seabees with Naval Construction Battalion 14 performed trench-building and fortification activities in an exercise in Skrunda, Latvia, according to a Navy release.“These field fortifications are built to reduce detection, limit exposure to unmanned systems, and enhance force protection across the battlespace,” Lt. j.g. Wiatt Lewis of Naval Construction Battalion 14 said in the release. Service members used lumber milled from the Latvian Army’s field-deployable sawmill to reinforce trench walls and build overhead cover and concealment, according to the release.The training in western Latvia was part of the larger Baltic Operations exercise, or BALTOPS, an annual exercise in the Baltic region that focuses primarily on maritime and air scenarios.The war in Ukraine has shown how trenches, overhead cover and field fortifications are vital for protection against drones, the release notes.Drones have become a regular part of combat in the conflict, even culminating in major attacks such as Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web earlier this month, which saw coordinated drone strikes launched deep within Russian territory on Russian airfields. Ukrainian forces deployed 117 drones and struck 20 Russian military aircraft on the ground.But small ground units must contend with drone threats as well. The quickly configurable aerial devices can spot troops for strikes and carry munitions to drop themselves.“We are always thinking about our visibility from above, the effects of thermal detection, and how to keep the position secure from multiple angles,” Staff Sgt. Austin Leigh, a combat engineer with the 8th Engineer Support Battalion, said in the release.

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[l] at 6/18/25 2:50pm
The U.S. Navy successfully located a sailor who went missing 12 days after leaving his station, the service confirmed.Culinary Specialist Seaman Sergio Valoura departed the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln on May 30 and never returned for his assigned duties. Personnel aboard the ship conducted a search but were unable to find Valoura, and subsequently informed the Navy Criminal Investigative Service and local authorities, a Naval Air Forces spokesperson told Navy Times in an emailed statement.“USS Abraham Lincoln leadership is thankful for the professionalism of NCIS and LAPD in ensuring Seaman Valoura’s safety and well-being,” the spokesperson said.NCIS agents spotted Valoura on June 11 in Glendale, California, and afterward helped transfer him June 16 to Naval Medical Center San Diego for a full medical evaluation. Authorities searching for missing Naval Station Norfolk sailorValoura, who enlisted in the Navy on July 12, 2023, trained at Recruit Training Command Great Lakes, Illinois, and Naval Technical Training Center Detachment in Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia, before joining the Abraham Lincoln on his first assignment.The Abraham Lincoln returned to its home port of Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, on Dec. 20, 2024, after a five-month deployment in the Middle East. During the deployment, the carrier assisted in the deterrence of Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels.Valoura is currently safe and back in the custody of his command, the NCIS said in an emailed statement.The Navy did not provide any information regarding the circumstances of the sailor’s disappearance. Valoura is the second sailor to be reported missing in May.Naval Station Norfolk sailor Angelina Petra Resendiz, 21, was found dead on June 9 in a wooded area in Norfolk, Virginia, two weeks after she disappeared from her barracks in Miller Hall on base.A sailor has been placed in pretrial confinement in connection with Resendiz’s death.

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[l] at 6/18/25 2:02pm
Two U.S. Army soldiers deployed to the Middle East in support of Operation Inherent Resolve died this week in non-combat incidents, the Defense Department announced Wednesday. Staff Sgt. Saul Fabian Gonzalez, 26, of Pullman, Michigan, died Tuesday in Erbil, Iraq, officials said in a brief release. Sgt. 1st Class Emmett Wilfred Goodridge Jr., 40, of Roseville, Minnesota, died Sunday in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, according to a separate release.The DOD releases did not provide additional details on the soldiers’ deaths, which are under investigation. Gonzalez was an Apache helicopter mechanic assigned to D Troop, 2nd Squadron, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, according to the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).“The 101st CAB mourns the loss of Staff Sergeant Gonzalez,” Col. Tyler Partridge, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade commander, said in a statement Wednesday. “His journey with the 101st, from Private to Non-Commissioned Officer was one of commitment, grit, and honor. His service will forever be etched in our memories, and his legacy will ride on with the spirit of the Cavalry in the hearts of all who served alongside him.”Gonzalez, who joined the Army in February 2018, was assigned to Fort Campbell in October 2018. His awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal with a “C” device, Army Achievement Medal with six oak leaf clusters, National Defense Service Medal and Army Aviation Badge, among others.Goodridge was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, at Fort Drum, New York.“It is with deep sorrow that we acknowledge the passing of Sgt. 1st Class Goodridge. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends, and fellow Soldiers,” Maj. Geoffrey A. Carmichael of the 10th Mountain Division said Wednesday. “The 1st Brigade Combat Team and 10th Mountain Division are providing support to his family and unit, and we are fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation.”Goodridge’s awards and decorations include the Combat Infantryman Badge, Expert Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge and Air Assault Badge. Goodridge, who had three previous combat deployments, was Ranger qualified, according to Carmichael.Editor’s note: This report has been updated with additional information about Gonzalez’s and Goodridge’s service records and statements from 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and 10th Mountain Division officials.

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[l] at 6/18/25 1:47pm
If President Donald Trump opts to launch military strikes against Iran, hostile forces in the region likely won’t be able to launch direct attacks against the U.S. homeland. But American military targets in the region will face significant dangers. During questioning from senators Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said officials are providing a number of possible options regarding Iran to Trump, while also focusing on the safety of American forces.“We have maximum force protection in the region at all times being maintained,” Hegseth stated. Even with recent withdrawals of U.S. troops and personnel from the region, significant assets remain. About 40,000 active-duty troops and Defense Department civilians are currently deployed in the Middle East, according to the Pentagon. Hegseth last week authorized the “voluntary departure” of all military dependents in the region, in anticipation of potential threats. US shifts warships in Mideast in response to Israel strikesThe region features several major U.S. military installations, including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, regional headquarters for the U.S. Central Command and several active sites in Kuwait, which shares a border with Iran. On Tuesday, The New York Times reported U.S. intelligence assets have reviewed Iranian plans for strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East if the United States joins Israel’s military offensive against the country. After Israel’s war in Gaza began in the fall of 2023, many of those sites in Iraq and Syria came under fire from Iran-backed proxy groups in the region, who lobbed drones and other weapons at U.S. positions. Between October 2023 and November 2024, there were more than 180 such attacks, which at times injured U.S. service members, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.The U.S. military has at times struggled to defend against these strikes, especially those involving relatively cheap weapons that American forces can only intercept with much more expensive drones or air defense missiles. Any potential attack by Iran, which has a large store of drones and ballistic missiles, would be far more threatening than the prior assaults by smaller adversaries. “I have no assurance that we have the capacity to safeguard against a swarm of small, lightweight, slow moving drones,” said Senate Armed Services Committee member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “Right now, if we engage in the Iran conflict, that would put U.S. personnel at risk there.”To counter those kinds of threats, Navy officials last week directed two destroyers to the eastern Mediterranean Sea for possible force-protection missions. Other naval assets are on standby, and the U.S. is also sending a second carrier strike group to the region — one of multiple times the Pentagon has done so in the last two years. In Wednesday’s testimony, Hegseth declined to offer specifics on exactly how the U.S. intends to protect its troops if Iran were to participate in direct strikes against American assets. The United States has already begun direct support for Israel’s defense, helping intercept Iranian missiles aimed at Tel Aviv and other cities after the two adversaries began exchanging missile attacks last week. Trump was asked by reporters Wednesday morning if he has made a decision about further involvement in the region. “Will we strike the Iranian nuclear component? I may not do it. I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do,” Trump replied. “I can tell you this, that Iran’s got a lot of trouble, and they want to negotiate.”

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[l] at 6/18/25 1:16pm
Thirty-three years after the National Guard was first called to enter Los Angeles, its members are once again back in The City of Angels — this time under different circumstances. Codified in the 1903 Militia Act and the National Defense Act of 1916, the 54 National Guard units of today are a part-time reserve force that serve either the state or federal governments in times of emergency or war.Since then, the vast majority of the Guard’s domestic deployments have been to keep the peace during civil unrest or provide assistance during natural disasters. Presidents have rarely federalized the National Guard to intervene in protests on U.S. soil, but since the latter half of the 20th century there has been an upward tick in their utility. According to The Washington Post, “State officials have a range of tools available to them to deal with civil disturbance, including local, state and federal law enforcement, or even federal troops. They rarely request the National Guard’s assistance — and federal officials doing so is even more uncommon.”In 1992, at the request of California’s Republican governor, Pete Wilson, and the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, Tom Bradley, President George H.W. Bush ordered thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell one of the city’s worst riots following the arrest and beating of Rodney King. Dozens of people were killed, and more than 1,500 people were injured as tensions over the acquittal of the police officers who beat King boiled over. An estimated $500 million in property damages further racked the city. President Donald Trump’s ordering of 2,000 California National Guard troops to enter the city this month differs from 1992 event, however. The California National Guard was ordered to deploy to Los Angeles to intervene against the growing discontent and protests against the Trump administration’s immigration policies and raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Trump’s order was in direct contravention to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wishes. Lawmakers condemn Trump’s use of Guard, active-duty troops in LAInstead of invoking the Insurrection Act, which Bush used in 1992, Trump used Section 12406 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code. The provision allows for the federal government to utilize the National Guard in the event that there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States; or the President is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States.”Newsom pushed back on these claims.On June 8, Newsom shared on X a letter he addressed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in which he “formally requested the Trump Administration rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles county and return them to my command. We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed. Rescind the order. Return control to California.”Trump’s order is the first time a president has called upon the National Guard without a governor’s consent in over six decades.In 2006, President George W. Bush considered federalizing the Louisiana National Guard in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina but abandoned such plans after Kathleen Blanco, the state’s Democratic governor, opposed it. “There is not a governor in this country, four territories, or the mayor of Washington, D.C., who would give up control of the National Guard,” Blanco later told a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing. “You absolutely have to have the law enforcement capacity of the Guard in these circumstances.”Newsom sued Trump and Hegseth on June 9, claiming the act surpassed the authority of the federal government and violated the Tenth Amendment.“Let me be clear,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement that same day. “There is no rebellion. The President is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends.”In an interview with CNN, the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, doubled down, stating, “This is not citywide civil unrest taking place in Los Angeles. A few streets downtown — it looks horrible.” She added that those found to be committing acts of vandalism would be arrested and prosecuted. Appeals court rules Trump can deploy National Guard to LA for nowSince the Civil War, there have been several significant instances when the National Guard was called upon to restore order, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously deploying troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957 after the integration of an all-white Central High School. President John F. Kennedy activated the Mississippi National Guard in 1962 to enforce the integration of the University of Mississippi, and he did so once again in 1963 against the wishes of Alabama Gov. George Wallace to integrate the University of Alabama. In 1965, the federal government, then led by President Lyndon B. Johnson, went against the wishes of Wallace a second time and called upon the National Guard to restore order after peaceful civil rights activists were brutally attacked by Alabama State Troopers outside of Selma.Guard members were called upon during the 1967 Detroit “Uprising,” in which the city witnessed five days of intense and violent protests over police brutality. They were also activated after riots shook Washington, Chicago, Baltimore and other U.S. cities following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.Presently, the California National Guard are not deployed under the Insurrection Act, which means, The Washington Post reported, that they cannot perform law enforcement operations, such as immigration raids, arrests and home searches. Instead, they can only perform logistics and other support missions.

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[l] at 6/18/25 12:32pm
President Donald Trump has nominated Karen Brazell to serve as the next Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Benefits, putting the senior advisor in charge of processing and management for nearly $200 billion in financial aid to millions of veterans. The post is one of the top leadership roles at the department, but was unveiled quietly on Monday through official nomination correspondence with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Brazell would be the permanent replacement to Josh Jacobs, who stepped down from the role at the start of the new administration in January. Currently, Margarita Devlin is serving as the Acting Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Benefits, and performing the duties of the vacant under secretary role.Brazell was named a senior advisor to Secretary Doug Collins earlier this year. She previously worked in the department as principal executive director and chief acquisition officer for VA’s Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction during the first Trump administration. Trump’s pick for VA watchdog role promises independence, impartialityIn that role, she oversaw department contract administration and supply chain management, managing a budget over $30 billion and supervising more than 1,700 employees.Her new role will hold significantly more responsibility, with a staff of more than 30,000 Veterans Benefits Administration employees and a portfolio of dozens of different department benefits programs. Brazell is an Army veteran who also worked as a defense contractor and a Defense Department employee. Her role as a senior advisor to Collins is likely to draw scrutiny from Senate Democrats, who have been critical of department moves in recent months to dismiss probationary employees and look for significant cuts to the VA workforce. White House officials also nominated Alan Boehme to serve as Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs for Information and Technology, the replacement for Kurt DelBene. Boehme previously worked as Chief Technology Officer for the H&M Group, a fashion and design company. Senate officials have not scheduled a confirmation hearing date for either of the new nominees.

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[l] at 6/18/25 11:43am
The Army’s ongoing brigade modernization program is headed to the Guard.Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George told members of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee during a hearing Wednesday that Guard units are being identified for the service’s Transformation in Contact, or TIC, initiative.“We want to do that as fast as we can in the Guard as well,” George said. “They are identifying those units who can do that in the Guard.”The initiative seeks to deliver new equipment — such as Infantry Squad Vehicles, drones, counter-drone equipment and increased electromagnetic warfare capabilities — to operational units as they prepare for major training events and deployments.George noted that those same capabilities will be in the Guard as well.“They’re going to have the same systems,” George said. “They will not look any different.”First armor brigade conducts combat training center rotation with new toolsThe TIC initiative started with three infantry brigades: 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division; 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division; and 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division.Those units saw increased capabilities, mobility and command-and-control systems accelerate how the traditionally dismounted units perform.The work led to changes in the structure of the infantry brigade, which have been dubbed “Mobile Brigade Combat Teams.”The Army has since shifted its focus to TIC 2.0 with Armor Brigade Combat Teams and division-level assets.The 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, launched Exercise Combined Resolve in early May in Hohenfels, Germany, at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center.“Raider Brigade is spearheading the Army’s Transforming in Contact initiative and experimenting with new capabilities to enhance battlefield effectiveness while deployed to Europe,” said Maj. Gen. Christopher Norrie, commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division, in a May release. “The lessons learned through this exercise will help inform the Army how an armored brigade combat team fights on future battlefields.”The 1st ABCT’s participation in TIC is structured around four key phases: adapting how the unit fights, integrating emerging technologies, reorganizing formations to suit mission needs and rapidly incorporating new capabilities as they become available.Another armor unit is also in the midst of TIC changes.Soldiers with the 1st Cavalry Division began their TIC 2.0 work in April, shortly after returning from their Europe rotation.Armor units are creating their own plans for what a new type of armor brigade might look like.“An ABCT has a lot of different moving pieces,” Maj. Gen. Thomas Feltey, division commander, told Army Times in April. “Our battlespace is much larger, and things move faster.”Though ubiquitous drone coverage helped infantry units, various kinds of drones will be needed for the longer-reaching, longer-ranging armored units, for example.The division’s artillery, air cavalry squadron and electronic warfare units have all been designated as part of the TIC initiative.The division is modernizing its main equipment, with the A4 variant of the Bradley and the A7 variant of the Paladin artillery system. It’s also on track as the next unit to receive the new Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, Feltey said.Feltey expects to see communications upgrades, much like the infantry units did as part of TIC, with systems such as the Integrated Tactical Network, Star Shield satellite communications and the Mobile User Objective System, an improved UHF satellite communications system.The 1st Cavalry Division’s culminating TIC event is expected to take place at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California, in 2027.

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[l] at 6/18/25 11:14am
The Defense Department’s school system for military-connected children is undergoing a reorganization that is designed to increase support for those children, officials said. The changes include adding administrative officers to nearly every school and increasing the number of school psychologists. It also includes eliminating some positions, but it’s not clear yet how many people will be moving to other positions or leaving the school system by the beginning of the next school year.Classroom teaching positions remain unaffected, said Jessica Tackaberry, a spokeswoman for the Department of Defense Education Activity. “Core services and teacher-to-student ratios remain unchanged, ensuring continuity, stability, and high-quality learning environments” across Department of Defense Education Activity Schools, according to a DODEA announcement.The changes are “in direct support of the Department of Defense’s Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative,” according to officials. That initiative required agencies to submit proposals for potential ways to reduce or eliminate redundant or non-essential functions and include adjusted civilian manpower levels.“This is not change for the sake of change. It’s targeted, strategic, and rooted in our mission to support military-connected students,” said DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez, in the announcement. “We are transforming our workforce to meet the future head-on, while preserving the academic excellence that our families depend on.” DODEA officials said they aim to strengthen school-level leadership structures, ensure smoother student transitions between schools and invest in professional development for educators. The Federal Education Association, the union representing DODEA faculty and staff, has “big, big, big concerns about this,” said Richard Tarr, executive director of the FEA. Tarr questioned the changes, citing the school system’s accomplishments. For example, military school students led the nation last year in 4th and 8th grade math and reading scores. “In general, this reduces the number of people serving the students in the school, but those duties don’t go away,” he said. “They’re distributing the duties among other people who are already overworked and have their own full-time positions.“Teachers’ working conditions are the students’ learning conditions.”FEA has asked DODEA for more information and has made proposals “to alleviate the harm” but hasn’t gotten answers, Tarr said. DODEA hasn’t included FEA in discussions around these changes, he said, following President Donald Trump’s executive order March 27 excluding certain federal workers from the right to collective bargaining. The union has filed a lawsuit challenging that order. Last November, DODEA invited parents, students, educators and leaders to participate in a systemwide questionnaire on Future Ready Learners, and the results shaped many of these decisions, officials said.DODEA operates 161 accredited schools in 11 foreign countries, seven states, Guam and Puerto Rico, including the DODEA Virtual School. There are nearly 900,000 military school-age children, and of those, about 65,000 attend DODEA schools.DOD educator unions sue Trump over collective bargaining rightsThe changes outlined include adding 21.5 psychologist positions across the school system, lowering the psychologist-to-students ratio from one for every 900 students to one for every 700. The national ratio for the 2023-2024 school year was one school psychologist per 1,065 students, according to the National Association of School Psychologists, which recommends one psychologist per 500 children. DODEA also plans to transition school education technologist positions to district-level instructional systems specialists. Tarr said this change is cause for concern because these technologists not only help keep students’ laptops running, but also work with educators to make sure they can use the technology embedded in the curriculum. In response to this concern, DODEA spokeswoman Tackaberry said, “Schools also have IT personnel that support the school for any technology issues, and have other staff capable of handling school automation needs.”The plan also calls for phasing out or significantly changing special education assessor positions and speech-language pathologist assessor positions. Tarr said FEA is disappointed that these positions are being eliminated. However, Tackaberry said assessments will continue with speech-language pathologists, who will also participate in eligibility and Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. School psychologists will continue to administer cognitive and behavioral assessments and participate in eligibility and IEP meetings, Tackaberry said. This will allow school psychologists to serve as the primary coordinators for all special education evaluations.“This change is aimed at improving early intervention and more individualized support for students,” Tackaberry said.Another change will add administrative officers at nearly every school “to streamline operations and free principals to focus on instructional leadership,” according to officials. Currently, DODEA has some administrative officers, but they serve multiple schools. They perform a wide range of tasks, Tackaberry said, including managing office operations, budgets, personnel and records and providing support to administrators and staff.Universal pre-K launches for 4-year-olds at 80 DOD schoolsAnother step in the plan is to phase out or significantly change office automation assistant and office automation clerk positions, as well as numerous positions above the school level.About 88% of DODEA’s workforce is at the school level, while 12% serve above the school level in districts, regions or headquarters offices. About one-third of the cuts in positions are happening at above-school levels. The numbers of those cuts, as well as the other two-thirds of the changes at the school level, have not yet been confirmed, Tackaberry said.“While the transformation is not focused on broad workforce reductions, it does include the careful elimination or reallocation of certain roles to improve efficiency, reduce duplication and strengthen support systems at all levels within DODEA,” Tackaberry said. The changes affect a number of instructional systems specialist positions and some operations-focused positions at the district and region levels, she said. Nearly every headquarters department was affected, including logistics, procurement, equal employment opportunity programs, curriculum and instruction, professional learning, general counsel, security management, facilities and others, Tackaberry said.“The exact number of eliminated positions is still being finalized, as efforts are ongoing to reassign impacted staff into roles that match their skills, experience, and certifications,” she said.Without knowing which positions are being affected, it’s difficult to know what effects this might have on children’s education, said Eileen Huck, acting director of government relations for the National Military Family Association. “Any time there are changes at the school level, parents are understandably concerned, especially in the current environment where we know so many federal civilian employees have lost their jobs,” she said.

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