mark
Military Times
[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/23/26 2:09pm
Colby Barrett went to scout sniper school because that’s where his Marines were headed. Years later, that training took him to a front-line unit in northern Ukraine to shoot alongside one of the war’s most accomplished marksmen.Barrett was commissioned through Navy ROTC in 2000 and spent four years leading infantry and scout sniper Marines from 2000 to 2004. When most of his platoon headed to sniper school, he went with them. It was a “pretty unusual” move for a Marine officer, he told Military Times.The Marine Corps has since trained its final scout snipers and moved sniper training into reconnaissance and Raider units under Force Design 2030.After the Marines, Barrett built a business, sold it and started farming. When a friend asked him to join an aid convoy to Ukraine, he had four kids in school and a harvest underway. His first answer was no.That night, he read about pastors killed and churches destroyed by Russian forces. As a Christian, he wondered how he’d missed it. He made the trip, then kept going back.Now, despite declaring that he is “not a filmmaker,” Barrett has produced two series on the war in Ukraine: A Faith Under Siege and Faith in War. Within that series is Safe Ground, the story of a Green Beret who removes landmines in Ukraine.During those trips, Barrett heard about a sniper with the call sign of Lektor, a special forces sniper from the Department of Active Measures with Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence, who, in December 2024, hit a moving Russian soldier at 2,069 meters using a single .338 Lapua Magnum round from a Sako TRG M10. He fired standing in a trench, nearly level with his target, and hit on the first shot.Lektor is still running missions and only reluctantly agreed to press, Barrett said. Soon, however, Barrett’s time with Lektor will become a short documentary. Barrett’s crew spent a morning on the range with his unit testing whether American M118 ammunition could match its costly hand-loaded rounds. Lektor said there was “practically no difference,” so the unit stuck with the M118 it already had.“I was struck by just his humility,” Barrett said.Lektor, a former gamekeeper, waved off the praise.“Honestly, I don’t consider myself a super expert,” he told Barrett’s crew in an interview translated from Ukrainian. “This is my job for the duration of the war.”Before the shot, his team had spent two weeks on the zero line watching for a Russian assault, under orders not to fire. When the situation changed and the team was set to move, Lektor asked for one more chance.“So I simply begged the commander: give us a day or two for free hunting,” he said.He spotted a soldier whose gear set him apart from ordinary infantry. The man was walking a tree line at a steady pace and a workable angle. As Lektor prepared to fire, his partner called a wind correction in the wrong direction.“I managed to shout: recalculate, something’s wrong,” Lektor said. They fixed it in seconds while the target was still moving.Barrett pointed to the longest confirmed .338 Lapua kill — British Cpl. Craig Harrison’s 2,475-meter shot in Afghanistan in 2009 — which came after several sighting rounds. Shots like that, he said, are “really more like competition shooting.” Lektor is skeptical of the rankings for the same reason.“Two shots maximum: if you didn’t hit, that’s it,” he said. “That’s how you should compare.”Within half an hour of the shot, drones were overhead.“The only thing that saved us was that the enemy didn’t expect a shot from such a distance,” Lektor said. The Russians shelled an area about 500 meters out. His team waited a full day in a dugout before slipping out.Now, thermal cameras hunt for heat.“After a shot, a simple suppressor can give you away, because it’s hot, it glows,” Lektor said.Early in the war, Lektor said, the walk to a firing position was about a kilometer. He now walks eight.Barrett asked him whether snipers were even relevant anymore. Lektor admitted the role is “a little outdated” but not finished.“Snipers, in my opinion, are the neurosurgeons,” he said. A sniper team can watch a sector almost continuously, he explained. “Drones have to return to recharge, they get shot down.”Near Bakhmut, Lektor’s team killed a Russian sniper. A neighboring unit then told them he was the fifth one killed at that position.“They have absolutely no regard for the lives of their own men,” Lektor said.Barrett sees Ukraine’s regard for its own people as an advantage, along with its speed in adapting to new technology. Russia, he said, treats the war like a meat grinder: “If I just put so much meat into it, that it breaks the grinder, then we’ll win.”Lektor’s son enlisted first, and the two have served together most of the war.“He’s my child, I have to be there,” Lektor said.Once, while Lektor was hospitalized with wounds, his son was fighting with another team in Chasiv Yar. He was the only one of four men in his group to come out unharmed.On his own team, Lektor keeps one rule.“I [am] the first to go in and the last to come out,” he said. “That’s our unwritten rule.”

[Category: Veterans] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/23/26 1:39pm
Unmanned systems now inflict more than 90% of Russia’s casualties on the front lines in Ukraine, yet no NATO military, including America’s, has begun the overhaul that kind of war demands, Ret. Army Gen. David Petraeus said Oct. 16, weeks after the Pentagon announced a new command for autonomous warfare.The extent of the drone war is underestimated, with Ukraine and Russia each using roughly 10,000 drones a day, the former CIA director and onetime commander of U.S. Central Command said, speaking at an American Primary Aluminum Association event in Washington.“This is an unmanned systems war,” Petraeus said. “Tanks aren’t survivable there anymore.”For Ukraine, drones and unmanned weapons have become central to how the country has leveraged a smaller, outgunned force against a much larger, better-financed adversary for almost five years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the creation of a new Unmanned Systems Forces military branch in 2024, and the Defense Ministry has said time and again that developing more autonomous weapons is a top priority.But for the rest of the world, Petraeus said, the fighting in Ukraine is a window into the future and a warning about the dangers of being underprepared for the battles to come.“Really, no NATO country and not even the United States is undertaking yet the urgent revolutionary institutional change that should be taken based on what we see in Ukraine, which is the future of war,” he said.The U.S. needs a new concept of warfare that runs through force structure, training, procurement, personnel policy and bases, the general said, replacing much of the legacy, heavily manned equipment with unmanned systems that are cheaper and far more numerous.“What’s going to happen is we’ll see the introduction of autonomous systems really for the first time in warfare,” Petraeus said.Washington is making “some commendable steps” toward developing these weapons, according to Petraeus, including establishing a new Autonomous Warfare Command that requires each military branch to stand up its own component command.“But my hope is that they will not just create an unmanned systems force in terms of force structure, but that they will also spur the initiation of true institutional change,” Petraeus said.That includes how the U.S. buys weapons, Petraeus said, calling for “very, very substantial manufacturing capacity but not necessarily producing all the time.”“You want it to be able to make software changes every week, hardware changes every few weeks, which is what’s going on in Ukraine because the enemy continues to evolve and Russia’s been innovating very substantially as well,” he said.Ukraine will produce as many as 20 million unmanned systems this year, Zelenskyy said in a July speech, with a shortage of trained operators and the acquisition of some weapons components — including optics, gimbals, brushless motors and fiber-optic cable — becoming the domestic industry’s production bottleneck. The general also rejected the idea that the U.S. war with Iran has hurt Washington’s ability to help Kyiv, though he acknowledged the U.S. has used “a fair number of missile interceptors,” which “makes it more difficult to share those with others around the world.”The war has consumed between one-half and two-thirds of the U.S. inventory of certain missile-defense interceptors, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate released in September.“We can help the Ukrainians in any way in which we decide to assist them,” Petraeus said. “These are policy decisions.”

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

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/23/26 12:29pm
Less than a week after an airman died from injuries sustained during a rappelling incident, the service member’s special operations unit has suspended all rappel and ropes training events and demonstrations.On Saturday, Tech. Sgt. Ian Patterson, a Tactical Air Control Party instructor assigned to the 6th Combat Training Squadron, Detachment 2, at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, fell from a football stadium’s rafters during a rappelling demonstration before a game between the University of Texas at San Antonio and the U.S. Naval Academy.During UTSA’s annual Salute to Armed Forces & Veterans game, videos show Patterson wearing combat fatigues and rappelling down to midfield from the Alamodome’s rafters before falling onto the field at full speed, feet first. Subsequent videos show medical personnel assisting the airman on the field before transporting him to a local hospital. Later Saturday night, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, which houses the 6th Combat Training Squadron, announced Patterson had died at the hospital from the injuries sustained during the demonstration.Members of the 6th Combat Training Squadron are trained in rappelling from heights of 100 feet or more. The football stadium’s rafters are around 170 feet above the stadium floor. “Tech Sgt Patterson’s squadron, 6th Combat Training Squadron, has paused all rappel and ropes training events and demonstrations until further notice,” an Air Force Warfare Center spokesperson told Military Times.The spokesperson declined to comment on when the suspension began and who enacted it. The comment did not include when the office expects the events and demonstrations to continue.Rappelling and ropes are a large aspect of the Tactical Air Control Party’s skill base, with familiarization training designed to give service members basic information and techniques needed to conduct live operations, according to an Air Force description.Patterson was from Fort Stewart, Georgia, and served in the Air Force for 15 years. His decorations include the Air and Space Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters, as well as the Army Commendation Medal, Air and Space Achievement Medal and Army Achievement Medal, each with one oak leaf cluster.He was named the Air Force Special Warfare Enlisted Instructor of the Year at the headquarters level in 2022.The incident is currently under investigation, according to a release at the time of identification.

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/23/26 11:19am
Versatile actor Tom Skerritt, who starred in the war comedy M*A*S*H and the action drama Top Gun, has died at the age of 93.Skerritt, a Detroit native whose Hollywood career spanned from the 1960s to the 2020s, died on Wednesday of natural causes, his family said in a statement.“While the world knew Tom through his remarkable acting career, we knew him for his humor, curiosity, wisdom, generosity, and the love he brought into our lives,” they said. “He cared deeply about imagination, creativity, storytelling, service, veterans, the natural world, and helping others find and share their own voices.”Born on August 25, 1933, in Detroit, Skerritt served in the Air Force before becoming an actor, making his film debut in 1962 alongside a young Robert Redford in War Hunt. Tony Scott cast Skerritt in the key supporting role of naval aviation instructor Viper Metcalf in the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun that helped star Tom Cruise soar into Hollywood’s stratosphere.“Hollywood knew him as Viper. We remember him as an American Veteran. Rest in peace, U.S. Air Force Veteran Tom Skerritt,” Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins wrote Friday on X.Known for his rugged good looks and ability to shine in a variety of genres, Skerritt delivered memorable performances in leading and supporting roles in film and television. Skerritt’s breakthrough role was a roguish U.S. Army surgeon in director Robert Altman’s 1970 Korean War black comedy M*A*S*H, a film whose ensemble cast also included Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould and Sally Kellerman. Skerritt played Southerner Duke Forrest as the doctors at the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital who stitched up wounded troops.The film, whose popularity coincided with American unease over the Vietnam War, was nominated for five Academy Awards.In director Ridley Scott’s claustrophobic 1979 sci-fi horror Alien, Skerritt played Dallas, the captain of an ill-fated spacecraft whose crew encounters a deadly parasitic extraterrestrial creature with a surrealist look and a bad attitude. In the film’s famous and bloody “chestburster” scene, Skerritt’s character is seated next to cast mate John Hurt when a baby alien violently exits the torso of Hurt’s character.Alien, an influential masterpiece whose ensemble cast also included Sigourney Weaver and Ian Holm, earned two Oscar nominations.“It is spontaneity and impulse that make the difference, and that is what I felt we had with ‘Alien.’ Every one of us had that immediate rapport with each other — the respect that I had for the other actors and the respect that they had for me,” Skerritt told interviewer Peter Sobczynski in 2019, while also lauding Scott’s directorial brilliance.Alien was one of several films in which Skerritt appeared that featured strong female characters, in this case Weaver’s courageous character Ripley. That was considered pioneering at the time.“When I read the script, one of the things that I liked most about it was that the woman becomes the hero. I loved that,” Skerritt said.“The sight of women being in positions of strength and fortitude to make the right connections and decisions was what appealed to me. I experienced that as well in ‘Steel Magnolias,’ with the women in that. I liked the idea of women being tough and strong and influential.” In Steel Magnolias (1989), Skerritt played Drum Eatenton, husband of Sally Field’s M’Lynn Eatenton.Skerritt also played Shirley MacLaine’s husband in director Herbert Ross’s 1977 ballet drama The Turning Point, and starred alongside another emerging star in Brad Pitt in Redford’s beautifully shot 1992 period drama A River Runs Through It.Among other films in which he appeared were: Harold and Maude (1971), Ice Castles (1978), The Dead Zone (1983), Poltergeist III (1988), Contact (1997), Tears of the Sun (2003) and Ted (2012).On the small screen, Skerritt starred in the offbeat CBS series Picket Fences from 1992 to 1996, playing a Wisconsin town sheriff and claiming an Emmy as outstanding lead actor in a drama series in 1993.He was a father of five children and was married three times.

[Category: Veterans] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/23/26 11:18am
Artificial intelligence may one day destroy the human race, but if and when it does, there will be nothing artificial about it. In fact, it’ll be super. That is, at least, the proper terminology in this great American age of rebrands, one that has borne witness to such seismic overhauls as the Gulf of Mexico becoming the Gulf of America, Lake Ontario becoming Lake America, and a push to call New Mexico ... New America. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 29 the term “artificial intelligence” would henceforth be retired in favor of “super intelligence.” “As these capabilities continue to improve, they increasingly represent not merely artificial intelligence, but a new era of Super Intelligence,” the executive order stated. The president followed that “SI” declaration up with an Oct. 8 Truth Social post asserting that anyone who uses the previous moniker would be branded “THE ENEMY!” The U.S. Navy this week became one of the first services to avoid that traitorous designation, cementing the super initiative and calling on “all Navy echelons, commands, activities, and personnel [to] use ‘Super Intelligence’ and ‘SI’ in place of ‘Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘AI,’” a service memo stated. “This policy applies effective immediately across all official Navy correspondence, flag letters, OPORDs, wargame documentation, instructional material, fleet advisories, public communications, official websites, strategic assessments, congressional reports, and non-statutory internal and external policy documents,” the memo continued.As part of the super overhaul, echelon II commanders, type commanders and systems commanders will be required to review all “public releases, intranet portals, and external presentations for compliance” no later than 30 days after the release of the super memo. These personnel will then be required to submit a super report on completing the task.The directive does not require retroactively amending previously published documentation or contracts, the message noted, while existing laws and statutes “will continue to be cited as statutorily required until conforming congressional amendments are enacted.”A Military Times request for comment from the sea service regarding what consequences might result should “artificial intelligence” be used was not returned as of press time.

[Category: / Military Culture] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/23/26 8:29am
The U.S. Air Force is looking to artificial intelligence to improve the performance of its aerial refueling crews.The goal is for AI to automatically analyze refueling operations from cameras mounted on the tankers and provide “hot wash” feedback to the tanker crews.According to an Air Force Small Business Innovation Research solicitation, the service wants a system that can “leverage advanced computer vision, machine learning, and aviation (flight dynamics) analytics techniques to automatically extract operationally relevant performance metrics from aerial refueling events, quantify deviations from desired flight profiles, and generate actionable post-flight feedback to improve aircrew proficiency, reduce human-factor-driven mishaps, and enhance mission readiness.” The application deadline is Nov. 25.The SBIR is focused on the KC-46 tanker, which will feature a remote vision system that will allow operators to remotely operate the refueling boom via cameras and a 3D display. Though the system has been plagued by teething problems, the Air Force says most will soon be resolved.The system would automatically track the tanker and refueling boom, as well as the receiving aircraft. It would measure a variety of data, including position, velocity, alignment and closure rate, and assess whether they deviate from nominal parameters. The Air Force hopes an AI-based assessment system will mitigate the biases inherent in human assessment of aerial refueling, which is among the most demanding tasks for aircrew. “Current aerial refueling training and post-flight assessment processes rely heavily on instructor observation, pilot self-assessment, manual video review, and subjective evaluation of performance,” the SBIR noted. The system would create visual displays to improve the performance of pilots of the aircraft receiving fuel, such as “graphic AI overlays, heat maps, event timelines, and immersive or interactive debrief environments.” It would also have the potential to integrate with other training systems, including virtual and augmented reality, simulators, mission rehearsal systems, and other computer-based training tools. The Air Force sees this as a prototype for future AI-based training systems. “The desired end state is an operationally demonstrated capability ready to implement for at least one type of receiver aircraft and that can support transition into existing aviation training ecosystems and provide a scalable foundation for future AI-enabled aviation performance assessment across the Department of Defense,” the solicitation reads.

[Category: / MilTech] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/23/26 8:13am
Four years after Navy Lt. Craig Becker was convicted of pushing his wife out a seventh-floor window to her death while the couple was stationed in Belgium, an attorney for the officer is making a last-chance petition to the Supreme Court, saying key evidence was omitted from the trial. Becker, a decorated explosive ordnance disposal officer, was sentenced in 2022 to life without parole in the 2015 death of 32-year-old Johanna Hove-Becker, with a jury finding he was guilty of premeditated murder, assault consummated by a battery and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. The trial followed years of dispute over who would prosecute the case; Becker remained in the custody of Belgian legal authorities for two years after Hove-Becker’s death while the Navy declined to take jurisdiction. Then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis ultimately ordered the Navy to take the case in 2018. While prosecutors said Becker had had a “visceral” reaction to learning Hove-Becker had a new boyfriend and was thus motivated to later drug her with sleeping pills and push her from the window to her death, Becker’s attorney says evidence left out of trial points to the deceased woman’s own mental instability. In an Oct. 16 petition for writ of certiorari, or formal review request to the Supreme Court, Becker’s attorney David Sheldon, a former Navy Judge Advocate General, argues that a series of text messages between Becker and his wife seven months before her death constitute evidence that she was suicidal and should have been included as part of Becker’s defense. Both Becker and Hove-Becker, the petition states, were separated at the time of her death and had other partners, though they continued to live together and co-parent. In the messages, included in the petition, Hove-Becker allegedly tells Becker she’s “trying to work on not being nuts” and “terrified” of “losing my memory and my wits … losing my mental faculties against my will.” The texts were excluded by the trial judge as hearsay, Sheldon states, but should have been included as key evidence of a “history of mental health problems,” particularly in light of other testimony from the prosecution that sought to establish Hove-Becker’s soundness of mind. It’s the last in a series of appeals and follows previous disputes over hearsay in the case. A 2021 decision by the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals, or NMCCA, overturned a decision by the trial judge, Navy Capt. Aaron Rugh, which had excluded statements Hove-Becker made in 2013 accusing her husband of physical violence. She had claimed Becker had thrown her “around their hotel room and strangled her” after learning she’d had an affair, but she later recanted the statements in a joint counseling session, court documents show. Later in 2021, though, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, or CAAF, reversed the lower appellate court’s ruling, finding the judge was right to suppress the statements. Texts Hove-Becker allegedly sent on the night of her death, including one stating “I f—ing hate my life,” also complicate the picture, though Becker was later accused of sending those messages himself. In an interview, Sheldon said he believed the lower appellate courts should have allowed for admission of evidence supporting Becker’s claim that his wife had died by suicide. “The government paints this picture throughout the trial that she somehow is sane right before she dies,” he said. “And that just didn’t match reality.” In a 111-page opinion issued late last December, NMCCA declined to overturn Becker’s conviction, finding the prosecution had “presented overwhelming evidence of preparation, including [Becker] retrieving pills from his former desk one day before [Hove-Becker’s] death that match a description of zolpidem, and buying wine for someone he described as having a drinking problem.”The court also noted that Hove-Becker was described by friends and co-workers as “happy and moving on with her life” around the time of her death. CAAF, the last military appeals court before the Supreme Court, announced in June that it would not reconsider the case, and denied reconsideration a month later. Becker has been incarcerated at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since his sentencing, Sheldon said. The Supreme Court is likely to make a decision within the next 90 days on whether it will take up the case, he said.

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/23/26 7:54am
A group of nonprofits alleges the federal government illegally transformed more than 100,000 acres of public land along the New Mexico-Mexico border into a military installation so U.S. troops could assist in immigration enforcement.In a federal lawsuit, the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Battalion Search and Rescue and Southern Border Communities Coalition argue the Trump administration is misusing so-called “national defense areas” to circumvent longstanding restrictions on military participation in civilian law enforcement.In a statement, Brian Netter, legal director at Democracy Forward, one of the teams representing the plaintiffs, called the “national defense area” designation “an extraordinary abuse of power with devastating consequences for the people who live, work, worship, recreate, and carry out lifesaving humanitarian work along the border.”“Public lands do not become military installations simply because the president says so, and the military cannot be handed sweeping new authority to police civilians by drawing a line around land that belonged to the public,” he said, adding, “Our Constitution and laws impose clear limits on the use of the military for civilian law enforcement for a reason.” The Trump administration began sending troops to the area in March 2025 to support border security and has since expanded the military’s presence along the border in other states. By April of that year, the Defense Department assumed jurisdiction over the 109,651 acres from the Department of the Interior.The designation made the land, officially named the New Mexico National Defense Area, an expansion of Fort Huachuca for three years. The Defense Department said the designation allowed troops to detain people accused of trespassing in the military area after crossing the border illegally.However, the lawsuit argues that the federal agencies exceeded their authority to transfer public land through emergency powers. “No statute authorizes the creation of ‘national defense areas,’ let alone permits carving one out of formerly public land,” the lawsuit says. The lawsuit adds that the Defense Department has historically used such land restrictions only temporarily to protect people or property during accidents or emergencies. “Creating a semi-permanent military zone along the southern border for purposes of immigration enforcement is directly contrary to the agency’s longstanding practice,” the lawsuit says. Beyond alleging violations of federal law, the plaintiffs say the military zones are disrupting their work by limiting access to public lands used for recreation and conservation; supporting border communities; and providing humanitarian aid.James R. Holeman, founder of Battalion Search and Rescue, said his organization leads volunteers who search for people in distress in remote areas and recover the remains of migrants who died crossing the border. Over the past three years, he said, the group’s monthly searches along the Arizona and New Mexico border have uncovered more than 100 death sites.“Imagine how many more people could be found if we had the access, resources, and support to search systematically. Instead, we’re being locked out,” he said, adding that vast stretches of borderlands are “virtually inaccessible to humanitarian searchers” because of federal designations. “Now the government is closing off even more territory. We don’t find weapons or drugs. We find Bibles, prayer cards, love notes, and the belongings of people simply trying to survive,” Holeman said. “There is no meaningful, systematic government effort to search for the missing and the dead. They don’t search, and now they’re preventing us from searching.”

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

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/22/26 1:50pm
The error of Veterans Benefits Administration staff has resulted in approximately $5.6 million in overpayments to veterans, a VA watchdog found.During a review period from June 1, 2024, through May 31, 2025, the VA made at least one error in 17,900 cases, roughly 38%, regarding disability decisions for painful scars, according to a recent VA Office of Inspector General report.920 of those decisions, per the report, led to millions in overpayment and will continue to accrue without “corrective action.”For service-connected painful scars, as a result of burns, surgeries, shrapnel and gunshot wounds, among other sources, the VA requires a physical examination to support a veteran’s claim. However, the OIG found that the Disability Benefits Questionnaire “does not clearly define objective versus subjective evidence. Therefore, claims processors sometimes provided evaluations for painful scars without objective evidence to support the evaluations, which led to overpayments in disability compensation.”In addition, the report found that physical manifestations of the disability were often evaluated under two separate diagnostic codes, often resulting in “pyramiding” and overpayment. The report notes that more than a half-million veterans currently receive VA disability benefits for painful scarring caused or worsened by military service, but it took a random sample of 70 decisions from a review population of 47,300. It further notes that the OIG took the findings to the VBA in February 2026 and following the briefing, “30 additional decisions completed from January 1 through January 31, 2026… identified a 43 percent error rate.”The VBA, while agreeing with many of the OIG’s recommendations, including revising the “Scars/Disfigurement” section of the DBQ; ensuring employees understand how to accurately evaluate painful scars; and reviewing and correcting the processing errors on decisions the Office of Inspector General team identified, took issue with the statistical sample and the contextualization of those estimates. “The OIG examined 130 decisions, representing approximately 0.27 percent of the total review population of about 47,300 decisions, and identified 60 errors, which form the basis for the projected 17,900 errors referenced throughout the report,” per VA comments in the report. “Importantly, only seven of the 60 errors OIG found resulted in improper payments, which represents about 5.4 percent of the sample, and when viewed across the full review population, only about 0.015 percent of all decisions reviewed. The remaining 53 errors, more than 88 percent of the sample, were technical or procedural issues that did not result in improper payments.”The VA is working to complete the OIG’s suggestions by February 2027 at the latest.

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

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/22/26 1:27pm
The U.S. Army is looking for new manufacturers to build barrels for 155mm howitzers amid concerns at the Pentagon that the government’s only plant for manufacturing them can’t keep up with the increased demand for artillery.The Army wants contractors that can manufacture up to 10 barrels per month within three years, according to the Sources Sought notice. The deadline is Nov. 23.Companies were asked to provide details of their ability — or their subcontractor’s capacity — to make barrels, including whether they could add “chrome bore coatings on a steel tube up to 30 [feet] long and up to 7,500 pounds in weight,” the notice said. They should also provide the maximum length and weight of tube that they could coat.Also desired are details on a company’s boring, milling and rifling capabilities, as well as details on raw materials, such as “steel preform production, forging, guide bore, and heat treatment.”The notice asks contractors to estimate their capacity to manufacture 155mm barrels within 18 months, and up to 10 barrels per month within 36 months. Companies should also offer a cost estimate for an “initial production quantity of 40 cannon tubes (broken down by caliber or indicating pricing for a combined/flexible mix),” the Army said.Currently, the Army makes large-caliber barrels for howitzers and tanks only at the aging Watervliet Arsenal in New York. While America and Europe have been focused on expanding production of howitzer ammunition to meet demand in the Ukraine war and replenish domestic stockpiles, another problem is a lack of manufacturing capacity to replace worn-out cannon barrels. A 2024 Pentagon budget document stated that Ukraine’s heavy use of M777 howitzers created a demand for more than 30 M776 tubes per month, according to The War Zone. The document admitted that Watervliet could not keep up with demand, and asked for emergency funding to be transferred to enable a second manufacturer of barrels.The new notice doesn’t mention how many additional barrel manufacturers are needed. However, the Army is exploring whether to replace the M777 with a weapon based on Korea’s popular K9 howitzer.

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/22/26 12:57pm
President Donald Trump suggested that monetary compensation for victims of contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, hinges on Republicans winning control of Congress, telling a crowd at a Tuesday political rally that outstanding claims would be settled if his party wins the House and Senate in the midterm elections.Addressing a crowd in Greenville, North Carolina, Trump claimed his administration had already distributed $1 billion in cash settlements to victims of the pollutants. He also pledged to direct the Justice Department to resolve unsettled claims; however, he tied the possibility of future payments to partisan politics.“If we win the House and the Senate, I am directing the Department of Justice to settle all remaining legitimate claims as soon as possible and get it off the books and get it finished,” Trump said amid a slew of attacks on Democrats. He later added, “If we don’t win, there’s no money. If we do win, you’re getting it.”Trump also said, “We don’t want to give any [money] to the trial lawyers.”From the early 1950s to the late 1980s, service members and families drank and used water contaminated with trichloroethylene, a chemical that leaked into the water supplies from a local dry cleaning firm, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Underground storage tanks and industrial pollution also contributed, the National Research Council reported. Military authorities were unaware of the pollution until 1982, nearly three decades after it started.The toxic compound has been linked to a slew of devastating health consequences — including deaths — and led to dozens of lawsuits.A study released in 2023 found that veterans and family members stationed at the base are 70% more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than other veterans, and those who spent time at the base have linked cancer diagnoses to the exposure.In 2022, President Joe Biden’s administration passed the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxins (PACT) Act, which expanded care for veterans exposed to different toxins and enabled affected individuals to pursue compensation. In March, the Justice Department pledged to expedite settlements under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, part of the PACT Act.The U.S. Navy and Department of Justice opened a settlement option for faster payout in 2022, with applicants agreeing to waive litigation.The Justice Department announced in March that it approved 649 settlement offers totaling $175 million over three weeks for those affected by the contaminated drinking water. Since the program began, the department said it has approved more than 2,500 offers worth around $706 million. Individual payments range from $100,000 to $550,000.

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/22/26 11:17am
Stephen Hubbard, a retired U.S. teacher and Air Force veteran, was released from Russian custody on Wednesday after spending over four years in prison.Hubbard was serving a roughly seven-year sentence after being accused by Russia in 2022 of working with Ukraine as a mercenary. American President Donald Trump announced his release from prison on social media, saying it was out of respect for the president and nothing was asked of the U.S. in return.“This release was not part of an exchange — and we extend our thanks to President Putin for releasing him on President Trump’s request,” Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said on social media after he retrieved Hubbard in St. Petersburg.Hubbard, 74, was an active-duty airman beginning in March 1974, an Air Force spokesperson told Military Times. He was an Airman 1st Class as an apprentice administration specialist, with his last duty station at Mather Air Force Base, California. He separated from the service in March 1978.Mather closed as a military base in 1993 and is now operational as the Sacramento Mather Airport.After active duty, Hubbard served in the Air National Guard, but due to the age of the records, information regarding his role as a guardsman in the force’s system is sparse, the spokesperson said.The National Guard did not return a request for comment.Although Trump said “no swap” was necessary for Hubbard’s release, he told reporters outside the White House and in a subsequent social media post that if he placed sanctions on Russia, Hubbard’s release would not have occurred.He said that people who “don’t know how life works” questioned his decision to waive sanctions on Russia during the negotiations to release Hubbard.“If I would’ve done that, you would not have Mr. Hubbard coming back,” he told reporters.“If you would’ve put those sanctions on, or whatever you want to call them, you could forget about him, you’d never see him again,” he continued. “He’d be back in jail for 25 years.”Hubbard’s release comes less than a week after Trump prevented new sanctions on Russia, which were intended to target the country’s largest buyers of oil and gas, drawing criticism from members of Congress who support the legislation and Ukraine.Alongside Hubbard, the administration has negotiated the release of other Americans from Russian custody since returning to office last year, including Robert Gilman, Ksenia Karelina and Marc Fogel, Witkoff said.

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/22/26 11:15am
The Defense Department and Lockheed Martin agreed to a 10-year framework that the Pentagon says guarantees at least 850 F-35 Lightning II fighters for the U.S. military, pending congressional approval and funding.The framework, announced Thursday, includes initial spare parts plus 10 years of modification kits and sustainment. It also covers orders from foreign customers, with production continuing at 156 aircraft per year, according to Lockheed.In exchange for the decade-long commitment, Lockheed will self-fund at least $7 billion in initiatives supporting the F-35 program, the Pentagon said.“With the greater certainty that comes from the U.S. government’s transformative approach to F-35 production and sustainment, we can make the upfront investments needed to expand capacity, improve efficiency, and build a more resilient supply chain,” Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet said in a statement. “That’s good for the taxpayer, good for our suppliers and, most importantly, good for the United States and its allies.”Neither announcement gave a total value or per-jet price. Lockheed said the F-35 Joint Program Office and the company will work out terms, pricing and schedules in a formal contract if Congress approves a multiyear buy and provides the money in the coming months.A multiyear buy lets the Pentagon purchase a weapon across several years under one contract instead of negotiating annually, which generally lowers unit cost. Lockheed said the framework is expected to save taxpayers billions of dollars through “long-term pricing and industry volume discounts.”“We have fundamentally changed how we stabilize the American defense industrial base to produce at speed and scale,” said Michael Duffey, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment. “This agreement with Lockheed Martin proves it. By aligning financial incentives with actual performance, we are ensuring our warfighters are equipped with the lethal capabilities they need to fight and win.”Neither the Pentagon nor Lockheed described those performance-based incentives.At 850 jets over 10 years, the framework averages 85 U.S. aircraft per year. That matches the Pentagon’s fiscal 2027 request for 85 F-35s across the services. In fiscal 2026, Congress funded just 47 F-35s.The framework comes days after the Air Force told Congress it needs 1,509 combat-coded fighters, or jets assigned to combat units, by 2035. The request came in a force structure report sent Oct. 16. F-35As would make up about 40% of that fleet.The House and Senate versions of the annual defense policy bill would both let the Pentagon sign multiyear F-35 contracts. The House passed its bill in July. Senate Democrats blocked theirs from reaching the floor that month, and leaders have put it off until after the November midterm elections. The framework can’t become a contract until both bills pass and are merged into a single law.The framework also faces a funding hurdle. Congress has not yet approved a full-year defense budget. A stopgap funding law keeping the government open through Dec. 11 holds spending at last year’s levels and generally bars the Pentagon from starting new programs or multiyear buys.Lockheed pitched the framework as a readiness fix, saying steady orders will improve the F-35’s mission-capable rate, the percentage of time jets can fly at least one assigned mission.“Predictable demand from long-term contracts with suppliers will enable bulk procurement of raw materials and critical parts, slashing turnaround times and reducing logistics bottlenecks,” Lockheed said. “This will result in better mission-capable rates by eliminating the annual contracting cycle that has historically strained the industrial base.”A Government Accountability Office report in June found that the rate fell from 67% in fiscal 2021 to 44% in fiscal 2025, while the share of time jets could fly all assigned missions dropped from 38% to 25%. Later that month, F-35 program chief Lt. Gen. Gregory Masiello told senators the fleet had outgrown its support system.The F-35 deal follows a string of Pentagon framework agreements aimed at speeding up weapons production.In January, Lockheed reached an agreement to speed PAC-3 MSE output, then signed another weeks later to quadruple THAAD interceptor production. The THAAD deal led to a contract worth more than $35 billion in June. Last year’s defense bills had already approved multiyear buys for both interceptors.On Oct. 19, the Pentagon announced a framework with BAE Systems covering up to seven years of buys of Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System laser-guidance kits.Lockheed said the program will support 317,000 U.S. jobs and roughly $79 billion in yearly economic activity over the decade.

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

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/22/26 8:55am
From Balabac in the southern Philippines to Hokkaido in northern Japan, U.S. Army soldiers have stepped up their training with new long-range weapons along the first island chain, working with allies in exercises that have grown larger and more complex over the past half-decade.Freed from Cold War-era constraints, the U.S. Army has been upgrading its existing missiles and rocket artillery and developing new, longer-range systems. Those investments are largely in response to the growing size and sophistication of China’s missile arsenal, which the U.S. military worries could deny its forces access to the Western Pacific during a conflict. The intensification of training with the Philippines and Japan reflects a shared concern about China’s military capabilities.The emphasis on long-range fires in the first island chain is visible in the extended deployments and first-of-their-kind drills involving those weapons, especially the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System. HIMARS can conduct land-attack and maritime-strike missions using guided rockets with ranges of a few dozen miles or ballistic missiles with ranges of a few hundred miles.U.S. Army HIMARS operated in Japan for the first time in 2021 during an exercise in Hokkaido and were first deployed to Japan’s Southwest Islands, which separate the East China Sea from the wider Pacific, in 2022 for an exercise on an island northeast of Okinawa. Since then, HIMARS has been a common feature of U.S. exercises with Japan, most recently this year’s Keen Sword, for which Army HIMARS were sent to a Japanese island that is only 150 miles east of Taiwan.The Army’s HIMARS has a longer history in the Philippines, but in recent years, U.S. and Filipino troops have employed it in new roles, such as anti-ship strikes, and in new parts of the country. Exercises in 2024 and 2025 saw HIMARS deployed to Palawan, facing the South China Sea, and to the northern coast of Luzon, facing Taiwan. This year’s edition of Balikatan, the two countries’ largest annual exercise, showed their ability to move HIMARS around the country by land, sea and air: In April, U.S. soldiers and airmen transported a HIMARS to Itbayat, the Philippines’ northernmost municipality and only 100 miles from Taiwan, for a dry-fire exercise. A few weeks later, an Army watercraft transported a HIMARS launcher to Balabac Island, south of Palawan, for the first time for a live-fire exercise, which showed its ability “to protect shipping going into the Sulu and Celebes Sea,” the Army said.The ability to move forces into and across the first island chain demonstrates alliance integration and sends a message to rivals, according to Gen. Ronald Clark, commander of U.S. Army Pacific. “It’s really a joint success story,” Clark said at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. this month. Clark pointed to a recent exercise for which soldiers loaded HIMARS launchers on aircraft at a base in Washington state and flew them to the Philippines, all of which was visible to adversaries. “We then join munitions from Korea that were drawn out of stocks there to the Philippines, where our adversary could see it, and then we conduct a live-fire on the backend of a HIMARS rapid-infiltration operation,” Clark added. “Being able to do that, it, one, takes a lot of skill. Second, it takes a tremendous amount of partnership with, in this case, allies to assist us.”Clark said improving capabilities in increasingly complex exercises affects adversaries’ thinking. “To be able to conduct operational maneuver and have tremendous tactical effects that then have a strategic effect on our adversary is exactly what we were looking to gain, because what that does is it gives them pause.”Over the past two years, the U.S. Army has introduced its Mid-Range Capability, a new ground-based missile system known as Typhon, to its training in the first island chain. Typhon can fire SM-6 missiles at air and maritime targets a few hundred miles away and Tomahawk missiles at land targets up to 1,000 miles away, bringing swathes of China and Russia into range from the Philippines and Japan. Typhon’s first overseas deployment was in 2024 in the Philippines. It has remained there since then, and in May this year, it was test-fired for the first time, striking a target in central Luzon from nearly 400 miles away. The Army sent a Typhon to Japan for the first time in August 2025 for an exercise the following month, but the weapon lingered until November that year. It returned to Japan this summer, deploying to the southernmost of Japan’s main islands for exercises in June and September and moving to a base on Okinawa for storage in October. U.S. officials told Tokyo the deployment isn’t meant to be permanent, but it has no official end date.The Typhon was sent to the Philippines at Manila’s request and “has maintained forward presence for now over 30 consecutive months,” Maj. Gen. Bernard Harrington said in a presentation at the AUSA conference. Harrington commands the recently established 7th Infantry Division/Multi-Domain Command-Pacific, which combines the 7th Infantry Division’s ground-maneuver elements with the long-range fires and non-kinetic effects of the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force.Typhon’s presence in the Philippines has allowed for extended in-theater training, giving soldiers more insight into issues like “How do we sustain in the environment? How do you protect those types of systems in the environment? How do you connect sensor to shooter?” Harrington said in his presentation. “To be able to do that persistently forward and persistently with our ally in the Philippines and our partners is incredibly important for us.”While the presence of HIMARS and Typhon in new places has been widely publicized, those deployments also create opportunities for U.S. troops to do less visible work to improve communications links and enhance their command-and-control networks, ensuring that friendly forces have a common operating picture of the battlefield and can use their weapons effectively in combat.China has watched these developments warily. Beijing regularly criticizes U.S. exercises with Japan and the Philippines as provocative and destabilizing, and it has singled out Typhon deployments for vitriol. But experts cited by Chinese state media also say China has an advantage against weapons like HIMARS when they are deployed on islands near Taiwan because the islands’ small size and terrain will hinder mobility and concealment and their remoteness will make it easier to spot and block resupply efforts.The logistical challenge is real. U.S. war games also emphasize the difficulty of resupplying small islands near Taiwan — but Harrington said it underscores the need for US forces to disperse and adopt lower-cost, lower-signature weapons alongside expensive missiles. “This maximizes options for the Joint Force while also enhancing the protection and survivability of our soldiers,” Harrington told Defense News at AUSA. “For example, the employment of systems such as long-range one-way-attack drones, unmanned surface vessels, and long-range launched effects may enable our division to achieve a desired effect for the Joint Force while also preserving our larger, more exquisite systems until needed for a specific purpose.”

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/22/26 7:45am
The Pentagon wants ketamine wafers. And it seems to want them now. Earlier this year, the Defense Department awarded a nearly $41 million development contract to Singapore-based iX Biopharma to develop Wafermine, a small, ketamine-packed wafer that dissolves under the tongue.Recently, the drug’s manufacturer announced that it is pursuing an emergency authorization that could make the medication available to troops before it receives full Food and Drug Administration approval, citing a September U.S. declaration of a military emergency that justifies the emergency use of drugs deemed necessary by the Pentagon. A federal emergency use approval declaration by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Sept. 3 opened the possibility of early official authorization, giving the FDA a route to use unapproved medications to treat war wounds. According to the notice, on July 15, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth determined “a military emergency, or significant potential for a military emergency, involving a heightened risk to U.S. military forces of an attack with a chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear agent or agents,” or an attack with agents that would cause life-threatening injuries. The declaration continues: “Injuries arising from these attacks may cause those forces to experience moderate to severe acute pain and place them at risk of developing life-threatening hemodynamic instability, including shock or respiratory distress.”Because of Hegseth’s determination, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr. declared that “circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of drugs” identified by the Pentagon. The notice did not elaborate on the emergency circumstances or state which drugs would be identified for emergency authorization. A Politico investigation published Tuesday found that iX Biofarma’s domestic manufacturing partner lacks the Nevada license required to operate. iX Biofarma called the non-opioid medication the “world’s first sublingual ketamine for acute moderate to severe pain,” and said the wafer enables a different delivery mechanism, letting patients absorb the ketamine through the mucous membrane into the bloodstream. Typically administered via injection, ketamine can alleviate pain, increase euphoria and cause dissociation and amnesia. A 2023 study found that opioid use to alleviate battlefield injuries decreased between January 2010 and December 2019, while ketamine use increased. The researchers found that “ketamine is generally used first for more severely injured patients and has increasingly been employed by the U.S. military as the primary analgesic for combat casualties.”The company said it received a “sole-source” award for Wafermine development, meaning it did not solicit other vendors.

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

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/22/26 7:03am
A pair of Marines filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against the Pentagon over a data breach at the Defense Manpower Data Center, or DMDC, arguing it allowed scammers to obtain and use their personally identifiable information, or PII.In the complaint filed in federal court in the District of Columbia, Marine veteran Tristyn Edwards and active-duty Marine Morgan Stampfli allege that they experienced fraudulent charges on their financial accounts and an increase in spam messages because of the breach.In September, the DMDC said it had discovered a vulnerability on July 16 in a file-sharing system that allowed unauthorized users to access unencrypted files containing personal information, including full names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and military occupations.According to the lawsuit, the vulnerability exposed millions of files containing information on service members and people affiliated with the military for approximately nine months before it was discovered. The lawsuit also alleges that the DMDC failed to “promptly notify” affected individuals, some of whom were informed two or three months after the breach was found.“The exposure of Plaintiff and Class members’ PII will cause various types of misuse in the coming months and years, including but not limited to, unauthorized credit card charges, unauthorized access to email accounts, identity theft, and other fraudulent use of their Private Information,” the lawsuit says.The lawsuit argues that the Pentagon violated federal privacy laws by failing to protect personal records and maintain compliant cybersecurity systems, despite internal warnings about issues in its systems.The complaint cites multiple reports from the Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General describing failures by both the department and the DMDC to implement adequate cybersecurity controls. In a report published days after the breach, the OIG said that “officials have not taken the necessary actions to demonstrate that they were operating at an effective level for 14 of the 20 [Inspector General Federal Information Security Modernization Act] core metrics.”News of the Defense Department breach emerged alongside reports of a cyberattack targeting FBI personnel files. However, the group responsible for the FBI incident has not been linked to the Pentagon breach. The department offered affected individuals 12 months of credit monitoring and identity-restoration services.“Had [the Defense Department] properly implemented standard cybersecurity controls — such as regular review of accounts, scanning for vulnerabilities, field encryption or tokenization of sensitive PII like SSNs, and routine monitoring of system logs for suspicious activity — the Data Breach could have been avoided,” the lawsuit says.

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

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/21/26 1:01pm
The U.S. Air Force says it needs 1,509 combat-coded fighters, or jets assigned to combat units, by 2035, according to a new force structure report the service sent to Congress Oct. 16.Lt. Gen. David Tabor, the Air Force’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, described the report at an Oct. 20 Pentagon roundtable with reporters, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported. Reporters did not receive a copy of the report, and the service did not respond to a Defense News request for it by publication.F-35s would make up about 40% of the fleet by 2035, up from about 30% today, according to figures Tabor cited. F-22s and their replacement, the F-47, would make up about 20%. The service plans to replace its F-22s with about the same number of F-47s, Tabor said. F-15s and F-16s would split the remaining 40% about evenly. The figures exclude A-10s, which are not currently part of the Air Force’s plans for 2035.Tabor said the analysis was based on what regional commanders say they need to carry out their missions at medium risk. The military rates risk on four levels: low, medium, significant and high. At medium risk, forces would likely achieve their goals but could be strained in long operations.The analysis began before the war with Iran this year and was not driven by it, Tabor said. He cautioned that the 1,509 figure is likely to change with world events, new requirements and the rise of new technology.Reaching the goal depends on Congress funding the jets and on Lockheed Martin and Boeing building them in time, Tabor said. Industry has “assured us that they can, and we believe them,” he told reporters, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine.Air Force officials have long said the service needs to buy 72 fighters a year. The fiscal 2027 request seeks 38 F-35s and 24 F-15EXs, a total of 62. Tabor said purchases can increase over time.The budget counts on $2.34 billion to pay for 14 of the 38 F-35s. That money would come through a reconciliation bill, a budget package that can pass the Senate with a simple majority. If that bill fails, Tabor said, the service could pull money from other programs or push the buys to 2028.The Air Force is seeking multiyear contracts for the F-35 and F-15EX, a request now pending in Congress. Tabor said such deals would give industry more stability to expand production. Older F-16s reach the end of their service lives in the mid-2030s, Tabor said, but the service has not decided whether to buy a new-build F-16, tentatively called the F-16G. That decision likely won’t come in the fiscal 2028 budget, he said.The 1,509 figure does not count Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCAs, the drone wingmen that will fly alongside crewed fighters. The Air Force plans to field 500 CCAs by 2032. Tabor said the drones are not yet changing the fighter requirement but could reduce it in future reports.

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/21/26 12:29pm
The USS Abraham Lincoln is shifting its home port from San Diego to Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Washington, according to a recent service announcement. The relocation is expected to be completed later this year and executed as a permanent change of station for the aircraft carrier’s crew and family members. The move, while long planned, had left many family members in limbo after the USS Abraham Lincoln’s routine six-month deployment was extended twice after the U.S. jointly launched Operation Epic Fury with Israel on Feb. 28.The ship, which returned to San Diego, California, on Oct. 8, spent 322 days at sea — and 265 consecutive days without a port call.At an August town hall meeting in San Diego, family members spoke with Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao and other senior officials, expressing frustration with Navy officials over reported food shortages, concerns about self-harm and confusion over the timeline regarding the impending move to Washington. According to the release, the home port shift is part of the Navy’s “strategic dispersal of ships,” while noting that “Regularly scheduled depot-level maintenance maximizes the lifespan of our Navy vessels and keeps our fleets lethal, modern, and ready to defend the nation. The work conducted during the maintenance period will maximize the lifespan of Abraham Lincoln and re-establish the carrier at the highest state of material and combat readiness.”The Navy did not provide a start date for the maintenance period. Naval Base Kitsap is the Navy’s third-largest Fleet Concentration Area and its most complex multi-mission installation, according to its website. The Lincoln will join its fellow Nimitz-class carrier, USS Ronald Reagan, in Kitsap.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Oct. 7 that the carrier strike group had been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation, the military’s highest unit-level valor award.Hegseth, who visited the carrier one day prior to the ship reaching shore, announced the award to the 5,000 sailors aboard the Lincoln, citing the “historic mission” that included completing “3,693 combat flights, sinking 64 Iranian warships, launching 450 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles and shooting down 77 one-way aerial attack drones.”

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/21/26 11:55am
The U.S. Navy announced Tuesday that it is offering sizable financial incentives to service members who neutralize explosive devices in a bid to retain their services.Explosive ordnance disposal warfare lieutenants with six years of commissioned service and lieutenant commanders with 10 years of commissioned service are eligible for bonuses of up to $100,000.Both ranks can commit to a 2-year or 4-year contract with different payment plans.Lieutenants who sign up for the 4-year contract bonus receive a $100,000 retention bonus and must complete the EOD Department Head Qualified training by 8 years of commissioned service.Lieutenants can also opt for a 2-year contract bonus, netting $12,500 annually, with the possibility of another two-year bonus worth the same amount at eight years of commissioned service.This track would ensure $50,000 in bonuses.The Navy is offering lieutenant commanders $100,000 in retention bonuses if they sign a 4-year contract after notching 10 years of commissioned service. They can also instead sign up for a 2-year contract after those 10 years, with a $15,000 annual payment. If they re-up the 2-year contract at 12 years, they are eligible for the same yearly payment until they reach 14 years of commissioned service.Eligible officers can submit an application through their commanding officer for the retention bonus within one year of being eligible. The officer must submit a copy of their original signed contract and commanding officer approval to the Bureau of Naval Personnel for consideration.The Navy has recently devoted its explosive ordnance resources to Arctic training, as the U.S. and allied nations focus on defending the frozen terrain from Chinese and Russian infiltration.U.S. sailors worked alongside Swedish and Norwegian troops during February’s Arctic Specialist 26 exercise to destroy explosives underwater and on land.

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/21/26 9:55am
The Pentagon office tapped in 2022 to oversee the military’s responsible use of artificial intelligence had filled just three of its 10 authorized positions for the mission as of February 2026, even as the department pursues a strategy to accelerate AI development, a government watchdog found.The Government Accountability Office discovered that 29 of 64 efforts outlined in the Defense Department’s Responsible AI Strategy and Implementation Pathway remained incomplete as of April 2026. According to a report published Oct. 14, the GAO also found that staffing shortages had hindered the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer’s ability to take additional steps to implement responsible AI, which the department uses to help accelerate AI adoption.GAO recommended that the department address staffing needs in its Responsible AI Division, which falls under the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, and issue a formal charter for the working council.“Responsible AI should be considered the same as operationally effective AI,” said Owen Daniels, associate director of analysis at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.Effective testing, evaluation, verification and validation practices can help the military manage risks while ensuring systems operate as intended and operators understand their strengths and limitations, Daniels said.Council ‘at risk of lapsing’The GAO found that the Responsible AI Working Council did not meet from late 2024 until August 2025. Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer, or CDAO, officials told the watchdog agency that other priorities, including developing guidance for generative AI and contributing to government-wide AI risk-management resources, had prevented the Responsible AI Division from organizing meetings.Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., raised a related concern about accountability during a May 2025 hearing regarding the Pentagon’s AI posture.“It’s my observation that the Defense Department doesn’t lack in the number of principals, but rather, it often struggles with too little clarity in who is responsible for what.”Officials from four DoD components told the GAO they faced implementation challenges during the hiatus that could have benefited from greater collaboration. Six of the 10 DoD components surveyed said sharing responsible AI resources and best practices would increase their ability to incorporate the department’s six Responsible AI tenets into their AI use cases.The council resumed meetings in August 2025, but the GAO found it still lacked a formal charter defining its responsibilities and specifying how frequently it should meet.“Without a charter that defines roles and responsibilities for the council ... and that specifies the frequency of council meetings, the council is at risk of lapsing again,” the GAO report reads. “Such a lapse could increase the risk of DOD facing Responsible AI implementation issues that it would not have the collaborative capacity to swiftly and effectively resolve.”Slow staffingCDAO officials told the GAO they were unlikely to fill vacant positions or increase staffing while the office underwent restructuring, following its realignment to the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. In response, the GAO argued that “by ... taking action to ensure it has staff in place to meet those needs,” CDAO could make better progress toward its goal of accelerating AI across the department.Daniels said the staffing shortfall could make it more difficult to build AI literacy throughout the force.“Operationally, the force needs to become AI literate, as warfighters will be responsible for determining when to deploy AI-enabled systems,” he said.Service members need to understand AI systems’ limitations and recognize when delegating decisions to machines may be inappropriate, rather than defaulting to a machine’s judgment, Daniels said.“Exercising meaningful human control — or to use the department’s term, appropriate levels of human judgment — over a military AI system requires robustly understanding a system’s operating boundaries through development, rigorous testing and evaluation, and training,” he said.Congress’ roleThe DoD agreed with the GAO’s two recommendations to issue a charter for the Responsible AI Working Council and address the Responsible AI Division’s workforce needs, according to the watchdog.The GAO also urged Congress to order the department to implement earlier recommendations, including defining the responsibilities of organizations involved in AI activities and assigning responsibility and a timeline for identifying and managing the department’s AI workforce.In a Sept. 21 letter, Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Mark Warner, D-Va., and Chris Coons, D-Del., expressed concern that the Pentagon’s AI push could be outpacing its governance efforts.“Recent events have given us growing concern about the extent to which agencies under your oversight have prioritized acceleration of AI capability adoption and ‘experimentation’ over effective governance,” the letter reads.Reed has also called for Congress to establish clearer guardrails for military AI. “Congress must do its job and provide balanced oversight, standards, and rules of the road,” he said.

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

[*] [+] [-] [x] [A+] [a-]  
[l] at 10/21/26 9:18am
Thirteen U.S. Army Veterinary Corps officers milked a trip to Denmark last month, completing Europe Dairy Pasteurization Audit Training in the seaport city of Kolding.The service said the course — which included on-site field evaluations at eight Danish dairy facilities currently approved for U.S. military procurement — aimed to ensure military members and their families overseas receive dairy that meets or exceeds U.S. standards. In the U.S., commercial milk must be processed according to the Food and Drug Administration’s Pasteurized Milk Ordinance. Because commercial pasteurization methods are “udderly” different across the world, the course gives officers the skills to evaluate pasteurization technology in different regions, the Army said in a Monday release. The course has been taught and revised since 2004. Military auditors from around the world, including Public Health Command Pacific, Area Support Group Kuwait and Public Multinational Force and Observers Egypt, trained to improve their pasteurization skills. Public Health Command Europe is unique, the service said, because it offers military inspectors the chance to see more than 65 pasteurizer setups. During the course, led by Chief Warrant Officer 4 Clayton Davenport, the command food safety officer for Public Health Command Europe, the Army said officers gained realistic experience assessing equipment in operation. “The primary training objective was to provide progressive and sequential auditor development training in pasteurizer operations that enhances understanding of the public health controls of various pasteurizers,” Davenport said in the release. “Maintaining specialized auditing capabilities remains essential to force health protection, particularly amid budgetary pressures.”

[Category: / Your Military] [Link to media]

As of 11/8/26 1:50am. Last new 10/23/26 2:27pm.

Next feed in category: MT Congress Pentagon