In case you missed it, Europe is reeling. On a whirlwind tour of the continent last week, SecDef Pete Hegseth and VP JD Vance openly questioned the transatlantic security agreements that have underpinned European defense since WWII. Meanwhile, Trump is pushing forward with Ukraine peace talks that exclude Ukraine, along with all of Washington’s European allies. Then there was that hour-and-a-half-long call with […]
So much for spending cuts. The Republican-led Senate Budget Committee pushed through its $340B budget reconciliation proposal yesterday, with $150B in additional funding for defense, even as a separate proposal moved its way through the House. In terms of defense, the proposal focuses on: The budget resolution points to the threats posed by China, Iran, […]
Less than three weeks into Trump’s second administration, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has descended on Washington. The organization—which doesn’t seem to be acting on legal authority—is shuttering USAID and encouraging career civil servants to leave the government. Some are calling it a “constitutional crisis.” Others are saying it’s Musk in “demon mode.” It likely won’t […]
A week ago, the world woke up to the news that a seldom-heard-of Chinese startup had created an AI model—DeepSeek R1—that could rival ChatGPT at a fraction of the cost. US tech stocks plummeted: chipmaker Nvidia closed out last Monday down 17%, and over $1T was knocked off tech stocks overall. Turning point: Since then, the […]
At the height of the Cold War in 1983, President Ronald Reagan proposed a space-based missile defense program called the Strategic Defense Initiative. He said it would protect the entire US from a nuclear attack, eventually making nuclear weapons obsolete. The plan was quickly dubbed “Star Wars” because it sounded like something out of a […]
Amidst the flurry of executive orders and appointments in the past week, a Ukraine-shaped elephant has lurked in the corner of the Oval Office. President Trump has long expressed doubt over US support for Ukraine, repeatedly saying he would end the war in a matter of days. So far, he’s failed to do so—but is […]
Pete Hegseth was sworn in as Secretary of Defense Friday, bringing an end to a months-long confirmation saga that featured everything from strip clubs to claims of alcohol abuse to allegations of sexual assault. The final senate vote to confirm the former Fox & Friends host split the Senate 50-50, mostly along party lines (Republicans […]
Amidst the hustle and bustle of the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration, the Pentagon quietly released a long-awaited piece of news: the implementation plan for PPBE reform. For those lucky enough not to know, PPBE stands for the DoD’s Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution process—essentially, the way the Pentagon buys stuff. Bureaucratic bungle: Critics across […]
In the waning days of the Biden Administration, it seems like everyone is talking about defense innovation. On Monday, the Defense Innovation Board (DIB) released the results of two studies on the US defense industry at its winter board meeting—“Scaling Nontraditional Defense Innovation” and “A Pathway to Scaling Unmanned Weapons Systems”—and it looks like Anduril […]
