Army suicides doubled last month from June’s total   The Army says suicides among active-duty soldiers more than doubled in July from the month before. That marks an acceleration of a military-wide trend this year that has caused Pentagon leaders to step up their search for solutions to a problem that has worsened in 2012…

Marine Corps to base MV-22 Osprey at Kaneohe Bay The Marine Corps will bring two squadrons of its latest transport aircraft, the Osprey, and one light attack helicopter squadron to Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.  The Department of the Navy Aug. 15 said it made the decision after conducting an environmental impact statement.  The MV-22 Osprey can…

Pakistan military plans to open new front   Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the Pakistani military has indicated that it plans to begin combat operations soon in a tribal area near the Afghan border that is a haven for al Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani militants. Speaking to The Associated Press in his Pentagon office Aug. 13, Panetta…

U.S. Navy ship collides with oil tanker in Gulf   The U.S. Navy says one of its guided-missile destroyers collided with an oil tanker early Aug. 12 but that no one was injured in the accident. The collision involving the USS Porter and the Panamanian-flagged bulk oil tanker M/V Otowasan occurred at approximately 1 a.m….

NTSB: Fan shaft failed on 787 during taxi test   The National Transportation Safety Board says a fan shaft failed on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner engine during a taxi test at Charleston International Airport. The investigation into the failure of the engine on July 28 is ongoing. The engine was built by General Electric. NTSB…

Republicans and Democrats are sounding the alarm: The budget sequester is coming and we have to do everything to stop it. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says it will be devastating to the military. Manufacturers say it will mean the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. The White House fears cuts in everything from cancer…

Senate Democrats rejected a Republican effort to force defense contractors to send out notices of possible job layoffs four days before the election, calling the move politically driven and purely speculative based on looming spending cuts. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 17-13 against an amendment by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. The provision would have overturned…

Republicans accused President Barack Obama of trying to keep middle-class Americans in the dark about whether they’ll lose their jobs from impending defense cuts as a Labor Department memo cautioning contractors about layoff notices set off political recriminations. “The president doesn’t want people reading about pink slips in the weeks before his election, so the…

Tens of thousands of civilian employees in the Defense Department could receive warnings about potential layoffs four days before the November election if impending spending cuts aren’t averted, hitting presidential battleground states such as Virginia and Florida hard. The alerts would come in addition to any that major defense contractors might send out at the…

Congress eyes probe into Army program Congress is poised to launch an investigation into why Army leaders have resisted requests to provide battlefield units with a specific computer program that helps troops locate and clear roadside bombs. The software program, the Palantir System, is being used by some units in Afghanistan, but Army officials have…