News
North Korea tests possible submarine missile, amid tensions with US
The launch came hours after the U.S. reaffirmed its offer to resume diplomacy on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Taliban promise cash, land to families of suicide bombers
The Taliban have promised plots of land to relatives of suicide bombers who attacked U.S. and Afghan soldiers, in a provocative gesture that seems to run counter to their efforts to court international support.
Business
After delay, Joint Air-to-Ground Missile full-rate production decision now due in mid-2022
Having failed to achieve desired lethal effects on a maritime target, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps had to delay fielding of the Joint Air-to-Ground Missile.
Q&A: Defense Business Board chair Deborah Lee James, on helping Pentagon see ‘forest for the trees’
Flat defense budgets may be looming. The militaryís focus is shifting away from the Middle East to China and Russia. And bills on everything from modernization to AI to the nuclear enterprise are coming due.
AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships turned firefighters have flown their last mission
The aging rotorcraft filled a unique firefighting niche but maintaining them eventually became too troublesome.
Turkish producer to supply aerostat systems to Iraq
Otonom Teknoloji, a privately owned Turkish defense technology company, has said it signed a deal with the Iraqi government for supplying aerostat and airship systems.
Defense
USS Bonhomme Richard fire spread wildly due to ‘repeated failures,’ investigation finds
While the Navy has charged a junior sailor with starting the fire last summer, a command investigation lays blame for the botched response at all levels of command.
COVID vaccine mandate endangers military readiness, top Republican lawmaker claims
The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee is calling for the military to immediately drop its mandate that service members be vaccinated against COVID-19, calling it a ìpolitically motivatedî decision by the administration.
16 Service Members Sue to Halt DOD’s Vaccine Order
The lawsuit — the second filed by U.S. military personnel against DOD leadership and the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration — seeks exemptions from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s Aug. 25 mandate requiring the vaccine, as well as a temporary restraining order to stop the ongoing immunizations.
Air Force’s biggest planes are getting a rest after scrambling to get 124,000 people out of Afghanistan
More than a month after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US Air Force crews and aircraft that were vital to evacuating 124,000 people are still recovering, according to Maj. Gen. Corey Martin, the director of operations for US Transportation Command.
Veterans
VA relaunches search for top health official after problems surface with previous hiring attempt
The department has been without a Senate-confirmed under secretary for health since early 2017.
Burial ceremony for 6 Alabama veterans, 1 spouse whose remains were unclaimed for decades
With a patriot guard escort, a hearse carrying the remains of six Alabama veterans, and the wife of a World War I soldier rolled up to the Alabama National Cemetery Oct. 19 for a ceremony thatís been decades in the making for each of these families.