Braxton Taylor
Update: U.S. Army contracting is not on hold, the Defense Department said Tuesday in an attempt to clear up confusion stemming from email guidance that circulated in anticipation of an administration memo to get all “financial assistance” in line with recent Trump administration executive orders, Defense One’s Meghann Myers reported Tuesday after a report from Bloomberg sent everyone abuzz.
Trump offers a buyout to all Defense civilians, other federal workers. The White House sent out an email Tuesday evening to its 2.3 million federal workers, including the Defense Department’s 783,000 civilians, offering a buyout of eight months of salary and benefits for employees who don’t comply with the new administration’s return-to-office mandate.
The email sent shockwaves through the federal workforce as Trump pursues his vows to reshape the government with loyalists. The email warns that a “majority” of agencies will see reductions in force, while “a substantial number” of federal employees will be reclassified “to at-will status,” which is a reference to the administration’s moves to reduce civil-service protections, Government Executive’s Erich Wagner reports. More, here.
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An F-35 crashed in Alaska, pilot safe. An F-35 fighter jet crashed at its home base in Alaska on Tuesday after tumbling from the sky. A video of the dramatic crash started circulating on social media yesterday, showing the pilot ejecting from the jet before it started falling vertically and erupting in flames on impact. The crash resulted in “significant aircraft damage” but the pilot is safe and was transported to a hospital for evaluation, according to a statement from Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.
Statement: “Our people are our most important resource, and we are committed in ensuring their safety and security,” said Col. Paul Townsend, commander of the 354th Fighter Wing. “I can assure you the United States Air Force will conduct a thorough investigation in hopes to minimize the chances of such occurrences from happening again.”
This marks the first F-35 mishap in 2025. Last year, one of the program’s F-35 test aircraft crashed in New Mexico shortly after taking off.
Lockheed’s long-awaited F-35 upgrade package might face more delays.
The Pentagon’s fleet of F-35 fighter jets might not receive the full, combat version of a key upgrade called Technology Refresh-3, this spring, Lockheed executives acknowledged during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call.
Background: Software development problems have plagued the program, which originally was supposed to be up and running by April 2023. The company has made progress on the effort, but there’s still work to do on TR-3 related to “mission system integration” and “improving system stability overall,” and executives declined to confirm that it would be finished this year.
Forecast: While the company expects to hit some of these milestones this year, “for purposes of financial modeling, we would expect this to bleed into 2026,” Chief Financial Officer Jay Malave said. Read more, here.
The Navy’s robot refueler is coming. Boeing’s autonomous aerial tanker will start flying this year and start operating off carriers in 2026, Defense One’s Brad Peniston and Lauren C. Williams report from San Diego.
The Navy says this new refueling drone will increase the range of naval strike aircraft, and unlock wider integration of robotic aircraft for the force. “We’re going after that thing hard, so we can do manned-unmanned teaming in a big way off an aircraft carrier, and that is a different world. It opens up the future of 6th-gen [combat aircraft], collaborative combat aircraft, and everything that comes after it,” said Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, head of Naval Air Forces. Read more, here, and follow Defense One for more reporting from WEST 2025.
Welcome to this Tuesday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson and Audrey Decker. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 2002, President George W. Bush delivered his “Axis of evil” speech, singling out Iran, Iraq, and North Korea for allegedly sponsoring terrorism—and ultimately helping justify his administration’s disastrous Iraq invasion just over a year later.
Trump 2.0
Trump’s Pentagon targets former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley. Former Fox TV host and current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the personal security detail for retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump’s first term in office, to be revoked and for Milley’s security clearance to be suspended, Hegseth’s spokesman John Ullyot announced late Tuesday just before midnight.
Revoking Milley’s clearance and security detail is not all. Hegseth also ordered the Pentagon’s inspector general “to conduct an inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding Gen Milley’s conduct so that [Hegseth] may determine whether it is appropriate to reopen his military grade review determination,” Ullyot declared in a statement. The statement did not specify what specific conduct or time period will be under consideration.
Rewind: Trump has been particularly angry at Milley since the general seemed to refer to him as a “wannabe dictator” in reference to Trump’s choices and behavior during his first term in office.
“We are unique among the world’s militaries,” Milley said during a speech in September 2023. “We don’t take an oath to a country, we don’t take an oath to a tribe, we don’t take an oath to a religion. We don’t take an oath to a king, or a queen, or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator,” Milley said. Current Defense Department Chief of Staff Joe Kasper seemed to refer to that episode in his own brief statement to reporters Tuesday evening.
“Undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security, and restoring accountability is a priority for the Defense Department under President Trump’s leadership,” declared Kasper.
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And lastly today: New Jersey’s drone mystery is solved. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Tuesday, “After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the [Federal Aviation Administration] for research and various other reasons.”
“This was not the enemy,” she said in a prepared statement. “Many of these drones were also hobbyists, recreational and private individuals that enjoy flying drones. And in time, it got worse due to curiosity.”
At least one question remains unanswered: Why didn’t the Biden administration get this answer out to the public when it became a headline-grabbing curiosity? Carrying out a presidential transition is, of course, one excuse; but it’s not terribly convincing—at least to your correspondent’s eyes and ears.
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