Author: Braxton Taylor
Sgt. Cole Hoppert perched in the back of a V-22 Osprey earlier this month, zipping through the air somewhere off the East Coast as he dumped little parachutes from cream-colored tubes out of the aircraft’s rear ramp and into the water below.A weapons and tactics instructor with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 162 out of North Carolina, Hoppert had never before employed the nearly 40-pound “sonobuoys,” expendable sensors designed to detect underwater sounds emitted from enemy submarines.His unit’s participation in the naval integration exercise this month — dubbed Atlantic Alliance 2025 — signaled a notable progression in the Marine Corps’ involvement…
The Department of Defense has not been ensnared by a broad intrusion into on-premises versions of Microsoft Sharepoint, its chief information officer said Thursday.“As of right now, no, not that I’m aware of,” Katie Arrington said at the ATO and Cloud Security Summit Thursday in a stage interview. Arrington said she’s been doing daily calls with Microsoft while the department has been conducting forensics investigations since the “zero-day” vulnerability was publicly identified this past weekend.Thus far, several federal agencies have been affected, including the departments of Energy, Homeland Security and Education. And up to a dozen federal entities have been…
The Pentagon says it is reviewing where top military officials can publicly speak as part of a growing move to allow only venues that align with the views of the Trump administration, which could affect attendance at annual military conferences.The announcement comes just more than a week after the Pentagon pulled a host of top military officials from attending a major security conference in Aspen, Colorado, claiming the event promoted the “evil of globalism” and hatred of President Donald Trump.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office on Friday did not say whether the review could mean the end of officials attending annual…
The Defense Department’s sequel to the $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract it awarded in 2022 will target more than the four major hyperscale cloud service providers — Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft and Oracle — that won the first contract back in 2022.Speaking Thursday at the ATO and Cloud Security Summit, Defense Department Chief Information Officer Katie Arrington said JWCC Next will “open the door” to smaller cloud service providers and non-traditional companies “that generally wouldn’t be involved in the [DOD] and our world and trying to bring them in and figure out ways we can incorporate them.”“We…
SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii—In a few years, visitors to this Army installation northwest of Honolulu will likely see something that today is still in the realm of fiction, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said Tuesday. “I think what you will see in a couple of years when you drive back on this base is you’ll see an infantry squad vehicle going out into training with some autonomously led robots beside it, and some drones that are capable of swarming flying above it. And I think you’ll start to see this mixture of human and machine in a way that used to be kind…
The Army has officially begun the process of unloading its not-so-light light tank, the M-10 Booker, following a May announcement that added a list of programs to the chopping block.Officials are sitting down with General Dynamics to work out the particulars of canceling the remaining 93 vehicles they ordered in 2022, the first round of what was to be 504 Bookers across the service’s infantry units.“As we exit these contracts, we go into a negotiation with the company that’s making them, where you work termination fees and things like that, and apparently those discussions are ongoing,” Army spokesman Steve Warren…
Military service demands a level of fitness that allows its members to be resilient, adaptable and prepared to meet a wide variety of physical challenges. Tactical fitness training needs a foundation of strength, endurance and functional movement. Incorporating fundamental exercises, such as squats, lunges, carries, crawls and load-bearing movements, is among the best ways to prepare the body for the rigors of military training.These activities complement a leg day routine, helping to build core stability, improve cardiovascular ability and enhance muscular strength and endurance for tactical athletes. This workout provides a favorite leg day exercise routine, arranged in a way…
In an era when immigration policy is often reduced to threats and responses, we would do well to remember the story of Nguyet Anh Duong, a retired U.S. civil servant and one of the quiet heroes behind a vital piece of modern American military capability.Duong, a Vietnamese immigrant who fled to the United States after the fall of Saigon in 1975, went on to become a leading weapons scientist at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indian Head, Md. There, she played a pivotal role in developing “bunker buster” bombs that eventually led to the weapons used in the recent…
Yesterday a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling struck down California’s restrictive law that required background checks for every ammunition purchase in its Rhode v. Bonta decision—a case backed by the National Rifle Association and the California Rifle and Pistol Association. It is a significant victory for Second Amendment rights, but it remains unclear whether the regulation, enacted in 2016, remains in place at this time. “The Ninth Circuit applied the text-and-history test set forth in the NRA’s landmark Supreme Court victory, NYSRPA v. Bruen,” NRA-ILA summarized. “First, the Ninth Circuit determined that the background check requirement…
The Element’s KC Smith archery hunts for whitetails in the rugged badlands of south Texas. KC loads up in his jon boat to get across a reservoir in hopes to find solitude and more bucks. The goal is to tag a south Texas whitetail then forage some wild Mexican oregano to make a hearty soup. Will KC gather each item on his grocery list? Presented by OnX Maps Read the full article here