Author: Braxton Taylor
A famous stunt pilot died after crashing his custom-built experimental aircraft at Joint Base Langley-Eustis on Thursday, just days before he was scheduled to perform during an air show at the Virginia military installation.Rob Holland, a multicompetition-winning aerobatic pilot who had performed in front of millions of audience members, died after a crash at the Hampton, Virginia, military base, according to a post on his company’s Facebook page. He was scheduled to perform at the Air Power over Hampton Roads air show this upcoming weekend.”It is with the heaviest of hearts that I am sharing that Rob Holland lost his…
An Army noncommissioned officer was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison for a violent campaign of sexual assaults and physical attacks on women stationed at Fort Cavazos, Texas, concluding one of the most high-profile courts-martial in recent years.Sgt. Greville Clarke, 31, was convicted on 29 counts including rape, intent to commit kidnapping, attempted premeditated murder, sexual assault, indecent visual records, robbery, physical assault and obstruction of justice. The offenses, which took place between 2021 and 2022, involved five female soldiers attacked in their barracks.Additionally, Clarke was sentenced to 112.5 years on top of the life sentence, a reduction in…
President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order expanding the reasons agencies may fire probationary employees, a group the administration has sought to dismiss en masse as part of efforts to shrink the federal workforce. Workers in their probationary periods are generally those who have been hired or promoted within the past year or two. While they have fewer civil service job protections, they can only be dismissed for reasons of performance or conduct. Recently, several judges have ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary employees fired for reasons of “poor performance” that one judge called “a total sham.” Those orders have since been paused. Thursday’s executive order says…
Afghans who fled the Taliban, including some who helped the U.S. military during America’s 20-year war there, are facing the risk of deportation as the Trump administration moves to end legal protections for them.One program called temporary protected status, or TPS, that Afghans have used to reside in the U.S. and escape Taliban threats to their lives will expire next month, while the Trump administration already ended another program called “parole” and sent out mass notices telling those with parole to self-deport.While Afghans who came to the U.S. during the official military evacuation are supposed to be exempt from the…
History is replete with cautionary tales about the dangers of ideological purges, particularly when they target national-security institutions. One of the starkest examples comes from the Soviet Union, when Joseph Stalin’s purges gutted the Red Army on the eve of World War II. Now the United States faces a potentially parallel crisis: the purge of transgender service members from the military amid rising tensions with China and Russia. The consequences for national security ripple far beyond the careers of a few thousand troops.In 1937 and 1938, the Great Terror swept through the Soviet military. More than 24,000 officers were discharged,…
The Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) has dropped the medicine ball toss, removed the word “Combat” from its name, and introduced higher scoring requirements for combat arms soldiers. The revised test is now called the Army Fitness Test (AFT).Arranging your workouts to meet the changing standards among combat-related specialties will help you prepare for the fitness test and perform to the new demands of your military occupational specialty (MOS).Related: Army Aims New Fitness Test for June But Is Still Working on How to Grade ItThe updated Army Fitness Test now includes the following five events:The three-repetition maximum (3RM) deadlift, using…
Developing: India-Pakistan tensions are rising after deadly terror attack. Islamabad has denied responsibility for the April 22 attack that killed 26 mostly Indian tourists in an India-controlled Himalayan region, but the nations have nevertheless edged toward war; they have “downgraded diplomatic and trade ties, closed the main border crossing and revoked visas for each other’s nationals,” the Associated Press reported Thursday from New Delhi.China’s military aims to harness the coming “ChatGPT for robotics.” Several burgeoning techniques are enabling researchers and companies to train robots to be far more flexible, Josh Baughman and Peter W. Singer report in the latest edition…
This commentary is published in coordination with the 2025 Global Security Forum, of which Defense One is a media partner.The AI-powered weapons and systems that the Pentagon is racing to build will come with a significant vulnerability: our inability to determine how they will behave under real battlefield conditions.The Defense Department, National Security Agency, and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency call this the “software understanding gap.” Increasingly, users do not understand the digital building blocks of their systems, which leads to an inability to predict, verify, and secure their systems’ actions. Without a deeper understanding of our most complex software,…
Firearm: Rost Martin RM1S (MSRP: $469) Rost Martin released its first pistol ever, the RM1C, in 2024, bringing an entirely new company to the market in addition to its compact-size pistol. This year brings the RM1S, a smaller version of the RM1C designed for an even easier concealed carry experience. While the RM1C has seen versions with compensators, various color combinations and state-compliance capacity limitations, the RM1S is the first new overall size for Rost Martin since its inaugural pistol. The RM1S is a solid subcompact size: 3.6-inch barrel, 6.7-inch overall length, 1.1-inch width and 4.4-inch height. Weight is 19.7…
An uncomfortable dog is an anxious, and oftentimes, fearful critter. Anxiety and fear do not do adult dogs any favors and are pretty much guaranteed to manifest themselves into undesirable behaviors. When these behaviors surface, owning a dog isn’t much fun.While fear and anxiety can stem from nearly unlimited sources, the truth is that a lot of it comes from a lack of or improper socialization. This process can, and should, start with puppies as young as three weeks of age. That means your breeder selection is the first step in socialization, even if you have nothing to do with…