Author: Braxton Taylor

The U.S. Supreme Court will consider a case Monday from medically retired service members who say the Defense Department’s misinterpretation of a law prevented them from receiving the maximum amount of disability compensation for their combat-related injuries.The class-action suit, representing roughly 9,000 service members, challenges a rule that requires veterans to file compensation claims within six years of receiving a VA disability ratings decision, saying the Defense Department has wrongfully applied it to combat-related special compensation.The DoD says the time limit applies to decisions to award retroactive disability pay for combat injuries to medical retirees, but attorneys for the lead…

The Pentagon’s innovation arm wants to expand its regional footprint, with new hubzones in Kentucky, Minnesota, and Montana to boost outreach with tech companies. “We’re really humbled and excited by the opportunity at DIU to be that on ramp for commercial and dual-use technology into the department. And one of the ways that we do that is by having people out in the regions,” Liz Young McNally, the Defense Innovation Unit’s deputy director for commercial operations, said Wednesday at the Apex Defense forum. “We also have regional folks as well in places like Pittsburgh and New York and other places…so that we…

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to allow it to enforce a ban on transgender service members after lower courts temporarily blocked the ban from taking effect.In an emergency application Thursday, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to lift a nationwide injunction issued last month by a federal judge in Washington state, arguing that the injunction is “usurping the executive branch’s authority to determine who may serve in the nation’s armed forces.””The district court’s injunction cannot be squared with the substantial deference that the department’s professional military judgments are owed,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in…

The Air Force’s next batch of Collaborative Combat Aircraft will likely be on the “low-end” for both cost and capability, a service official said Tuesday—not more advanced than the first, as earlier statements had suggested.Work is already underway on “increment two” of the CCA program, which former-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall had previously described as more advanced and expensive than “increment one.” But now officials are suggesting that future drones will be more budget-friendly. “I think you’ll see a range of options from low-end to potentially more exquisite. I tend to think that it’s probably going to be closer to this…

The Pentagon will deploy nearly 200 intelligence and signals troops to the border, according to a military news release Wednesday, adding to the more than 10,000 troops border-wide amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.Eighty Army “military intelligence professionals” from Fort Drum, New York, and the XVIII Airborne Corps headquartered out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will augment the Joint Intelligence Task Force-Southern Border. They are joined by 100 personnel from a yet-to-be named Army signals unit.U.S. Northern Command announced that it had created the intelligence joint task force in February meant to “integrate and deconflict intelligence planning and threat analysis”…

After about two years of operation, the Navy’s pre-boot camp program for recruits who need help meeting the physical and academic requirements for service is proving to be useful, and leaders say they want it to stay.”I want to maintain it,” Rear Adm. Jeffrey Czerewko, who oversees the Navy’s schools as head of Naval Education and Training Command, told Military.com in an interview last week.Czerewko said the Navy has had to make adjustments to the program, known as the Future Sailor Preparatory Course, or FSPC, but that he sees it continuing to be valuable even as the service seems to…

Earlier this month, more than 12,000 runners raced through the streets of Beijing in a half marathon—accompanied by more than 20 humanoid robots. While the prize money for the first robot to cross the finish line was a paltry CNY5,000 ($691), the competition is emblematic of a larger race just beginning in technology and even warfare.  A world of human-like robots has long been a staple of science fiction, extending from their first mention in Karel Čapek’s play, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), to the Terminator movies, and beyond. Like so much in technology now, this myth is rapidly approaching reality, as scientists…

A report released on April 3 states, “…[A]rmed citizens reduce the number of deaths in active-shooter incidents significantly more than the police do. In fact, armed citizens reduce the number of people killed by 49 percent, while the police increase the number killed by 16 percent in comparison to the omitted class (shooters who are arrested later or stopped by unarmed citizens or stop of their own accord).” In addition, “Civilians with permits stopped the attacks more frequently and faced a lower risk of being killed or injured than police. Officers who intervened during the attacks were far more likely…

The best stories need a few key elements: conflict, bad guys and, above all, heroes. The combination is even better if the story has all three and happens to be true. This is what makes Medal of Honor stories so engrossing. Valor in the face of the enemy, the real risk to life and limb, and the requirement of at least two sworn eyewitnesses not only make the award hard to receive, but make the award citations really great reading.Master storyteller Malcolm Gladwell realized that in 2024, when he launched a new podcast, “Medal of Honor: Stories of Courage.” Beyond…

The Army is considering a significant expansion of privatized barracks, a concept it has revisited periodically since the 1990s and one that gained renewed momentum under the previous administration.As part of a pilot program, construction is expected to begin this summer on a new privately managed facility at Fort Irwin, California, designed to house approximately 500 junior enlisted soldiers. The project began more than a year ago.The initiative reflects the Army’s ongoing struggle to maintain aging infrastructure, which has left some service members living in substandard and, in some cases, hazardous conditions.Read Next: Army Suspends Fort McCoy’s First Female Commander…