2025 sure was a year that occurred, huh?
Look, I’m exhausted, and so are you. In this single year, we’ve all lived decades. President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, Pete Hegseth was confirmed as defense secretary just days later after a contentious nomination process, and then the news just kept coming.
Industry executives fell over themselves to position their companies for Golden Dome and to ingratiate themselves with the new administration. Congress passed a reconciliation bill with $150 billion for defense but failed to approve a defense appropriations bill for fiscal 2025 (or 2026, for that matter).
The Army killed a bunch of its programs and the Navy curtailed the Constellation-class frigate program. The Air Force awarded its sixth-generation fighter contract, and the Navy thought about it (and didn’t), and then thought about it again (but didn’t, again). Taylor Swift put out maybe her worst-received album ever (and she’s getting married).
[This article is one of many in a series in which Breaking Defense reporters look back on the most significant (and entertaining) news stories of 2025 and look forward to what 2026 may hold.]
Through all this craziness, we here at Breaking Defense tried to do journalism. These are some of the stories I wrote that I think were particularly good.
Readers, you’ve survived. I hope you and your loved ones are well.
1. ‘What the f— is going on?’ Confusion, uncertainty in industry as Army contracts seemingly halted
A collaboration between Breaking Defense Pentagon Correspondent Ashley Roque, Editor-in-Chief Aaron Mehta and myself that saw us working deep into the night trying to substantiate rumors that the Army had shut off funding for all contracts while it conducted a review just days after the new administration took over.
We spoke to industry officials that shared emailed guidance from the department, Army officials that confirmed a review was in process, and viewed solicitations on SAM.gov that were updated to state contracting had been paused.
In the end, the Army appeared to put its foot on the brakes, taking down the language on SAM.gov referring to the pause and clarifying that the review was only targeting financial assistance related initiatives. However, the story was emblematic of the chaos that pervaded the earliest days of Hegseth’s Pentagon, with both industry and those inside the Pentagon confused as to what was supposed to be happening. In the end, the quote that we featured as the story’s headline said it all.
2. DEI, DOA: How the defense industry is racing to bury its diversity efforts
The workforce of the defense industry isn’t one that gets a lot of attention paid to its culture, but it takes (very smart, very skilled) people to design and build sophisticated weaponry, and defense contractors must compete for that talent with more lucrative (and trendy) tech firms.
For at least the past decade — even during the first Trump administration — appealing to a diverse range of young scientists, engineers and software coders was considered de rigueur for defense companies. That changed after Trump issued an executive order forbidding government contractors from engaging in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
We heard about boardroom confusion about compliance, and we heard from industry officials with concerns that rolling back DEI initiatives could hurt recruitment or encourage harassment of minorities. Of course, that didn’t stop defense companies from wiping all trace of DEI from their corporate websites or recruitment materials.
The impact from these changes on the make up of the defense industry might not be fully understood for years, but we tried our best to paint a portrait of the moment when the changes hit and the scramble from industry to take down websites and change documents as quickly as possible.
3. EXCLUSIVE: Navy taps four aerospace primes to design autonomous drone wingmen
It’s always fun getting to break a story about cool technology. The Navy has been incredibly tight-lipped about its collaborative combat aircraft development efforts, to the point where the last time a service official made public statements about a potential CCA program was in 2024!
So imagine my surprise when I learned that the Navy was further along than it had previously described, and had recently secretly awarded preliminary design contracts to Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Anduril and General Atomics. Maybe 2026 will bring more details or even some concept art! A girl can dream.
4. ‘Clean those bastards out’: Small business fund used by DoD teeters on the edge
My favorite documentary of all time is “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,” a 90-minute film about a man trying to set the world record for the original Donkey Kong arcade game. It’s also a parable about a quirky family man/former Boeing engineer turned high school teacher/downtrodden hero putting in the work to — finally — become the best at something against all odds, while battling a despicable tyrant and his cronies.
My point here is that I love media that dives deep into a niche subculture or topic while at the same time exploring things that are universal, and that’s, I think, the appeal of this story.
Most people don’t know or care much about the Small Innovation Research Program fund — it’s wonky and small potatoes compared to the large defense programs I love covering. But the conflict between the small business who support Sen. Joni Ernst’s proposed reforms and firms who contend those changes would irreversibly harm the SBIR program is chock full of drama, passion and interesting characters.
5. EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon clamps down on military interactions with Congress
Just a couple days after Defense Department leaders ejected the Pentagon press corps, I got my hands on a memo by Hegseth ordering all communications with Congress to be routed through the department’s legislative affairs office.
To me, this is exactly why it was so important for Pentagon reporters to reject the department’s demand that we sign away our ability to report on sensitive, controlled unclassified or even classified information. Sometimes, information that the government doesn’t want you to have is in the public interest.
Our reporting on this subject was picked up and reported by mainstream publications like the Associated Press and CNN. Lawmakers like Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, issued statements raising concerns about introducing another hurdle to communication when Congress is already frustrated with the slow trickle of information from the Pentagon.
Hopefully, next year, we’ll bring more meaningful reporting like this. Happy holidays!