“Why do we suddenly have a two part budget where this committee and the Congress generally has oversight and input, to a process where a corner of the budget is essentially a slush fund?” asked Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, during a SASC hearing.
What to know about Pete Hegseth's appearance in front of the House Armed Services Committee.
Answering the Pentagon’s call to bolster defense industrial base.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee also pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the recent firing of Army and Navy leaders.
“The joint force, through operations and activities in other areas of responsibility, like the Pacific area of responsibility, under the command of Adm. [Samuel] Paparo, will actively pursue any Iranian flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
“We've destroyed Iran's defense industrial base, their ability to reconstitute those capabilities for years to come,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine.
“Obviously it takes … money to kill bad guys so we're going back to Congress and folks there to ensure that we're properly funded for what's been done, for what we may have to do in the future,” said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The challenge for Western democratic institutions is not a lack of capability — it is a structural one.
While Gen. Dan Caine said the US has "sufficient precision munitions for the task at hand," lawmakers are considering a high-dollar supplemental infusion to backfill missile supplies.
“We're not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters.
Vice Adm. Fred Kacher was removed from the role by Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to a source.
Gen. Dan Caine, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, on Jan. 3 gave a shout-out to the roles played by US Space Command and US Cyber Command in Operation Absolute Resolve.
"Failure of one component of this well-oiled machine would have endangered the entire mission," Gen. Dan Caine said of Operation Absolute Resolve.
“We will instead put our nation's practical, concrete interests first,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “We will deter war. We will advance our interests. We will defend our people. Peace is our goal.”
The secretary of defense made his pitch for a war-focused military, arguing "mounting urgency" required a cultural change against "ideological garbage."
Three sources familiar with the discussions told Breaking Defense that Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach is a leading candidate to succeed Gen. David Allvin as the next Air Force chief of staff.