"The current administration claims to support a strong military. You could have fooled me," writes Dennis Blair, former Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Command and Director of National Intelligence, in this op-ed.
An after-hours earthquake in Pentagon leadership on this week's edition of Breaking Defense's regular series.
It's been a whirlwind of a year — and the defense establishment has plenty of thoughts on how it's unfolded and what might come next.
Trump announced he would nominate retired three-star Air Force general Dan Caine as his chairman of the joint chiefs.
Austin's words were echoed by senior European officials, as the continent prepares for the inauguration of Donald Trump and what could look like a very different US foreign policy.
"I'm sure our adversaries are looking at this as a way to, I would say put sand in our gears when we're trying to generate combat power," Gen. CQ Brown said.
A look at some of what this year's SOF Week conference in Tampa had to offer.
Cyber resilience has become a frontline mission for the US military. Breaking Defense’s new eBook rounds up key reporting from the 2025 Alamo ACE conference with the latest developments in cyber offense and defense.
All equipment included in the pledge is to be ordered from industry, not drawn from US stocks — meaning it could take years for the weapons to arrive in Ukraine.
"We now have a significant number of ATACMS coming off their production line and entering US stocks," Jake Sullivan said today. "And as a result, we can move forward with providing the ATACMS while also sustaining the readiness of the US armed forces.”
"These are the kinds of discussions that we need to have to try to avoid misunderstanding and miscalculation," a senior defense official told reporters of the call between Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown and his counterpart in the People's Liberation Army.
"How in the hell do you lose an F-35?"
Onshoring and investment in military-specific semiconductors anchor a cornerstone of the defense industrial base.
Kristyn Jones, who is performing the duties of the under secretary of the Air Force, warned that modernization initiatives aimed at countering China would also be at risk if a budget impasse in Congress stretches on.
At the Reagan National Defense Forum, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also emphasized that Jerusalem must minimize civilian deaths in Gaza in order to keep any tactical victory from turning into a strategic defeat.
In a letter to the Senate appropriations chair, Gen. CQ Brown warns, "We cannot outpace our pacing challenge [China] while under a CR.”
"We don't take an oath to a religion. We don't take an oath to a king, or queen, or tyrant, or dictator. And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator," Gen. Mark Milley said today.