The Associated Press
Qatar announced early Jan. 27 that an agreement has been reached to release an Israeli civilian hostage and allow Palestinians to return to northern Gaza, easing the first major crisis of the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The Wall Street Journal
Pete Hegseth, a former Army National Guardsman and Fox News host, was narrowly confirmed Jan. 24 by the Senate as secretary of defense, overcoming accusations of sexual assault and excessive drinking that Democrats said were disqualifying but that he and his allies called smears.
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The New York Times
After the end of the Cold War, European military spending told a story of stability and optimism. Money flowed away from tanks and submarines and went instead to hospitals and pensions. But that era is over. With a full-blown land war raging in Ukraine and an isolationist American president back in the White House, European leaders have come to a stark conclusion: They must spend more on their militaries.
The Hill
The Pentagon’s new strategy focused on countering drones aims to respond to the future of warfare as autonomous unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are set to dominate the battlefield in the years ahead, but the defense industry faces a long road ahead to field new and emerging technologies to meet the U.S. ambition.
The War Zone
The U.S. Air Force’s XQ-67A drone is set to receive modifications and upgrades to demonstrate its ability to perform certain missions as part of a program called Demon Ape. Originally developed as a ‘sensor truck’ for the once-secretive Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) program, the stealthy XQ-67A is now being used as a testbed to support the Air Force’s larger Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) advanced drone effort.
Breaking Defense
Boeing expects to log a $1.7 billion loss across several defense programs when it announces its fourth quarter 2024 results on Jan. 28, the company said, meaning the company will have incurred almost $5 billion in losses on defense programs for the full year.
Military.com
A Washington state lawmaker is seeking answers on the problematic transition this month of the Defense Department’s contract for managing the Tricare West Region. Rep. Marilyn Strickland, D-Wash., sent a letter to the Defense Health Agency saying the issues with new contractor TriWest Healthcare Alliance were hurting military readiness.
Task & Purpose
The Air Force clarified on Jan. 26 that new recruits will learn about the Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Air Force Service Pilots during their basic training, after a course that included videos on the two World War II-era groups was briefly removed for revisions.
Defense News
The Trump administration’s plans to impose tariffs on a wide swathe of products and materials — reportedly including materials critical to the nation’s defense supply chain—could drive up some military programs’ costs and cause delays, analysts told Defense News.
Breaking Defense
As the U.S. military experiments with AI for everything from streamlining contract documents to coordinating global operations, there’s one area that’s remained off-limits: nuclear command and control. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given the obvious fears of a WarGames-like accidental apocalypse. But what if the Pentagon at least let AI help in nuclear crises, in a contained and limited way, by using algorithms to process incoming intelligence on a potential strike more quickly, giving the human beings involved—and ultimately President Donald Trump—precious additional time to make the most difficult decision imaginable?
Defense One
“Roles and missions for the U.S. military were laid down in 1948 at Key West at a conference chaired by James Forrestal, the first Secretary of Defense. Subsequently approved by President Truman, these accords have remained in place ever since, despite extraordinary changes in the national-security environment. The end of the Cold War, the unification of Germany, the Goldwater-Nichols legislation, the rise of China, NATO expansion, 9/11 and the Global War on Terror, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine all represented seismic shifts. Rapid and dramatic advances in technology do as well. ... It’s time for a reboot,” writes R.D. Hooker Jr., senior fellow with the Atlantic Council.
Defense One
The Air Force has long struggled with a shortage of fighter pilots, with 1,150 empty billets in 2024, and aviators leaving the service in droves. How can they turn things around? Buy more planes and keep more pilots in its reserve component, says a new policy paper from a prominent aerospace think tank.
Reuters
North Korea conducted a strategic cruise missile test on Jan. 25, state media KCNA reported on Jan. 26. The country's leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the test, according to the report, which described it as a test-fire of an “important weapon system.” In a separate report ... North Korea's foreign ministry vowed the “toughest counteraction” against the United States as long as Washington “refuses” Pyongyang's sovereignty.
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Aviation Week
The Space Development Agency (SDA) is preparing to open competition for its next batch of spacecraft to be based in low Earth orbit. The agency released a draft solicitation dated Jan. 22 related to the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA).
One More Thing
The Washington Post
Nancy Leftenant-Colon, who battled racial discrimination in a barrier-breaking career as a military nurse, serving as the first African American in the regular Army Nurse Corps and later caring for the sick and injured as a flight nurse in the Air Force, died Jan. 8 at a nursing home in Amityville, New York. She was 104.
