U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Feb. 12 that NATO membership for Ukraine was unrealistic and suggested Kyiv should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back from Russia and instead prepare for a negotiated peace settlement to be backed up by international troops.
President Trump said he had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin Feb. 12 and that the two leaders had agreed to open immediate talks to end the war in Ukraine. “I believe this effort will lead to a successful conclusion, hopefully soon!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, the first official acknowledgment that the two leaders have talked since Trump was elected.
Vice President Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky amid the administration’s push for the war with Russia to end. Vance will meet with Zelensky on Feb. 14 while the two leaders are in Munich, according to a person familiar with his plans. The timing of Bessent’s trip is unclear.
House Republicans on Feb. 11 revealed a budget resolution that would add $100 billion in defense funding, one-third less than the Senate blueprint which would raise defense spending by $150 billion.
Dozens of Venezuelan migrants sent by the Trump administration to the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, are being guarded by troops rather than civilian immigration officers, according to people familiar with the operation.
“For almost two years, the Chief of Space Operations has championed his proposed theory of success, Competitive Endurance, which includes a detailed white paper published January 2024. Yet despite his urging of Guardians to challenge the theory and share their ideas broadly, the public discourse has been underwhelming. Space Security professionals owe the CSO the critical thinking and feedback he calls for, so here are some thoughts,” writes Maj. Benjamin Staats, an Army Space Operations Officer who currently serves at U.S. Space Command.
Microsoft is handing over the Army’s do-it-all mixed reality device to defense company Anduril Industries, the companies announced Feb. 11. California-based Anduril formerly assisted Microsoft with the $22 billion program by integrating the Lattice platform into the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. Lattice allowed soldiers to see threats in real time by removing delays in processing signals between devices, according to a company statement.
The Space Development Agency is launching a study to look at how its proliferated satellite constellation could support the Trump administration’s proposal for a homeland missile defense shield.
A Navy EA-18G Growler jet crashed into San Diego Bay as it was trying to land Feb. 12, the Navy confirmed in a statement. The sea service said that the jet crashed while landing at 10:15 a.m. local time, but that both of the aviators aboard managed to eject ahead of the accident.
House lawmakers received a classified briefing Feb. 11 on the Defense Department’s plan to mature its cyber warfighting enterprise, a senior member confirmed. The briefing, conducted by Gen. Timothy Haugh, commander of U.S. Cyber Command, and Ashley Manning, acting assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, was the first for members of the chamber on the approved framework for the initiative known as CYBERCOM 2.0.
The U.S. Air Force awarded Sierra Space a $16 million contract extension to further develop and test its VR35K-A upper stage rocket engine, the Colorado-based aerospace company announced Feb. 12. The extension follows the successful completion of the engine’s integrated test campaign and builds upon a previous $22.6 million contract awarded in July 2023 to mature the engine design.
In the ongoing effort to incorporate additive manufacturing into aviation manufacturing, Rolls-Royce has taken former Panavia Tornado fighter-bomber parts and used the strategic metals inside yesterday’s fighter jets now in mothballs into tomorrow’s fighter jets.
