MD Sues US Over ICE Facility in Wash. Co.
President Donald Trump tours “Alligator Alcatraz” with DHS Sec Kristi Noem, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd M. Lyons, and Director of Florida Emergency Mgt. Kevin Guthrie at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee on July 1, 2025. (DHS photo by Tia Dufour)
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Maryland sued this week to block the Trump administration from converting a Washington County warehouse into an immigration detention center to hold 1,500 people. The lawsuit charges that Immigration and Customs Enforcement bought the warehouse and proceeded without required reviews, public notice, or discussion with state or local officials, Maryland Matters reports. In a video message, MD AG Anthony Brown said that the federal government spent $100 million of taxpayer money on the warehouse last month “without telling anyone. No public notice. No consultation with the state. They just did it.”
DefSec Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei until Friday evening to give the military unfettered access to its AI model Claude, or face harsh penalties, reports Axios. Anthropic has said it is willing to adapt its usage policies for the Pentagon, but not to allow its model to be used for the mass surveillance of Americans or the development of weapons that fire without human involvement. Anthropic’s Claude is the only AI model currently used for the military’s most sensitive work.
Without elaboration, the Pentagon reported to Congress this week its intention to spend all $152 billion of the funding allocated through last year’s reconciliation bill in fiscal 2026, rather than spreading it over the five years allocated for its use, reports Breaking Defense. Previous plans were to spend $113 billion of that sum. DoD also will spend an additional $1 billion through the Defense Production Act.
The United States has ordered nonessential diplomats and their family members at the US Embassy in Beirut to leave Lebanon as tensions over Iran increase under threat of an imminent military strike, reports Military.com. A nuclear deal with the United States is “within reach, but only if diplomacy is given priority,” Iran Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tuesday as negotiations continued amid the significant US military buildup in the region. Aljazeera reports Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has said nuclear talks with the United States have produced “encouraging signals,” but warned that Tehran is prepared for any scenario in advance of another round of negotiations set for Thursday.
The House failed to approve a bill Tuesday that was crafted after last year’s fatal midair collision near Washington, DC, to require all aircraft flying around busy airports to have key locator systems to prevent such crashes, reports Military Times. The collision of an airliner and an Army helicopter killed 67 people in January 2025. The National Transportation Safety Board has been recommending such Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast systems to be installed since 2008. The bill that already passed the Senate would have required aircraft to be equipped with a system that can receive data about the locations of other aircraft. The complementary ADS-B Out system that broadcasts an aircraft’s location is already required.
The Supreme Court on Monday turned away Boeing’s attempt to stave off a lawsuit over its 737 Max aircraft brought by the Southwest Airlines pilot union, reports The Hill. In a brief order without any noted dissents, the justices left in place a Texas state court ruling that allows the case to move forward toward trial. Two 737 Max aircraft crashes in 2018 and 2019 were later blamed on a software issue. The incidents killed a total of 346 people and left the aircraft grounded for months. The lawsuit claims Boeing made misrepresentations, fraudulently induced pilots to fly the aircraft without proper training, and seeks damages for lost compensation.
Lockheed Martin successfully tested the ability of its F-35 fighter plane to use artificial intelligence-enhanced targeting in flight, reports Defense News.
Washington is expected to delay announcement of its new arms sale to Taiwan as Trump focuses on April’s bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has voiced opposition to the sale. The arms package’s delivery to Taiwan is now up in the air as Trump prepares for his meeting with Xi and for preserving the trade truce the two struck last October, reports The Hill.
The War Horse is maintaining a chronological data base of the Trump administration’s actions focused on the military and veterans. The timeline links to executive orders, directives, news articles, social media posts, and other official actions from the administration’s first months in office. The data is searchable by issue, military branch, and date.
Six vessels suspected of maritime smuggling and transporting a total of 82 migrants were intercepted by the US Coast Guard in separate incidents over the weekend, reports Stars and Stripes. Five vessels were intercepted within a 90-minute span south of San Clemente Island on Saturday, officials said, and a sixth vessel was interdicted near Sunset Cliffs the next day.
The US military said Monday that it carried out another strike on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing three men, reports CBS. US Southern Command’s post on social media included a video of a stationary boat being destroyed in an explosion. Military Time’s tally of the military’s announced strikes on what the Trump administration alleges are drug-carrying vessels reached 44 strikes with Monday’s action and at least 140 people killed since September 2025.
President Donald Trump said he would deploy a hospital ship to Greenland, after Denmark’s military said its arctic command forces on Saturday evacuated a crew member of a US submarine off the coast of Greenland for urgent medical treatment, reports Stars and Stripes. But Denmark and Greenland refused the offer and praised Greenland’s health care system. “It’s a no thank you from here,” said Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
Denmark is enhancing its capacity to defend Greenland with last month’s US government approval of the potential sale of American-made missiles. A routine NATO ally purchase through the Foreign Military Sales program, but ironic, says Military.com, taking place simultaneous with Trump’s publicly questioning whether Greenland should remain “Danish” at all.
Estonia has begun a public procurement of 600 modular bunkers as part of a joint venture with Latvia and Lithuania to secure their long border with Russia and Belarus, reports Defense News. The joint initiative departs from NATO’s earlier strategy that tolerated trading Baltic territory for time, pending reinforcement from allies.
The Navy has relieved the CMDR James Koffi as commanding officer of the USS Truxtun, reports Navy Times, nearly two weeks after the destroyer collided with the USNS Supply in the Caribbean during a Feb. 11 replenishment-at-sea.
Contracts awarded in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., Feb. 23-25, 2026.
BKM Prime AE SB JV LLC,* Baltimore, Maryland, was awarded a $50,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection architect-engineering services. Work will be performed at Navy and Marine Corps installations in Virginia (40%), Washington, D.C. (20%), and Maryland (40%), and is expected to be completed by February 2031. The maximum dollar value, including the base period and one option period, is $50,000,000. Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $5,000 will be obligated at time of award for a minimum guarantee, of which $5,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via SAM.gov website, with 20 offers received. Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Washington, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N40080-26-D-0002).
Summer Consultants Inc.,* McLean, Virginia, was awarded a $50,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection architect-engineering services. Work will be performed at Navy and Marine Corps installations in Virginia (40%), Washington, D.C. (20%), and Maryland (40%), and is expected to be completed by February 2031. The maximum dollar value, including the base period and one option period, is $50,000,000. Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance (Navy) funding in the amount of $5,000 will be obligated at time of award for minimum guarantee, of which $5,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via SAM.gov website, with 20 offers received. Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Washington, Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N40080-26-D-0003).
Jacobs Government Services Co., Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $99,000,000 firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for architect-engineer services. This contract provides for planning, design, and engineering services to support various project types throughout the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southeast area of responsibility and is expected to be completed by February 2031. Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds in the amount of $1,000 will be obligated at time of award to satisfy the minimum guarantee. Additional funds will be obligated on task orders as they are issued. This contract was competitively procured via contract opportunities on SAM.gov, with 18 offers received. NAVFAC Southeast, Jacksonville, Florida, is the contracting activity (N69450-26-D-0013).
KTH Services JV LLC,* is awarded a $41,369,267, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for regional base operations support services. This contract provides day-to-day operations, including supervision, management, tools, material, equipment, facilities, and transportation necessary to support base operations support services. Work will be performed at various locations within the Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Naval District Washington area of responsibility including, but not limited to, Maryland (54%); Washington, D.C. (35%); and Virginia (11%), and is expected to be completed by April 30, 2034. The maximum dollar value, including one 12-month base period and seven 12-month option periods, is $333,942,384. Fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance (Navy) funds will be obligated on individual task orders and will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via the SAM.gov website, with three offers received. The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Washington, Washington Navy Yard, D.C., is the contracting activity (N40080-26-D-1004).
Lockheed Martin Space of Titusville, Florida, is being awarded an $18,867,588 cost-plus-fixed-fee modification (P00022) to a previously awarded and announced contract (N0003024C0100) for Trident II (D5) Life Extension 2 SSP Alteration Advanced Design and Development Program efforts. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama (30%); Denver, Colorado (17%); Gilroy, California (12%); Folsom, California (12%); McDonald, Tennessee (8%); Palo Alto, California (5%); Sunnyvale, California (5%); Lanham, Maryland (5%); Titusville, Florida (3%); and locations less than 1.0 % each (3%). Work is expected to be completed Aug. 30, 2030. This action will be awarded using fiscal 2026 weapons procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $18,867,588 and no funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract is being awarded to the Contractor on a sole source basis under 10 U.S. Code 2304(a)(1) and was previously synopsized on the Systems for Award Management (SAM) website, with one proposal received. Strategic Systems Programs, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity. The information contained in the announcement is unclassified.
Accenture Federal Services LLC, Arlington, Virginia, is awarded a $9,338,477 option modification to previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract HT003824C0004 for a total cumulative value of $28,845,061. The modification is a six-month option period in support of the Program Executive Office – Defense Healthcare Management Systems, Joint Operation Medicine Information Systems Program Management Office CustomerX Pod 2 initiative providing user adoption, training and exercise, and release and deployment support. This six-month option period begins Jan. 8, 2026, and concludes on July 7, 2026. The work location is within the contiguous U.S., which could include Fort Campbell, Kentucky; the USS Kearsarge, Norfolk, Virginia; Fort Hood, Texas; Fort McCoy, Wisconsin; San Antonio, Texas; Travis Air Force Base, Dallas, Texas; Camp Beauregard, Louisiana; Tampa, Florida; and others to be determined; outside the contiguous U.S., which could include the Indo-Pacific Command; Germany; Hawaii, South Korea; Poland; Kosovo, European Command; Djibouti; and some others to be determined, or both. The option period is funded with fiscal 2026 operations and maintenance; and fiscal 2024 and 2026 procurement funds. The Defense Health Agency, Defense Healthcare Management Systems Contracting Division, Rosslyn, Virginia, is the contracting activity.
*Small business
