Mexican Cartels Use USA Ammo
Mexico’s DefSec GEN Ricardo Trevilla Trejo (Wikipedia)
Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River 
economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.
About half of the high-powered .50-caliber cartridges that the Mexican authorities have seized from cartels since 2012 were traced to an ammunition factory outside Kansas City, MO, owned by the US government, reports The New York Times. Mexico’s DefSec GEN Ricardo Trevilla Trejo said on Tuesday that about 137,000 .50-caliber rounds had been seized since 2012. Of those, he added, 47% came from Lake City Army Ammunition Plant and were sold in gun shops in the southern United States. The Lake City factory is the largest manufacturer of rifle rounds used by the American military.
The Pentagon held off on naming “underperforming” defense contractors discovered during a performance review of contractors behind in their delivery schedules. A Jan. 7 executive order gave DoD 30 days to report if these firms were investing in their own production capacity or engaging in dividend payments and stock buybacks, reports The Hill. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, “We are engaged in detailed negotiations with many companies and going into great depth to analyze their performance.” The order gives contractors identified by the Pentagon 15 days to send remediation plans to address production delays.
A grand jury on Tuesday refused to indict a coalition of Democratic lawmakers over their participation in a controversial “illegal orders” video last fall. The failed federal indictment was pursued by the office of US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, reports The Hill.
Nearly 200 more miles of the US border with Mexico have been placed under Air Force supervision, enabling wider use of military force and heftier charges against people crossing illegally into the country, even as crossings have sunk to record lows and the heightened charges are thrown out by judges, reports Defense One. There were roughly 444,000 southwest border crossings by land last year, down from 2.1 million in 2024, according to US Customs and Border Protection data.
Lawmakers lamented falling readiness rates and increasing mishaps with the V-22 Osprey, during a hearing on Tuesday where Navy and Marine Corps officials touted progress in overcoming a fatal V-22 Osprey gearbox issue that has limited operations since 2023, reports USNI.
Pennsylvania joins Georgia and Oklahoma seeking legislation to ensure data center development projects meet strict water conservation requirements. Route Fifty reports two new research reports have warned about the potentially catastrophic impacts of data centers and artificial intelligence on water supplies.
Democratic leaders rejected an “incomplete and insufficient” counterproposal from the White House in response to their party’s demand for new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown just days before funding for Homeland Security runs out, reports AP News. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said the White House counterproposal “included neither details nor legislative text” and does not address “the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct.” The White House proposal was not released publicly.
SGT Henry David Volpe, an automotive technician with the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, helped the US Marine Corps pioneer a 3D-printed first-person view drone that is easy to assemble, ready for field use and conforms to national security standards, reports Military Times.
A platform launched last year by Work for America is helping state and local governments recruit former federal employees to their agencies. Route Fifty reports nearly 300,000 federal workers found themselves unemployed after the Trump administration’s mass layoffs and early retirement offers. But data shows many of those who left public service in the federal government turned to state and local government as their new path forward.
More than a quarter of military families consistently struggle to put food on the table, according to a poll conducted by Blue Star Families, reports Stars and Stripes.
The West Virginia National Guard members shot in Washington, DC, will receive Purple Heart medals, reports Stars and Stripes. In November, SPC Sarah Beckstrom was shot and killed by an Afghan national near the White House. A second member of the West Virginia Guard, Staff SGT Andrew Wolfe, was also shot and has since been recovering.
The Air Force is prohibiting the use of smart glasses while airmen are in uniform, citing security concerns, reports Military Times.
Some Navy and Marine Corps aviators will get lighter, more capable helmets in the coming years as the services replace the headgear their pilots have worn for decades with a modern model, reports Stars and Stripes. The Navy in January awarded Gentex Corp. a $22.6 million contract to produce more than 5,000 of the helmets for pilots flying F/A-18 Hornets and Super Hornets, EA-18G Growlers, and other fixed-wing aircraft.
The US carried out another deadly strike on Monday, killing two suspected drug smugglers in the eastern Pacific on a boat “transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the eastern Pacific,” according to a Pentagon statement that also said the US Coast Guard had been called to search for a lone survivor of the attack, reports The Guardian. The new killings bring the death toll to at least 130 in 38 strikes, according to Pentagon statements tallied by the Intercept.
Cuban aviation officials have warned airlines that there isn’t enough fuel for airplanes to refuel on the island, part of a critical energy rationing as the Trump administration cuts the island off from its fuel resources, reports Military.com. On Monday, Air Canada announced it was suspending flights to the island, AP News reports, while other airlines announced delays and layovers in the Dominican Republic before flights continued to Havana.
Russia is frantically trying to plug massive communications gaps, reports TWZ, after SpaceX CEO Elon Musk restricted the Starlink satellite communications system in and around Ukraine to only registered users.
The US government has accused China of secretly conducting at least one “yield-producing nuclear test” in recent years despite the country having a stated moratorium on such activities, reports TWZ.
China and South Korea have discussed resuming joint maritime search-and-rescue drills that have been suspended for about 15 years, according to the South’s Ministry of National Defense. Stars and Stripes reports that working-level policy talks between officials from both nations’ defense ministries took place last week in Beijing.
Contracts awarded in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., Feb. 9-11, 2026:
Applied Physical Sciences, Corp., Groton, Connecticut was awarded a $12,530,528 contract modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract (N66001-23-C-4037) for the development of innovative payloads to conduct acoustic warfare to counter active surface sonars, bringing the cumulative face value of the contract to $27,763,578. Work will be performed in Orange, California; Groton, Connecticut; Pawcatuck, Connecticut; Concord, Massachusetts; Arlington, Virginia; and Reston, Virginia. The expected completion date is Feb. 10, 2027. This modification exercises and incrementally funds the first option of the contract. At the time of modification execution, $800,000 in fiscal 2026-2027 research, development, test and evaluation funds from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency were obligated. The contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. NIWC Pacific, San Diego, California, is the contracting activity.
PeopleTec Inc., Huntsville, Alabama, is being awarded a single award indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. The value of this contract will be $48,098,000. The resultant contract will enable the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to acquire advanced model-based systems engineering capabilities, digital capability development, and integrated modeling that transform fragmented architectural and requirements development processes into a unified, authoritative digital capability supporting the nation’s defensive posture against ballistic, hypersonic, and other advanced threats. Work will be performed in Huntsville, Alabama; and Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, with an estimated ordering period of five years after the award date. This contract is being awarded under the Missile Defense Agency – Advanced Capability Concepts Broad Agency Announcement HQ0860-25-S-C001. The initial task order will be issued immediately, with a period of performance 12 months after contract award. Fiscal 2026 research, developmental, test and evaluation funds in the amount of $450,000 are being obligated at the time of award. MDA, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity (HQ0854-26-D-E004).
RTX Corp., East Hartford, Connecticut, is awarded a not-to-exceed $230,559,766 fixed-price-incentive (firm target), cost-plus-incentive-fee, advanced acquisition, undefinitized contract for the procurement of long lead time materials, parts, components, and efforts necessary to protect the F135 Lot 20 propulsion system delivery schedule in support of the production of 138 propulsion systems for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, non-U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) partners, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. Work will be performed in East Hartford, Connecticut (17%); Indianapolis, Indiana (10%); Middletown, Connecticut (8%); Kent, Washington (7%); North Berwick, Maine (4%); EL Cajon, California (3%); Cromwell, Connecticut (3%); Whitehall, Michigan (3%); Portland, Orgeron (2%); San Diego, California (2%); South Bend, Indiana (2%); Columbus, Georgia (1%); Hampton, Virgina (1%); Manchester, Connecticut (1%); Cheshire, Connecticut (1%); Elmwood Park, New Jersey (1%); and various locations within the continental U.S. (34%), and is expected to be completed in May 2031. Fiscal 2025 aircraft procurement (Air Force) funds in the amount of $35,220,000; fiscal 2025 aircraft procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $26,627,000; non-U.S. DOD partner (Navy) funds in the amount of $42,683,926; and FMS funds in the amount of $126,028,840, will be obligated at the time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competed. Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N0001926C0118).
