Trump Calls for $1.5T Defense Budget
President Donald Trump has called for a 50% boost to the Department of Defense budget — to $1.5 trillion a year. He also wants a pay cap for defense contractor CEOs to encourage them to produce weapons faster.
Several Fall Ill After Suspicious Package Opened at Andrews
Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, MD, received a “suspicious package” Thursday prompting two buildings to be evacuated after several people became ill.
St. Mary’s: ‘Hotbed’ of Aviation Development
Aerospace companies that want to get their operations off the ground should consider Maryland, which is home to more than 9,000 such companies. A recent investment profile points out that St. Mary’s County is “a hotbed of military and civil aviation development” with NAVAIR at Pax River and other facilities in the region.
FAA Issues Final Rule for Powered-Lift eVTOLs
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued its final rule for powered-lift aircraft, which creates the operating and pilot training basis for eVTOLs. This development is critical to the success of the advanced air mobility industry, says the FAA.
NavSec Del Toro Violates Hatch Act
NavSec Carlos Del Toro violated the Hatch Act for voicing support for President Joe Biden during a work trip to the United Kingdom in January. The Hatch Act prohibits federal officials from participating in political activities while serving in their official capacity and in their federal workplace.
F-35’s Armory Is About to Get Bigger
The US Navy is launching an effort to procure four integrated advanced munitions — JASSM, LRASM, JAGM, and Hellfire missiles — on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Nation Commemorates 9/11 22nd Anniversary
The National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City will host its annual commemoration ceremony honoring the people killed in the 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon, and aboard Flight 93, reports ABC7 New York on MSN.com. The ceremony begins at 8:30am.
Pentagon: No Evidence of Aliens in UFO Cases
The Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities was told last week that none of the more than 650 unexplained anomalous phenomena, or UAP, incidents under investigation since the Pentagon’s All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office’s July 2022 inception were of an alien nature.
Contractors Get Half of DoD Budget
More than half of the Pentagon’s yearly budget goes to private contractors. In 2021, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and Northrop Grumman received over $116 billion in Pentagon contracts while paying their top two dozen executives a total of $287 million. The CEOs of the top five contractors received compensation ranging from $18 million to $23 million each.
State Dept. Ups Reward for Info on Hackers
The US State Department is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identity and location of five hackers thought to be part of the Russia-backed Conti ransomware group. Another Russian hacking group is claiming an attack on Lockheed Martin that knocked the company’s websites offline.
