Trump Remakes the US Military
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President Donald J. Trump named Robert Salesses, deputy director of the Pentagon’s Washington Headquarters Service, to be acting defense secretary, because his choice to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. Military.com reports Trump has also named three other career Defense Department civilians to fill in as heads of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Military Times provides the Pentagon’s list of new officials sworn in this week to run the DoD. The 32 positions include advisers and deputy assistant secretaries, none of which require Senate confirmation. These officials will help steer the department as Trump’s top nominees await approval from Capitol Hill.
Task & Purpose reports on key takeaways for troops and vets from Trump’s first days in office, including a promise to deploy US troops to the southern border, reinstate service members separated for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, and protecting troops from “radical political theories and social experiments.”
Coast Guard Commandant ADM Linda Fagan appeared to be the first high-profile firing within the military amid Trump’s promises to purge members he deems unfit or go after political adversaries. Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman announced Fagan’s removal without saying why the action was taken.
The portrait of former Joint Chairs, GEN Mark Milley, unveiled Jan. 10, was gone shortly after the presidential inauguration Jan. 20. The portrait had hung with 19 other Joint Chiefs going back to GEN Omar Bradley, reports Military.com.
A Homeland Security investigatory body to probe major cybersecurity incidents has been cleared of non-government members, reports NextGov. A Jan. 20 memo from Huffman “all current memberships on advisory committees within DHS, effective immediately” as part of a DHS-wide push to cut costs under the Trump administration.
The administration’s nominee to run DHS, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, said the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency needs to be smaller and no longer fight misinformation or disinformation. CISA is the leading civilian cyber authority charged with protecting critical infrastructure, including government facilities, power grids, telecommunications, and election systems. The Department of Homeland Security has a $115 billion budget to oversee border security, immigration, emergency preparedness, and digital threats.
As of 5pm yesterday, Wednesday, all employees of federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs were to be placed on paid administrative leave and DEI offices closed, reports The Washington Post. By next Friday, agency heads must provide the Office of Personnel Management with a written plan for employee layoffs.
Trump’s trumpeted the Department of Government Efficiency, chaired by billionaire Elon Musk and charged with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” was at first called advisory, but got a home inside government this week. The US Digital Service, a White House tech team housed within the Executive Office of the President, has been renamed the “United States DOGE Service,” per this week’s executive order, reports NextGov.
Reuters reports the White House’s National Space Council is likely to be axed. Lobbyists at Elon Musk’s SpaceX have said they see the space council as a “waste of time,” stirring doubts about its fate and whether VP JD Vance would have an interest in chairing it as required by law.
Trump has rescinded an order allowing transgender troops to serve openly and further ordered all federal agencies to revoke any policies that “promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology.” Military.com reports these actions do not ban transgender troops from serving but are considered groundwork for a follow-up executive order banning transgender troops.
Stewart Rhodes, Army veteran and leader of the right-wing militia known as the Oath Keepers, was released from prison Tuesday after Trump pardoned and commuted more than 1,500 people accused of crimes for their involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, US Capitol riot, including those who were convicted of assaulting law enforcement.
The military is leaving open the possibility of active-duty troops serving or continuing to serve once pardoned for participating in the violent Jan. 6, 2020, insurrection at the US Capitol, reports Military.com. A handful of active-duty service members and about 15 who were in the National Guard and reserves, are among more than 1,500 people criminally charged for the violent clash with Capitol Police that was the first large-scale breach of the US seat of government since the War of 1812.
Trump made good on a campaign promise and pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who was sentenced to life in prison for running an underground online marketplace where drug dealers and others conducted more than $200 million in illicit trade using bitcoin. Reuters reports Ulbricht, 40, was arrested in 2013 and sentenced in 2015 in what became a landmark US prosecution launched only a few years after the emergence of the popular cryptocurrency
Contracts:
Tidewater Inc., Elkridge, Maryland (W912DY-25-D-0041); Spectrum Solutions Inc., Madison, Alabama (W912DY-25-D-0042); PKS-1P JV LLC, Falls Church, Virginia (W912DY-25-D-0043); NIKA Technologies Inc., Rockville, Maryland (W912DY-25-D-0044); IEI-SS&A JV LLC, Columbia, Maryland (W912DY-25-D-0045); and Health Facility Solutions Co., San Antonio, Texas (W912DY-25-D-0046), will compete for each order of the $98,616,250 firm-fixed-price contract for medical facilities support services. Bids were solicited via the internet with 11 received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Feb. 20, 2031. US Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, Alabama, is the contracting activity.
Carahsoft Technology Corp., Reston, Virginia, was awarded a $44,985,868 firm-fixed-price contract for commercial off-the-shelf software licenses and technical software in support of information technology network operations. Bids were solicited via the internet with one received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Jan. 22, 2030. US Army contracting Command, Rock Island, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W519TC-25-D-0012).
Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., McLean, Virginia, was awarded a $14,829,932 modification (P00065) to contract W911S0-18-C-0004 to provide contractor support for warfighter exercises, training and logistical support. Work will be performed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, with an estimated completion date of April 14, 2025. Fiscal 2025 operation and maintenance, Army funds in the amount of $5,651,499 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Field Directorate Office, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is the contracting activity.
Guidehouse Inc., McLean, Virginia, was awarded a $10,968,595 firm-fixed-price contract to provide expertise in accounting, financial reporting, internal controls and audit readiness. Bids were solicited via the internet with four received. Work will be performed at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, with an estimated completion date of March 20, 2030. Fiscal 2025 transportation working capital funds in the amount of $10,968,595 were obligated at the time of the award. US Army Contracting Command, Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, is the contracting activity (W519TC-25-F-0057).
Colonna’s Shipyard Inc., Norfolk, Virginia, is awarded a $10,676,191 firm-fixed-price contract (N3220525C4135) for 101-calendar day shipyard availability for the post-shakedown availability of Military Sealift Command’s Expeditionary Fast Transport USNS Apalachicola (T-EPF 13). This contract includes a base work package and two unexercised options for additional work and time, which if exercised, would increase the cumulative value of this contract to $10,798,791. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Virginia, beginning Feb. 12, 2025, and is expected to be completed by May 23, 2025. Working capital funds (Navy) in the amount of $10,676,191 are obligated for fiscal 2025 and will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was a small business set-aside solicited via the sam.gov website with four offers received. The US Navy’s Military Sealift Command, Norfolk, Virginia, is the contracting activity (N3220525C4135).
SERCO Inc., Herndon, Virginia, has been awarded one-year extension estimated at $21,587,595 for contractor support services, studies and analysis to the Global Positioning System User Equipment Systems, and Assured Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) related programs, for the Joint Service System Management Office (JSSMO), which includes the PNT program offices. The location of performance will be primarily at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia; and Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. This extension is the result of a non-competitive acquisition. Fiscal 2025 research, development, testing and evaluation funds are being used and partial funding will be obligated at time of the award. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Robins AFB, Georgia, is the contracting activity (FA8576-24-C-0001). (Awarded Jan. 21, 2025)
