Ideas
What Congress Can Learn from the Military About Cybersecurity
As it stands, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act won’t much improve information-sharing. Here's how to change that.
Ideas
Why Can’t Obama Get His Defense Secretary To Release This Guantanamo Prisoner?
The Pentagon, not Congress, is blocking the release of 75-pound prisoner Tariq Ba Odah, six years after he was cleared to go. Where is the president?
Policy
Pentagon Pressures Turkey to Strike ISIS, Tighten Border
More than a year into the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State militants, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is demanding Ankara do more.
Ideas
The Pentagon Wants To Wage War on Denial-of-Service Cyber Attacks
By next spring, researchers are expected to unveil new tools enabling organizations like the Defense Department a rapid response to distributed denial-of-service attacks.
Business
Carter Crafts Close Team of Chiefs to Finish Out Obama Years
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s team is finally coming together, but they don’t have much time to accomplish several ambitious projects.
Threats
US Releases First ISIS Detainee to Iraq, Setting Precedent for a New War
The White House hands Nasrin As’ad Ibrahim to Iraqi authorities, saying it has a ‘firm belief that she will be held to account for her crimes.’
Science & Tech
The Pentagon Wants a Secretive Cyber Arms Dealer To Hack Its Networks
The company, Endgame, is part of a legal but controversial industry that sells governments hacking tools called 'zero days' to pinpoint vulnerabilities.
Business
Pentagon Sends an Engineer and a Navy SEAL to Woo Silicon Valley
Not five months after its announcement, the military’s California technology-hunting office is up and running.
Policy
Here’s One Way the US-China Relationship Is Improving
Even as tensions in the South China Sea heats up and online thefts increase, military-to-military contacts have been rising for five straight years.
Business
US Marines Say F-35 is Ready for War
Seven years late and billions of dollars over its original budget, the Joint Strike Fighter is deemed ready to fight.
Policy
Pentagon Doesn’t Know If It’s Allowed to Defend Syrian Fighters or Turkish ‘Safe Zone’
That’s an odd situation to be in as the U.S. puts the first of its trained-and-equipped opposition fighters into Syria and finalizes an agreement with Turkey to back a “safe zone” on the Syrian border.
Science & Tech
The Military Will Test a New Terrifyingly Loud Noise Gun
The Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program is developing lasers that create a screaming ball of plasma on their target.
Threats
To Prevent Insider Threats, DOD Must First Define ‘Normal’
The Pentagon thinks it can build an automated system to predict and prevent future Fort Hood-style attacks. But it’s a problem as big as big data itself.
Business
Shake-Up Underway at Prominent Washington Think Tank
The departures of Andrew Krepinevich, the longtime president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, and budget analyst Todd Harrison follow a decline in government grants to the non-profit organization.
Threats
Pentagon’s IED Office Reinvents Itself For A New War
JIEDDO is now JIDA, with a permanent place in the bureaucracy and license to target more than roadside bombs.
Business
Pentagon Reconsidering Total F-35 Buy, Dunford Says
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he’s willing to rethink the acquisition plan for the most expensive weapons program ever.
Threats
Pentagon Moves Money to Counter Russia
The midyear budget request to Congress includes more money for submarine detection devices, more powerful guns on the Army’s Stryker vehicles, and improvements to nuclear command centers.
Policy
Hagel: Vietnam War Offers Lessons for Islamic State Fight
The former defense secretary shares some insight ahead of the congressional commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the war in Indochina.
Policy
The Pentagon Wants To Train 15,000 Syrian Fighters. So Far It's Got 60.
Tense words between Sen. John McCain and Defense Secretary Ash Carter reveal that the U.S. has not decided how to defend the fighters if they are attacked by the Assad regime.
Policy