Defense policy
March 23, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The Democratic Party’s judicial attack on the Trump administration and the Executive Branch is centered on the federal district court for the District of Columbia. One of those judges, Ana Reyes, has issued a preliminary injunction preventing the Department of Defense from implementing the President’s executive order barring transgender people from military service. Judge Reyes, born in Uruguay, was appointed to the federal bench in 2023 by Joe Biden. Wikipedia
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January 28, 2025 — John Hinderaker
A friend sent me a link to this video of an interview with Palmer Luckey, the founder of Anduril Industries, whose company is about to invest $1 billion in Ohio. Anduril manufactures munitions and other defense-related hardware. Luckey talks about the fact that no one goes to a state like California, once the main hub of defense procurement, and he explains what drew his company to Ohio. At one level,
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January 7, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Pete Hegseth’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, on his nomination as Secretary of Defense, is scheduled for next week. All indications are that he has the support of Republican senators and will be confirmed, but Elizabeth Warren, the ranking minority member of the committee, isn’t going down without a fight. Or without a last opportunity to smear Hegseth. Yesterday, Warren sent Hegseth a 33-page letter that is
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November 28, 2024 — John Hinderaker
On Monday, Senator Tom Cotton wrote to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, criticizing actions within the Department of Defense that have been reported in the press. I haven’t seen the letter in downloadable form, but I believe this is the complete text: Secretary Austin, I write to express my concern that Pentagon officials are seeking to undermine President Trump’s incoming administration. It appears that partisans and obstructionists inside the Department
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August 27, 2024 — Steven Hayward
With “President” Joe Biden continuing his second week of vacation with nothing on his schedule or public calendar, and Kamala Harris hiding out in her own basement, who is running the country? It might appear to be Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, at least on national security matters. It was Austin who announced the re-deployment of another carrier battle group to the Middle East, which, apparently, leaves no U.S. carrier in
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August 21, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
The Biden-Harris administration, Fox News reports, has appointed Sneha Nair as a special assistant at the National Nuclear Security Administration. Prior to the appointment, Nair served as a research analyst with the Nuclear Security Program at the Stimson Center. The special assistant earned a masters in geography and international relations from the University of St. Andrews, but there’s more to her. Sneha Nair is co-author of “Queering nuclear weapons: How
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January 9, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
As Scott noted previously, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized for three days before Joe Biden knew anything about it. Austin claimed he “could have done a better job ensuring that the public was informed.” Such an understatement raises more than a few questions. We now know he was being treated for prostate cancer, but neither President Biden nor his staff knew this until today—weeks after Secretary Austin went
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December 6, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Well, no, of course they don’t. The idea that liberal news outlets might contribute to our national defense, rather than undermining it, is laughable. And yet, here they are: the defense authorization bill is being held hostage to the Democrats’ insistence that the “Journalism Competition and Preservation Act” be included in it. Whatever the merits of the JCPA, it has absolutely nothing to do with national defense, and should be
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February 21, 2022 — Steven Hayward
I don’t have a firm conclusion about just what we should do about the Ukraine crisis (beyond not sending Kamala Harris to Munich to embarrass the country). We ought to arm the Ukrainians with all the weapons they can use (short of nukes), impose serious sanctions on Russia, and perhaps some heavy cyber actions. But it is also worth considering that if Germany won’t stand up with the rest of the
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January 11, 2022 — Steven Hayward
I was awake ridiculously early this morning (like 4 am), and was caught short by the news of the FAA ground stop and landing order for air traffic in the western U.S. yesterday in hair trigger response to a North Korean test launch of a hypersonic missile. The FAA’s statement left things pretty vague as to why. I note the mainstream media caught up with this unusual story today, but
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February 11, 2021 — Scott Johnson
President Biden turned up at the Pentagon yesterday for some purpose or other, perhaps to make the remarks to Defense Department personnel in the video below (about 10 minutes). The White House has posted the text of Biden’s remarks here. With a vacant look in his eyes, Biden observes: “Before I begin, I have some welcome news that the Saudi government has released a prominent human rights activist, Loujain al-Hathlou
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June 23, 2019 — John Hinderaker
First we have hypersonic missiles: Hypersonic weapons incorporate the speed of a ballistic missile with the maneuvering capabilities of a cruise missile. Hypersonic weapons refer to weapons that travel faster than Mach 5 (~3,800mph) and have the capability to maneuver during the entire flight. As a pentagon report stated, “While the designed speed of the hypersonic missile is faster than that of sound, its advantage lies in its enhanced maneuverability
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March 29, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Much of what we read in the news is trivial. This isn’t. I have been hearing about the threat posed by electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) for quite a few years. A high altitude EMP can occur if a nuclear device is detonated over the Earth’s surface. It potentially could wipe out all electrical systems, effectively disabling the United States. Some estimate that an EMP attack could kill 90 percent of Americans.
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March 24, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Trump administration has overturned the policy of its predecessor on military service by transgender individuals. The reversal of policy, including the limited instances in which the prior policy will be honored, strikes me as sound. However, I lack the expertise to have a view that should be taken seriously by others. The same is true of the judges who, in another sign that the country is headed in the
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July 31, 2017 — Scott Johnson
Reversing a late-breaking change in policy effected by the Obama administration, President Trump announced via Twitter last week that those of the transgender persuasion would be barred from military service. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory,” he explained. He added that the military should not be “burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.” Is this an issue that
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December 1, 2016 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that Donald Trump has picked retired Marine Gen. James Mattis to be secretary of defense. Team Trump has not confirmed this report. Gen. Mattis retired from the military four years ago. Under federal law, defense secretaries must not have been on active duty in the previous seven years. Thus, Congress will be called on to grant an exception for Gen. Mattis, as it did for General
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October 12, 2016 — Steven Hayward
My late teacher of intelligence and strategy Harold Rood liked to say, “You run the show or the show runs you.” (Book here.) It was a corollary to his axiom that “Nothing happens for no good reason.” With these counsels in mind, there are some ominous news items from the last few days: USS Mason Fired 3 Missiles to Defend From Yemen Cruise Missiles Attack The crew of a guided-missile
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