Navy secretary violated restrictions on political activity, federal office finds Carlos del Toro broke Hatch Act During an official visit to the UK in January, the Federal Office of the Special Counsel announced Thursday. In an interview with the BBC and while answering questions after the London speech, del Toro advocated for the re-election of President Joe Biden and implicitly criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. GovExec’s Sean Michael Newhouse reports, here.
Among the offending quotes: “The United States and the world need the mature leadership of President Biden,” del Toro said in response to a question after a speech at the Royal United Services Institute. “We cannot afford a president who aligns himself with autocratic dictators and rulers whose interpretation of democratic principles is questionable. [at] The best.”
Del Toro himself reported his comments to the special counsel After several days. The Pentagon is now reviewing the matter, spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Thursday. This Associated Press There are a few more.
Budget watch: The assumption is that lawmakers will Failed to pass Before the current fiscal year ends on September 30 in the fiscal 2025 defense-spending bill, the White House has sent Congress a request for additional funding to continue various programs. USNI News reports.
The request includes about $2 billion for two attack submarines, That would bring the total amount to be spent on the pair under construction to $11.3 billion. We don’t know how much each Virginia-class boat is worth, but one of them is A drastic change To support special operations forces and seabed warfare. Sources told USNI News that the Navy’s initial 2024 budget request for the two subs was based on cost estimates that did not take into account post-pandemic inflation. read, here.
Welcome to this Friday’s edition of The D BriefBrought to you by Ben Watson along with Bradley Penniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations or feedback here. And if you haven’t already subscribed, you can here. On this day in 1915 World’s first Tank prototype Took the first time Test drive in England.
According to the Air Force’s chief buyer, ICBM costs exceed the “collective failure” of the USAF, Northrop, DOD. Critics J say The Sentinel program exposed its budget largely because the Biden administration allowed Northrop Grumman to buy one of the two largest US makers of rocket motors, Andrew Hunter said earlier this week. Instead, the problem was that the competition was set up to focus too much on the missiles, neglecting the critical infrastructure to launch them, the assistant Air Force secretary said, adding that this “failure” started with the Air Force but that But related to it. Northrop and the Pentagon. D1’s Audrey Decker has it More.
ICYMI: To merge ICBM program offices. Last week, the Air Force announced it would merge separate directorates overseeing Minuteman III and Sentinel into a single Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Systems Directorate under Brig. General William Rogers. a little more, here.
Another nuclear thing: Former Pentagon space policy wonk Vipin Narang is joining MIT To direct a new Center for Nuclear Security Policy. MIT News reported Wednesday. Before joining the Pentagon in March 2022, Narang was a professor of nuclear security at MIT. His published works include the 2014 “Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era,” and “Inventing the Bomb: Strategies for Nuclear Proliferation” in 2022. read more, here.
Update: Special Operations Command officials still haven’t justified their desire to buy 62 Cropduster attack planes. Government Accountability Office said In a five-page report published Thursday.
Background: “SOCOM seeks aircraft capable of conducting strike, close-air support missions, and some intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions” for its armed overwatch program, the GAO explained. SOCOM is planning to spend more than $2 billion on the program through FY2029.
There were three reasons why the GAO was not yet convinced: “First, because SOCOM decided on the size of the fleet before doing the necessary analysis. Second, SOCOM did not evaluate how changes in aircraft capabilities might affect the number required for operations. And third, that SOCOM has not reassessed its requirements despite changing operational missions.” Find the full declassified report (PDF). here.
Former US Coast Guard Academy students seek $130 million for alleged sexual assaults. Reuters: “More than a dozen former US Coast Guard Academy students who say they were sexually assaulted filed a lawsuit Thursday seeking $130 million in damages, accusing the school of allowing sexual violence to go unchecked.” The suits come after a decades-long effort by the service to cover up such attacks. Operation Fouled Anchor Check more, here.
Open: Two Virginia National Guard soldiers lead an armed anti-government group Out of the city of Lynchburg is known as the Campbell County Militia, Military.com’s Steve Bannon informed Thursday. “It’s a seemingly conflicting set of roles that are potentially fraught with new Army regulations that expressly prohibit anti-government behavior — for soldiers both on active duty and in the Guard,” Bannon writes.
Background: “In 2020, Campbell County’s Board of Supervisors officially recognized Abbott’s militia in a six-to-one vote to serve as a ‘deterrent against a tyrannical government.'” Hints of impending violence.
“Our government is the biggest threat to our safety and security,” Militia leader U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Daniel Abbott at an event earlier this year. Read the rest on Military.com.
In a rare appearance at Ramstein Air Base, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky attended The Pentagon-led latest Defense Contact Group meeting of fellow defense ministers on Friday. Zelensky wants more air defense systems to protect against Russian attacks, as well as permission from allies to strike deep into Russian territory to reduce the number of missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure before winter.
“We need our partners’ determination and the means to stop Russia’s air terror,” Zelensky said on social media on Friday. “We also need strong long-range decisions from our partners to bring us closer to the just peace we are striving for.”
DEVELOPING: White House defies September 30 deadline to use up to $6 billion in military aid for Ukraine And so officials are talking to lawmakers on Capitol Hill about how best to proceed, Reuters reported on Thursday.
What’s going on: “In most of the $7.8 billion [Presidential Drawdown Authority] The bill Biden signed into law in April has not been used,” Reuters writes. One solution could be to “tie the expansion of PDA authorities to a continuing resolution…which the Senate and House of Representatives must pass this month to avoid a Sept. 30 government shutdown.” It is not officially clear why PDA is holding up arms deliveries, but reportedly “supply chain issues” are at least partly to blame. Read on, here.
In the video: Follow Ukrainian refugee and professional climber Jenya Kazbekova as she struggles to compose herself and compete on her way to the Olympics while her friends and family live in Ukraine at the mercy of Russia’s ongoing invasion and missile attacks. Kazbekova is one of several pro climbers featured in National Geographic’s new four-part documentary series, “crux” details here.
Additional Reading:
Top US and Chinese commanders are scheduled to speak sometime in the next few weeks. US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said in Washington on Thursday. Adm. of the Indo-Pacific Command. Sam Paparo and the “Southern Theater Commander of the People’s Liberation Army”. foreign policy.
“We have to have that connectivity, so that if there’s an accident or there’s a misunderstanding,” “Our military leaders can meet to defuse the temperature, divide any parties that are clashing or arguing and make sure we have a rational way to resolve issues,” Burns said. Reuters There is more.
And finally this week: Taiwanese filmmakers have already a TV show About the Chinese invasion. Now there’s a board game about it. Set in the year 2045, the game focuses on the “last 10 days” of such an invasion, Taiwan news Report after talking to the game’s developer.
“It’s definitely not the case that players should defend Taiwan in this game,” “It’s every player for himself,” he said.
“Taiwan may be divided, but the people can also show unity; There could be all different kinds of outcomes,” he said. read more, here.
Post D Brief: Hatch Act Violations; ICBM spending is a ‘collective failure’; Fiscal Year End Negotiations; Taiwan’s anti-invasion board game; And a little more. appeared first Defense one.