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Yahoo
6 hours ago
- General
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Lawmakers Push for Osprey Safety Report to Be Added to Annual Defense Funding Bill
House lawmakers want a safety report about the V-22 Osprey to be included in the annual defense appropriations bill after several deadly crashes killed troops and raised questions about the aircraft's continued use by the military. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., wrote a letter to the leadership of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on Friday, asking for language to be added to the fiscal 2026 appropriations bill that would shed more light on historic mechanical failures with the aircraft. "These servicemembers are heroes, and their legacy should reflect their decorated careers, bravery and service to this nation," the letter says. "There is no question that our service members deserve better than to be protecting our country in an aircraft with known mechanical issues." Read Next: Pentagon Diverts $1 Billion from Army Barracks to Fund Border Mission Emmer and Grothman's letter follows a deadly Air Force Special Operations Command Osprey crash in November 2023 in Japan that killed eight airmen during a training mission. exclusively reported last year, after reviewing privileged safety information, that the crash was caused by issues in the tilt-rotor aircraft's gearbox -- specifically a fractured single high-speed planetary pinion gear. That internal Safety Investigation Board report detailed that other failures in the gearbox were first flagged back in 2013, a decade prior to the deadly crash, and concerns were raised at the Pentagon. Additionally, the company that made the part that failed has been plagued with a history of manufacturing issues. Emmer and Grothman's letter cited past reporting and specifically asks for language to be included that will examine past safety reports that probed failures, including that gear from the Japan crash. The letter asks the defense appropriator subcommittee to request "a report that includes the results of any safety investigation pertaining to any crash of the CV-22 Osprey since the introduction of the aircraft or other mishap involving the failure of the single high-speed planetary pinion gear." The language would require the defense secretary to submit the safety information within 30 days of the passage of the appropriations bill. Jason Gagnon, a spokesperson for Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., the chair of the defense appropriations subcommittee, said the congressman would be working with other lawmakers on Osprey safety. "Chairman Calvert looks forward to working with Majority Whip Emmer and other colleagues on this issue," Gagnon said in an emailed statement. "The safety of our service members remains one of the top priorities of the Defense Subcommittee." Notably, almost a year ago, Grothman led a House Committee on Oversight and Reform subcommittee hearing into the safety record of the V-22 Osprey. reported earlier this month that the investigation had stalled with the Republican-led committee, which angered Gold Star families who lost loved ones in the crash and are still hoping for answers. "I'm beyond disappointed, to say the least, that these oversight efforts seem to have stalled or disappeared," Amber Sax, the wife of John Sax, a Marine Corps pilot who died in a 2022 Osprey crash, told earlier this month. Grothman blamed the previous administration for a lack of transparency. He signed the letter alongside Emmer, calling for safety reports two weeks after reporting pointing out the lack of progress. Air Force Special Operations Command spokesperson Lt. Col. Rebecca Heyse told in an emailed statement that they "continue to welcome congressional interest and oversight" on the Osprey program. "We maintain close coordination with the V-22 Joint Program Office to ensure resourcing and funding are prioritized to maximize readiness and safety of the CV-22, like we do for all our aircraft," Heyse said. Related: Osprey Safety Investigation Stalls in Congress, Angering Gold Star Families
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A Single Server Holds All Navy Pay and Promotion Data. DOGE Canceled a Contract to Upload It to the Cloud.
The Navy has been in a yearslong struggle to modernize its critically important human resources computer systems that underpin a whole host of vital tasks like pay and promotions. But a contract for what might have been one of the most promising efforts to upgrade the systems just fell victim to billionaire Elon Musk's cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, according to sources interviewed by As a result, a critical and aging server in Tennessee that holds most of the service's pay and promotion data is operating with no backup in the event of a natural disaster. The contract was a relatively small $170 million award to a company called Pantheon to move all the data on that server into the cloud and out of danger. It was canceled in early May. Read Next: From Star Wars to Golden Dome: Trump Pushes US Missile Shield Despite Funding and Technology Hurdles The HR systems go unnoticed when they work as intended but, when they break, the consequences are drastic. In 2022, reported extensively about the effects on sailors when the Navy fell behind on issuing them a key discharge document, sometimes making them wait for months into their civilian lives. "Everything in terms of what sailors access, in terms of [the Navy's online HR portal] would be impacted because they run on those mainframes," a senior Navy personnel official told in an interview last week, speaking about the server in Tennessee. "Reconstituting it would probably take anywhere between nine and 16 months, during which time we could not promote sailors effectively." Another person familiar with the details of the contract added that the Navy "almost lost it [the servers] due to flooding a little less than two months ago." Both were granted anonymity to talk freely about the situation without fear of retaliation. Meanwhile, Navy Secretary John Phelan went on TV Thursday and bragged that "DOGE has been very good to work with" and that the service got rid of "300 different IT systems, none of which were talking with each other." "We've cleared that out and have started basically brand-new," he said. To begin to understand how the Navy got to this point, one must go back to 2019 when the service first embarked on its journey to consolidate and modernize more than 55 disparate systems -- some of which were going on being nearly half a century old at that point. The effort became known as Navy Pay and Personnel System, or NP2. It was clear by 2022 that the effort was not going well. Sailors were posting online about struggles to get pay issues fixed, and some came forward saying that they had had to wait more than a hundred days for their discharge paperwork. Those delays meant that discharged sailors were left overpaying thousands of dollars for unnecessary rent, paying tens of thousands of dollars to self-fund moves that should have been paid for, experiencing delays in getting jobs, and were forced to contemplate the possibility of losing medical care. The NP2 system eventually cost the Navy more than $1 billion while the service's personnel office told lawmakers the program "has not progressed as desired," according to documents submitted to the House Defense Appropriations Committee in early May. Also, the Navy still had 55 "legacy" systems costing it $122 million a year and, according to its responses to Congress, the project is now seven years behind schedule. "All the indications were the program was going to fail the sailor," the Navy official told The decision was made to bring in another smaller team to at least address an urgent problem: aging servers with no backup. "HR operations could essentially be paralyzed for a year if we didn't do something," the official said, explaining that there were no contingency plans to keep the servers running in the event of an emergency. That's where the now-canceled contract came in. The Navy's personnel office hired a company called Pantheon in June 2024 and gave it $170 million to basically move that server data into cloud storage and out of danger. But part of that effort included modernizing data going back as far as World War II, which was sometimes as basic as just pictures of paper files. As a bonus, the Navy would gain better access to personnel data that could help leaders understand what was going on with sailors -- something that has been a hallmark for the service's current personnel boss. "We can't connect the data right now from where the sailor is in the training pipeline and where they're going next and what shipping is going to do to that supply chain," the Navy official explained. "So, we wind up firing instructors, only to find out we got a big cohort of people who need them coming in four weeks later." Unlike the NP2 effort, the Navy official even said that Pantheon was "making a lot of headway" on untangling the mess that was one of the last two physical data centers in the Navy. But then came DOGE. Shortly after President Donald Trump was elected, his political ally and billionaire businessman Elon Musk was tapped to lead a government cost-cutting and efficiency effort that has become known as DOGE. Musk, the world's richest man, and his team slashed federal agencies and workers without the consent of Congress -- often haphazardly -- triggering numerous lawsuits and public outcry throughout the first months of the Trump administration. Top Pentagon officials in the Trump administration have touted DOGE cuts in recent weeks but typically without offering much in the way of details. In early March, the Pentagon's top spokesman, Sean Parnell, posted a video message on social media claiming DOGE had made "initial findings" that "will probably save $80 million in wasteful spending" but provided examples that totaled only $13 million. Phelan also joined in with similar videos that touted cuts to "IT contracts that are ineffective and over-budget" while offering no further details. More broadly, DOGE has also developed a track record of inaccurate or inflated claims about the savings it is generating by slashing government spending. Still, some officials, including the two who spoke with were broadly supportive of the contract cutting efforts by DOGE. "The department desperately needs to get more efficient," the Navy official said, adding that they thought "the DOGE effort is a reasonable effort -- it's a good effort." According to the official, the cancellation of the Pantheon contract aimed at moving HR data to the cloud was the broader Navy bureaucracy simply protecting the large, existing NP2 contract and using DOGE as their hitman. From their perspective inside the Navy's personnel infrastructure, DOGE got played by the IT and contracting bureaucracy within the service, and "they were handed a statement of work on a contract that they didn't even read." The other person familiar with the Pantheon contract told that it was flagged to DOGE, and a DOGE representative told them "they never even looked at it -- he had never seen it or read it" before it was cancelled. "He asked me for a copy," they added. reached out to the Navy with a list of questions that included what role top service officials -- namely the chief information officer and a top program executive -- played in flagging the contract to DOGE, the relationships those officials had with the contractors behind NP2, and whether they felt the NP2 contract was a good value. A Navy spokesman offered a brief statement to that didn't dispute that DOGE canceled the Pantheon contract aimed at fixing the shortcomings of the larger, unproductive NP2 contract but said that Musk's team recommended it, not the Navy. "The decision is part of a broader effort to realign resources and optimize IT capabilities that enhance readiness, accelerate decision-making, and strengthen the lethality of our naval forces," the statement added. Both the person familiar with the contract and the Navy personnel official were shocked when they found out the news. "We said, 'Hey, no, you're right, there are things in this program that need to be cut -- you just shot the wrong target,'" the official said. Other disputes over the value of contracts terminated by DOGE have also occurred. Last week, also reported that DOGE canceled a contract for a program that helped troops better utilize their tuition assistance. Under that contract, "20% of first-time TA users shifted from low market-value programs to STEM fields like cybersecurity and engineering, critical for the defense industrial base," according to a statement from the company that was performing the service. The term STEM refers to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Now, with the Navy's HR data backup efforts stalled, there are serious concerns about what happens if a storm knocks out the server -- as well as the fate of long-term efforts to bring service data and HR systems into the modern age. Losing the server for months would mean hits to morale when promotion boards aren't able to meet and to retention when those sailors decide to leave the force, the Navy told Congress in the document reviewed by "Additionally, this could further threaten our ability to continue to meet our recruiting goals," according to the Navy. The service spokesman stressed that "the Navy is focused on the well-being of the men and women who serve as we look to optimize resources essential to Navy personnel systems, pay management, and operational readiness." Related: 2 Educational Programs for Troops Eliminated Amid Cost-Cutting Efforts at Pentagon
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6 days ago
- Business
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Here Are All the Big Cuts and Changes Coming to the Army
The Army is heading for a major reorganization that includes eliminating at least 2,000 positions -- a combination of civilian and troop roles -- and cuts to planned purchases in various drone and vehicle programs that are considered outdated, according to internal documents reviewed by Senior Army officials outlined the plan to top officials across the force earlier this month, the documents show. The undertaking amounts to one of the Army's most significant structural transformations in decades. The service's aim is to streamline the force while investing in emerging technologies that Army officials say are critical to preparing for modern conflicts, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. Read Next: From Star Wars to Golden Dome: Trump Pushes US Missile Shield Despite Funding and Technology Hurdles "Every role must sharpen the spear or be cut away," Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and Gen. Randy George, the service's top officer, said in a joint memo to the force earlier this month. The plan calls for eliminating 1,000 Army staff roles in the Pentagon and nixing various air cavalry squadrons -- specific units were not listed -- along with combining and deactivating other units that will result in reducing personnel. For example, U.S. Army Japan Headquarters will combine with the 4th Multidomain Task Force, with the total size of that element being cut by 170 positions. As for hardware, the Army plans to end purchases of the Gray Eagle drone and reduce purchases of the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle by $498 million, in addition to other cuts, according to the documents. All commands will be directed to reduce temporary duty funding by 20%, and the service will slash funding for collective training barracks by $346 million. Those barracks are typically living quarters for major training exercises, basic training and various schools. However, it was still unclear what the changes could mean for the total size of the Army. The plan outlines reductions to "responsibly balance end strength" in pursuit of a "leaner, more lethal Army." The Army declined request for interviews to add context to the cuts. The service is still juggling multiple options for how many soldiers it plans to keep in its formations, with unfinished plans for cuts. In the meantime, it has already imposed limits on soldiers' reenlistment options. Major cuts may need to be made to pay for President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defense system, which is expected to cost at least $175 billion, and cuts would likely have to come from the Army, which is the largest component of the Pentagon. Meanwhile, recruiting has seen a dramatic upswing in 2025. That follows two years of targeted reforms including the introduction of the Future Soldier Preparatory Course. The prep courses, which help candidates meet academic and physical standards, have played a key role in revitalizing the Army's pipeline, bringing in one-quarter of its enlistments last year. Next year, the service plans to invest more in the program, adding the capacity for an additional 189 trainees -- the program right now has the ability to graduate 23,500 recruits into basic training annually. As part of the plan briefed to officials, the Army will also shift away from electric vehicles and fuel-saving programs, stripping all research from those efforts. Electric vehicles have often been scoffed at by Republicans for their feasibility on the battlefield, though traditional fuel logistics are incredibly expensive and complicated, and large diesel trucks are usually very loud and not conducive to reconnaissance or low-profile operations. "No more climate change worship. No more electric tanks," Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in April at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania. "No more woke bull----." Here are more major cuts and changes planned by the Army: Cut funding for Army Prepositioned Stocks by $337 million. Reduce funding for the Defense Language Institute by $30 million. Cut the budget for the Army Geospatial Center by $50 million. Cut various virtual reality training programs by $52 million. Cease procurement of TOW wire-guided missiles equipped to vehicles and tripods for base defense. Terminate the pursuit of "anti-idle" technology for vehicles, which would automatically cut power to vehicles during extended idling as a means to save fuel. Create a skill identifier for robotics and autonomous systems-related training. 56th Theater Fires Command will combine with 2nd Multidomain Task Force, with a reduction of 10 positions. 18th Field Artillery Brigade will combine with 5th Multidomain Task Force; 20 positions will be cut. 4th Infantry Division's armored brigade combat team will transition to a Stryker Brigade Combat Team. 3rd Cavalry Regiment will transition from Strykers to Abrams tanks, becoming an Armored Brigade Combat Team. Three unnamed Army National Guard units will be converted from Armored Brigade Combat Teams to Mobile Brigade Combat Teams, which are effectively standard infantry formations but with the new Infantry Squad Vehicle. Additionally, two National Guard Stryker Brigade Combat Teams will also convert to Mobile Brigade Combat Teams. All Army Reserve Air Cavalry and Expeditionary Combat Aviation Brigades will be deactivated. All MEDEVAC units will move from 15 aircraft capacity to 12. Army Training and Doctrine Command and Futures Command will combine into a single entity. About 400 positions will be cut. Cancel the planned activation of two reserve artillery units. Cancel the planned activation of three reserve electromagnetic warfare companies. Move 4th Battalion, 60th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, from Fort Sill, Oklahoma, to Fort Bliss, Texas. Shut down the 4th Security Force Assistance Brigade and 54th Security Force Assistance Brigade. Army Reserve will get two High Mobility Artillery Rocket System battalions and three HIMARS batteries. Establish Western Hemisphere Command by combining U.S. Army North, Forces Command and U.S. Army South; 339 positions will be eliminated. Related: Soldiers Face Tougher Reenlistment Rules as Army Plans Troop Reductions
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
ICE agents to assist base security at three Marine Corps installations
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents will work alongside base security at three Marine installations as part of a pilot program to prevent foreign nationals from unlawfully accessing the bases. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California officials announced the program on May 16. Officials told that the initiative will also take place at Marine Corps bases Quantico and Hawaii. 'Marine and family readiness start at our bases and stations, and the safety and security of our Marines, sailors, family members, civilian employees and all who work and have proper access to Marine Corps installations are of the utmost importance,' Capt. Kevin Uebelhardt, a spokesperson for Headquarters Marine Corps, said in an email statement. Officials at Camp Pendleton did not disclose how many times unauthorized access had occurred at the facility in recent years or provide further details regarding the origin of any individuals who had unlawfully obtained access to the base. In 2023 the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese nationals had accessed military facilities an estimated 100 times over a period of years. The news outlet cited unnamed sources for that report. 'There is no impact on military or civilian personnel, dependents, or those lawfully entering our military installation,' 2nd Lt. Anna Hornick, a Pendleton spokesperson, told 'This cooperation may lead to longer processing times at entry point, but day-to-day life on base will remain unchanged.' ICE agents are supporting base security by assisting with identity verification and gate screening, according to a release. The release also said most unauthorized access attempts are unintentional, often resulting from confusion over GPS directions. However, some 'present deliberate security risks.' 'This interagency cooperative effort is being evaluated for effectiveness and scalability,' according to the release. 'Its success may inform future iterations across other Marine Corps installations, particularly those proximate to border regions, ports of entry, or critical infrastructure corridors.' Uebelhardt told that the collaboration with ICE is not in response to a specific incident. Rather, the effort is 'part of an ongoing effort to constantly improve our security posture to protect our most valued resource: our people,' Uebelhardt said. 'Cooperation between installation law enforcement and ICE continues a history of teamwork that dates back to the establishment of [the Department of Homeland Security].'
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
More Charges Related to Crossing Military Zones at Border Tossed by Court in Texas
Another judge in a border state is dismissing charges against people accused of trespassing into the Trump administration's newly created military zones between the U.S. and Mexico, marking the latest legal setback for the immigration crackdown strategy. U.S. Magistrate Judge Miguel Torres last week began throwing out some charges in the cases before the U.S. District Court of West Texas related to violating defense property security and unlawful entry onto a Department of Defense installation. The judge deemed there was not probable cause to continue with those charges, according to federal court dockets reviewed by The dropping of charges in El Paso mirrors similar court decisions on charges related to the military zones in New Mexico. A federal judge there dismissed charges related to trespassing on defense property in nearly 100 cases last week. Read Next: Request for 20,000 Guardsmen to Help with Immigration Crackdown Under Review, Guard Chief Says In Texas, El Paso Matters, a nonprofit local newsroom, reported that 16 of the military zone cases had been dismissed as of last week. President Donald Trump ordered that narrow areas of federal land along the border in multiple states be transferred to the military in an effort to snare migrants crossing illegally into the U.S. The military designation has elevated the role of troops in his nationwide immigration crackdown and also enabled harsher penalties against migrants, who can now be charged with crimes related to trespassing on a military installation and face higher fines and more jail time. The recent court decisions have delivered an early legal setback to the Trump administration's immigration strategy. But there have been some successful charges alleging individuals trespassed onto the new national defense area in Texas, where federal land was turned into a 63-mile, noncontigious extension of Fort Bliss. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas said in a news release Tuesday that 60 defendants had pleaded guilty and were convicted of charges related to trespassing onto the military-controlled land. "These convictions are a positive step in the judicial process of deterring illegal immigration, and I am very grateful to our El Paso Division staff and to our federal law enforcement and military partners for their diligent work in securing our borders," Margaret Leachman, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, said in the news release. Texas immigration advocates told that the creation of the new zone in the Lone Star State marks the latest crafted effort to hit migrants with more legal troubles. Danny Woodward, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said Operation Lone Star -- the Texas National Guard's long-standing mission at the border -- saw a massive push in pursuing private property trespassing charges against migrants in recent years. He sees the latest creation of the military zone as a similar effort. "I think that they're grasping at straws a little bit, trying to figure out ways to add charges to people," Woodward said. "It's something that we've seen here in Texas, and it's been a real struggle." Maj. Geoffrey Carmichael, a spokesman for Joint Task Force-Southern Border, said a total of 190 individuals had been detected in the New Mexico and Texas National Defense areas as of Tuesday. Under the current arrangement, the military is spotting border crossers, who are then typically detained by other federal authorities. Carmichael declined to specifically comment on the charges being dropped, but added that the military is still staying dedicated to its border enforcement mission. "Joint Task Force-Southern Border continues to stay laser-focused on its mission, whether it's warning sign installation in the most rugged and challenging areas along the border, joint patrols alongside U.S. Border Patrol to detect trespassers, or bringing to bear any of the other unique military capabilities we offer in order to achieve 100% operation control of the southern border," Carmichael said. The signs posted along the military border zone in Texas were, in part, at the heart of some of those charge dismissals last week, El Paso Matters reported. The judge questioned their placement as well as if they could be read before entering the defense land. "Conspicuous matters. Where signs are matters. What they look like matters," Torres said in court, El Paso Matters reported, adding, "If you have to be right up on the sign to see it, you've already committed the offense." El Paso Matters reported during last week's hearing that some Border Patrol agents said they had not actually seen the signs themselves but claimed they had been placed every hundred feet or so. At one point, a defense attorney reportedly lifted up a copy of the 12-by-18-inch sign and asked a Border Patrol agent whether he could read it from less than 20 feet away. The officer couldn't read it from that distance, El Paso Matters reported. "Given our experience here in Texas, I would be surprised if they're able to make it stick for a long period of time in courts," Woodward said. "But I don't think that's going to stop them from trying new and novel things like this." Related: Judge Throws Out Cases of Migrants Charged with Crossing Military Zone at Border
