Just like old times.
President Trump signed a roughly $1.2 trillion government funding bill Tuesday that ended the partial federal shutdown that began over the weekend, setting the stage for an intense debate in Congress over the Department of Homeland Security while ensuring defense funding for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Dig Deeper
With funding for FY26 secured through Sept. 30, Defense and Security Monitor took a look at the landscape in the aftermath to see what's actually included. Meanwhile, Congress is seeking answers from the Pentagon over its classified budget, according to Military.com. And AP reported that a shutdown for DHS looks more likely as Congress clashes over requirements for ICE.
As U.S. forces continue to converge on the Middle East, Oman mediated high-stakes, indirect talks this week between Iran and the U.S. over Tehran’s nuclear program, which was seen as one of the last chances to prevent war.
Across Europe, a quiet revolution is underway as governments and public institutions increasingly pivot away from U.S. big tech services, instead embracing domestic or open source digital alternatives.
A U.S. Navy F-35 shot down an Iranian Shahed-139 drone that "aggressively approached" the USS Abraham Lincoln approximately 500 miles from Iran’s southern coast Tuesday.
Looking ahead to the executive branch's goal of $1.5 trillion for defense next year, the head of the House Armed Services Committee is trying to secure $450 billion for defense in an upcoming reconciliation bill that would help bridge the gap.
Major U.S. defense contractors are significantly ramping up capital expenditure this year in response to President Trump's threat to limit dividends and share buybacks. Five companies are projected to spend $10.08 billion in capex in 2026, up nearly 38 percent from last year.
Leaders of the government's cloud security assessment program say they're increasing their engagements with federal agencies and the OMB as they continue to work toward a faster, less costly version of the program, called "FedRAMP 20x," but that they’ve already made significant improvements.
A merger of the Defense Innovation Board and the 70-year-old Defense Science Board is meant to "streamline" the department's approach to the hardest technological and scientific national-security challenges.
The Pentagon is tracking more than a million unique users on its new commercial generative AI platform, to date. The Coast Guard, which administratively falls under DHS, is currently developing and refining its own internal, customized 'Ask Hamilton' genAI tool.
In a Feb. 2 letter to the leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees, intelligence community IG Christopher Fox said he received final approval on Jan. 30 from the DNI to share the material with a tight circle of lawmakers.
Gen. Johnny Lamontagne, who has headed Air Mobility Command since Sept. 2024, was confirmed as the next vice chief Jan. 30. He succeeds Gen. Jim Slife, who was dismissed along with other senior military leaders by Sec. Hegseth about a month after he took office. See his and other major general officer confirmations.
Dig Deeper
Of note among the spate of confirmations, Lt. Gen. Linda Hurry will retain her three-star rank and take command of Air Force Materiel Command. Read more from Defense Scoop about Maj. Gen. Luke Cropsey, who is being promoted to three-star general and will serve as military deputy for the Air Force's acquisition, technology and logistics directorate.
Why you should read The MC Post every Saturday morning.
We’re bringing back the familiar comfort of unfolding the weekend newspaper and catching up on the headlines, without the tacky popups, scammy ads, or bait-and-switch paywalls that you’ve come to know and hate. In a world racing toward AI-generated content, the MC Post is curated by people for people. Brought to you by Mission Cultivate—the free networking platform for defense and national security pros.
Feature Commentaries
Modern war requires the U.S. to establish science and technology as a warfighting domain—and approach it with the same focus on maneuver of other domains—or risk ceding key terrain in the next conflict, argues Col. Katrina Schweiker.
The U.S. is no longer merely defending a “rules-based order.” It is building what increasingly looks like a “factory-based order.” As the American Century evolves into an American Arsenal, industrial strength can underpin leadership, but it cannot replace persuasion, writes Imran Khalid.
If we take the National Defense Strategy's call to prioritize efforts seriously, it points to this question: Does our military structure match our stated priorities? So asks Dr. Gary J. Sampson.
Heads up: the intro is jumbled—skip ahead 30 seconds. It's still a great conversation about the pressures shaping the defense industrial base.
Sec. Hegseth emphasized the need for speed in delivering on government contracts, saying he did not mind companies making "lots and lots of money," so long as they "deliver for the American people and the taxpayers."
Editor's Notes
As expected, this week’s shutdown was quick. I wish we didn’t have talk about shutdowns like common occurrences, but here we are. At least we have funding for most of the government for the rest of the fiscal year—and here’s to hoping organizations can move out on their spending expeditiously. This week, the Pentagon announced the first cohort for its Drone Dominance Phase I Gauntlet, so if you missed a few weeks back when Jen Allen Kay set the stage for the real test these companies will face, it’s worth revisiting. We made that easy for you. Just check out the feature story at the bottom of this week’s edition.
The article about the expiration of the New START treaty this week brought me back to an interesting moment in my life. I’ve mentioned here before that my unorthodox career trajectory included a brief stop as a nuclear missile operator for the Air Force. As someone who also speaks a bit of Russian, you can understand that when, around 2014, I heard our base would host a contingent of Russian nuclear inspectors, I was intrigued and volunteered to help. Under the treaty, the U.S. and Russia were required to inform each other of nuclear weapons movements, and this level of disclosure even included site visits. Imagine the bizarre experience of seeing an aircraft emblazoned with the flag of the Russian Federation parked on the tarmac at a U.S. nuclear base. As I sat in a large briefing room listening to the back and forth between the senior leadership on both sides, a Russian colonel said something I will never forget. “We in this room sit on opposite sides of the Earth with our weapons pointed at one another. And yet, we are the only people on that Earth who know what it’s like to do such a job. In this way, we are closer and understand one another.” It actually gave me chills. It was the first time in my career that I considered the humanity of policy—that there were real people at the other end of the vague national security paradigm I inhabited.
Now, more than a decade later, that treaty is gone. And while it was never intended to be a permanent fixture, the deteriorated relations between the U.S. and Russia mean that nothing will replace it, at least for now. In losing a common touchpoint, the world is less safe without it. I guess my point with this week’s notes is to remember policy isn’t some abstract thing that exists in headlines or regulations. It exists in the interactions between real people. So when I read an article like the one this week from the Independent that talks about our deteriorating relations with allies, it’s worth remembering that headlines change, but people remember.
Happy reading,
| Beau Downey, Editor
The views represented in this commentary are my own and do not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.
More In Depth
The military services' tech strategies don't always line up with department's, which leads to competing or conflicting efforts. This is where we add the "louder for those in the back" line.
The U.S. cannot out-mine and out-process China. Instead, it has to leapfrog China’s dominance by scaling disruptive innovation, recovery, and recycling and making innovation a centerpiece of its critical minerals strategy.
A new military-focused study suggests quantum AI is unlikely to arrive first as a weapon but could influence military planning, simulation and operational management long before quantum systems are deployed in combat.
Happening on MC
If you're not on Mission Cultivate, here's just some of what you're missing.
Opportunities
Event Conversations
Communities
Continue Reading
The rescinded memos required software and hardware vendors to provide agencies with detailed information about their products' security features. OMB said the policies "imposed unproven and burdensome software accounting processes that prioritized compliance over genuine security investments."
The Pentagon Tuesday announced the participants for Phase I of its Drone Dominance program, under which it plans to order 30,000 one-way attack drones at about $5,000 per unit. By the time the multiphase, $1.1 billion effort wraps up in 2027, the department aims to deliver about 340,000 small drones to military combat units, driving down costs as the effort progresses.
Dig Deeper
In case you missed it, be sure to check out "Drone Dominance Is a Manufacturing Test. Most Drone Companies Will Fail It." As the Gauntlet kicks off, Jennifer Allen Kay's original article for The MC Post explains that the DDP is less about drone design and more about manufacturing scale.
The Pentagon scrapped the $374 million program to replace its antiquated Defense Travel System after discovering the new platform could not reliably produce the financial data needed to support a clean audit.
The DoW's sweeping reforms won't matter if the nearly 200,000 military contracting officers, program managers and acquisition specialists charged with executing these plans don't fundamentally change how they think and behave, argues Timothy Cooke, CEO of ASI Government LLC.
The Federal Acquisition Security Council Improvement Act would bolster the federal government's ability to prevent China and other foreign adversaries from infiltrating U.S. information technology and communications systems.
The U.S. has dispatched a small team of military officers to Nigeria, the general in charge of U.S. Africa Command told reporters in a briefing on Tuesday. This follows U.S.-launched airstrikes against a group affiliated with the Islamic State late last year.
Partnerships between primes and start-ups can be mutually beneficial, but as with any relationship, finding the right partner is key, both in terms of the company and the specific individuals who work there. Get your Valentine's Day advice for business relationships here.
Save your community.
Mission Cultivate is the free, discreet networking platform for Defense and NatSec that is built for communities. Get your team out of siloed chats and into a connected, collaborative environment made with you in mind.
See Mission CultivateHeads up: MC is only for verified users in Defense/War & NatSec. Users include gov, industry, academia, vc, and more. Only available to US, NATO, or select major US allies.
