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20 Mar 14. DOD to Cut $580m in Spending. As part of the Defense Department’s ongoing effort to cut wasteful spending, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo today directing the termination of more than $580m in programs, contracts and grants.
The memo, “Continuing Elimination of Wasteful Spending at the Department of Defense,” orders an end to various spending identified by the Department of Government Efficiency that does not match the priorities of President Donald J. Trump or the Defense Department, Hegseth said during prerecorded remarks.
“In other words, are not a good use of taxpayer dollars; , ultimately, that’s who funds us,” Hegseth said.
“We owe transparency and making sure we’re using well,” he added.
The top contract being cut is a software development program for the Defense Civilian Human Resources Management System, which was intended to streamline a significant portion of DOD’s legacy human resources program.
The program started in 2018 and was supposed to take one year to develop at a cost of $36m. However, Hegseth said it is now nearly eight years behind schedule and $280m over budget.
“So, that’s 780% over budget; we’re not doing that anymore,” he added.
The Pentagon is also cutting contracts for external consulting services, including $30m allotted to one company that purchased several unused licenses, Hegseth said.
In addition to contracts, DOD is also cutting $360m in grants.
Included are a $6 m grant to decarbonize emissions from Navy ships, a $5.2m grant to diversify the Navy and a $9m university grant for developing “equitable AI and machine learning” models,” Hegseth said.
“I need lethal machine learning models, not equitable machine learning models,” he added.
Hegseth said the $580m of cuts announced in today’s memo brings the total money saved to $800m since his Feb. 20, 2025, announcement on future DOD cuts.
He said that the money saved would ensure warfighters have what they need thanks to the cutting of fraud, waste and abuse.
” working hard, we’re working hard with them, we appreciate the work that they’re doing, and we have a lot more coming,” Hegseth said.
“So, stay tuned … We’re going to keep going for you guys,” he concluded. (Source: U.S. DoD)
20 Mar 25. Republicans offer defense spending tips after punting on a budget. The Republican leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees have sent the Pentagon detailed plans for how they think it should spend fiscal 2025 funding, following the passage of a six-month stopgap spending bill that largely freezes funding at prior-year levels.
The 181-page document, obtained by Defense News, includes the standard funding tables attached to lawmakers’ annual defense spending legislation, which call for cuts to major service-led efforts like the Air Force’s drone wingmen program, Army missile procurement and the Space Force’s missile warning and tracking satellite architecture.
But the FY25 appropriations process has not been standard. The full-year continuing resolution passed by Congress may lower defense spending, but it also grants the Defense Department far more authority to decide how to spend its budget.
Because Congress failed to pass a full FY25 appropriations bill, the plans now sent to the Pentagon are not legally binding, instead serving merely as spending recommendations, according to Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
“Congress ceded a significant degree of authority to the executive branch in the FY25 defense budget, and they can’t get that back by issuing a letter that basically says, ‘This is what we intended,’” Harrison told Defense News. “Good luck getting DoD to adhere to this.”
Climate change out, ‘lethality’ in Congressional appropriators recommend a $1.2bn cut from the Army’s FY25 request for operations and maintenance FY25, but add an additional $501m to the service’s personnel account to cover pay raises for junior enlisted service members, according to the document.
Additional funding — to the tune of $265m — would bolster Army procurement. Another $248.7m would be added to RDT&E accounts.
While missiles have flowed from the U.S. to Ukraine and the Army has led the way in replacing and replenishing those munitions, lawmakers are recommending a cut of $247m in missile procurement.
The Army’s future missile defense radar — the Lower-Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor, or LTAMDS, is recommended for a $129m cut. The most capable variant of the Army’s Patriot missile would also be cut by $58m due to a delivery backlog. The delayed Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon program would be cut by $75m.
Yet Congress is recommending a $100m increase for the legacy Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, beyond just the $3.3m the Army asked for in its FY25 budget as it works to phase the missile out and field the longer-range Precision Strike Missile. Congress proposes a $25m cut for PrSM procurement and another $10m for the Army’s pursuit of a second variant.
Certain vehicles buys would also take a hit if the Army took the congressional recommendations. Lawmakers recommend slashing Armored Multipurpose Vehicle procurement by $134m. The document contains an increase for the Paladin Integrated Management System by $158 m at a time when the service is looking at exactly how it might modernize its howitzer fleet.
Congress also suggests a major funding boost of $248m for a modular artillery production facility and another $41m for Army ammunition plant modernization.
Army aviation procurement would be increased as well, to include $240m for National Guard-bound Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft systems and another $60m for National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters.
Lawmakers recommend an injection of cash into Humvee modernization for both the active ($90m) and reserve forces ($50m) as well as additional $120m for the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles, or FMTV. Congressional appropriators would also add $167 more in funding for the Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles, or FHTV.
In RDT&E funding, lawmakers cut more than $140m deemed to be associated with climate change initiatives, including $29.5m from the Next-Generation Combat Vehicle program and $7.4m from a “soldier lethality technology” line. They also recommended cuts to all hybrid electric vehicle prototyping efforts in the force.
Lawmakers proposed additional funding in technology development areas affiliated with lethality enhancements.
Cuts to future Air Force programs
The document recommends a nearly $3.2bn spending reduction from the Air Force’s original 2025 budget request.
That includes cuts of $2.3bn from research and development funding, $1.4bn from operations and maintenance. $130m from personnel, and nearly $115m from missile procurement. Aircraft procurement would receive almost $64m more than originally requested, and “other” procurement programs would see a plus-up of about $679m.
Lawmakers proposed a $325m cut to the Next Generation Air Dominance program, which they didn’t justify but simply called a “classified adjustment.” This would bring funding for NGAD — the Air Force’s effort to build a sixth-generation crewed fighter that would fly alongside autonomous drone wingmen and other systems — down to $2.4bn in FY25.
The document also breaks the high-priority drone wingman program known as Collaborative Combat Aircraft into its own line item, but also proposes trimming more than $70m. CCAs would have nearly $487m in funding this year if the document’s funding levels were enacted.
Travis Sharp, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments who studies the defense budget, noted that CCA is one of the programs Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has indicated as a priority for funding.
“This seems to be a case where mostly everyone agrees that CCA is a promising capability, but they don’t agree with what [that] means in spending terms,” Sharp told Defense News in an email.
Funding for the Air Force’s advanced engine development programs would get another $100m. This would be apart from the program to build cutting-edge adaptive engines for NGAD — known as next-generation adaptive propulsion, or NGAP — which would retain the original 2025 budget request’s proposed funding of $562m.
The E-7 airborne battle management program would get an overall bump up of $189m over the 2025 budget request. This is the Air Force’s program to acquire a fleet of up to 26 of the Boeing-made aircraft, sometimes referred to as the Wedgetail, to replace the aging E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, planes.
Lawmakers want to strike $50m in funding proposed in the 2025 budget proposal — called an “unjustified request” — for prototyping the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM. This would leave HACM with nearly $467m in funding.
Lawmakers would also provide the services money to buy six more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters than originally requested. The Air Force would get another $196m to buy two more F-35As, and the Navy would receive another $524m to buy four more carrier-based F-35Cs
The F-35 program would also get a $10m bump to improve its power thermal management system. The F-35′s Continuous Capability Development and Delivery, or C2D2, approach to developing, testing and delivering incremental improvements to the fighter will receive more than $1.1bn in 2025.
And the document recommends providing another $200 m for the HH-60W Jolly Green II combat rescue helicopter program to buy two more aircraft than requested.
Space Force missile tracking cuts
The Space Force’s fiscal 2025 funding would drop $700m under this proposal — a seemingly small decrease presented as the service pushes for its nearly $30bn budget to triple amid growing threats in orbit.
The reductions include $222m from the service’s operations and maintenance request, $147m from research and development and an increase of about $1.4m to its personnel account.
As the Trump administration crafts a plan to develop a homeland missile defense shield composed of advanced space sensors — a project known as “Golden Dome” — lawmakers are proposing cuts to the space-based missile warning and tracking systems that would likely make up the foundation of that system.
The proposal includes a $283m reduction to that layered architecture, including $33m from the Space Development Agency’s low-Earth orbit satellite constellation. Another $180m could come from the spacecraft the service is developing to monitor missile threats from geostationary orbit and $170m from its medium Earth orbit layer.
Lawmakers also recommend cutting $246m from the Space Force’s classified procurement account and adding $351m to its classified development account. While details on those funding lines are largely veiled, a large portion is used to develop counter space weapons and defensive systems.
The document lays out some potential additions for the Space Force, including $30 m for a Resilient Global Positioning System program that’s being designed to augment the current GPS fleet. The proposal would also create a new funding line for commercial services, appropriating $40m in FY25. Lawmakers also suggest an $80m add to fund additional satellite payload processing capabilities at the Space Force’s overtaxed launch ranges. (Source: Defense News)
19 Mar 14. Hegseth Says Air, Space Forces Key to Deterring, Engaging in Future Conflicts. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said today that the Air Force and Space Force will be instrumental in both deterring and engaging in future military conflicts.
He remarked on the value of the two service branches while speaking at the Department of the Air Force Summit — a gathering of senior leadership from across each force — held at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.
“The future of deterrence … for this nation truly does reside in this room,” Hegseth told those in attendance. “It’s our airpower, the next generation of it and our ability to project it that will be the decisive factor in whether or not we truly deter our peer [adversaries] of the 21st century,” he continued.
In reference to the threat posed by China, Hegseth told the senior leaders in the room that the decisions they make and the manner in which they implement, utilize and match threats to capabilities will determine whether “we live in a [century] dominated by the U.S. or dominated by the Chinese.”
“I hope that is the sense of urgency that exists in this room; it’s certainly what we think about every day in the secretary’s office,” he said.
When asked for his thoughts on the future of the space domain, Hegseth said it was the domain of the future.
“I feel like there’s no way to ignore the fact that the next and the most important domain of warfare will be the space domain … So, you’re going to see far more investment from this administration into that domain, both offensively and defensively … Because that’s where we can continue to maintain an advantage,” Hegseth said.
He added that, in war-gaming simulations, the outcomes have often been affected by the space domain-related capabilities each side of the competition had at their disposal.
“There are strategic things that can be done that change the entire [warfighting] calculus that no one else is paying attention to, and I would anticipate that [the space domain] is one of those for us,” Hegseth said.
Toward the end of his appearance at the summit, Hegseth was asked about the Defense Department’s recent efforts to realign its budget with national security priorities and whether those efforts would result in significant changes.
“I think we spend a lot of time — understandably and correctly so — talking about efficiencies, talking about [the Department of Government Efficiency], talking about audits [and] talking about reprioritizations, and we’re going to keep doing that because we need to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars,” Hegseth said.
“But [President Donald J. Trump] has repeatedly said that we’re going to rebuild [the military] … And the Air Force will be a huge part of how that [military] gets funded,” he added. (Source: U.S. DoD)
19 Mar 25. GOP defense appropriators spell out CR funding levels for weapons. Will the DoD listen?
Rep. Ken Calvert and Sen. Mitch McConnell describe the funding tables, obtained by Breaking Defense, as “congressional intent,” and it remains unclear how legally binding the direction ultimately is for the Trump administration.
The leaders of the Senate and House Appropriations defense subcommittees have sent detailed funding tables to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, laying out how they believe the money in the fiscal 2025 continuing resolution should be spent, including on more F-35 fighter jets, C-130s and UH-60 helicopters, according to documents obtained by Breaking Defense.
Included with a letter from Rep. Ken Calvert and Sen. Mitch McConnell, who chair the defense appropriations subcommittees, are 181 pages of funding tables that closely resemble the budget documents in line with the traditional appropriations process, spelling out the details of spending increases and cuts to each line item.
“The enclosures serve as the first step in consultation with the Department. We will make our staffs available to ensure Congressional intent is understood,” Calvert and McConnell wrote.
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Funding tables are typically laid out in a report accompanying an appropriations bill, but because these are not connected to the FY25 CR, they may not be legally binding, said Todd Harrison, a budget analyst at the American Enterprise Institute.
“In any prior administration, this letter would have been significant, and I think DoD would have, by default, tried to adhere to it. I think this administration has a very different view on executive power, and I don’t think that they will pay much regard to this letter at all,” he said.
Congress passed the yearlong CR last week. Here are the highlights of how Congressional appropriators would spend the funds included in the CR:
Army: Changes To Drones, Counter-Drones and Vehicles
The funding tables add $240 m for MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones and $60 m for an additional UH-60 Black Hawk for the Army National Guard. In the area of counter-unmanned aerial systems, lawmakers boosted overall funding from $117 m to $302 m, replacing a budget line specifically to buy Coyote launchers and interceptors with a general counter-UAS launchers and interceptors line that will allow the Army greater flexibility.
Vehicle procurement was a mixed bag, with overall funding for the Paladin Integrated Management program increased from about $417 m to $568 m. However, the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle funding was cut from $515 m to $381 m. The funding tables also include some cuts to UAS efforts, decreasing funding for a “future UAS family” by $5.8 m and for small drones by $26m.
Overall, Army munitions funding fell from $6.2bn to slightly less than $6bn. Funding for the service’s Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2 decreased from almost $658m to $552 m due to what lawmakers deemed as “unjustified” spending on IDDS-A logistics support and “excess pricing” on AIM-9X missiles, among other cuts.
Its long-range hypersonic weapon program also suffered a $75m funding decrease, and funds for the Lower Tier Air and Missile Defense Sensor were cut by $129 m to a total of $387m. Procurement and advanced procurement of the Precision Strike Missiles fell by a combined $35m. Lawmakers also cut spending for the Javelin program by $102m, citing “unit cost increases” and a program adjustment.
Navy and Marine Corps: Jump For Destroyers, Cut To Frigates
Changes to the shipbuilding accounts were previously spelled out in the language of the CR itself, which means that the Pentagon will be required to spend as Congress demanded. The biggest boost was the addition of $1.5bn for a third Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer and a $1bn cut to the Constellation-class frigate. It also adds $480 m for three ship-to-shore connectors and reduces funding for a medium landing ship to only about $30m.
Compared to the Department of the Navy’s FY25 request, GOP appropriators want to add $524m for four additional F-35Cs while at the same time making about $210m in other cuts to the F-35B and F-35C programs due to “unjustified growth” in engineering costs and excess support costs.
The tables increase the CH-53K account by $125m to buy an additional helicopter for the Marine Corps and adds $261m for two additional KC-130Js for the Navy Reserve.
However, the MQ-25 tanker drone takes a major hit, with the program’s $501 m for procurement of three aircraft whittled down to $50m. Justification documents state that the funding for low-rate initial production aircraft was “ahead of need.”
Funding for key munitions accounts also decreased in the funding tables. Standard Missile procurement funds fell from $627m to about $525m. The AMRAAM program took a cut of $88 m, while spending on the Joint Air to Ground Missile (JAGM) fell from almost $77m to $55m.
Air Force: More Aircraft, R&D Cuts
Air Force aircraft procurement got a modest boost in the funding tables, with lawmakers adding funds for two additional F-35A jets even as they made about $182m in cuts for “unjustified growth.” The tables would increase funding for C-130Js by $411m to provide additional aircraft for the Air National Guard, and adds $200m for two HH-60W combat rescue helicopters.
GOP appropriators spell out their intent to zero out a request for an additional C-40 aircraft citing a “lack of acquisition strategy,” and also cuts about $75 m from the KC-46 program for an unspecified program delay and other unjustified costs. Lawmakers also buzzed the B-21 Raider program with an almost $78m cut for a “classified adjustment.”
Like the other services, munitions procurement accounts were pared back, with almost $58m less for AMRAAM missiles, about $21m less for the Stand-In Attack Weapon, a cut of about $6m for Small Diameter Bomb IIs, and cuts of about $5m each for the Joint Air Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) and AIM-9X.
Several major research and development efforts took major cuts in the funding tables. Lawmakers hope to scale back funding for the service’s Next Generation Air Dominance fighter jet by $325m, while its Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone program was cut by $70m.
Lawmakers would also cut about $143m from the VC-25B program, which will build new presidential airlift known colloquially as Air Force One, as well as decrease funds for Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) planes by $70m — though the program may receive the funds it needs to press forward after prime contractor SNC previously warned Breaking Defense of the potential for a delay.
Space Force: Classified ‘Activities’ Take A Cut
Procurement funding for the Space Force fell by more than $300m, with the largest cut in the funding tables being a $246m hit to classified “special space activities.” Funding for national security space launch fell by $78m, and lawmakers also cut funding for FAB-T terminals by $24m.
The service’s research and development account, while decreasing only slightly overall from $18.7bn to $18.5bn, included some cuts to key programs. Various budget lines associated with the Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) program, including ground stations and satellites, were cut by about $181m.
GOP appropriators slashed the Resilient Missile Warning and Missile Tracking – Medium Earth Orbit program by $170m. They also decreased funding for the Evolved Strategic Satcom effort by $128m and cut the Protected Tactical Service program by $92m.
However, they would add $40m for commercial satellite services to provide tactical surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking (TacSRT) — the subject of ongoing tug of war with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. (Source: Breaking Defense.com)
18 Mar 14. Stratcom Focuses on Nuclear Triad Modernization. U.S. Strategic Command is tasked with presenting forces to the national decision makers and strategic deterrence options to the president, Stratcom Commander Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton said today at the McAleese Defense Programs Conference in Washington.
He added that today’s security environment is unprecedented, with multiple new armed strategic adversaries who have not followed the U.S. lead as responsible nuclear powers, often working with regional actors to the detriment of a stable international system.
For instance, he said, China’s military buildup is ramping up, particularly its dual-use military-civilian shipyards and nuclear delivery platforms, adding that China has made its intentions clear that it intends to seize Taiwan by 2027.
U.S. military production matters, he said. America has relied on its industry’s ingenuity throughout its history. However, following the Cold War, there was no perceived near-peer competitor, so the U.S. took advantage of the peace dividend, scaling back the military industrial base and deferring nuclear modernization.
“But that peace dividend did not materialize … great power competition is back. That is why I speak today with a sense of urgency,” the general said.
Nothing provides national power more than a modernized nuclear triad and nuclear command and control, Cotton said.
Some things that need to be delivered, he said, include the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile, the Columbia-class submarine and the B-21 Raider bomber.
“Further delay of these programs will have cascading effects,” Cotton said.
Also, the B-52 needs to be modernized with new engines and upgraded radar and electronic suites, he said.
Maintaining a sustained and credible nuclear deterrent isn’t that expensive, considering the alternatives, Cotton said. Current funding for the Defense Department’s nuclear portfolio is only around 4% of the budget.
The general said conventional capabilities complement nuclear deterrence. For instance, hypersonics provide a responsive, long-range, non-nuclear strike capability against non-critical threats without resorting to nuclear options.
They allow mission planners to tailor strategies and plans that will enable the president to have an extended range of options across all phases of conflict and to control escalation, Cotton noted.
Other important options for the president include cyber and space capabilities as well as unmanned, inexpensive systems in the air and water, he said.
The character of warfare is changing, he said. Data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning will be applied to battlefield systems, for example.
The window of opportunity for production and modernization is closing, he said. “If we don’t get it right, we won’t have an opportunity to come back and do it later.” (Source: U.S. DoD
17 Mar 25. Uncertainty is the only constant in the Pentagon’s budget outlook. For the first time ever, the Pentagon is set to spend a year without a full congressional budget — a sharp drop in spending that threatens to throttle the military’s work, from weapons programs to training.
The Senate passed a six-month continuing resolution, or temporary spending bill Friday, after Congress failed to reach a budget deal before a midnight deadline. The bill includes an extra $6 bn for the military, but otherwise freezes spending at the last fiscal year’s levels, or around $825bn.
Considering Congress didn’t pass a supplemental defense bill, as it has in recent years for Ukraine, that amounts to a 10.6% drop in military spending, according to data provided by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
The massive cut comes at a bizarre moment for Pentagon spending, which is being pushed in multiple directions by multiple parts of the government.
On one side are those pushing to cut, or at least reallocate, parts of that budget. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said he plans to fire 5% to 8% of the civilian workforce and also shift around $50bn in future funding requests toward his priorities. Add to that the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk’s attempt to slash the federal government, which is already identifying cuts to defense spending.
On the other end are officials calling for massive increases to the defense budget. Senate Republicans, including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker of Mississippi, want to add $150 bn to the military starting in fiscal 2026 and are in negotiations to do so. The White House, meanwhile, has pledged to surge America’s sluggish shipbuilding industry and build a “golden dome” missile defense system so ambitious that a general last week likened its goals to the Manhattan Project.
“It’s pushing on the gas with one foot and the brakes with two feet,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, an expert on defense spending at the American Enterprise Institute.
Temporary spending bills, such as the one passed Friday, usually stunt the military’s growth, halting new programs and production lines. This one is different. In order to limit the damage to the military, the bill allows such flexibility for weapons programs included in the House and Senate’s proposed defense spending bills, which are now otherwise obsolete.
Congressional aides said these exceptions will help the Pentagon avoid the whiplash involved in these short-term spending bills, which have become a chronic issue as Congress fails to pass budgets on time.
Military leaders were less sanguine.
“We are seeing an enormous amount of threats emerging every single year, and it is very hard to get after those threats when you have to wait two to four years to get the budget,” said Gen. Michael Guetlein, vice chief of space operations, in a Senate hearing last week.
Appearing alongside him, the vice chief of naval operations argued that the lack of a full budget will further delay maintenance for America’s warships, one-fifth of which are on track to miss their schedules. (Source: Defense News)
14 Mar 14. Tariff Watch: DDGs, aircraft carriers and F-35s could take a hit. Observers at CSIS detail the impact of America’s trade war with allies over aluminium and steel. As part of US President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, the government has placed a 25% universal tariff on aluminium and steel this week, which may hit its own defence and security programmes in the near future.
Defence analysts from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) spoke to Naval Technology, outlining the eventual impact the trade war will have on the production of US surface combatants and aircraft, including, they specified, destroyers, carriers and F-35s, the vanguard platforms of the US Navy and Air Force.
Naturally, US allies have reluctantly implemented their own retaliatory tariffs in the metallurgy sector. Canada imposed tariffs, which came into effect yesterday, on nearly C$29bn ($20.6bn) on products imported from the United States. Similarly, EU tariffs on €26bn ($28bn) will come into effect in April.
According to the International Trade Administration, an agency within the US Department of Commerce, US steel exports have declined by 9.2% since 2015. The nation’s top three export markets are Canada, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
US tariff policy rationale
The reality that protectionist policy goes both ways does not appear to dissuade the Trump administration from its current course.
While the White House narrative contends America has been “treated unfairly by trading partners, both friend and foe,” the Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to rationalise the new measures on 12 March, arguing that the President “has outlined the need to develop a domestic capability.
“If you don’t have steel and aluminum you can’t build warships, you can’t build airplanes, and you are not an industrial economy.”
US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio
“If you don’t have steel and aluminum you can’t build warships, you can’t build airplanes, and you are not an industrial economy. There are things we have to be able to protect…
“A lot of countries out there who subsidise their industries so that they can gain global market share… they’re operating at a loss. Meanwhile, our [US] industries are trying to compete fairly, and that’s why [we] don’t have steel plants, and that’s why [we] can’t produce the aluminum. And that really threatens our national security in the long term.”
DDGs, carriers and F-35s
Steel and aluminium are key components of defence industrial production. DDG hulls are made of steel while aircraft carriers have more than 50,000 tonnes of steel plate. Aluminum alloys, meanwhile, contribute to the F-35’s lightness and strength.
Cynthia Cook, senior fellow, CSIS, elaborated on how the mutual tariffs on metals will increase the costs for both defence partners among different contract types.
“To the extent that material from Canada goes into production of [American] defence systems, that just raises costs,” Cook observed.
“Even for ‘cost-plus’ projects, where if it is notionally a pass through (so that the tariffs paid increase the costs, and the tariffs go to the US government [USG], so the USG gets what it paid), there are transaction costs that will increase the costs to the USG and the US taxpayer.”
“If there is a fixed-price contract where the government will not allow the increased material costs to be passed through, then the contractor will have to eat the increased costs and have lower profits. At every step of the process, tariffs increase the costs of having the USG as a customer.”
“The fact that the United States and its allies are having bitter economic confrontations helps both Russia and China.”
Mark Cancian, CSIS senior fellow
Currently, Canada is a member of the US National Technology and Industrial Base, and has a Security of Supply Arrangement and Reciprocal Defense Procurement Memorandum of Understanding with the US.
“It is one of our closest allies,” Cook reiterated, but “perhaps [Trump’s] hope is that tariffs will threaten Canada into compliance and they will spend more on defence.”
Either way, the ensuing trade war, which began with Trump targeting China, America’s pacing threat, has begun to turn to its allies, and this will weaken the West, says Mark Cancian, another senior fellow for CSIS:
“Although a trade war may not directly affect military capabilities, particularly in the near term, the fact that the United States and its allies are having bitter economic confrontations helps both Russia and China because it makes any coalition against them weaker.” (Source: naval-technology.com)
14 Mar 25. The V-22 Osprey Is Dangerously Unsafe. Why Is the Military Still Using It? The military will be resuming V-22 flights with the understanding that “catastrophic failures due to inclusions is as high as seven per m flight hours”—compared to the standard of one per ten m hours on conventional aircraft.
Is the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey a safe aircraft? The very fact the question has been asked so often, and with such urgency, is not a good sign. The V-22—presently in use with the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy—has suffered numerous high-profile accidents resulting in loss of life, raising serious questions about the aircraft’s ability to perform safely.
Problem After Problem for the Osprey
In a 2025 article on The Air Current, a publication that focuses on air safety reporting, the V-22 was said to “continue to face a “serious” risk of catastrophic failure due to flawed transmission gears even after the implementation of new risk mitigation controls involving manufacturing improvements and flight hour thresholds for the tiltrotor, according to a nonpublic system safety risk assessment by Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR).” In other words, the Osprey’s problems do not seem to be resolved.
The entire Osprey fleet was grounded late last year after a near-crash in New Mexico, where a V-22 with an engine loss was forced to make an emergency landing at Cannon Air Force Base. Notably, the near-crash bore a striking resemblance to an Osprey crash that did occur in late 2023 off the coast of Japan—a crash that killed eight U.S. servicemembers.
“The crew in the Cannon flight reportedly received warnings similar to those in the previous tragedy, but lessons learned from the incident may have aided their decision to quickly land the Osprey and survive,” The Defense Post reported.
Still, NAVAIR decided to ground the entire Osprey fleet “out of an abundance of caution.”
The Osprey’s Cursed Reputation
The Japan crash was hardly the first to result in the loss of life. Four Osprey crashes between March 2022 and November 2023 resulted in loss of life. Since the V-22 first flew in 1989, the tiltrotor aircraft has been involved in crashes that have caused 60 fatalities and 93 injuries—an atrocious safety record.
The recent near-crash in New Mexico was found to be the result of “failure of a critical gear due to an inclusion—an impurity in the X-53 steel alloy used to make the gears that creates a weak point in the metal,” according to The Air Current. It noted that “a similar inclusion-related gear failure was responsible for the November 2023” Japan crash.
Unfortunately, the risk of inclusion continues to be a problem. The military will be resuming V-22 flights with the understanding that “catastrophic failures due to inclusions is as high as seven per m flight hours.” And although improvements are planned for the gear manufacturing process, the improvements are unlikely to drop the incident rate below “the threshold of one per milion flight hours that is used to categorize serious risk.”
Bear in mind: the military safety standard for an airworthiness certification is typically that no more than one catastrophic failure occurs per every 10m flight hours. That means the V-22 is nowhere near meeting the military’s own safety standards.
So, to answer the original prompt of this article: no, the V-22 is not a safe aircraft. (Source: News Now/https://nationalinterest.org)
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Founded in 1987, Exensor Technology is a world leading supplier of Networked Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) Systems providing tailored sensor solutions to customers all over the world. From our Headquarters in Lund Sweden, our centre of expertise in Network Communications at Communications Research Lab in Kalmar Sweden and our Production site outside of Basingstoke UK, we design, develop and produce latest state of the art rugged UGS solutions at the highest quality to meet the most stringent demands of our customers. Our systems are in operation and used in a wide number of Military as well as Homeland Security applications worldwide. The modular nature of the system ensures any external sensor can be integrated, providing the user with a fully meshed “silent” network capable of self-healing. Exensor Technology will continue to lead the field in UGS technology, provide our customers with excellent customer service and a bespoke package able to meet every need.
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