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12 Feb 26. War Department, USDA Team Up on National Security. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, cementing the relationship between the two agencies under the National Farm Security Action Plan, and explaining how they will collaborate when agriculture and national defense intersect.
“We’re going to promote agricultural and economic prosperity, defend the foundations of agriculture and food … and strengthen domestic and agricultural productivity,” Hegseth said. “Together, we are elevating the protection of U.S. agriculture into America’s national security framework by ensuring systems remain protected against potential terror attacks, major disasters and other emergencies, with the full support of the Department of War and the national security enterprise.”
In July 2025, the Agriculture Department announced the National Farm Security Action Plan, a governmentwide, multiprong effort focused on ensuring America’s ability to secure its own food supply, in part by eliminating interference from adversarial nations. Part of that plan involves using presidential authorities to reclaim farmland in the U.S. currently owned by foreign adversaries — such as China — including land owned by adversarial nations that encroaches on U.S. military installations.
“When our farmland is threatened, the welfare of the entire nation is put on the line,” Rollins said. “It is undeniable that America’s enemies are playing the long game, infiltrating our research institutions, stealing our technology, launching cyberattacks on our food system and buying up our farmland. China alone owns 265,000 acres of American agricultural land … these actions expose strategic vulnerabilities in America’s food and agriculture supply chain.”
The National Farm Security Action Plan is designed to protect America’s farmland, and DOW is part of that effort. The MOU solidifies the department’s commitment to the plan.
“The National Farm Security Action Plan is a necessary step toward safeguarding our homeland against malign foreign influence,” Hegseth said. “America is the best of ideas, but America is actually also a place; it is a land … that we must defend at every single echelon, from space to the farm field.”
One novel and immediate result of the MOU is that the USDA will have access to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s capabilities.
“[DARPA] can do things, they can design things, they can bring things to life that no other agency across the federal government is remotely capable of,” Hegseth said. “Working with [USDA], we will ensure agriculture projects directly enhance our military’s strength and readiness.”
While Hegseth and Rollins signed a cabinet-level MOU, another memorandum was signed yesterday between DARPA and USDA’s chief scientist. According to a DARPA spokesperson, the memorandum between DARPA and USDA creates a direct path for collaboration on efforts with overlap in national, economic and agricultural security.
One example is the DARPA Guardian program, which is developing methods to mitigate the risks posed by non-native pests, including the New World Screwworm, a serious threat to the ranching community, the U.S. food supply and national security. The agreement signed yesterday further demonstrates a whole-of-government approach to tackling this critical problem. (Source: U.S. DoD)
11 Feb 26. Hegseth Calls for Military Unity Across Western Hemisphere at Inaugural Defense Chiefs Gathering. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth today called on defense chiefs and other senior military leaders from 34 Western Hemisphere countries to unite in deterrence against bad actors who may already be operating in, or working to encroach upon, the region.
Convened by Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and held in downtown Washington, the daylong, first-of-its-kind Western Hemisphere Chiefs of Defense Conference focused on regional security cooperation against narco-terrorism and other criminal enterprises throughout the hemisphere, while also analyzing common security priorities between allies and partner nations.
While delivering prepared remarks at the meeting’s outset, Hegseth said the U.S. — like all countries represented at the conference — desires a hemisphere of peace, which is why all those countries must work together to achieve and preserve it.
“We, like you, want — and will — achieve a permanent peace in this hemisphere. So, let’s work together our militaries: exercising, training, operations, , access, basing, overflight, you name it — let’s work together,” Hegseth told the gathered leaders.
“To achieve these goals, we have to stand together; there’s no other way to do it,” he added.
Hegseth said the War Department, under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump and his administration, is prioritizing protecting the homeland and key territories throughout the hemisphere for the first time in decades.
“The United States is asserting, reestablishing and enforcing the Trump corollary of the Monroe Doctrine,” Hegseth explained.
Issued in 1823 by President James Monroe, the Monroe Doctrine declared that the Western Hemisphere was off-limits to any new attempts at colonization by European nations, and that any interference by those powers would be viewed as a hostile act against the United States.
Reciprocally, the U.S. pledged not to interfere with any of Europe’s internal affairs and not meddle in any of Europe’s colonial affairs.
“It’s common sense: restoring American power and American strength in our hemisphere through shared priorities and common interests and threads with partners against our adversaries,” Hegseth said.
He went on to reiterate a core tenet of the Trump administration’s philosophy on homeland security: that, for far too long, the U.S. had focused on securing and defending other nations around the world while neglecting security within the U.S. and throughout the Western Hemisphere.
“The consequences of this have been dire for our nation and for your nations; fentanyl, cocaine other deadly drugs poured across our border, poisoning and killing ms of Americans. The number of deaths for Americans to those weapons and those threats is far higher than American casualties in any kinetic war,” Hegseth said, adding that illegal mass migration and human smuggling had risen exponentially in the years leading up to the U.S. closing its southern border last year.
Along with the residual benefits of closing the border — which Hegseth said include the biggest drop in illegal border crossings in the past 50 years, as well as a significant reduction in the U.S. murder rate — he also pointed out to the successes that the U.S. military and law enforcement are having through the anti-narco-terror mission to the south, specifically with Operation Southern Spear.
Launched last year by U.S. Southern Command, Southern Spear is a joint U.S. military campaign aimed at disrupting drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, particularly by conducting lethal airstrikes against suspected traffickers.
“Operation Southern Spear has restored deterrence against the narco-terrorist cartels that profit from poisoning Americans and killing our people and your people,” Hegseth told the group, adding that the number of narco-terror boats in the region has diminished significantly since the U.S. strikes began in September 2025.
“Narco-traffickers know that the true cost of flooding our country with deadly drugs is death for themselves — a real deterrent,” he said.
Hegseth also pointed to the success of Operation Absolute Resolve, in which U.S. forces last month captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife.
“Operation Absolute Resolve demonstrated, once again, the bravery and skill and capability of America’s best: our warfighters,” he said.
As his remarks drew to a close, Hegseth underscored that Trump and his administration believe that sovereignty and territorial integrity depend upon military power, and not just traditional law enforcement.
“Yes, policing is important enforcing is important, but military power is important,” Hegseth said, adding that the countries represented during the day’s conference must work together to combat and dismantle narco-terrorism and drug trafficking cartels in the Western Hemisphere.
“We need to build those bonds of partnership to defeat the challenges to our security and our sovereignty,” he added. “So, as you might say, we can make the Americas great again.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
10 Feb 26. DOW Restructures Foreign Military Sales, Prioritizes Speed, Efficiency. In a video posted on social media today, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that the War Department moved two agencies critical to getting American-made combat gear into the hands of allied and partner nations under the War Department’s Office of Acquisition and Sustainment.
“On Nov. 7, we laid out the Department of War’s vision for strengthening the defense sales enterprise,” Hegseth said. “Today, we’re turning that vision into decisive action.”
Both the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and the Defense Technology Security Administration are part of how the United States helps partners and allies get access to American-made weapons and equipment. They will now fall under the Office of the Undersecretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment, led by Michael P. Duffey, according to the memorandum.
The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, for instance, is largely responsible for facilitating the sale of U.S. weapons to partners and allies. However, the agency is also responsible for developing and planning the long-term partnerships and training opportunities that accompany those sales. The Defense Technology Security Administration is responsible for identifying and mitigating any risks associated with transferring technology to partners and allies.
By moving both agencies under the department’s Office of Acquisition and Sustainment, Hegseth aims to make weapons sales to allies and partners faster and more efficient, as well as help revitalize America’s defense industrial base.
“This executive order is our mandate: leverage America’s record-breaking defense sales to revitalize our industrial base and support our partners,” Hegseth said. “On nearly every overseas trip that I take, the demand is clear, every single time; our allies want to buy the world’s most lethal weapons: American weapons.”
The realignment, Duffey said, has created a single coherent defense sales enterprise within the department, one that moves at the speed of war, but with the purpose of deterring aggression.
“Coupled with this new executive order, we’re now positioned to leverage the total aggregated global demand for U.S. weapons to grow our nation’s industrial might, while maintaining the American warfighters’ technological edge,” he added.
Duffey noted that the changes will unlock foreign investment, power production lines, fuel investments in new American manufacturing plants and create thousands of new jobs in the U.S.
“When we promise to provide American military capabilities, we must deliver,” Hegseth said. “Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, these efforts are game changers for the way we do business with our allies and partners around the globe: more and better weapons delivered faster for our warfighters and our allies.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
10 Feb 26. Department of War Finalizes Realignment of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency and the Defense Technology Security Administration. The Department of War (DoW) today announced the realignment of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) and the Defense Technology Security Administration (DTSA) to the Under Secretary of War for Acquisition and Sustainment (USW(A&S)). This significant transformation, directed by the Secretary of War, unifies critical acquisition, sustainment, industrial base policy, security cooperation, defense sales, and arms transfer functions under a single organization to improve efficiency, enhance the U.S. industrial base, and enable greater burden-sharing with our allies and partners.
“The President has laid out a clear vision for aggressive promotion of U.S. defense sales through his groundbreaking America First Arms Transfer Strategy,” said USW(A&S) Michael Duffey. “This realignment will increase and accelerate the delivery of lethal weapons and advanced capabilities to our allies and partners, empowering them to shoulder a greater share of their self-defense. By unifying our arms transfer enterprise with our acquisition system, we will move with the purpose and speed required to strengthen our alliances and ensure the United States remains the partner of choice in global arms sales.”
The realignment establishes a clear and unambiguous line of authority, creating a single enterprise to oversee the execution of defense sales from initial acquisition to final production and delivery. The structural reform is also a key component of the Department’s broader effort to improve the speed and accountability of the arms transfer enterprise.
By aligning DSCA and DTSA with the Department’s acquisition, industrial base, and technology security functions under USW(A&S), the DoW will integrate technology security considerations earlier in the acquisition life cycle, enhance forecasting of global demand to better meet the defense needs of the United States and our partners, and facilitate the delivery of warfighting capability at the speed of relevance while protecting the U.S. technological edge.
The realignment directly supports the National Defense Strategy and the President’s commitment to revitalizing the defense industrial base, including through Executive Action to improve arms transfers. The move will unlock strategic opportunities to leverage allied and partner investments, contributing to the creation of American jobs and ensuring the readiness and security of our Warfighters, allies, and partners. (Source: U.S. DoD)
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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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