Late last year, the Defense Department announced it would begin its first ever audit in an attempt to bring itself into compliance with federal requirements it has brazenly bucked for decades, despite receiving hundreds of billions of dollars annually. "It is important that the Congress and the American people have confidence in DOD's management of … Continue reading Pentagon audits expose lost tanks, hundreds of millions of dollars
Tag: Defense Department
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives voted to approve a massive military budget of nearly $700 billion late last year and President Donald Trump has signed the legislation, but it remains unclear whether Congress will pass a bill appropriating the necessary funds as a potential government shutdown looms. Though the latest partisan disagreements over … Continue reading Pentagon balances secrecy, demands for more funding
In the first year of Donald Trump's presidential administration, the United States has been busy selling weapons to the rest of the world -- "busier than ever" as one official put it over the summer, although while America reportedly surpassed its fiscal 2016 tally by several billion dollars in exporting nearly $42 billion of arms … Continue reading Pentagon’s New Year’s resolution? Speed up arms sales
In the past few years, various aspects of the United States' security clearance system for allowing individuals to access classified information have come under scrutiny, following some major failures and embarrassments. In 2014, a massive data breach at the Office of Personnel Management led to the exposure of sensitive information on tens of millions of … Continue reading DoD grants temporary clearances to rapists, murderers to avoid ‘horrific impact’ on weapons development
It's been a busy year in the world of robotics and the politics surrounding it, the latest development coming in the form of potentially conflicting comments from two Pentagon officials hinting at what the future of an international killer robot ban -- or lack thereof -- might look like. Not only has the job-killing potential … Continue reading DoD officials offer conflicting hints on killer robot policy
As tweet-storm controversies and allegations and investigations of Russian meddling in the U.S. election continue, President Donald Trump is having trouble -- for reasons both self-made and external -- filling vacancies in top jobs throughout the federal government. Trump has recently announced a few nominations. These include Richard V. Spencer (not to be confused with … Continue reading Key federal jobs vacant under chaotic Trump administration
Less than a year after U.S. special operations forces sparked an international controversy when they were photographed wearing patches representing a Syrian Kurdish militia group, it has emerged that this same militia is now armed with sensitive U.S. weaponry and equipment in its fight against ISIS, though the Pentagon denies supplying it. The militia in … Continue reading Syrian Kurds armed with U.S. special ops gear the Pentagon denies supplying
When it comes to reporting numbers of civilians and "combatants" it kills, the Pentagon attempts to paint itself in a positive light. Last summer, after the Obama administration released a report estimating that between 64 and 116 civilians had been killed in drone strikes on the president's watch, it was widely criticized for under-counting by … Continue reading Thousands of unreported deadly airstrikes the latest in sloppy Pentagon record keeping
The U.S. reached some new military milestones last year. America dropped at least 26,171 bombs in 2016, for example -- over 3,000 more than the year before, averaging about one bomb every 20 minutes. And that number includes only bombs dropped in some of the better known conflict areas where the U.S. is involved -- … Continue reading Trump promises more for less military spending, experts expect budget hikes
In a development that is probably enthusiastically embraced by a subsection of them, video-gamers-turned-drone-operators for the US military are apparently taking another step in the direction of melding with machines: getting their brains jolted with electricity to stay awake as an alternative to taking stimulant drugs. Scientists working for the Defense Department have successfully "used … Continue reading Brain zaps for drone operators the latest in Pentagon ‘super soldier’ tech
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