The Pentagon didn’t pop into existence fully formed; it evolved—sometimes gracefully, often grudgingly—out of a much leaner system that began with the Department of War in 1789.
In the early days of the American republic, that one civilian-led office oversaw the Army and, for a while, most naval affairs as well. As the young fleet’s needs outgrew the War Department’s ability to control it, Congress established a separate Department of the Navy in 1798 and assigned the ships to their own department.
The State, War, and Navy Building in 1917.
Author: Michael
War Department, Washington, D.C.1865-1900Public Domain
Names matter. Leadership matters. Culture matters.
No where else do these things matter more than in the U.S. armed forces.
Fox News is reporting the Department of Defense is going to be brought back to its old title – The Department of War.
As a former military officer, I am very concerned the culture of the American military has degraded to one of careerism, rather than implementing the war policy of the Commander-in-Chief; in other words, to kill people and break things.
Strength leads to peace.
Every F-35 delivered to the U.S. military last year by Lockheed Martin was behind schedule by an average of seven months, a government watchdog found, but contractors kept millions in “incentive fees” designed to speed up the delivery.
To catch up, the aerospace giant now says it will “reduce the scope” of capabilities in new planes.
The latest round of jets will now “cost $6 billion more and completion is at least 5 years later than original estimates,” a report by the Government Accountability Office found. “In 2024, Lockheed delivered 110 aircraft.
Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has ordered a major reorganization focused on better managing the sea service’s acquisition of uncrewed platforms, according to a new memo.
The directive, dated Sept. 3, was posted online by the non-profit AUVSI. Sources confirmed the memo’s authenticity to DefenseScoop.
“The Department of the Navy (DON) is steadfast in its commitment to modernizing naval capabilities and maintaining technical superiority to meet the strategic demands of great power competition.
Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below.***RussiaIn August, Russian territorial gains in Ukraine slowed overall compared to the previous month but picked up in the last week of August, including the first-time capture of two villages in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia continued airstrikes, including an Aug. 28 attack on Kyiv that was one of the largest strikes since the invasion began.
It’s been decades since a Nato maritime g
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China’s released 80,000 doves at the end of i
The Army’s new generational replacement for the M4-style rifles that infantry soldiers have carried into battle for nearly 50 years will receive less independent and real-world testing after it was taken off a Pentagon oversight list.
The M7 is part of the Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon program that will replace the service’s M4 carbine. The service officially designated the M7 as its new rifle in May, announcing that it met “stringent standards for operational performance, safety, and sustainment.
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