Military & Secret Tech

Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued contracting directives meant to increase discipline and efficiency and reduce redundancy and waste. New IT and professional services contract with a value of over $10 million now require secretariat-level approval or a DOGE review. Advisory and assistance services contracts valued at over $1 million need the same—plus assurances that the work cannot be […]

Two U.S. security agencies listed mass-media provider Comcast and data center giant Digital Realty among companies likely ensnared by a Chinese hacking group that has penetrated U.S. and global telecom operators, according to three people familiar with the matter. The National Security Agency determined that Comcast had likely been affected by Salt Typhoon, according to two of

Evening! Wrap up your Monday with SOFREP’s Evening Brief, delivering essential updates on defense and global affairs for June 9, 2025. The US sanctioned two of El Chapo’s fugitive sons and offered $10M rewards for their arrest over fentanyl trafficking. Construction on the Coast Guard Museum is moving ahead for a 2025 opening despite delays.

Google Pla Apple Podcasts Guests: Philippe Lavigne, a retired French general, was Chief of Staff of the French Air and Space Force from 2018 to 2021, then NATO’s transformation chief for three years. As media partner for this year’s 20th edition of the GLOBSEC Forum in Prague, Defense One is sharing a series of special

In a move that has both civil libertarians and budget hawks nodding in grim agreement, the Trump administration has officially axed the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) “Quiet Skies” program—a covert surveillance initiative that, for over a decade, monitored American travelers without their knowledge (see, I bet you have never heard of it before). Launched in

Obama- and Biden-era cybersecurity rules will no longer be used to punish Americans and U.S. firms who engage in malicious cyber activities, nor used to deter election meddling, among other changes ordered up by President Trump on Friday. Trump’s order, the latest of his second-term cybersecurity mandates, rolls back an order that the State and Treasury departments have used to financially punish people who supported attacks

Trump ordered a U.S. military response to protests against immigration enforcement in California. In a memo announcing the move, President Donald Trump invoked his Title 10 authority (10 U.S.C. § 12406) to federalize and deploy 2,000 National Guardsmen in Los Angeles Saturday evening, citing a need to protect “federal personnel and property”—that is, Immigration and

[T]hen all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled 5,000 years ago.” — Herman Melville, “Moby-Dick,”  or “The Whale.” Call me BUD/S trainee.  The ocean is my nemesis.  Over time, the water will become my refuge and my security blanket, but not in the beginning.  In the beginning, the

Design work on the French Navy’s next-generation nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN) is close to complete, with the programme approaching a key approval milestone to transition into its manufacture phase, according to the Marine Nationale’s programme officer. Speaking at the Navy Leaders CNE 2025 event in Farnborough on 21 May, Captain Thibault Lavernhe said a political

Born into Legacy, Forged by War Theodore Roosevelt Jr., or “Ted” as he was known, was born into American royalty on September 13, 1887, at the Roosevelt family estate in Oyster Bay, New York. As the eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt and Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt, Ted grew up under the heavy shadow of