Author: thaobh.leo@gmail.com

The Department of Veterans Affairs is preparing to issue what’s likely to become one of the largest service contracts in government history as it restructures its arrangements, aiming for rigorous management of the department’s role as a health care payer and greater competition among health care management firms. The massive contract vehicle represents only the second time VA has signed large contracts with health plans to coordinate private sector care for veterans. The first was shortly after the MISSION Act was signed in 2018. Those contracts are now expiring, and in their place, VA is preparing one large indefinite delivery/indefinite…

Patria Land Oy (“Patria”) and Valmet Automotive Oyj (“Valmet Automotive”) have agreed to collaborate on the technology transfer related to the manufacturing of armoured vehicles, as well as on the production of the first vehicles. The cooperation on technology transfer will commence immediately. First Patria’s armoured vehicles will be manufactured at Valmet Automotive’s production facility in Uusikaupunki in Finland during the second half of 2026. The commercial value of the collaboration is not disclosed by the parties. “Patria is pleased with the smooth and rapid progress of the cooperation with Valmet Automotive. While Patria’s production is at a very good…

Going six weeks without the UFC has been a virtual impossibility over the past few years, but that’s exactly what the poor, suffering fans have had to endure since the most recent visit to the APEX in early December. Heck, it’s been so long that the APEX is now the Meta APEX!But the boys are back in town, with two boys chasing a golden opportunity, headliners Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett. This time last year, neither “The Highlight” nor “The Baddy” were particularly close to a title shot, but with undisputed champion Ilia Topuria taking a hiatus for personal reasons,…

WASHINGTON — Next week marks the start of quarterly earnings calls for the biggest defense companies — and there are likely to be plenty of questions in the wake of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 7 executive order targeting firms the White House says are prioritizing stock buybacks and dividends over investments in their production lines. But which companies have traditionally taken that route, a common tactic for publicly traded firms? Data compiled by the defense consulting firm McAleese and Associates and shared with Breaking Defense helps shed light on the veracity of Trump’s claim for eight defense primes: RTX, Lockheed…

WASHINGTON — Pentagon leadership has made “no decision” yet about a potential reorganization that would affect the future of US Africa Command, but a senior official warned that whatever happens, someone needs to keep a close eye on the continent. “I do believe there needs to be some entity that spends every day looking at Africa,” a senior AFRICOM official told Breaking Defense, on the condition of anonymity. “It’s complex enough, it’s important enough. … [It] doesn’t actually demand a lot of resources but given the threats that are there, given the challenges that are there, and the opportunities, I…

The crisis of allegiance with NATO caused by US President Donald Trump’s insistence that the United States should take control of Greenland appears to have dissipated – at least for now – in the aftermath of the 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) summit, held in Davos, Switzerland, from 19 to 23 January. In addressing the Davos Summit on 21 January while still pushing his plan for the United States to acquire Greenland, Trump acknowledged that he would not pursue the acquisition of Greenland by force. However, appearing to finally realise that the United States’ NATO allies were finally prepared to take…

The U.S. Navy announced that it is prohibiting the consumption of an organic opioid, along with several other substances, in a recent service-wide message.The Navy announced in a Jan. 14 memo that service members were barred from using kratom, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine.“Protecting service member welfare and readiness is paramount to maintaining an effective fighting force,” the message reads. “Additionally, substance misuse by members of the armed forces is incompatible with military standards of good order, discipline, performance, and operational readiness.”RELATEDKratom comes from an indigenous Southeast Asian tree whose leaves contain the other two banned drugs, all of which are typically…

WASHINGTON ― A trio of senior Space Force officers voiced optimism that the service would see a large growth in its budget and force strength starting in fiscal 2027 — with the expectation that a large chunk of the President Donald Trump’s planned $1.5 trillion defense budget will be coming their way. Indeed, Gen. Shawn Bratton, vice chief of space operations, said Thursday he believes the Space Force could very well double in size over the next decade. “If [the FY26 budget] lands, depending on how that goes, we’ve doubled the budget within a few years,” Bratton told the Intelligence and…

News January 23, 2026 Lisa Daigle Assistant Managing Editor Military Embedded Systems Photo: Picogrid EL SEGUNDO, Calif. Mission-critical systems company Picogrid recently supported U.S. Army testing efforts at the National Training Center (NTC — Fort Irwin, California) in the area of counter-uncrewed aerial system (C-UAS) defense, as the Army seeks to modernize its UAS efforts. Picogrid’s announcement described how it worked during the demonstration with the 1st Cavalry Division to show how rapid deployment of sensor networks through an open integration layer can enhance force protection and maneuver awareness in the area of UASs and C-UASs. Building on initial sensor testing, Picogrid leveraged…

Sabaudia, 22 January 2026 – This afternoon, the first materials for the SAMP/T New Generation (NG) and GRIFO Surface-to-Air missile weapon systems were delivered to the Italian Army at the Santa Barbara barracks in Sabaudia (LT), home of the Air Defence Artillery Command (COMACA). click on image to enlarge The SAMP/T NG, produced by the EUROSAM industrial joint venture, consisting of MBDA Italy, MBDA France, and THALES, is a medium-range system that can also be used against ballistic missiles. It is the result of decades of Italian-French cooperation, which also included the development of the previous version of the SAMP/T,…