Most of what determines a military's shape in ten years is settled in documents nobody reads at the time. A force structure annex, an export control rule change, a personnel policy that alters how long pilots stay. The procurement announcement arrives years later and gets the coverage.
This section covers the decisions themselves. National security and defense strategies, legislation and its amendments, export controls and technology-transfer rules, force structure changes, basing and posture decisions, alliance policy, recruitment and retention, and the institutional reorganizations that follow all of it.
Policy is reported from the text, not the press conference. A strategy document is quoted for what it actually directs, an act for what it appropriates or forbids, a rule change for what it now permits.
Where a decision is announced but not yet implemented, that distinction is kept. Announced, drafted, enacted and funded are four different states, and programs die between any two of them.
Switzerland has told its defense ministry to stay inside the six billion Swiss franc cap for its new fighter purchase, even if that means buying fewer than the planned 36 F-35A Lightning II jets. The Federal Council said it wants the highest
Draft language in the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act would block the Department of Defense from ending the Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail effort during fiscal 2026. The same draft would also stop the Air Force from retiring any E-3 Sentry aircraft
New language attached to the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act orders the U.S. Air Force to explain how it will keep the Airborne Command Post mission, often called Looking Glass, after the Navy begins retiring the E-6B Mercury fleet. The
Congress has released a 2026 defense policy bill that keeps a Ukraine line, but at a much lower level than in earlier years. The new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) sets a $900 billion Pentagon budget. It includes $400 million per year
A defense policy law signed on Dec. 18, 2025 kept the U.S. Navy’s F/A-XX carrier fighter alive on paper, yet it left the program close to the Pentagon’s earlier plan to slow it down. The same law also ordered a deep Air
The Senate confirmed Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach as the 24th Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force following Gen. David W. Allvin’s early retirement effective around November 1. The Senate approved the nomination by unanimous consent on October 30 after
A six-page draft memo obtained by multiple defense outlets lays out what could become the most extensive overhaul of Pentagon procurement in decades. The document, titled “Transforming the Warfighting Acquisition System to Accelerate Fielding of Capabilities,” centers on one priority: speed. Defense
President Donald Trump sent the nomination of Lt. Gen. Jason T. Hinds to the Senate on September 29 to command U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa. The billet is redesignated at the lieutenant general grade, so Hinds would not receive a
Lt. Gen. Sean Gainey said the Army has broadened the Space and Missile Defense Command’s role beyond the Ground-based Midcourse Defense mission to include all air and missile defense threats. “We did grow in responsibility,” he said. “The ground-based midcourse defense mission
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. The Air Force will not face a leadership gap when Gen. David W. Allvin retires in early November. Secretary of the Air Force Troy E. Meink told reporters on Sept. 22 that “we’re not gonna not have a chief,”
Defense Budgets / Policy takes the money side: appropriations, requests, and which programs survive the process. It is where policy intentions are either funded or quietly dropped.
