SCOOP: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered hundreds of generals to travel on short notice from around the world to hear him make a speech on military standards and the “warrior ethos,” multiple people familiar with the event told The Washington Post. New details emerge on Hegseth’s unusual mass gathering of top brass

Reporting with @TaraCopp @nakashimae @AlexHortonTX @noahjrobertson

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Another Signal group exists for senior Pentagon officials and Jennifer Hegseth, this one with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sean Parnell, Tami Radabaugh and possibly a couple others. It's to discuss Defense Department comms, though Jennifer Hegseth is not on staff.

⏬️ This and more about Jennifer Hegseth's role in quietly shaping Pentagon affairs here:

Jennifer Hegseth holds unorthodox role shaping Pentagon affairs

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NEW: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the installation of Signal on a computer in his Pentagon office, illustrating the extent to which he integrated use of the unclassified platform at the center of his political troubles with the secure systems the U.S. government uses. Hegseth had Signal messaging app installed on an office computer

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NEW: Among the government work jammed up by the Trump administration's freeze on purchase cards is genealogy research that the Army sees as essential to identify the remains of soldiers who went missing in combat.

Three genealogists told me a similar story: It's part of a broader issue that has presented challenges to body armor testing and an array of other government services, officials say:

DOGE’s $1 spending card limit touches everything from military research to trash pickup

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SCOOP: The Hegseth team at the Pentagon invited far-right activist Jack Posobiec on its first overseas trip, alarming numerous defense officials News of Posobiec’s invitation circulated among U.S. officials in Washington and in Europe ahead of Hegseth’s visit this week to Germany, Belgium and Poland, officials said.

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NEW TONIGHT: Dozens of American students at a U.S. military installation in Germany walked out of their middle school on Tuesday as part of protests aimed at an official visit by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

More: The students attend Patch Middle School in Stuttgart, Germany, and peacefully walked out of class for nearly an hour, according to three people familiar with the matter and a letter sent to parents by a school administrator.

“I’m not getting any information from my agency — but I don’t think they’re getting any information, either ... It just feels like they’re bulldozing through this decision.”

One of many military spouses who voiced frustration about Trump's federal workforce crackdown. As we detail here, military spouses are uniquely affected by the telework crackdown, in particular.

Many sought their positions with full-remote status to accommodate the frequent moves their loved one’s profession demands.

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Gen. Mark Milley responds to Biden pardoning him with this statement:
 
"My family and I are deeply grateful for the President’s action today.

1/x "After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights."

2/x

NEW: How grieving military families became a pro-Trump force with the help of a GOP operative

This story is reported over the last week by me and @iarnsdorf with assistance from @jdawsey1. Eighteen sources are involved.

washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/… @iarnsdorf @jdawsey1 After months of disagreements, a group of military families who lost loved ones in a bombing during the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan gathered on a Zoom call last December.

Enough new has bubbled up about the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan, and the Gold Star families who lost loved ones in it, that I’m weighing in here – with care – to add context to the messaging we’re seeing.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1830334491920937235

For those new here, I do so as someone who has spent a lot of time over the last three years covering both the aftermath and fallout of the evacuation.

Can confirm five U.S. Army Special Operations troops killed in a helicopter refueling accident off the southeastern coast of Cyprus on Saturday morning, according to U.S. officials familiar with the incident.

1/X The troops were in the region as part of broader American contingency planning due to the war in Gaza, which has included preparations for possible evacuations from both Lebanon and Israel if they are needed.

Latest filing about Jack Teixeira raises serious Qs about how he came to be in the National Guard.

An application for a firearms ID card "was denied due to the concerns of the local police department over the Defendant’s remarks at his high school."

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… After joining the Guard, "In November 2022, the Defendant stated that if he had his way, he would “kill a [expletive] ton of people” because it would be “culling the weak minded.”

NEW: The mastermind of the Kabul airport massacre has been killed by Taliban, U.S. officials say

washingtonpost.com/national-secur… H/T on this to @karoun and @EricSchmittNYT, who published on this a short time ago.

Out of an abundance of sensitivity, The Post had held back on publishing this while family notifications are still ongoing this afternoon and evening.

In breakfast event with reporters, @SecArmy says today that options are being drawn up now to determine how the U.S. will send Abrams tanks to Ukraine.

The path ahead, she said, is "still to be determined." All possible options will take months. Others could take a year or two. @SecArmy The planning comes after the Biden administration decided last month to send Abrams tanks through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, an effort through which the Pentagon buys weapons for Ukraine and send them, rather than providing arms already in the U.S. arsenal.

New @RANDCorporation report on Afghanistan:

"The expanding, open-ended mission in Afghanistan led America into a policy trap in which victory was seemingly impossible to achieve but withdrawal was not politically or psychologically palatable. "

rand.org/pubs/research_… @RANDCorporation Some striking quotes in this report. Here's one from "one leader," undefined:

"I never said anything at the time. A point of bureaucratic politics is that once you obtain a seat at the decisionmaking table, you don’t say anything that’s going to get you kicked off that table."

The first Ukrainian battalion to undergo new U.S.-led combat training in Germany has completed its class, the Pentagon says in new statement this afternoon, with the unit expected to soon return to the battlefield against Russia. The unit included about 635 Ukrainian soldiers, and received training on everything from marksmanship to how to combine U.S.-provided armored vehicles with artillery and other weapons to maximize their effects.

Lots of "balloon warfare" experts out there are wondering why the U.S. military didn't pump balloons full of bullets to bring them down, rather than using missiles.

For that Q and others in this story, retired fighter pilot @Deptula_David weighs in:

washingtonpost.com/national-secur… First piece: Physics matter (and are different) at altitude.

Even if there are numerous bullet holes in a balloon canopy, at that height helium is not particularly inclined to escape, Deptula sure. There isn't enough of a pressure difference inside and outside the balloon.

In new statement, @RepGallagher cites this story about how NORAD effectively opened its radar filters and expresses alarm.

washingtonpost.com/national-secur… @RepGallagher "If true, we are potentially looking at one of the most staggering intelligence failures since 9/11," @RepGallagher says. "How long have these objects operated in our airspace with impunity? How long has the Pentagon been aware of them?"

SCOOP: Ukraine requires coordinates provided or confirmed by the U.S. and its allies for the vast majority of strikes using its advanced U.S.-provided rocket systems, revealing a deeper and more operationally active role for the Pentagon in the war.

washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/… The disclosure, confirmed by three senior Ukrainian officials and a senior U.S. official, comes after months of Kyiv’s forces pounding Russian targets — including headquarters, ammunition depots and barracks — on Ukrainian soil with the HIMARS and M270 weapons systems.

Seeing a narrative grow on social media that the Chinese balloon was not shot down by the U.S. military when it was first discovered despite it having explosives on board.

That's NOT what has emerged in any reporting I've done or seen.

What has emerged: U.S. military personnel are acting as though the remnants of the airship *could* have explosives aboard. An abundance of caution, basically.

Good, descriptive briefing today from @NORADCommand Gen. Glen VanHerck about recent counter-balloon operations over the United States just concluded.

Some key takeaways: @NORADCommand VanHerck, speaking in a Zoom call, described the balloon as roughly 200 feet tall, with a massive device hanging on the bottom that was roughly the size of a regional jet. It's part of why a shootdown was complicated, he said.