The Sentinal | January 10, 2024

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was secretly hospitalized for several days due to complications from a surgery one week beforehand, reportedly leaving the White House out of the loop on the status of the senior national security official while Austin was in intensive care.

“I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,” Austin stated after news broke of his choice to not promptly inform the White House of his hospital stay. “I commit to doing better. But this is important to say: this was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decisions about disclosure.”

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The Sentinal | January 2, 2024

Hundreds of military veterans and currently active service members signed “an open letter to the American people” detailing lawlessness among military leadership over the past few years and vowing to hold those responsible accountable under the law.

The letter informed the public that the signatories had “exhausted all internal efforts to rectify recent criminal activity” in the military as top brass “trampled constitutional rights, denied informed consent, permitted unwilling medical experimentation, and suppressed the free exercise of religion” while requiring COVID vaccines for service members.

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Military Times | December 30, 2023

The U.S. and Australian navies will see their submarine-specific partnerships grow in multiple ways throughout 2024.

The Navy plans to conduct its first-ever submarine maintenance work in Australia this summer using the sub tender Emory S. Land, with 30 Australian sailors embarked to learn how to repair the Virginia class of submarine.

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The Sentinal | December 20, 2023

Defense officials revealed that the military significantly missed recruitment goals in the most recent fiscal year, a phenomenon which continues amid broader societal upheaval and perceived ideological compromise among top brass.

Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Ashish Vazirani revealed that the military services fell short of recruitment objectives by 41,000 individuals in fiscal year 2023. The Marine Corps and Space Force were the only two branches to reach their recruiting goals.

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The MilitaryTimes | December 20, 2023

The Navy is introducing three new separate ratings in 2024 for information technology, or IT, personnel serving on submarines to specialize in communications, network security and electronic warfare.

Sailors currently in the information systems technician rating aboard submarines will convert into these new ratings to facilitate “mastery” in one specific area of expertise, according to the Navy.

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The Military Times | December 15, 2023

The number of homeless veterans rose more than 7% from 2022 to 2023, the largest such yearly jump since federal officials launched a nationwide focus on the problem more than a decade ago.

Officials saw an increase of more than 2,400 veterans without stable housing during their annual point-in-time count conducted last January. That put the total number of veterans experiencing homelessness in cities across America at 35,574.

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The Maritime Executive | December 12, 2023

For the first time, a U.S. Navy submarine has tested an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) that can leave and re-enter the sub through a torpedo tube. The capability to deploy a drone through an existing hatch creates new opportunities for surveillance, scouting and other missions.

The trials took place aboard the USS Delaware, a Virginia-class attack sub commissioned in 2020. Supporting partners included Woods Hole’s Oceanographic Systems Lab, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Huntington Ingalls and the UUV specialists of Submarine Force Pacific’s Unmanned Undersea Vehicles Squadron One.

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Stars & Stripes | December 5, 2023

The Navy is honoring the popular slogan “Remember Pearl Harbor” by naming three submarines and an aircraft carrier after ships and a sailor linked to the Japanese attack that brought the United States into World War II.

Three new Virginia-class, nuclear-powered submarines will be named USS Utah, USS Oklahoma and USS Arizona — the three battleships sunk and never salvaged from the Dec. 7, 1941, attack that killed 2,400 Americans.

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