Top 5     Pentagon clarifies Hegseth’s ‘putting hands on recruits’ statement (Military Times) The Defense Department has added more context to provocative comments Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made about aggressive and even physical troop training in his address to the military’s general officers and admirals in late September.       Kelly sues Pentagon over attempts to punish him (The Associated Press) Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly sued the Pentagon on Monday over attempts to punish him for his warnings about illegal orders.       US Navy reported 61 accidental deaths in fiscal 2025 (Military Times) The U.S. Navy has reported there were 61 service member deaths in fiscal 2025 from events such as vehicle crashes, aviation incidents or off-duty recreational activities.       Pentagon announces new way military will measure troops’ body fat (Task & Purpose) The Pentagon is officially ditching height and weight tables in favor of using a waist-to-height ratio to estimate troops’ body fat, according to an official memo released on Monday. And to pass, a service member’s waist measurement can be only slightly more than half of their height.       Trump says he is considering ‘very strong’ military options against Iran as protester death toll climbs (The Guardian) U.S. president claims ‘Iran wants to negotiate’ as rights groups report that regime’s crackdown on protest has killed hundreds.   US strikes in Caribbean and Eastern Pacific (updated)     A list of US military strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels (Military Times) Since early September, the U.S. military has conducted strikes against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean in support of what the Pentagon has called continued counternarcotics efforts.   Pentagon     US attacked boat with aircraft that looked like a civilian plane (New York Times) The Pentagon used a secret aircraft painted to look like a civilian plane in its first attack on a boat that the Trump administration said was smuggling drugs, killing 11 people last September, according to officials briefed on the matter. The aircraft also carried its munitions inside the fuselage, rather than visibly under its wings, they said.   Congress & Politics     Senate bill will require DOD to review cyber workforce gaps (Federal News Network) A new bill will require the Pentagon to assess whether its current efforts to recruit, train and retain cyber talent are working — and to produce a new department-wide plan aimed at addressing persistent cyber workforce gaps.       Bipartisan group of lawmakers introduces bill to prevent military action against NATO members (Politico) A bipartisan group of lawmakers is introducing legislation to prevent President Donald Trump from taking action to invade a NATO country or territory, like Greenland.   Your Military     US citizens are joining the military to protect undocumented parents (New York Times) Amid an ICE crackdown in her area, an Oregon National Guard recruiter offers U.S. citizens a way to save their immigrant parents.   Army     Army inactivates Security Force Assistance Command (Military Times) The Army has formally inactivated the Security Force Assistance Command based in North Carolina, eliminating the headquarters that for years oversaw brigades tasked with advising foreign militaries.       Longtime agent takes lead of Army CID (Stars & Stripes) An Air Force veteran with more than 20 years working with Army Criminal Investigation Division stepped in to lead the agency Monday — only the second civilian to be named its director.       Duke Webb, a Green Beret, went on a shooting rampage. Is the Army at fault? (New York Times) High-tempo Special Operations training can cause brain injuries that accumulate unnoticed. One soldier says that is why he snapped and killed three people.   Navy     USS Abraham Lincoln holds live-fire drills in South China Sea amid ‘routine operations’ (Stars & Stripes) The USS Abraham Lincoln recently held live-fire drills in the South China Sea, where the aircraft carrier has been operating for at least two weeks, according to the U.S. Navy.   Air Force     Air Force reinstates duty patches, a year after dropping them (Military Times) Airmen are once again allowed to wear patches indicating their primary job, reversing Air Force leadership’s move from a year ago to bar them.   Veterans     Lawmakers introduce bill to broaden brain injury treatment for vets (Military Times) Legislators in the House and Senate have introduced bills that would give veterans wider access to treatments for brain injuries at facilities outside the Department of Veterans Affairs.   Cyber, Space & Unmanned     Army moves to assess AI’s ‘unpredictable behaviors’ and safeguard autonomous systems (DefenseScoop ) The Army tapped a research and development company to create software that can identify and analyze “unpredictable” artificial intelligence behavior to ensure its AI-enabled systems are trustworthy, according to an award notice posted Thursday.       Lightning Lab gives Pacific Army division drone-building capabilities on the front lines (Defense One) The 25th Infantry Division is all about drones: Drones that sense. Drones that shoot. Drones that get blown to smithereens for HIMARS target-practice. And more and more, drones built by soldiers themselves.   Defense Industry     Dassault Aviation invests in Harmattan AI at €1.4 billion value (Defense News) Dassault Aviation, the French maker of the Rafale fighter jet, led a €200 million ($234 million) funding round by autonomous drone maker Harmattan AI as part of a strategic partnership, valuing the Paris-based startup at €1.4 billion and creating France’s first defense unicorn.       Lockheed Martin appoints former Australian army officer as regional chief (Flight Global) Lockheed Martin has appointed former Australian army officer Jeremy King, a veteran of major defense acquisition programs, to lead its operations across Australia and New Zealand.   Ukraine     Rheinmetall’s Lynx fighting vehicles could soon see combat in Ukraine (Defense News) Germany will finance the delivery of five Lynx KF41 infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine under a contract signed in December 2025, with the first systems expected to arrive in the coming weeks, Rheinmetall announced Monday.       Hellfire-armed drone-killing buggy appears in Ukrainian service (The War Zone) The Ukrainian Armed Forces are using the U.S.-made V2X Tempest, a high-mobility vehicle with a launcher for AGM-114 Hellfire missiles that is optimized for the counter-uncrewed aerial systems role. Mounting Hellfires on a high-mobility vehicle provides a new means of employing these weapons unpredictably, not only against drone threats, but potentially also other aerial targets, too.   International     Swedish military to pump forces, money into mobile drone-defense units (Defense News) Sweden has allocated €1.4 billion ($1.6 billion) to establish multiple dispersed air defense units equipped with short-range air defense weapons to guard cities and critical infrastructure against aerial threats.       Mexico rejects Trump’s plea for US forces to take on cartels (Wall Street Journal) President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday she rejected an offer from President Trump to use the U.S. military against the country’s drug cartels, as Mexican security officials grow concerned about potential American demands in the wake of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro’s ouster.       NATO’s Europe commander sees growing Russian, Chinese threat in Arctic (Defense News) Russia and China are increasingly working together in the Arctic region, and their presence there will be a growing threat to NATO allies, said Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, speaking at a Swedish national security conference on Sunday.   Military Culture & History     Why the US Navy doesn’t build battleships anymore (War on the Rocks) On Apr. 7, 1945, aircraft from the U.S. Navy’s fast carrier task force sank the largest battleship ever built, the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Yamato. Escorted by the light cruiser Yahagi and eight destroyers, Yamato was on its way to Okinawa. It was intended to be a one-way trip: Yamato was expected to beach and use its guns as a coastal battery against the U.S. invasion fleet.       WWII Memorial in Washington closed for 5 months (Military Times) The National World War II Memorial in Washington, dedicated to the 16 million members of the U.S. military, will be closed for the next five months, the National Park Service said last week.   Video     What’s next for the military in the Western Hemisphere after Venezuela? (Military Times) Following the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, what’s next for U.S. forces in their own hemisphere? An analyst weighs in.       How did the raid in Venezuela affect the defense industry’s bottom line? (Military Times) A look at how the recent military activity in South America rippled through the defense industry financial market.       Foreshadowing the US military raid in Venezuela (Military Times) What were the conditions and context of the U.S. military buildup in the months leading up to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro? An analyst breaks it down.       Military action in Venezuela: Details and analysis (Military Times) A remarkable operation by U.S. forces to capture the president of Venezuela grabs the world’s attention. Defense News looks at how the mission unfolded.   Commentary & Analysis     Trump’s other Latin American feud: Why Colombia’s Petro is not Maduro (The Guardian) Left-wing leader rallies his supporters as U.S. president accuses him of drug trafficking and threatens military action.       What Silicon Valley gets wrong about national security (Foreign Affairs Magazine) In the summer of 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton’s secretary of defense, Les Aspin, and William Perry, then the deputy secretary of defense, hosted a dinner at the Pentagon for defense industry leaders. The Cold War was over, they informed the gathering, and the federal budget would not support them all. With no looming Soviet threat justifying ever-rising defense budgets, consolidation would be necessary.       'Is it a coup?': A week in Venezuela, after the attacks (Politico) Locals are still sorting through the fallout of the American attacks on Venezuela.