defense

• Anne Arundel

Naval Academy commencement: Defense Secretary Ashton Carter sends Class of 2016 out to fleet

Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter on Friday urged the newly commissioned officers of the Naval Academy's class of 2016 to prepare to tackle five challenges facing the nation: Russian aggression, the rise of China in East Asia, a nuclear-armed North Korea, Iranian meddling in the Middle East and the battle against the self-declared Islamic State.

By Ian Duncan

May 27, 2016

• News

Hogan proposes giving Northrop Grumman $20 million to secure division headquarters and jobs

Gov. Larry Hogan is proposing $20 million in funding for defense and aerospace giant Northrop Grumman, designed to retain the company's newly created Mission Systems divisional headquarters in Linthicum and 10,000 jobs in Maryland.

By Lorraine Mirabella

Feb 19, 2016

• Politics

Defense Secretary reveals Russian hack of department's networks

Russian hackers infiltrated the Department of Defense's unclassified network earlier this year, Secretary Ashton B. Carter said in a speech at Stanford University Thursday.

By Ian Duncan

Apr 23, 2015

• Defense

New Pentagon cyber strategy to discuss nation's offensive capabilities

It will be the first major update to the Defense Department's strategy for cyber operations in four years, in which time computer security has become a more visible issue after major attacks on American businesses including Sony Picture Entertainment late last year.

By Ian Duncan

Apr 23, 2015

• Opinion

GOP dilemma: Cut or borrow to boost defense spending?

Republican presidential hopefuls are at war with each other over the budget for war.

• Politics

Ukrainian officer is rare foreign patient at Walter Reed

With the personal approval of the Defense Secretary, Ukrainian Col. Ihor Hordiychuk is the beneficiary of a little-known program that the Defense Department uses to take care of allied soldiers on American soil.

• Defense

Army opts for openness with new computer security tool

Army researchers in a lab outside Washington had been working for years on a tool to help soldiers understand how hackers were targeting military computers, but late last year they did something unusual: They released their project for anyone on the Internet to poke and prod at.

By Ian Duncan

Mar 1, 2015

• Opinion

Another reluctant warrior in the White House

President Obama's latest war strategy makes one wonder: Is another Woodrow Wilson in the Oval Office debating with himself about how to meet the existential threat that faces him?

By Jules Witcover

Feb 16, 2015

• Opinion

The country is vulnerable without CISPA

Tom Wither is the author of the military intelligence thrillers "The Inheritor" and "Autumn Fire" (Turner Publishing) and a 25-year veteran of the intelligence community.

• Feminism

ACLU, military women's group sue Defense Department for Naval Academy records on female midshipmen

Advocates for military women are suing the Department of Defense for information about how the Naval Academy and the other military service academies recruit female students — part of a campaign, they say, to expose ongoing gender bias at the elite training grounds for the nation's officer corps.

By Ian Duncan

Feb 3, 2015

• Politics

Obama budget calls for reversing deep spending cuts

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama revived his call Thursday for an end to deep cuts in federal spending, an appeal that fell squarely in the divide between Republicans in Congress who want to rein in costs and those who want to boost the Pentagon's budget.

• Harford

Failing to plan is planning to fail [Editorial]

While APG may be around in some form for years to come, there's a distinct possibility that it would go away, and failing to plan for such an eventuality would be, to borrow a military turn of phrase, planning to fail.

• Maryland

Westminster resident named Sr. Enlisted Leader of Md. National Guard

• Politics and Government

Baltimore County to see big changes in coming year

• Defense

Federal workers welcome extra day off

Lisa Foust was in for a doozy of a Christmas Eve: a full day's work, then piling presents in the car and making a more than five-hour drive home to North Carolina. Then President Barack Obama gave federal workers an extra day off Dec. 26.

By Erin Cox

Dec 21, 2014

• Baltimore City Paper

Thinking of running a scheme? Don't fuck with Northrop Grumman

The aerospace-and-defense giant Northrop Grumman says it is out $11 million, thanks to an allegedly fraudulent billing scheme carried out for a decade by a Maryland company, JADM, Inc., run by Columbia resident Rolf Ramelmeier.

• Maryland

Diane Feinstein: U.S. should shrink nuclear arsenal

• Defense

Amid criticism, Pentagon unveils anti-rape plans

Outgoing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel unveiled new initiatives Thursday to battle rape and other sexual assaults within the U.S. military after the Pentagon released a report showing an 8% increase in reported incidents over the past year.

• Defense

TSA expands PreCheck to Naval Academy mids, other military students

Midshipmen at the Naval Academy in Annapolis and other students at U.S. military institutions will now be able to pass through airports with a little less hassle.

• Opinion

The U.S. must strengthen its ballistic missile defenses against Iran

The U.S. must strengthen its ballistic missile defenses against Iran

• Opinion

JLENS: securing our coast

Two giant JLENS blimps are set to watch over the east for attacks, unless Congress won't fund them.

• Environment

Pentagon objects to Shore wind farm

Defense Department objects to Eastern Shore wind project, saying its nearly 600-foot high turbines would interfere with stealth radar tested at Naval Air Station Patuxent River.

By Timothy B. Wheeler

Oct 30, 2014

• Harford

Army civilians at Aberdeen Proving Ground's ECBC honored

Forty-five Army civilians who voluntarily deployed to the Mediterranean Sea to destroy Syria's declared chemical weapons stockpile were honored by Department of Defense officials in a ceremony Oct. 8.

• Maryland

Administration's priorities skewed

• Opinion

Obama is right to beware the military-industrial complex [Letter]

President Obama is right to beware the military-industrial complex

• Defense

Federal agencies mulling threat of tax debtors holding security clearances

The officials who are responsible for safeguarding the nation's intelligence secrets are trying to figure out how to better vet millions of employees and contractors with security clearances, after auditors found that some of those workers owed more than three-quarters of a billion dollars in unpaid taxes.

• Maryland

Carroll agencies receive M16s, office furniture from military surplus program

The majority of Carroll County law enforcement agencies have taken advantage of a Department of Defense program which offers surplus military equipment at no cost, including everything from weapons to office furniture.

• Harford

Aberdeen Proving Ground team completes destruction of Syrian chemical weapons

A team of scientists from Aberdeen Proving Ground has completed the historic mission of destroying the most dangerous of Syria's declared chemical weapons stocks, Pentagon officials said Monday.

• Afghanistan

Greene laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery

Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, who was shot to death last week as he visited Afghanistan's national military academy in Kabul, was laid to rest Thursday at Arlington National Cemetery.

• Harford

Aberdeen Proving Ground needs to be able to stand on its merits [Editorial]

The prospect of Harford County's economy losing in excess of 4,000 military and defense contracting jobs associated with various activities at Aberdeen Proving Ground is as unsavory a scenario that could be visited on the local economy.

• Harford

General killed in Afghanistan was 'source of inspiration' while serving at Aberdeen Proving Ground

Maj. Gen. Harold Greene, believed to be the highest-ranking U.S. official to die in Afghanistan since 2001, spent about four years leading two major organizations at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

• Harford

Harford residents urged to get informed about potential job cuts at Aberdeen Proving Ground

While potential cuts of up to nearly 4,300 military and civilian jobs at Aberdeen Proving Ground are far from a done deal, Harford County leaders stressed the need Monday evening for local residents to get an early start on letting the Army know about the impact any such cuts will have on the region's largest employer and on their community.

• Israel

Americans find meaning in Israeli military service

Thousands of American Jews have signed up to fight for Israel since the creation of the modern state in 1948. The Israel Defense Forces puts the number now on active duty at about 1,000, including 20 from Baltimore.

• Israel

Baltimore-area advocates paying close attention to Gaza conflict

The Hamas rockets and Israeli bombs falling around Gaza are reverberating a world away in Maryland, where many have close family ties or personal history with the region.

• Opinion

Iron Dome is a failure [Letter]

The Sun should challenge claims of Iron Dome's effectiveness.

• Israel

Canceled flights to Israel slow Pikesville father trying to reach wounded son

Jeffrey Low, the father of a Baltimore-born Israeli soldier who was wounded in Gaza over the weekend, was flying to Tel Aviv to see his son on Tuesday when the news came: Ben Gurion Airport was under attack, and his flight was diverting to Paris.

• Baltimore County

Baltimore native-turned-Israel Defense Forces volunteer wounded in Gaza

A local high school graduate who joined the Israel Defense Forces last year has been wounded in Gaza, his father said Monday.

• Opinion

U.S. aid enabled 'Iron Dome' [Commentary]

When Americans question the value of U.S. foreign aid, one only has to point to the explosions in Israel's skies to demonstrate its worth. The result of the Iron Dome air defense system in action, these blasts occur when there is a successful interception of a rocket fired toward an Israeli population center from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Iron Dome is a uniquely Israeli creation, but American foreign military financing has been crucial in the expansion of this system to provide adequate

• Defense

Harford County still waiting on a base-driven boom in Aberdeen

Inside Aberdeen Proving Ground, an estimated 21,000 people report to work on any given day, conducting research in massive new federal buildings. But outside the base, gleaming new offices completed in anticipation of economic spillover stand empty, a reminder of growth that has remained tightly contained.

• Opinion

When the U.S. welched on Shevardnadze [Commentary]

The Ukraine crisis owes its roots to a deal America made and broke with the recently deceased Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze.

• Opinion

The U.S. should stay out of Iraq [Commentary]

The United States Constitution prohibits the president from re-engaging the United States military in Iraq to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) without new congressional authorization. Further, the struggle for sectarian power there is irrelevant to our national security. Without the justification of self-defense, United States intervention would additionally create a precedent that would invite intervention by Russia or China in their neighboring countries.

• Defense

Preparing for another BRAC, before it's a done deal

The last time the military consolidated, Maryland's installations grew. But base realignment and closure usually goes the other way — and the Army is calling for another round. Officials in Maryland aren't waiting to see what happens. They're already preparing.

• Harford

Privacy advocates concerned about Aberdeen Proving Ground blimps

The Army is planning to launch a pair of blimps over Maryland this fall to watch the Eastern Seaboard for incoming cruise missiles. It's what else they might be able to see from up there that worries privacy advocates.

• Harford

Missile-defense blimps to sail above Harford, but not for spy purposes, officials say

Two giant missile tracking blimps, part of an airborne attack defense exercise, will soon be perched high above parts of Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford and Baltimore counties, as Army officials have been going to lengths reassure residents that they will not be spying on them.

• Harford

Aberdeen hopes to avoid another 'absolutely horrible' sequestration, leader of Harford Army Alliance says

The president of Harford County's Army Alliance told community leaders Tuesday that federal budget cuts and the uncertainty of any future BRAC process raise plenty of questions about the future of Aberdeen Proving Ground.

• Baltimore City Paper

Ex-NSA Official Indicted in Baltimore for Leaking Classified Information to a Reporter

• Russia

Maryland National Guard, Estonia reaffirm partnership

As Russia's actions in Ukraine rattle its neighbors, the Maryland National Guard is affirming its decades-long partnership with Estonia.

• Opinion

The VA's Shinseki is not the problem [Commentary]

Calls for the resignation of Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki over ridiculously excessive wait times for VA medical appointments and, moreover, for the falsification of data that would have illuminated these and related problems, while understandable, are reactionary — and will do little to address the VA's more deeply rooted problems. These problems are systemic in nature. Their solution will require a long term, strategic approach in addition to some strong-handed

• Startups

Working to help veterans start businesses

Military veterans have a knack for building successful businesses, professionals say, but they have more trouble than non-veterans attracting investors. That's a challenge now being tackled by a new crop of Maryland-based initiatives aimed at helping veteran entrepreneurs.

• Features

Looking Out: Baltimore to receive award for LGBT equality ranking

LGBT-related news and commentary from around the web