“The trends are moving in the right direction,” Jerry McGinn, who co-authored the study for the Center for Strategic and International Analysis think tank, told Defense News.

However, the study — described as a progress report on reforms to the defense manufacturing and acquisition system — still found numerous problems with ramping up and sustaining wartime production.

For example, “according to several measures — manufacturing lead times, critical munitions and materials stockpiles, and supply chain security — the U.S. industrial base has a long way to go to achieve resilience,” warned the analysis by CSIS’s Center for the Industrial Base.

CSIS did find measurable improvements since November 2025, when Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth vowed to “transform the entire acquisition system to operate on a wartime footing.”

Hegseth also promised to “inspire American industry to become a wartime industrial base that focuses on speed and volume.”

Most striking is the number of new companies in the defense field.

“Roughly 10,000 new firms have entered the market in the past two years and nontraditional companies received over $120 billion in contract obligations in FY 2025, adding competition and innovation to the sector,” CSIS noted. “Munitions contract obligations have risen 330 percent since FY 2010. Spurred by this increased demand and depleted inventories, the Pentagon is signing multiyear agreements with munitions producers and suppliers on a historic scale.”

The military is also responding to depleted stockpiles of expensive guided weapons that have been rapidly consumed by the Iran and Ukraine wars.

The Pentagon’s 2027 budget request for munitions allocated 49% to low-cost munitions — defined as costing less than $600,000 apiece — rising to 70% by 2031.

The U.S. is also strengthening its defense supply chain, such as “multiyear procurement agreements, direct-to-supplier investments, and leaner acquisition pathways,” as well as investing in defense companies such as L3Harris Missile Solutions, according to CSIS.

However, while this signals government commitment to defense production, it “also complicates competitive dynamics within the industry as new entrants and established suppliers alike seek to meet rapidly growing demand for munitions at scale.”

Also notable is federal investment in rare earths, which has seen production soar from 95 tons in 2022, to 8,900 tons in 2025. Nonetheless, “the erosion of domestic rare earth manufacturing capacity and the rise of Chinese control took decades to unfold, however, and it will take several years of enduring effort for the United States and its allies to build, scale, and sustain the production capacity of these key defense inputs.”

Exports of U.S. arms, or cooperative multinational projects such as the F-35 fighter, have also become a pillar of America’s defense industry. Foreign Military Sales, or FMS, have more than tripled, from less than $20 billion in 2015 to more than $80 billion in 2025.

The Trump administration wants to take this further with the “America First Arms Transfer Strategy,” launched in February 2026.

“The United States will use foreign purchases and capital to support domestic reindustrialization, expand production capacity, and improve the resilience of the United States defense industrial base,” the White House executive order declared.

Ultimately, the federal government can control defense production through the products it demands, the prices it is willing to pay, and the incentives it offers.

“It’s a monopsony,” McGinn said. “Government sets the market. Government can regulate the market. So, if the government wants different outcomes, it changes how it buys.”

The search comes after dozens of MQ-9s were swatted out of the sky during the Iran war, according to a May 13 Congressional Research Service report.

With the Air Force currently possessing about 135 Reapers — which cost approximately $30 million apiece — such a loss rate is not sustainable, especially against a force like Iran, whose air defenses are less sophisticated than those of China or Russia.

“The Joint Force’s reliance on low-density, high-value ‘exquisite’ (>$30 million) manned and unmanned aircraft is unsustainable against adversaries utilizing layered defenses enabled by increasingly low-cost antiaircraft capabilities,” warned the Defense Innovation Unit solicitation for a new drone, which the Pentagon wants to “execute missions that the MQ-9A performs today.”

Rather than build a better Reaper, DIU is opting for an expendable replacement. The Massed Modular Aircraft, or MMA, project aims to develop a UAV designed to operate in such large numbers that it can absorb heavy losses and still overwhelm enemy defenses.

Particularly of interest is the size of the MMA. Drone swarms may be the next big thing in unmanned warfare, but generally those hordes are made up of small, inexpensive UAVs with limited range and payload.

But the DIU solicitation envisions a drone that has long range and a heavy payload — and is still inexpensive enough for mass production. The solicitation calls for a payload of at least 2,800 pounds, a bit less than the MQ-9’s 3,800-pound capacity.

The MMA should also have an unrefueled combat range of at least 2,300 nautical miles, according to the solicitation, and a one-way transfer range of at least 8,000 nautical miles. Additionally, the drone should reach speeds of at least 200 miles per hour and have the ability to operate from a 6,000-foot runway or improvised airstrips.

The DIU solicitation states that the drone should have “sufficient available size, weight, power (25kW), and cooling (5kW) to host a variety of internal and/or external payloads,” with a level of autonomous operations that would allow one operator to control several drones.

The solicitation does not specify the MMA’s dimensions, though the specifications suggest a drone comparable in size to the MQ-9. It also did not list a desired price point, though presumably it would be less than the $30 million price tag of an MQ-9.

The timeline for the MMA project, meanwhile, is ambitious. DIU is calling for “full-scale prototype flight testing within 21 months of award, with a targeted Initial Operating Capability (IOC) in FY2031. IOC for MMA is envisioned as 20 mission-ready aircraft delivered to an operational unit, able to be deployed.”

Pentagon solicitations continue to reflect a mindfulness of lessons from the Ukraine War, as well as the experiences during the Iran War. In both conflicts, the defender exhausted interceptors before the attacker ran out of drones.

“Keeping a constant airborne MMA presence to launch weapons, gather intelligence, perform electronic warfare missions, or relay communications will force an adversary to stay on the defensive,” DIU said. “This relentless pressure will exhaust the adversary, forcing them to burn through expensive anti-aircraft missiles and resources faster than they can be replaced.”

And it wants them fast.

“Due to the urgency of the threat and the need to assess capability readiness,” the Defense Innovation Unit needs products in time for a spring 2026 demonstration a Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona, according to a DIU solicitation.

“Invited companies may have 30 days or less between notification and execution of the demonstration,” the solicitation adds.

The project, titled “Counter UAS Sensing for Homeland and Mobile Defense,” seems aimed at both civil defense and battlefield protection.

The first track is protection of installations in the U.S. In this case, the sensors must detect Group 1 UAVs — the smallest category, weighing less than 20 pounds — at a minimum range of 2 kilometers.

A secondary attribute is the ability to spot Group 2 and 3 drones, or those weighing less than 1,320 pounds.

Sensors should also be able to screen out ground clutter and birds, according to the request.

“Solutions may employ single or multimodal sensing to enhance the radar solution, however the solution must include a radar sensor as part of the total proposal,” the DIU solicitation states.

The goal appears to be deploying sensors that can be used for both detection and destruction of drones, including “rapid integration capability with government designated CUAS fire control systems.”

The solicitation did not specify whether this would involve protecting military or civilian sites. However, it did state that systems must “operate safely near populated areas, within congested airspace, and across complex electromagnetic environments dominated by lawful emitters.”

The DIU project’s second track aims to provide mobile counter-drone sensors for small military units that are on the move. Equally important, these sensors themselves have to avoid being detected and targeted by enemy fire, which has been a problem for electronic warfare emitters in the Ukraine war.

“The solution’s ability to deliver early warning, allowing units to take protective action, is critical and depends upon a low physical and spectral signature to prevent targeting by enemy forces,” said DIU. “All sensing modalities are welcome, with preference for passive approaches.”

Sensors must detect Group 1 and 2 drones flying below 50 meters. Other desired attributes include multiple and redundant sensors, minimal setup time and “broadspectrum RF [radio frequency] sensing (e.g., approximately 400 MHz–8 GHz) for passive solutions, including adaptability to evolving UAS data links.”

DIU is also looking for robust systems that troops can maintain themselves.

“The system must reduce operator burden with intuitive controls for detection, tracking, and alert management,” the solicitation said. “It must be configurable and adaptable by tactical operators to the dynamic front-line RF environment without requiring support from engineering personnel.”

Interestingly, these C-UAS sensors seem aimed more at trucks and light vehicles than armored vehicles. The system, the solicitation states, must be capable of being mounted on the Infantry Squad Vehicle, Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles and the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck.

“Compared to non-veterans, veterans have the combination of technical, operational and analytical background and experiences coupled with a high level of maturity, leadership and followership that most civilian college new grads do not possess,” said David Cross, a senior vice president at software company Oracle who served in the U.S. Navy and the Army Reserve.

In particular, veterans are well-suited for fast-moving or crisis situations that often occur in information technology (IT).

“With the rapid transformation to Cloud services and applications, veterans are uniquely skilled and experienced in how to operate, respond and lead in high spaced, tense and stressed environments, which can often encounter events requiring incident commander leadership and poise,” Cross said.

Chip-maker Intel has hired across from a variety of military specialties, from infantry and finance, to cybersecurity and pilots.

“Approximately 80 percent of our veterans are in our manufacturing, supply chain and operations, and technology development organizations, which are the core of Intel’s business,” said Gisele Bonitz, a retired Navy captain who is now Intel’s director of risk and controls for data centers and AI, and co-chair of Intel’s Veteran Leadership Council.

Veterans don’t have to restrict themselves to technology positions at technology companies. Even the most tech-driven company still needs employees in infrastructure, support and other roles to ensure that the company is operating efficiently.

“Most think about Intel for technical positions, where those coming from technical fields like damage control, electronics tech, communications, computers, cyber security are a great match,” said Chris Tobias, a former Air Force command and control officer who is now an Intel general manager for sales and marketing, and co-chair of the company’s veterans council. “However, we also have positions in contracting, supply, human resources, and construction where we’ve seen just about every military career field have success.”

Cross noted that veterans are often hired based on their “transferable skills,” and then trained for a specific position in a company. “For example, veterans at Oracle are brought on board as program managers, then transition to technical program managers in a short amount of time. Another example is a veteran who interned as a software developer, which is a specialty that the military is not readily known for producing, and was then offered a full-time role as a software engineer.”

Oracle is a member of DoD’s Skillbridge program, which sponsors private sector internships for veterans. Meta – the parent company of Facebook – runs a Veterans Engineering Program that offers a paid 12-month career development program for veterans and their spouses with a background in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science or supply chains.

“Veterans are not only users of technological advancements, but also consumers, which give them a unique perspective to business, and a global outlook to any organization,” said Wil Williamson, who manages Meta’s veteran recruiting program.

Big tech companies suggest veterans identify what commercial jobs they want prior to separation, and then obtain any necessary training and certification before they should leave the service. They should also tailor their resumes to the position that they’re applying for, including specifically linking their skills and experience to the job in question. For example, “you can say ‘I designed the IT infrastructure for a $1 billion command center delivered $5 million under budget and three months ahead of schedule, and being recognized as the Department of Defense’s most effective facility,’” Bonitz said. “Rather than just saying, ‘responsible for the IT design of a command center.’

“They should get comfortable with the interview process and explain, without acronyms, how their accomplishments in the military would support the role they are interested in,” Bonitz said.

“The companies will provide a range of cybersecurity offerings and support the migration from legacy technologies to ensure cybersecurity is designed into the government’s telecom infrastructure,” said a Raytheon and MetTel news release.

“This alliance is well-positioned to support the administration’s IT modernization and cybersecurity priorities, including the emerging security challenges posed by internet-connected devices, including computers, routers and security cameras.”

Among their collaborations, the two companies will build and operate Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Services for federal agencies through the GSA’s Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) contract, for which MetTel was named as a vendor in August. Raytheon will offer cybersecurity consultants for EIS. MetTel will use Raytheon’s Automated Threat Intelligence Platform.

Deenvaughn Rowe, 48, of Odenton, Maryland, faced drug and bribery charges. He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to four years of supervised release and a $64,000 fine on top of his eight-year prison term.

Rowe’s sentencing follows the sentencing last month of co-conspirators Kendra Brantley, 32, and Alicia Norman, 39, who were letter carriers that delivered the marijuana. Brantley was sentenced to 46 months in prison and Norman to 18 months.

“Rowe, the then-acting manager of the River Terrace Carrier Annex, used his USPS computer to track packages containing marijuana mailed from the Western United States to the Lamond-Riggs Post Office in Washington, D.C.,” according to a Department of Justice news release.

“The packages were typically addressed to fictitious individuals or non-existent addresses. The evidence at trial revealed that once the packages arrived at Lamond-Riggs, Rowe coordinated the delivery of the packages with Lamond-Riggs Letter Carriers Brantley and Norman, among others, by cell phone and text message. Brantley and Norman then delivered the boxes of marijuana on the street to men in expensive cars in exchange for cash bribes.”

This case was investigated by the USPS Office of the Inspector General’s Capital Metro Field Office and the Postal Inspection Service’s Washington Division.

The audit examined the Bureau of the Fiscal Service’s effort to create a governmentwide financial management office, as well as to improve the USASpending.gov website. In particular, auditors examined the Fiscal Service’s USASpending.gov Enhancement Project.

“The Enhancement Project, as executed, did not address identified concerns with the quality of the data presented on USASpending.gov,” auditors found.

The audit recommended that the website meet “external user expectations” regarding the quality of the information it contains. “A lack of documentation surrounding the Enhancement Project’s user acceptance criteria and user acceptance testing may have contributed to a website design that did not sufficiently consider external USASpending.gov user expectations.”

The IG recommended that the Fiscal Service “develop a strategy to manage USASpending.gov user expectations regarding the completeness and accuracy of existing data presented on the site, to include posting a statement on the site about current and legacy data quality concerns and plans for data quality improvement. It should also develop and document criteria for external user acceptance of the site.

The Oversight.gov website provides “a ‘one stop shop’ to follow the ongoing oversight work of all IGs that publicly post reports,” said the announcement from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency. “It also enables users to access more than 5,800 previously-issued IG reports, a number that will continue to grow as IGs issue new reports.”

The public – and journalists and non-governmental watchdogs – will particularly like the website’s search box. For example, the term “whistleblowers” appears in 781 reports, “cybersecurity” in 446 reports, “disaster recovery” in 335 and “terrorism” in 292, according to CIGIE. “In addition, the site features a user-friendly map to find reports based on geographic location and contact information for each IG’s whistleblower hotline.”

“The public should have easy access to information about their government, and Oversight.gov is a big step in this direction,” said CIGIE head and Department of Justice IG Michael Horowitz. “This new website makes the work of the IG community more accessible, and it demonstrates the critical role inspectors general play in combating waste, fraud, and abuse, and holding government officials accountable for their management of taxpayer money.”

“We found several instances in which the FBI could not demonstrate that the AIU — the unit that investigates and makes adjudicative recommendations on employee polygraph results — had referred all allegations of employee misconduct to the INSD [FBI Inspection Division] or the OIG so that the INSD and the OIG could determine whether to investigate the allegation,” the IG said.

The report pointed to two examples. One involved an FBI IT specialist who “admitted to using FBI equipment to view and print photographs of scantily clad adult women, some of which the employee stated depicted partially naked women.” Nonetheless, the employee wasn’t disciplined, and stayed on the job for two years before retiring with a federal pension.

The second case involved a Special Agent who admitted having a relationship with a former FBI criminal source. The agent was also accused of threatening coworkers and behaving inappropriately toward female employees. Neither the INSD or OIG were notified, and the agent is still on duty.

Special Agent Christopher V. Ciccione II, 52, and two Colombian nationals were charged by a federal grand jury in Florida with conspiracy, corruption and obstruction of justice. Ciccione allegedly participated in a bribery scheme that resulted in charges being dismissed against one of the Colombians.

Ciccione “was the case agent for Operation Cornerstone, a large-scale Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force case that resulted in indictments of Colombia-based cocaine traffickers from the Cali Cartel, including Jose Piedrahita Ceballos, a Colombian national,” according to a Department of Justice news release.

“The indictment alleges that Piedrahita gave benefits to Ciccione in exchange for official acts that resulted in the dismissal of the indictment against Piedrahita. Juan Carlos Velasco, also a Colombian national, served as the intermediary between Ciccione and Piedrahita. Ciccione ultimately succeeded in getting the Cornerstone indictment dismissed against Piedrahita in exchange for approximately $20,000 in cash, dinner, drinks and prostitution.”

Ciccione also allegedly falsified Department of Homeland Security records “to represent to decision makers that Piedrahita was ‘unidentified’ and that his case should be dismissed because ‘all investigative efforts’ were ‘exhausted.’ In addition, Ciccione falsified the concurrence of several other federal agents and even attempted to parole Piedrahita into the U.S.”

The case was investigated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Professional Responsibility, DHS IG and the FBI.