If federal, state, and local officials want the Pentagon’s help for the upcoming hurricane season, they need to be snappy about major storm predictions, so DOD officials told lawmakers last week. According to Paul McHale, assistant homeland defense secretary, a week would be nice. However, he urged diligence in making predictions to avoid a rash of false alarms. McHale told reporters a day earlier that the Defense Department is “better prepared than at any point in our nation’s history to move [disaster response] assistance as rapidly as is humanly possible.”
The Pentagon has concluded a new agreement to buy laser-guidance kits that turn rockets into drone-killing weapons. BAE Systems and the Defense Department announced a framework deal of up to seven years for 25,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance kits annually for the U.S. military.