Ben Watson

Washington, D.C., United States

Senior Multimedia Editor at Defense One

Host at Defense One Radio

senior multimedia editor @DefenseOne // account used for monitoring only

Articles

The D Brief: ‘Full-blown meltdown’; Syrian drawdown; Russia’s Easter attacks; NDU resignation-in-protest; And a bit more.

3 days ago | defenseone.com | Ben Watson |Bradley Peniston

Skip to Content Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Insights & Reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is under fire again for sharing sensitive military details on the unclassified messaging app Signal, but in an additional channel separate from the one that got him and White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz into trouble last month, the New York Timesreported Sunday.
The D Brief: State of Defense, service by service; US strikes Yemen port; DEI is out at DOD; Shakeup week for OSD; And a bit more.

6 days ago | defenseone.com | Ben Watson |Lauren C. Williams

Skip to Content Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Insights & Reports Bye-bye, DEI. The Pentagon has shuttered and reassigned all personnel working in diversity, equity, and inclusion jobs. A Government Accountability Office report released Thursday announced that all DEI positions across the Defense Department had been “abolished” as of April to comply with recent White House executive orders.
The D Brief: Space Force’s new war plan; Musk, Palantir, Anduril eye ‘Golden Dome’ contracts; DOD’s race for small reactors; And a bit more.

1 week ago | defenseone.com | Lauren C. Williams |Ben Watson

Skip to Content Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Insights & Reports Space warfare gets a formal definition thanks to a new strategicdocument.
The D Brief: Crash near border kills 2 US troops; Pentagon axes two advisors for alleged leaks; Leadership shakeups continue; ACLU sues DoDEA over banned books; And a bit more.

1 week ago | defenseone.com | Audrey Decker |Ben Watson

A years-long debate over SPACECOM’s headquarters was rehashed in a Tuesday report from the DOD inspector general. Pentagon officials initially chose Alabama over Colorado because it would be roughly $420 mil cheaper to construct the command’s headquarters there, the report found. But the Biden administration reversed that move in 2023, deciding to keep the headquarters in Colorado Springs.
The D Brief: Trump militarizes border, testing courts; Adm. Caudle for CNO?; Tariff war could cost DOD critical minerals; And a bit more.

1 week ago | defenseone.com | Audrey Decker |Ben Watson

Skip to Content Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Insights & Reports The Trump administration wants to turn a long stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border into an Army base in an extraordinary move that’s likely to be challenged in court, U.S. officials told the Associated Press on Monday, three days after the White House released a memo entitled, “Military Mission for Sealing the Southern Border of the United States and Repelling Invasions.” In that memo, President Trump said he wanted this...
The D Brief: Russian missiles kill 34 in Ukraine; Trump lashes out at CBS; Breakthrough in robotics?; Naval autonomy today; And a bit more.

1 week ago | defenseone.com | Ben Watson |Patrick Tucker

A Russian ballistic missile attack killed nearly three dozen civilians and injured more than 115 others in northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy City early Sunday.
The D Brief: New CJCS; Contracts, cancelled; Europe pledges Ukraine aid; Report: China avows Volt Typhoon; And a bit more.

1 week ago | defenseone.com | Bradley Peniston |Lauren C. Williams |Ben Watson

Skip to Content Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Insights & Reports After a two-month vacancy, President Trump has secured his preferred top military advisor. Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine was confirmed as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in a 60-25 late-night Senate vote. Caine has extensive F-16 piloting experience, and he served as a counterterrorism advisor under President George W.
The D Brief: New defense EOs; Somalia concerns; Ukrainian’s advice for US; Spies target fired feds; And a bit more.

2 weeks ago | defenseone.com | Bradley Peniston |Ben Watson

UkraineKyiv’s former top military commander has some advice for the U.S. military: Ukraine’s battlefield-management system known as DELTA deserves recognition as a centralized interface for contemporary, software-dependent warfare, argues Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, writing Thursday for Defense One. “Data, AI, drones, and their management have become the norm, forcing new tactics, equipment, and systems that can adapt quickly against an evolving enemy,” Zaluzhnyi writes.
The D Brief: Hegseth softens Panama talk; Trump’s budget flip-flop; Arms in space; EUCOM’s plea; And a bit more.

2 weeks ago | defenseone.com | Bradley Peniston |Ben Watson

Insights & Reports SecDef Hegseth vowed to “take back” the Panama Canal from Chinese influence in remarks Tuesday that Reuters reported “appeared fine-tuned, talking tough but offering some assurances to Panamanians still unsettled by Trump's threats to reclaim the canal.” “China did not build this canal,” U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a pier in Panama City. “China does not operate this canal and China will not weaponize this canal.
The D Brief: $1T defense budget?; Another female admiral fired; Industrial-base reports; Sea-Air-Space news; And a bit more.

2 weeks ago | defenseone.com | Bradley Peniston |Ben Watson |Lauren C. Williams

Skip to Content Sponsor Message Sponsor Message Insights & Reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says a $1 trillion defense budget is coming soon, the Pentagon chief boasted on social media. If confirmed, it would mark a significant rise from the current $892 billion defense budget, and at a time when President Donald Trump has pledged to cut the size of government and reduce spending.

Contact details

Emails

[email protected]

Socials & Sites

Try JournoFinder For Free

Search and contact over 1M+ journalist profiles, browse 100M+ articles, and unlock powerful PR tools.

Start Your 7-Day Free Trial →

X (formerly Twitter)

Followers: 6K
Tweets: 11K
DMs Open: No

No Tweets found.