Coming into 2025, the only certainty was uncertainty: Everyone expected the new Trump administration to shake things up, but no one was quite sure how. Well, things certainly shook. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired generals by the handful. The Army secretary said he wants a prime contractor to die off. The Air Force got a new fighter jet, but the Navy’s version is in limbo. The government operated under a continuing resolution all year, suffered the longest government shutdown in history, and still somehow increased defense spending, thanks to the dark magic of reconciliation. (And we only got two days into the new year before the Venezuela situation exploded.)
The year that was and the year that will be, according to our reporters – Breaking Defense
