The National Nuclear Security Administration will conduct helicopter flights at low-altitude over Las Vegas for the remainder of 2025 and into 2026, the agency said on its website with aims to alert the public of low-flying aircraft to avoid alarm.
NNSA’s Nuclear Emergency Support Team’s (NEST) aerial measuring system (AMS) aircraft, a Leonardo AW139 helicopter equipped with radiation-sensing technology, flies at low levels over Las Vegas valley measuring radiation levels for public safety and health.
NEST AMS, in advance of high-security events, maps Las Vegas prior to events such as the Las Vegas Grand Prix and New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Wednesday released an update to the $150 billion defense portion of the wide-ranging reconciliation bill, which includes removing classified programs such as $96 million for classified nuclear deterrence-related programs.
The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have been responsible for crafting the defense portions of the reconciliation bill, which covers a total of $150 billion in defense spending over four years, to include $25 billion for the Golden Dome missile defense system and tens of billions to boost shipbuilding. Lawmakers, including Wicker, have also pushed back on the Trump administration’s inclusion of anticipated reconciliation funds to achieve its proposed $1 trillion defense request for fiscal year 2026.
The updated legislation also adds $2.55 billion for “military missile defense capabilities,” while removing $2.4 billion for development of “non-kinetic missile defense effects” and $183 million for Missile Defense Agency special programs. The latest version also adds $350 million for military space command and control systems and $150 million for nuclear weapons delivery programs.
A welding machine reportedly caught fire in April during welding activities in the Principal Underground Laboratory for Subcritical Experimentation (PULSE) at Nevada National Security Site.
The fire was reported in a June 6 report by the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB). According to the report, a welding machine caught fire and the fire watch immediately extinguished it. Nevada National Security Site’s (NNSS) prime contractor Mission Support and Test Services (MSTS) then removed the machine for inspection.
MSTS has since suspended welding activities at PULSE to remove and inspect all the welding machines. As of the date of the report, the safety investigation is still ongoing.
NATO members this week are set to agree on a new target goal to spend five percent of their gross domestic product on defense, the alliance’s leader confirmed Monday, along with plans for a “fivefold” increase in air defense investments.
The new 5% defense spending goal, a boost from the current two percent mark set in 2014, is split between investing 3.5 percent of GDP on “core defense” priorities such as weapons and 1.5% on “defense-related” items, to include infrastructure and cyber security.
“The threats we face today demand that we do far, far more to ensure we can effectively deter and defend,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in a press conference Monday ahead of the alliance’s summit this week in The Hague, Netherlands. “Allies have agreed [on] an ambitious new set of capability targets – the specific, practical requirements that ensures that we can implement our defense plans,” Rutte added. “Having done this high-stakes homework, it is now clear what kind of investment it will take to effectively deliver what we need. And it is critical that each ally carries their fair share of the burden.”
The leaders of the House Armed Services Committee’s new bipartisan proposal for improving the defense acquisition process is aimed at “blowing up the system” rather than making adjustments, the panel’s top Democrat has said.
HASC Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Tuesday offered more insight into their new Streamlining Procurement for Effective Execution and Delivery (SPEED) Act, noting an aim to move faster fielding innovative capabilities and incentivizing more new entrants to work with the Pentagon. “It’s not just a process, it’s a mentality that we’re trying to change,” Smith said during a Hudson Institute discussion alongside Rogers. “[We’re] blowing up the system as opposed to tweaking it.”
The HASC leaders unveiled their SPEED Act earlier this month, which includes sweeping acquisition reforms such as overhauling the Joint Requirements Oversight Council, providing the military services more ability to flexibly budget around portfolio areas and establishing new offices to support more rapid decision making. Rogers noted the bipartisan approach with Smith for getting after the wide-ranging reforms, which he said would push DoD to institute changes more rapidly.
Iran and Israel should “both give up their nuclear weapons programs,” former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla) said on One America News June 18.
“If the world is interested in secret nuclear programs in the Middle East, there is a country that doesn’t allow ANY IAEA inspectors: It’s Israel,” Gaetz said, advertising his appearance on X. In the interview on OAN itself, Gaetz said “to drag the world into a regime change over secret nuclear weapons when you have secret nuclear weapons is a bit hypocritical.”
“How about Iran and Israel both give up their secret nuclear weapon programs?” Gaetz proposed. “If [President Donald] Trump got that deal, he wouldn’t only get the Nobel peace prize, they’ll probably rename it the Trump peace prize forevermore.”
Obituary
James “Darrell” Morgeson, who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory after a stint as a field artillery officer in the Army, died on May 9 in Chesapeake Bay at almost 76 years old, an online obituary said.
Morgeson led a research division at Los Alamos, before serving as Director of Modeling and Simulation Analysis at the G.W. Bush White House Office of Homeland Security.
