Valerie Insinna
@valerieinsinna.bsky.social
Covering Congress and the defense industry for breakingdefense.com, but also destroying your feed with cat photos, aviation memes and ramblings about fandoms you couldn't care less about
So happy to talk with the phenomenal @sirenspod.bsky.social about something near and dear to my heart: the Pentagon press corps.
Sirens: A Bombshell Production@sirenspod.bsky.social · 9mo agoNEW episode with the spectacular @valerieinsinna.bsky.social to explore Pentagon Press Corps dynamics; plus, shutdown impacts, waking up to a totally new world in SOUTHCOM, and, what protest costume calls to you? podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/b...
"‘Fuck it. Finally clean those bastards out. Get rid of them. I’ll take the hit for a year.’” @valerieinsinna.bsky.social wrote the edgiest piece on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program you'll ever read. breakingdefense.com/2025/10/clea...
‘Clean those bastards out’: Small business fund used by DoD teeters on the edge - Breaking Defense
Senate lawmakers are at an impasse over the Small Business Innovation Research program, a key program used by the Pentagon to provide seed funding for small firms.
breakingdefense.com
SCOOP: Gen. Ken Wilsbach will be your new Air Force Chief of Staff, multiple sources tell @valerieinsinna.bsky.social and I. Announcement expected in the next few days. breakingdefense.com/2025/09/wils...
Wilsbach expected to become next Air Force chief of staff: Sources - Breaking Defense
Former Air Combat Command head Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach had emerged as the frontrunner for the Air Force’s top uniformed job shortly after Gen. Dave Allvin announced his retirement in August.
breakingdefense.com
SCOOP: Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Anduril and General Atomics are under contract for conceptual designs for a Collaborative Combat Aircraft. Lockheed is under contract to provide "common control" for the autonomous, carrier based combat drone: breakingdefense.com/2025/09/excl...
EXCLUSIVE: Navy taps four aerospace primes to design autonomous drone wingmen - Breaking Defense
Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics and Anduril are all in line to produce conceptual designs for the Navy’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, according to a Navy slide reviewed by Breaking...
breakingdefense.com
SCOOP: Lockheed Martin is out of the Navy's F/A-XX fighter program, leaving Boeing and Northrop as the remaining competitors: breakingdefense.com/2025/03/excl...
EXCLUSIVE: Lockheed out of Navy’s F/A-XX future fighter program - Breaking Defense
A source with knowledge of the program told Breaking Defense that Lockheed submitted a bid for the next-gen fighter effort, but the proposal did not satisfy the Navy’s criteria, leaving Boeing and Nor...
breakingdefense.com
"What the fuck is going on?" Confusion is sweeping the defense industry as an Army email circulates that seemingly halts further contracting activity. Story by Ashley Roque, @aaronmehta.bsky.social and myself: breakingdefense.com/2025/01/what...
‘What the f— is going on?’ Confusion, uncertainty in industry as Army contracts seemingly halted
The fear among industry now is that this move is just the first in what would amount to a Pentagon-wide halt on new awards, for an indefinite period of time.
breakingdefense.com
NEW: In exclusive interview, SASC chairman Sen. Roger Wicker says he'd to see $100B/year for the next two years in the reconciliation bill, which could help fund US Iron Dome, NGAD sixth-gen fighter, and shipbuilding programs: breakingdefense.com/2025/01/excl...
EXCLUSIVE: New SASC chair sets sight on $200B defense boost, major acquisition reform push
“I hope and believe that President Trump's pledge to restore peace through strength so that we can avoid conflict is going to be followed through with adequate funding,” Senate Armed Services Committe...
breakingdefense.com
Current status: disengaging from today’s political sideshow (the Hegseth nomination hearing) by eating Taco Bell and watching an old 1998 Raw episode where Stone Cold Steve Austin infiltrates a hospital to attack an injured Vince McMahon
At Pete Hegseth hearing to be defense secretary, Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, states that he does not believe Hegseth to be qualified for the top DoD leadership post.
Spotlighting this scoop from my colleague Michael Marrow: Turns out China could beat the U.S. to fielding a sixth gen fighter, the Air Force’s acquisition chief says. breakingdefense.com/2025/01/chin...
China ‘could beat us to the punch’ to a 6th-gen fighter, Air Force official warns
“It's fair to say we pay a lot of attention to what the Chinese are doing. And so, not everything that becomes public is a shock,” Andrew Hunter said when asked about new images of purported Chinese f...
breakingdefense.com
The only Pentagon I recognize from this day forward:
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful@seanrosssapp.bsky.social · 2y agoPenta is using the Sacrifice and Penta Driver in WWE
I like Bluesky because I definitely see fewer posts about how women aren’t fulfilling their destinies unless they have 3+ kids, and that’s pretty rad. But also this place is really boring and it feels like no one interacts with each other (at least in the defense/aerospace sector).
New House Armed Services GOP subcommittee chair announcements: Cyber IT and Innovation: Bacon (incumbent) Intel/Spec Ops: Bergman --> Jackson Readiness: Waltz --> Bergman Milpers: Banks --> Fallon Seapower: Kelly (incumbent) Stratfor: Lamborn --> DesJarlais TacAirLand: Wittman (incumbent)
I am begging for a rock album. BEGGING.
Pop Base@popbase.tv · 2y ago🚨 Beyoncé announces something coming January 14th.
Buying fireworks so when Santa arrives we can give him Dave Batista’s entrance
Me when I’m acting extremely macabre about very normal, mundane things
Filed a scoop on a next-gen fighter, made cookies for my husband and now am sitting down to watch the CR vote before making another batch of cookies. Nara Smith could NEVER
SCOOP: A new Air Force analysis supports the development of a manned sixth-gen fighter known as Next Generation Air Dominance, amid questions about the program's future. breakingdefense.com/2024/12/excl...
EXCLUSIVE: New Air Force review supports manned 6th-gen NGAD fighter concept
Military analysis supports the fielding of a sixth-generation stealth fighter, Breaking Defense has learned, though a final decision on the Next Generation Air Dominance platform now rests with the Tr...
breakingdefense.com
Multitasking watching anime and the CR fight on the House floor the way George Washington intended
Hey look we made a show: Coming in 2025, it's The Break Out. Every week, we'll bring you a short (5 minutes or so), entertaining roundup of things you need to know in the world of defense. I updog'd @leeferran.bsky.social in our first test show. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WeD...
The Weekly Break Out web news show - Coming soon!
YouTube video by Breaking Defense
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Love my dear friends at military dot com but if an editor did this to me they would wake up with a horse head in their bed one morning
Zachary Fryer-Biggs@zachfb.bsky.social · 2y agoI'm about to have these posted to our site anyway, but I thought I'd reveal the new headshots for a bunch of the Military.com staff. They haven't seen the finals from the photographer, so this is a reveal for them too, and I'm trying to capture their inner monologue from the photo shoot (thread)
New York Times Opinion@nytopinion.nytimes.com · 2y ago“If I were drawing a picture of China’s economy today as a person, it would have an awesome manufacturing upper body — like Popeye, still eating spinach — with consuming legs resembling thin little sticks,” our columnist @thomaslfriedman.bsky.social writes.
if you offer dracula a little bit of your blood for free he'll probably respect you more
