WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accused the independent watchdog^[1] for the Pentagon of being “weaponized” and says he's overhauling the inspector general’s office, upending the way that service members report abuse and other problems in the ranks.

Hegseth unveiled the plans during a speech at an unusual gathering^[2] of hundreds of top military leaders this week. He also signed a memo ordering the inspector general to identify anyone who makes a complaint instead of letting them be anonymous, to dismiss any complaints the inspector general deems “non-credible,” and to set new, tighter timelines for complaints to be filed and investigations to be completed.

Along with a decree stating that the military's policy on “hazing, bullying, and harassment is overly broad,” Hegseth's directives have raised concerns among advocates and experts who say the changes would undo years of progress that have helped protect women and minorities from abuse and would shutter avenues to file legitimate complaints.

It is part of a broader push by the Trump administration to radically reshape the community of inspectors general^[3] tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at government agencies. More than a dozen watchdogs were fired in January^[4] amid a larger dismantling of public integrity guardrails since President Donald Trump took office.

Hegseth Takes Aim at the Inspector General as He Faces Signal Investigation 

The changes are necessary to fix a process that “has been weaponized — putting complainers, ideologues and poor performers in the driver’s seat,” Hegseth told military leaders Tuesday, without offering evidence.

Hegseth is overhauling the office as he himself is under investigation^[5] by the inspector general over his use of the Signal messaging app, where he shared sensitive information about military strikes^[6] in a group chat that inadvertently included a journalist. He also shared the information in other chats that included his wife and brother^[7].

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters^[8] in August that Hegseth had made a statement as part of that investigation — one of the last steps in the process.

Don Christensen, a former chief prosecutor for the Air Force and a Virginia-based attorney who often represents people who file complaints with the inspector general, questioned the need for Hegseth’s directive.

“This is based upon people that he hangs out with complaining about the process versus any kind of study or data that shows that the IG takes too long or there’s this problem with serial complainers,” Christensen said. He added, “I don’t know of any data that shows there’s a crisis of serial complaints.”

Advocates Fear a Chilling Effect on Troops 

Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force lawyer and military justice advocate, said she worries the changes will have a major chilling effect on troops coming forward to report sexual harassment, bullying and racism.

She noted that by eliminating anonymous reporting, Hegseth is planning to shut down a process that has been "proven to bring to light significant issues that affect morale and discipline within units."

“Survey after survey after survey has shown that service members are afraid of their own command chain, and when they’re afraid of their own command chain, problems go on unsolved,” she said.

Despite years of messaging and establishing specialized response teams, the military has continued to struggle with sexual assault and violence toward women.

In a recent case, Army Spc. Vanessa Guillen's dismembered remains were discovered after she had been missing for more than two months from Fort Hood in Texas in 2020. The killing sparked a movement of women speaking out^[9] about sexual abuse in the military and led to changes in how they can report it.

An Army investigation^[10] later found that, among other issues, there was a climate that tolerated sexual harassment and assault, and that there was a significant lack of confidence in the command chain, and therefore reluctance to report abusive behavior.

Hegseth Says Racism and Sexual Harassment Will Be Targeted 

In his speech this week, Hegseth seemed to anticipate criticism of his changes and stressed to the assembled military brass that “of course, being a racist has been illegal in our formation since 1948 — the same goes for sexual harassment — both are wrong and illegal.” He said “those kinds of infractions will be ruthlessly enforced.”

While VanLandingham acknowledged Hegseth’s position, she said he is making “changes to systems that have been shown to help reduce sexual harassment and sexual assault” and were created in response to widespread systemic racial and sexual discrimination and harassment.

Hegseth’s memo also pointedly noted that an article of the Uniform Code of Military Justice — the legal code that governs military personnel — prohibits false statements and that violators “will be held appropriately accountable.”

Both Christiansen and VanLandingham said such wording will almost certainly discourage people from reporting concerns and complaints.

“The people who are coming forward are taking a huge risk for their career already, and now he’s making it worse by putting a target on their back,” Christensen said.

VanLandingham added: “That’s not how you instill confidence in a system to be able to report things that absolutely need to be reported."

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth^[1] said Friday that he ordered another strike on a small boat he accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, expanding what the Trump administration has declared is an “armed conflict” with cartels^[2].

In a post on social media, Hegseth asserted that the “vessel was trafficking narcotics" and those aboard were “narco-terrorists.” He said the strike killed four men but offered no details on who they were or what group they belonged to, following the U.S. designation of several Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organizations^[3].

President Donald Trump said in his own social media post that the boat was “loaded with enough drugs to kill 25 TO 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE” and implied it was “entering American Territory” while off the coast of Venezuela.

It is the fourth deadly strike in the Caribbean^[4] and the latest since revelations that Trump told lawmakers he was treating drug traffickers as unlawful combatants and military force was required to combat them. That assertion of presidential war powers sets the stage for expanded action and raises questions about how far the administration will go^[5] without sign-off from Congress^[6].

The Trump administration laid out its justification for the strikes in a memo obtained by The Associated Press this week.

“The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” according to the memo sent to Congress.

Trump directed the Pentagon to “conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict,” the document says.

Sen. Jim Risch, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Friday that the president had the authority to go after the cartels without further authorization from Congress under “his general powers under the Constitution as the commander in chief.”

“What could be a bigger defense of this country than keeping out this poison that’s killing thousands of Americans every year?” Risch said.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a leftist leader who has clashed with the Trump administration^[7], accused the U.S. of committing “murder” and urged the victims’ families to “join forces.”

“There are no narco-terrorists on the boats,” he posted on X after the strike was announced. “Drug traffickers live in the U.S., Europe and Dubai. On that boat are poor Caribbean youth.”

Video of Friday's strike posted online showed a small boat moving in open water when it suddenly explodes, with water splashing all around it. As the smoke from the explosion clears, the boat is visible, consumed with flames, floating motionless on the water.

With it, at least three of the strikes have now been carried out on vessels that U.S. officials said had originated from Venezuela. The strikes followed a buildup of U.S. maritime forces^[8] in the Caribbean unlike any seen in recent times.

The Navy’s presence in the region — eight warships with over 5,000 sailors and Marines — has been pretty stable for weeks, according to two defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations.

In a post about the first strike last month^[9], Trump claimed the vessel was carrying members of the Tren de Aragua gang^[10]. Posts about all the subsequent strikes^[11], including Friday’s, have not provided any details about what organizations have been targeted. The four strikes have killed 21 people, the administration says.

Pentagon officials who briefed senators on the strikes this week could not provide a list of the designated terrorist organizations at the center of the conflict.

Officials in the Pentagon, when asked for more details about the strike, referred The Associated Press back to Hegseth’s post. The press office for Venezuela’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest strike.

AP writers Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

Sikorsky is finalizing negotiations with the Department of War to produce Black Hawks, its workhorse helicopter, in Stratford and Bridgeport, Connecticut, for another four years.

Those talks come as the U.S. Army looks ahead to getting its hands on Bell Textron's MV-75 tiltrotor aircraft called "transformational" by one officer recently and a machine that might someday phase out the Black Hawk.

The UH-60 Black Hawk remains the Army's "utility helicopter for the near and midterm force" as worded in Pentagon budget documents the past few years. The Army now plans to purchase nearly 100 more over four years to maintain a fleet numbering more than 2,100 helicopters.

In the context of the Bridgeport-area economy, it is a major contract providing more work for more than 7,000 Sikorsky employees in Connecticut.

"Appreciation for the Black Hawk frankly dipped for a few years, and it was thought it could be less important than a lot of people knew it was — people who used it in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere all around the world," said U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, who sits on the Senate Committee on Armed Services. "The Black Hawk is one of the all-time, star successful assets in our military arsenal. It is resilient, versatile and battle-hardened. It's been shot at in a lot of wars; it's been used to rescue people who are in that golden hour where their lives can be saved."

Blumenthal noted a number of international militaries rely on the Black Hawk as well that will not have the opportunity any time soon to purchase MV-75 tiltrotors.

Rich Benton, president of Sikorsky, noted that last week as well in an interview that touched on international Black Hawk sales. Benton noted Sikorsky also offers Black Hawk variants for non-military uses, to include Jayhawk maritime helicopters for the U.S. Coast Guard and the Fire Hawk helicopter for wildfire suppression and rescue.

"We still see significant international demand internationally for the aircraft we're building, and we believe that will continue," Benton said. "I think our helicopter provides a unique capability for both civilian and ... international militaries to get after their mission."

The manufacturer did not make an executive available for an update on the outlook for the Black Hawk, but a spokesperson forwarded a statement saying contractual negotiations are ongoing and calling the Black Hawk "iconic to the U.S. and allies". On Tuesday, the Federal Register published a notice of a pending contract with Brazil for a dozen Black Hawk helicopters, at a contract value of $950 million.

The Army has cited the Bell MV-75 among a handful of key programs in a new Army Transformation Initiative, created in response to the rapid development of emerging battlefield technologies by other countries. In an initial statement outlining ATI goals, the Army indicated it plans to cease production of the Boeing AH-64 Apache combat helicopter.

The $732 million earmarked for new Black Hawk helicopters in this year's National Defense Authorization Act is the most for any model of rotary aircraft, ahead of the funding for new CH-47 Chinooks made by Boeing outside Philadelphia in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania.

Nearly three years ago, Bell Textron beat out Sikorsky, Lockheed Martin and Boeing for the U.S. Army's next utility aircraft. Bell won with a tilt-rotor aircraft it now calls the MV-75, beating out Sikorsky's Defiant X proposal designed with stacked rotor sets that spin in opposite directions for greater maneuverability than the Black Hawk and other traditional helicopters.

Bell Textron is now readying a Texas factory for mass production of the MV-75. The Army is looking to accelerate production beyond its initial timeline with an eye on an eventual fleet of about 1,000 MV-75 tilt-rotors, according to the industry trade publication FlightGlobal.

Rotary aircraft production is ramping up even as U.S. military planners eye the rapid development of drone technologies and strategies by Ukraine and Russia, and "area denial" weapons systems that were effective against helicopters in the early stages of the war.

"There's no question there's an arms race," Blumenthal said. "It's a heavily technology-based race to add stealth and armaments and electronic warfare tools to disable drones that may be sent at helicopters."

Speaking in June during a U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on the heels of a Ukraine drone attack on Russian bombers that caused billions of dollars of damage, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll acknowledged the raid was a wake-up call.

"The world saw, in real time, how readily available technology can disrupt established power dynamics," Driscoll said. "We as a nation have to set a moonshot to figure out, ‘How do we defend against these low-cost drones?’"

In the past few years, Sikorsky has been talking up the potential of Black Hawk helicopters to launch drone attacks from the air closer to their final targets, whether for attack or surveillance.

"I view drones as complementary, right? How are we going to be able to leverage this system we have and be able to use drones to do mission substitution?" Benton told CT Insider last week. "Our aircraft can be the node on the network providing that capability and integrating information."

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