President Trump has signed an executive order for the Pentagon to move forward with developing an “Iron Dome for America,” a massive, likely multi-billion dollar project that will utilize space-based interceptors.
New Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has 60 days to submit a plan for building out the “next-generation missile defense shield,” with the White House expecting the project to be included in the upcoming fiscal year 2026 budget request.
The executive order also directs DoD to review the relevant authorities and organizations required to rapidly develop such a system and calls for the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Strategic Command and Northern Command to submit an updated assessment on the strategic missile threat to the homeland and to select a “prioritized set of locations to progressively defend against a countervalue attack by nuclear adversaries.” The White House’s executive order notes the project’s similarities to Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as “Star Wars,” which failed to achieve fielding of the space-based missile defense system. A version of this story was first published by Exchange Monitor affiliate Defense Daily.
James Owen, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s chief engineer, is leaving the lab Friday, Jan. 31 to join fusion startup Fuse Federal, he told the Exchange Monitor Monday.
“I indoc [meaning start initial training] at my new company on the first [of February,] and on the second I’m going to jump on a plane for at least five weeks, five weeks of travel with my new company,” Owen told the Monitor after speaking at the Annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Arlington, Va. Owen said he did not know who would replace him, but that “the lab will do a nationwide search.”
Owen spent 28 years at Los Alamos focusing on weapons engineering, according to Reuters who wrote about Owen’s departure in November.
Jeff Avery, the No. 2 officer at the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, is moving over to the National Nuclear Security Administration, according to a memo distributed Monday.
An “EM Colleagues” memo Monday from Environmental Management office senior adviser Candice Robertson detailed Avery’s move. Robertson also announced Roger Jarrell is returning to the nuclear cleanup office as a senior adviser. Jarrell is currently listed as general counsel for the United Cleanup Oak Ridge, according to his LinkedIn profile. Jarrell served for a time as a DOE senior adviser during the first Trump administration.
Avery, who has been Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at Environmental Management for two years after moving from the Office of Naval Reactors, “has been selected to lead critical functions in NNSA,” Robertson said in the memo. Robertson is continuing to run DOE nuclear cleanup activities. The memo did not say when the changes were effective. As of Tuesday afternoon, Avery’s LinkedIn profile listed him as the acting administrator for management and budget at NNSA.
Jacksonville, Fla-based Cadre Holdings, which makes and sells safety gear for nuclear and military markets, recently announced a deal to buy nuclear brands from a branch of Carr’s Group, plc for £75 million, roughly $93 million (U.S.).
Cadre, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, is buying the Engineering Division, including Carr’s Engineering (U.S.) from the United Kingdom-based Carr’s Group, according to a Jan. 15 press release. Carr’s Engineering provides “bespoke equipment, vessels, precision components and remote handling systems,” according to its website.
Cadre representatives attended this week’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Arlington, Va. The company has customers involved in National Nuclear Security Administration and Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management work. Cadre’s product lines include body armor, explosive ordnance disposal equipment, duty gear and nuclear safety products, according to the press release.
Knoxville-based Management Solutions, a woman-owned Department of Energy contractor, said this week it has acquired KeySource, a company engaged in executive searches and workforce solutions.
Management Solutions, which has DOE business at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee, the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, announced the acquisition during this week’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit in Arlington, Va.
Keith Wing, founder and CEO of KeySource, has joined Management Solutions as a senior adviser, Management Solutions said in a Monday press release. Wing has decades of expertise in the energy and defense sectors, according to the release.
