Lockheed Martin has received a $1.14 billion contract modification from the Department of the Navy to fund long lead components for future production of F-35 fighter jets under Lots 20 and 21, the Pentagon announced. According to a release, the modification (P00005) to contract N0001925C0070 covers procurement of parts, materials, and components in support of […]

Interview transcript:

Terry Gerton: It is GivingTuesday and so I’m delighted to start this story with Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. But as we sit here today, coming off of the longest shutdown in government history, walk us through how military families are doing right now. How did that shutdown affect them?

Robert Ruark: That’s an absolutely great question. I think the way military families feel is it can certainly affect their confidence in basically in the support of their families. And that’s the big thing is that if their pay is uncertain, then it is absolutely necessary that they have to have a backstop for that. So one of the things that’s come up with a lot of the banks that cater to the military is the Payroll Protection Plan, the PPP. So the banks like USAA, Navy Federal Credit Union, PenFed, PenAir, a lot of them to cater to the military, they have those. And where you can virtually, you got to get signed up for that if you’re basically active duty service member because they can guarantee a great part of that payday. But if you’re not, you talk about stress. I mean, there’s enough stress in military life between inflation, global conflict potential, unplanned deployments that are going on quite a bit right now, housing and gas prices and basic life events that happen to your families, especially when you’re raising a young family with children at a military base and you’re forced to relocate, deploy all the time, your spouse is trying to find work and it’s really difficult to do that. So to not pay a service member, to a service member, in my opinion, is a sin because of what they do for this nation because they’re not necessarily doing it for themselves. They’re doing it because they want to be part of something much bigger and that’s the country and the country that they love. There’s a very mutual relationship there. So you want that confidence. You don’t ever want to lose that confidence. So I think pay has to be there. We were taught when I was a young Marine: pay, mail and food. Pay, mail and chow is what we call it, but you need those three things. Those are rights. And so I think every military service member views it as a right to be paid on time.

Terry Gerton: People who aren’t familiar or haven’t lived a military lifestyle may not understand all of the things that you just walked us through. And that’s, I think, what makes this GivingTuesday campaign so interesting. Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society has partnered for the fourth year in a row with the other military aid societies for GivingTuesday. Tell us about that partnership and what it means for military families who may be facing some of the stresses you just described.

Robert Ruark: I think the best part about the partnership is, as everyone knows in the country that follows the armed forces, we consider ourselves a joint force. And so that should also apply to the military nonprofits. Unfortunately, most of the our nonprofit peers outside the military aren’t really partnered with a lot of people. There’s maybe a few exceptions, of course, but the bottom line is we thought we would do something about four years ago that would be really new. And so we decided to partner to benefit all of us because we fight together, we train together in a joint environment. So we decided on GivingTuesday, the last few years, to the four military aid societies, the Army Emergency Relief, Air Force Aid Society, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance and Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, we would join forces to raise important funds to support military families in need through a different campaign each year. This year’s campaign is ‘Make Giving Your Superpower.’

Terry Gerton: Tell us about that campaign theme and why you chose it.

Robert Ruark: So the campaign is being conducted today on social media with the one-day goal to provide active duty service members and family members with vital emergency relief, financial support and education assistance. Those are the three things that we all have in common that we do to support everybody.

Terry Gerton: And how do you hope folks resonate with that superpower theme?

Robert Ruark: Well, the theme is a challenge to Americans to step up, suit up and make giving your superpower for the heroes who serve this country every day. All the donors need to do is visit the website missiongive.us. We believe our service members are truly superhuman in many ways and this is one way to honor their service. And the money goes straight to those different ways that we all support them. Financial assistance, education assistance, disaster assistance. And it goes primarily to those junior service members, the E-5s and below, with probably about five years or less service and a lot of them are married, they don’t make a lot of money and they’re looking to really improve their lives.

Terry Gerton: I’m speaking with retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Bob Ruark. He’s the president and CEO of the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society. So something that’s really interesting with your campaign this year, you have a major matching gift partner. Tell us about Lockheed Martin’s role in this year’s campaign.

Robert Ruark: Lockheed Martin is the, of course, the global aerospace defense company. About three years ago, they started the $1 million match for all contributions, doubling the impact. That made this not only a competition, but a wonderful thing that very few nonprofits have. And so last year, we raised $1.3 million, which clearly doubled the impact. And so visiting missiongive.us is really what we ask, but that money will go right back out to the troops and especially those that are deployed, the families that are behind and help them with a lot of their needs. For example, financial assistance is our biggest need. And right now, the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society alone, we do $50 million of financial assistance a year, interest-rate loans and grants and we sit and we do budgets. We do financial education. We do everything we can to help them basically make the money or make the dollars go as far as they can.

Terry Gerton: But if someone wants to go beyond giving on GivingTuesday and get involved, what are the opportunities and how might someone become a volunteer with you?

Robert Ruark: Well, there’s enormous opportunities. They can visit one of our offices at one of those 52 major Navy and Marine Corps bases. They can go to nmcrs.org. They can call us. They can email us. We will always accept the volunteers. And the best part about that is the volunteers, in a lot of cases, get some great training. They become caseworkers in financial situations. They can get retail experience in our thrift shops. They can assist the visiting nurse program because it’s in such demand where we make 12,000 patient contacts each year, and they can learn budgeting and be able to do that financial education. So there’s enormous capabilities to grow and we know military spouse unemployment, I should say, is a huge issue. They can get some skills and then hopefully apply those to a real job.

Terry Gerton: Do your volunteers have to be connected to the military or can they be real-life civilians?

Robert Ruark: They can be real life civilians. It is so easy.

Terry Gerton: Well, give us the website one more time.

Robert Ruark: Ours is nmcrs.org and the GivingTuesday website to give to all of us to choose your favorite military aid society is missiongive.us and please thank Lockheed Martin in some way, shape or form because they’re making it happen with a billion-dollar match.

The post This GivingTuesday, one campaign aims to turn generosity into a lifeline for military families first appeared on Federal News Network.

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The United States Navy has opened a new solicitation aimed at expanding corrosion-control work across the surface fleet, outlining assessments, training, and material support for combatant and amphibious ships. The notice, released on December 2, details a program intended to help crews manage long-standing maintenance pressures that continue to affect ship readiness in the Atlantic […]

The United States Navy has awarded Pratt & Whitney a contract worth up to $1.6 billion to sustain the F135 propulsion system used across all variants of the F-35 fighter jet. The undefinitized contract covers a broad range of support activities through November 2026, including global maintenance, spare parts, software updates, and depot repair for […]

Sam LaGrone, editor of USNI News, wrote on Nov. 25 that the United States Navy is canceling most of the Constellation-class frigate program as the service moves toward new classes of small surface combatants that can be delivered more quickly. According to LaGrone’s report, Navy Secretary John Phelan announced the decision Tuesday on social media, […]

United States Navy carrier-based aircraft conducted patrol flights along the coast of Venezuela on Monday, marking the first visible sign that the USS Gerald R. Ford has entered active operations in the Caribbean Sea. The patrol included an E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft and several F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter-bombers. Yesterday, the patrol of the […]

A U.S. Navy vessel operating as part of a coalition task force in the Caribbean issued multiple radio warnings on November 24 to an unidentified aircraft approaching its position in international waters south of Puerto Rico. The aircraft, flying at 18,300 feet and traveling at approximately 278 knots, was tracked on a course of 085º—moving […]

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mahan (DDG-72) conducted operations with the Guyana Defence Force Defiant-class patrol vessel GDFS Shahous (1039) in the Caribbean Sea off Guyana’s eastern coast on November 22, 2025. According to U.S. officials, the deployment supports U.S. Southern Command missions, Department of War-directed operations, and presidential priorities focused on disrupting illicit […]

The Strategic Capabilities Office has issued a new solicitation for the Rapid Affordable Producible Torpedo, or RAPTOR, a next-generation concept for a single-use heavyweight torpedo designed to be produced quickly and at far lower cost than the U.S. Navy’s current inventory. The RAPTOR Solicitation, identified as SCO-PS-26-01, was released on November 17 and amended on […]

Huntington Ingalls Industries has received a series of contract modifications totaling over $142 million to finalize capability enhancements and change orders for the second ship in the Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier program. The U.S. Navy has awarded Huntington Ingalls Incorporated, based in Newport News, Virginia, a combination of contract modifications to support completion of […]

Satellite imagery captured by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 satellite has revealed the current position of U.S. Navy warships conducting joint operations with Trinidad and Tobago’s military forces in the southern Caribbean. The images, dated November 18, confirm the presence of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) in waters north of Venezuela as part […]

A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress conducted a coordinated transit with two Navy warships—USS Gettysburg and USS Stockdale—during a joint, multi-domain operation in the Caribbean Sea on November 13, 2025. According to the U.S. Navy, the strategic bomber flew overhead as the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64) and the Arleigh Burke-class guided […]

The United States Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat a $2.28 billion contract modification to support advance procurement and advance construction of additional Columbia‑class ballistic missile submarine hulls, according to a contract announcement. The modification applies to the previously awarded contract N00024‑17‑C‑2117 and covers work for hull numbers SSBN 828–832, representing upcoming submarines in […]

• A bipartisan group of lawmakers is trying to save the Navy Reserve Center system. They say a provision in the Senate version of the fiscal 2026 defense policy bill would shutter 107 commands that provide administrative support and serve as home for approximately 48,000 Navy reservists across the country. In a letter to the House and Senate Armed Services committees, the lawmakers said if the Navy has issues with the current force structure, the service should identify those issues, present them to Congress along with their plans to fix them.
  (House lawmakers urge Congress not to close Navy reserve centers across the country - Social media platform X)
• One of the longest serving federal agency CIOs has found a new home. Former Agriculture Department chief information officer Gary Washington has left government, but is remaining a part of the federal community. Washington, who served as USDA's CIO for more than seven years before leaving at the end of October, is the new chief strategy officer for the industry group ACT-IAC. Washington has been an active member of ACT-IAC as a federal employee, serving as the president of the American Council for Technology and is a 2006 graduate of the Industry Advisory Council Partners Program. Washington spent more than 25 years in government, also working at OMB, the FDA and Treasury during his career.
  (Former USDA CIO Washington joins ACT-IAC - ACT-IAC)
• The American Postal Workers Union is under new leadership. Jonathan Smith who previously led union members in the New York metro area has been sworn in as APWU’s new national president. Smith ran on a platform focused on fighting back against privatizing, closing or consolidating Postal Service operations. He’s taking over for Mark Dimondstein who led the union for 12 years.
  (Jonathan Smith takes office as APWU national president - American Postal Workers Union)
• Paychecks for Defense Department civilians who haven’t been paid in over a month are slated to be processed on Sunday, while servicemembers are expected to get paid on time. President Trump signed a bill late Wednesday to fund the government through January 30, clearing the way for tens of thousands of Defense Department civilians to return to work. A senior administration official said that checks are scheduled to go out on Sunday, but DoD civilians are being told to expect payment sometime between Monday and mid-week. Agencies have also been told to “take all necessary steps to ensure offices open in a prompt manner on November 13.”
  (DoD civilians to receive back pay Sunday, military pay remains on schedule - Federal News Network)
• Nine Democratic lawmakers of Maryland are asking acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy about the future of NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center. In a letter to Duffy, the legislators asked for details about NASA's plans to consolidate buildings on Goddard's campus in Greenbelt, Maryland. They also are concerned about NASA moving specific technological capabilities away from Goddard. The House and Senate members say actions taken over the last nine months with thousands of civil servants and contractors no longer working at the center threaten the organization's ability to meet its science and exploration missions. The lawmakers want answers to their questions by November 17.
  (Maryland congressional delegation concerned about NASA Goddard's future - Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.))
• Many federal employees are asking when they’ll receive their paychecks, now that the shutdown is over. Federal HR and payroll offices are working to process back pay as soon as possible, but when those checks actually hit employees’ bank accounts will depend on the agency. Feds from the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management will be among the first to receive their retroactive paychecks on Saturday. Others won’t see their checks until next Wednesday, including feds at departments of Agriculture and Treasury, as well as Homeland Security. Both furloughed and excepted federal employees are guaranteed back pay, according to the spending agreement Congress passed on Wednesday.
  (Post-shutdown, here’s how soon federal employees can expect back pay - Federal News Network)
• Two non-profits are joining together to launch a new fellowship program, geared toward enhancing public service. The new opportunity from the National Academy of Public Administration and the Bridge Alliance will focus on public service leadership and civil service reforms. The two organizations have put out a request for proposals from the public this week. The end result of the initiative is expected to be a series of action plans for improvements across government.
  (Fellows for democracy and public service initiative - National Academy of Public Administration, Bridge Alliance)
• The Trump administration is staffing up immigration enforcement, but not the courts that hear these cases. The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act passed this summer gave the Department of Homeland Security billions of dollars to hire 10,000 new Immigration and Enforcement agents, as well as more Customs and Border Protection staff. The legislation also authorizes the Justice Department to hire about 100 immigration judges. But the Trump administration fired nearly that many earlier this year. Recently terminated immigration judges say the courts are severely understaffed and unable to chip away at a backlog of more than three million cases.
  (Immigration courts understaffed and overwhelmed, as Trump administration surges enforcement hiring - Federal News Network)

The post Lawmakers working to save Navy Reserve Center system first appeared on Federal News Network.

© Getty Images/iStockphoto/Oleksii Liskonih

The U.S. Navy’s last Independence-variant littoral combat ship has reached Florida ahead of its commissioning ceremony next week. According to the Navy, USS Pierre (LCS 38) arrived in Panama City, Florida, as preparations continue for its formal entry into the fleet on November 15. Pierre is the nineteenth and final Independence-variant LCS constructed for the […]

Interview transcript:

Terry Gerton Welcome back to this special Veterans Day edition: The best of the Federal Drive with Terry Gerton on Federal News Network. The White House is working to lower the cost of IVF, putting fertility care in the spotlight. But military families often face extra hurdles when trying to start a family, whether it’s deployments, relocations, or the demands of service. New legislation aims to close that gap. To help us understand the medical side of this issue, Federal News Network’s Eric White spoke with Dr. Michael Wittenberger, a reproductive endocrinologist and Navy veteran who spent years treating veterans and their families.

Eric White So obviously, they’re not the only ones that can struggle with infertility, but what is it in particular about military families, where they have even more of an issue getting treatment for it? What are some of the roadblocks of the jobs that they entail that kind of getting in the way? What is what is that you have seen?

Michael Wittenberger The military by its nature is just a different organization completely than what most people are. The military mission takes precedence, and so the military mission often will require that service members are separated from their families. That can be while they are watch-standing, it can be on workups, it can be on deployment. So there’s frequent separations between the partners that are trying to get pregnant. And so using different surveys, there seems to be an increase in the difficulty for military family members in planning and executing a family. And when you look at the prevalence of infertility in the military, it seems like it’s higher than the civilian population. So in addition to these frequent interruptions and the continuity between partners, there’s a number of other things that are inherent to just the military. There’s different jobs that you have, and there’s different expectations for different duty assignment. It’s expected while you’re on sea duty that you don’t try to get pregnant because you’re expected to deploy even though you may be in port and you may not be deployable at that moment. At the time that you’re there, you’re expected not to get pregnant. The other half is okay to get pregnant, but again, there’s other things like access to care. When I retired in 2022, I was one of three active-duty reproductive endocrinologists and infertility specialists in the entire Navy. That’s serving, you know, the approximately 500,000 active-duty Navy and Marines on both coasts and around the world. So you can imagine when there’s just a couple or three specialists that there’s going to be bottlenecks in care. And a lot of times the sailors, the marines, the service members are going to located remotely so there’s not going to a local catchment where they can be seen and taken care of. So another barrier to care is really just a delay in diagnosis for many of them for getting the care, they’ll be out in an area they can’t access care, so they have to wait to come back to a military training facility that actually has a reproductive endocrinologist to try to get access to care. So, you know, a lot of different barriers potentially to care for the military family.

Eric White I guess we can start with your interaction with these patients. Was that a frustration that you heard a lot in treating service members, you know, “it took me two months to get this appointment”? Did some of them seek help outside of their respective military branch?

Michael Wittenberger I would say that’s always been a concern of people trying to access care, is that the delay to get in and see a specialist is hard or that they need to go out and see fertility specialist in the civilian world. The problem with that is that in both cases, TRICARE, they completely covered the diagnostics of trying to diagnose you with infertility, but the treatment options are very limited with TRICARE for active duty. They consist basically of any treatment option that uses coitus as a form of conception. So that means anything with artificial insemination, IVF, fertility preservation in many cases is not covered by TRICARE. So yes, the military members try to access care on the outside. And they find out that they have to cover the bill, and so that’s a huge financial burden for them. Even within the military, there’s a thought that if they can get care at the military treatment facility with a reproductive endocrinologist as active duty, that it’ll be covered. Well, that’s only partially true. So TRICARE has an exception to the lack of coverage that allows them to, for graduate medical education purposes, provide some additional care, like artificial insemination and the monitoring for IVF, the medications for IVF. So it does slightly reduce the cost of IVF, but since there’s no embryology team in any of the military services, there’s still a lot of expenses that the patient needs to contract with the civilian embryology lab or IVF center to actually cover.

Eric White And so let’s finish up here with some of the solutions that have been proposed and other ones that you think could be implemented. There’s legislation in the House from Rep. Sarah Jacobs that is aiming to increase access for military families to this treatment. What do you know about that? And what else could be done to make this an easier process for those that are looking to serve their country, but also want to fulfill their familial wishes?

Michael Wittenberger Sarah Jacobs is a fellow San Diegan, so it’s good to see that she’s really pressing for this. My understanding of the legislation is that it’s been reintroduced in April of this year. It was previously passed through the House, and I think Tammy Duckworth introduced it into the Senate, and both of those were passed and put into last year’s NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act. And then it was scrubbed at the last minute. And so now they’re reintroducing…and my understanding is that this includes basically standard-of-care treatment for active-duty TRICARE recipients and their dependents, which just means that there’s IVF included in this, there’s artificial insemination included in this. And I think it’s three cycles of IVF, unlimited embryo transfers; it doesn’t matter if you’re single or you’re partnered, it’s inclusive there. Now, the great travesty, I think, here is when you look at what’s currently available to our warfighters that are out there sacrificing their lives potentially to build a country for their families, that maybe they end up sacrificing their families. But as soon as they exit…active duty, if they separate, if they retire, now they’re in the VA system and there’s a huge discrepancy at what’s provided by the VA versus what’s providing for active-duty members. So the VA, if you have a fertility-related diagnosis, if you’re currently experiencing infertility in the active-duty forces and you separate and you have fertility-related diagnosis, now you’re eligible for up to six cycles of IVF. Even if you don’t have a fertility-related diagnosis, you’re automatically eligible for artificial insemination. So, you know, the bottom line really is that if you’re active duty and your priority is to start a family and you have a fertility-related diagnosis, it may actually benefit you to leave active duty and go into the VA system to get that care covered without the financial burdens that it causes.

The post Military families face unique barriers to fertility care, and new legislation aims to close the gap first appeared on Federal News Network.

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