Fireworks and light shows are held at the Champs-Elysees during the New Year celebrations in Paris, France on January 1, 2025. (Photo by Luc Auffret/Anadolu via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Big changes are on the horizon, but no one really knows what they will be.
Talking with members of the national security community in the two months since Donald Trump won the November presidential election, that’s the clearest consensus: Trump and his team will be making major moves to the world of defense, but exactly what that’s going to look like is, for now, guess work.
That uncertainty is reflected in the collection of pieces by the Breaking Defense staff, looking forward to 2025. But it also permeates the team’s reflections on 2024, which was a year in which the presidential election kept everything in limbo. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t news — we published almost 2,000 stories, op-eds and features on the site, and the editors have dark circles under our eyes to prove it. But 2024 felt like a transition year, and 2025 is going to be the payoff, in whatever form it takes.
Each December I ask the staff to use the end of the year to reflect on their favorite stories from the year. In case you missed any of the year in review pieces, here’s your handy roundup:
A roundup of each reporter’s Top 5 stories from 2024:
- The Navy’s never-ending quest for 355 ships: 5 Navy stories from 2024
- From drone red tape to an aviation shake up: 5 Army stories from 2024
- From a runaway ICBM price tag to AI dogfighting: 5 air warfare stories from 2024
- Peeking behind the veil: 5 revelatory space stories from 2024
- From Boeing’s struggles to inflation relief funds: 5 industry stories from 2024
- From a ‘lightbulb’ moment to a ‘sense of urgency’: 5 cyber and network stories from 2024
- Killer Apps: 5 stories highlight quiet progress on military AI and CJADC2
- From Japan’s build-up to stumbles in the Lucky Country: 5 Pacific stories for 2024
- The terror of war, a helo crash mystery and the business of defense: 5 Middle East stories from 2024
- Everything comes down to Ukraine: 5 stories from Europe in 2024
The biggest takeaways from 2024:
- Tensions between Navy and industry in the spotlight: 2024 in review
- A year of next-gen fighter doubts for the Air Force: 2024 in review
- Space Force gets loud and proud about warfighting role: 2024 in review
- Army halted weapon development and pushed tech to soldiers faster: 2024 in review
- How the Pentagon domesticated the chatbot: 2024 in review
- DoD keeps pushing for the next-gen of IT and cyber systems: 2024 in review
- Defense spending stagnates as election dominates US politics: 2024 in review
- Russia doubled down on nuclear threats in Europe: 2024 in review
- Middle East was defined by regional conflicts and increased indigenous production: 2024 in review
- China stirred the Pacific pot, Japan powered up and Aussie AUKUS anxiety emerged: 2024 in review
What to look for in 2025:
- Defense industry could see big shakeup under Trump: 2025 Preview
- For the Navy, all eyes will be on the China-Taiwan question: 2025 preview
- From a new civilian leader to modernization priorities, Army changes afoot: 2025 preview
- Trump administration inherits Air Force funding hurdle: 2025 preview
- For the Space Force, terrestrial turf wars and rising budgets await: 2025 preview
- Pacific political turmoil, AUKUS, and the looming Taiwan deadline: 2025 preview
- The future of Syria, Lebanon and geopolitical moves in the Middle East to come: 2025 preview
- CMMC 2.0 and the possibility of a cyber service: 2025 preview
- Europe braces for Trump’s second term: 2025 preview
2025 is going to be another busy one, both from a news perspective and for Breaking Defense, as we launch a new weekly video series and continue to deliver the best coverage of the defense sector out there.
It’s going to be a bump ride in spots, but we’ll be there to guide you through. Happy new year, and thanks for reading.
