Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called for the “highest possible standards” when selecting pilots and air traffic controllers following Wednesday’s deadly plane crash near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth provided a key update on Friday morning following the deadly air crash in Washington, DC, on Wednesday evening. During an interview on Fox & Friends, Hegseth defended President Donald Trump partially blaming DEI for the disaster.

Washington, D.C., newly appointed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the Department of Defense is working alongside a senior-level investigation team from the U.S. Army aviation Center of Excellence to find out what exactly happened in the accident that is believed to have claimed 64 civilian and three soldiers' lives.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he has grounded the Army battalion involved in the operation of the Black Hawk helicopter with three soldiers that crashed into a passenger plane with more than

Senators voted 51-49 to advance Hegseth's defense secretary bid, which has been mired in several controversies. Two Republicans oppose him.

Gen. Mark Milley, a frequent target Trump’s, will lose his security detail and face an inspector general investigation, said a senior defense official.

A Princeton and Harvard-educated former combat veteran, Hegseth went on to make a career at Fox News, where he hosted a weekend show. Trump tapped him as the defense secretary to lead an organization with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of $850 billion.

Senators vetting the nomination of Pete Hegseth for defense secretary received an affidavit from a former sister-in-law alleging that the onetime Fox News was abusive to his second wife to the point where she feared for her safety.

Like many Pentagon chiefs who have come before him, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is standing up a task force to support his top priority for the department. In this case, it’s rooting out policies, education, and training that relate to diversity-equity-inclusion efforts—including a few that don’t actually exist.

Air crash investigations can take months, and federal investigators told reporters they would not speculate on the cause.