This Week in DOW: Celebrating Year 1 of the New Admin, Seizing Illicit Vessels, Tackling Fraud

View Online This Week in DOW: Celebrating Year 1 of the New Admin, Seizing Illicit Vessels, Tackling Fraud Jan. 23, 2026 |  By Matthew Olay This week, the War Department celebrated one full year since the current administration assumed office and immediately embraced a new philosophy. "From defending America's borders and fighting narco-terrorism, to changes in culture and business operations to better build the nation's Arsenal of Freedom, President Donald Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have spent the past year ushering in a new era characterized by peace through strength," Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson said yesterday during the department's Weekly Sitrep video. She went on to say that since last January, the department has worked to restore the warrior ethos, make a more lethal military, reestablish deterrence and improve the quality of life for military families.  "Our work here is just getting started, and we are honored to serve our warfighters and the American people," Wilson said.  A full list of the War Department's accomplishments since Inauguration Day 2025 is available here.  On Jan. 20, U.S. forces operating in support of the Department of Homeland Security, as part of Operation Southern Spear, seized a seventh sanctioned oil tanker with suspected ties to Venezuela.  The motor tanker Sagitta was apprehended without incident.  Sagitta was operating in defiance of the president's established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean, Wilson said, adding the oil tanker's seizure demonstrates U.S. resolve to ensure that oil leaving Venezuela is coordinated both lawfully and properly. "As the joint force operates in the Western Hemisphere, we reaffirm the security of the American people as paramount, demonstrating our commitment to safety and stability," she added.  Also this week, Hegseth announced via social media that the War Department would begin an immediate, line-by-line review of sole-source small business Pentagon contracts associated with the U.S. Small Business Administration's 8(a) Business Development Program. Hegseth said the program was created to assist "small, disadvantaged businesses owned by a socially disadvantaged individual or tribe," and labeled it as the oldest diversity, equity and inclusion program in the federal government, which has long since become a breeding ground for fraud.  That fraud, according to Hegseth, takes the form of sole-source small businesses taking a 10%-50% fee off the top of acquired contracts, then passing those contracts off to large consulting firms without the small businesses doing any actual work on them.  Noting the War Department holds the lion's share of the federal government's 8(a) contracts, Hegseth said that the Pentagon will take a two-pronged approach during its review.  "First, if a contract doesn't make us more lethal, it's gone. We have no room in our budget for wasteful DEI contracts that don't help us win wars," Hegseth said.  He added the second stage of the review would entail ensuring that all 8(a) small businesses contracting with the Pentagon were actually performing the work outlined in the contract and not acting as shell companies that funnel the contracts to large firms.  Hegseth made it clear that the review was in no way meant to hurt legitimate small businesses.  "America is full of great, amazing small businesses. This is part of a larger effort to transform our acquisition ecosystem into one that makes sense for the threats we face in the 21st century," he said.

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