A senior defense official said Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks was not notified until Thursday that Austin had been hospitalized since Jan. 1.
President Joe Biden met virtually on Monday with the chief executive of Lockheed Martin and other companies to spur forward a bill to boost semiconductor production in the United States.
The Pentagon has modeled a new high-level team to rush military aid to Ukraine after the group it used to rush supplies to troops in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, according to a memo obtained by Defense News and sources familiar with the matter.
President Biden says he will send $800 million more in military aid to help Ukraine, adding that as his authority to draw from U.S. military stockpiles surpasses $3 billion, he will need to ask Congress for more funding.