JOHN ROOD

Space company Momentus debuted on the Nasdaq on Friday, completing a nearly year-long and turbulent merger process.

(Tom Williams/Pool via AP, File)WASHINGTON – A day after President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, three staunch loyalists to the president were named to top defense jobs. Patel and Cohen-Watnick are both considered staunchly loyal to Trump and previously worked at the National Security Council. He also is a former prosecutor in the national security division of the Department of Justice and former staff member on the House Intelligence Committee. Cohen-Watnick was a protégé of Trump’s initial national security adviser, Michael Flynn, but was replaced in the summer of 2017 by Flynn’s successor, H.R. McMaster, as part of a string of shakeups at the White House and National Security Council.

Gen. Anthony Tata to a job performing the duties of the deputy undersecretary for defense policy, amid ongoing furor over offensive remarks Tata made, including about Islam. Last week the Senate canceled a hearing on Tata's nomination to become defense undersecretary for policy, the third-highest civilian post at the Pentagon. Tata, who also has been a Fox News commentator, withdrew his name from consideration for the undersecretary job over the weekend, and was then appointed by Trump to serve in the deputy's post. James Anderson, who had been serving as Rood's deputy, is currently the acting policy undersecretary the job Tata was initially nominated to fill. Officials who carry the acting title have more authority than those who are performing the duties of the job.

FILE PHOTO: Acting Undersecretary of State John Rood gestures during a news conference after talks between U.S. and Russian diplomats in Budapest February 21,2008. REUTERS/Laszlo BaloghJohn Rood, the under secretary of defense for policy, will step down from the Pentagons No. 3 job at the end of the month, the Department of Defense said separately in a statement, without offering a reason. One of the measures floated involved expanding the governments ability to block exports to telecom equipment giant Huawei, which was placed on a trade blacklist last year over national security concerns. Following Trumps acquittal, the White House moved quickly to oust key officials whose testimony was seen as hurting his case, including ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland and National Security Council staffer Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman.

REUTERS/Antonio Parrinello/File PhotoLow-yield nuclear weapons, while still devastating, have a strength of less than 20 kilotons. A 2018 Pentagon document called for the military to expand its low-yield nuclear capability, saying the United States would modify a small number of submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads with low-yield options. Arms control advocates and some lawmakers have argued that such low-yield weapons reduce the threshold for potentially using nuclear weapons and could make a nuclear conflict more likely. The United States already has air-launched, low-yield nuclear weapons and critics say that should be sufficient. The Federation of American Scientists said last week that the Navy was scheduled to deploy the low-yield warhead on the USS Tennessee in the Atlantic Ocean.

Low-yield nuclear weapons, while still devastating, have a strength of less than 20 kilotons. A 2018 Pentagon document called for the military to expand its low-yield nuclear capability, saying the United States would modify a small number of submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads with low-yield options. Arms control advocates and some lawmakers have argued that such low-yield weapons reduce the threshold for potentially using nuclear weapons and could make a nuclear conflict more likely. The United States already has air-launched low-yield nuclear weapons and critics say that should be sufficient. The Federation of American Scientists said last week that the Navy was scheduled to deploy the low-yield warhead on the USS Tennessee in the Atlantic Ocean.