Israel hit Gaza with a series of “extensive strikes” overnight March 18, vowing to open the “gates of hell” because Hamas has not released the remaining hostages. At least 424 Palestinians were killed in the strikes, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Israel will act against Hamas “with increasing intensity” from now on, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on March 18 blocked the Pentagon from implementing President Trump’s executive order that excludes transgender individuals from serving openly in the military, the latest legal setback for Trump as he tries to carry out one of his core policy priorities. Judge Ana Reyes said Trump’s executive order was likely unconstitutional.
Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to a partial 30-day ceasefire of attacks on energy infrastructure with Ukraine on March 18, conceding little to President Donald Trump but keeping negotiations open for a broader deal to end the conflict.
Russia significantly stepped up its sabotage campaign over the past two years as it sought to pressure Europe and the United States to curb their support for Ukraine, according to a new study. The report, by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, is one of the first that try to quantify the scale of Moscow’s covert campaign that targeted undersea cables, warehouses, and railways.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on March 18 announced a radar purchase from Australia and an expansion of military operations in the Arctic while visiting Canada’s far north in an effort to assert sovereignty over the increasingly contested region. The prime minister’s office said the Canadian $6 billion ($4.2 billion) Over-the-Horizon Radar system will provide early warning radar coverage from the Canada-United States border into the Arctic.
Defense Department leaders announced shipyards, depots, and medical treatment facilities will be exempted from a department-wide hiring freeze because of their critical role in military readiness, in response to a growing outcry over the planned workforce reforms.
The Pentagon attempted to reassure its international partners in the F-35 program that there is no “kill switch” on the stealth fighter jet that the US could use to render it ineffective—the latest signal that there are real concerns abroad about American stewardship of the program amid tensions with historical allies.
The U.S. Space Force is preparing for a significant pivot in its technology acquisition strategy, signaling a willingness to abandon traditional procurement models in favor of commercially available solutions and allied technologies, according to Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael Guetlein.
The U.S. Navy is set to help integrate the AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) onto the F-16 Viper fighter, giving those jets a huge enhancement in anti-ship capability. This comes amid a larger U.S. push to expand the total number of platforms that can launch the stealthy LRASMs with a particular eye on helping to prepare for a potential major conflict in the Pacific.
The Army is wholeheartedly embracing the idea that artificial intelligence will play a role on the battlefield—but don’t expect robots to replace soldiers everywhere. What service leaders would like is to send a robot out to clear a building or lay a line charge to detonate an obstacle, Gen. James Rainey, head of Army Futures Command, told an audience March 18 at the McAleese defense conference outside Washington.
The last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, John "Paddy" Hemingway, has died at the age of 105. Mr. Hemingway, who was originally from Dublin, joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a teenager before World War II. At 21, he was a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain, a three-month period when air force personnel defended the skies against a large-scale assault by the German air force, the Luftwaffe.
