The Pentagon is considering making significant cuts to the top of the U.S. military as the Trump administration seeks to shrink the federal government, according to a briefing document obtained by CNN and a U.S. defense official. The plans under consideration include consolidating combatant commands, possibly eliminating a directorate that oversees development, training, and education for the joint force, and halting the expansion of U.S. Forces Japan.
President Trump said on March 19 that the Iran-backed Houthi militant group in Yemen would be “completely annihilated” by U.S. military strikes and warned Tehran to “immediately” stop supplying it with military equipment and general support and “let the Houthis fight it out themselves.”
The Trump administration is evaluating plans for the Pentagon to take control of a buffer zone along a sprawling stretch of the southern border and empower active-duty U.S. troops to temporarily hold migrants who cross into the United States illegally, according to five U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations.
Military officials are reviewing plans that would cut the number of U.S. troops deployed to the Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba to handle detained migrants by as much as half, because there are no detainees there now and the program has stumbled during legal challenges, The Associated Press has learned.
Some Airmen are scouring thrift stores and other outlets to find proper attire as the Air Force ramps up uniform inspections ahead of a new policy requiring quarterly checks. Quarterly inspections begin March 31 and unit commanders began scheduling inspections shortly after receiving the Jan. 30 memo from Lt. Gen. Scott L. Pleus, Air Force director of staff. That led to a surge in demand for certain required uniform items.
The U.S. Space Force released a new strategy blueprint outlining how it plans to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into its operations and improve AI literacy among its personnel. The document, titled “Data and Artificial Intelligence FY 2025 Strategic Action Plan,” was published March 19 in response to Defense Department directives calling for a more data-driven and AI-enabled force.
The Navy plans to send a second warship to patrol the waters off the U.S. by the end of this week after a destroyer was deployed on Saturday as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration and the border, a U.S. official confirmed to Military.com on March 19.
The leader of a war-torn African nation has put a deal on the table for President Trump: Help his country defeat a powerful rebel force in exchange for access to a trove of minerals needed by U.S. high-tech firms. In a Feb. 8 letter to Trump, Félix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, offered mining opportunities for the U.S. Sovereign Wealth Fund, an entity Trump had launched a few days earlier.
Ukraine claims to be one of the first countries to have successfully developed a laser anti-aircraft weapon, according to a high-ranking military official. The secretive device has reportedly been employed on the battlefield against low-flying targets, likely unmanned aerial vehicles like the Iranian-made Shahed drones.
As drones continue to reshape the nature of warfare, the limitations on range and power are becoming the difference between success and defeat on the battlefield. Now, an Israel-based drone company and U.S. manufacturing company Mach Industries are working together to co-produce hydrogen fuel cell powered drones, which offer big advantages in range but have previously faced challenges that have kept them from the battlefield.
The Pentagon’s new marching orders to buy software as fast as commercial companies do has the contracting workforce feeling a bit anxious, which is a sign that major cultural change is needed, a top defense official said March 18.
As the Defense Department anticipates the wireless networks of the future for warfighting missions, it has shifted its focus for research and development primarily to 6G wireless technologies, Marlan Macklin, deputy principal director for the Pentagon’s FutureG Office, said March 19.
The U.S. Space Force has taken steps to ensure Guardians and civilian leaders are able to attend this year’s April 7-10 Space Foundation Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., in the wake of the Trump administration’s Feb. 26 executive order restricting “non-essential” travel by federal officials that negatively impacted other recent aerospace trade shows.
The Canadian space program is growing at a hypersonic pace. NordSpace, the Ontario-based space tech startup, is establishing the Supersonic and Hypersonic Applications Research Platform (SHARP), which aims to grow the country’s hypersonic capabilities with three new products.
The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, is pushing for member states to spend more on joint defense procurement within the 27-nation bloc, as part of a plan to build up a credible military deterrent against Russia by 2030.
An analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins University has revealed that military families are much more likely to homeschool their children than civilians. It also suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t exert as much of an influence on military families' choice to do so. The researchers identified military families as one of the special groups whose motivations to homeschool might help explain why households in the wider population do it.
