Military

WASHINGTON -- The Defense Department is consulting with health officials and the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the possibility of making COVID-19 vaccinations a requirement of military service. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement Thursday he is trying... Read More

The U.S. combat mission in Iraq will conclude by the end of the year, President Joe Biden announced Monday. However the president would not say whether he planned to reduce the number of troops in Iraq, which now number about... Read More

National Guard leaders are preparing to furlough civilians and cancel training events and drills slated for August and September to cover costs incurred by responding to the Jan. 6 siege on Capitol Hill. The guard’s mission formally ended in May,... Read More

WASHINGTON -- A proposal that would expedite visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. military glided through a congressional hearing Monday as the urgency grows to save them. As U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan, some Afghans who helped the U.S.... Read More

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan relinquished his position at a ceremony in the capital Kabul on Monday, taking the United States a step closer to ending its 20-year war. The move came as Taliban insurgents... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday said the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan will conclude on Aug. 31, saying "speed is safety" as the United States seeks to end the nearly 20-year war. "We did not go to... Read More

Spouses of military reservists feel they are healthy and financially comfortable, but more of them complained of stress and loneliness in a survey released Tuesday by the Department of Defense. The survey of Reserve Component Spouses is conducted every two... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military, under the direction of President Joe Biden, carried out airstrikes against what it said were "facilities used by Iran-backed militia groups" near the border between Iraq and Syria, drawing condemnation from Iraq's military and... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Roughly 650 U.S. troops are expected to remain in Afghanistan to provide security for diplomats after the main American military force completes its withdrawal, which is set to be largely done in the next two weeks, U.S.... Read More

The National Guard is asking Congress to reimburse $521 million it says it spent in responding to the Jan. 6 siege on Capitol Hill and the extended protection it provided in the months that followed. Gen. Daniel Hohanson said during... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is on the brink of success in her yearslong campaign to get sexual assault cases removed from the military chain of command. But getting over the finish line may depend on whether she can... Read More

WASHINGTON- The U.S. Department of Defense has released its plan for the nearly $2.2 billion in funds that were redirected for the border wall under the Trump administration. The money will go to a broad set of improvements related to... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department may seek authorization to carry out airstrikes if the capital of Kabul or any other major city in Afghanistan is in danger of falling to the Taliban after the U.S. completes the withdrawal of its... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Air Force announced it has designated the United States Space Force as the lead service for its “Rocket Cargo Vanguard Program,” a science and technology effort intended to determine the viability of large commercial... Read More

The Pentagon signed an agreement to expand the production of more efficient syringes, which it announced on Monday, as part of the country’s national response to coronavirus.  According to the agreement, the U.S. allocated $27.3 million in government funding to... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday passed a pair of bills that would limit the president’s ability to expand military operations in the Middle East by repealing decades-old Authorizations for the Use of Military Force, or AUMFs.... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Defense Department officials tried to reassure sometimes skeptical members of the Senate Thursday that the ongoing U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan can be completed without a resurgence of terrorist threats. President Joe Biden last month ordered the withdrawal... Read More

The conception of the United States Space Force developed from the bipartisan consensus that the country needed enhanced military capabilities in the domain of space. When President Ronald Reagan first announced the “Strategic Defense Initiative” in 1983, the concept was... Read More

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Dreading your eventual return to the office? The federal government is making available — for free — some waterfront workspaces with killer views that are sure to entice. But there's a catch. The General Services Administration... Read More

The battle was joined on a Monday night. It was shortly after 7 p.m. on June 14, 1971, when a seething President Richard Nixon telephoned his attorney general, John Mitchell, and told him it was time to make the administration’s... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Defense experts portrayed a bleak outlook Tuesday during a congressional hearing for risks to the United States and the world from weapons of mass destruction. No recent example is better than the COVID-19 pandemic, which is fast approaching... Read More

WASHINGTON — Members of the Senate Intelligence Committee were warned by CIA Director William Burns that American intelligence operations in Afghanistan will be kneecapped by the United States’ imminent withdrawal from the region.  Burns, confirmed as the head of the... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Defense Department is seeking comments on risks to the supply chain for strategic and critical materials. In February, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the Defense Department and three other federal agencies to closely examine... Read More

BRUSSELS (AP) — At its start, America's war in Afghanistan was about retribution for 9/11. Then it was about shoring up a weak government and its weak army so that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida could never again threaten the United... Read More

WASHINGTON - U.S. military forces will leave Afghanistan by Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Biden administration officials revealed Tuesday. President Joe Biden is expected to formally announce the plan,... Read More

Lt. General H.R. McMaster wants you to know he's not a military drone. Despite a long, high-profile career in the military, he has criticisms of American foreign policy, and he expressed those criticisms even when he was in the military.... Read More

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — The United States Space Force announced Thursday it will establish a Space Systems Command headquarters at Los Angeles Air Force Base to oversee and coordinate all military space programs. The Space Systems Command of the USSF... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon on Wednesday swept away Trump-era policies that largely banned transgender people from serving in the military, issuing new rules that offer them wider access to medical care and assistance with gender transition. The new department... Read More

This week the first-ever west African joint ops brought together counterterrorism investigators and their judicial counterparts across Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. The training took place across all three countries with cross-country coordination "where appropriate," according to a written statement... Read More

WASHINGTON - Reps. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., are leading a bipartisan effort to award so-called “Dust Off” crews of the Vietnam War with the Congressional Gold Medal.  Dust Off crewmembers - helicopter air ambulance pilots, crew... Read More