Pentagon

WASHINGTON - As Congress continues to worry about the nation’s cybersecurity, a key high-ranking military witness during a Senate hearing Wednesday said he was “concerned about the pace” of building an adequate cybersecurity workforce.  When Congress tasked the Department of... 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

WASHINGTON - In his first press conference as Pentagon chief, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, said an end to U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan depends entirely on the Taliban reducing attacks on NATO forces. “Clearly the violence is too high right... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Wednesday called on the Pentagon to conduct a review of of the United States' national security strategy on China. The decision, announced during the president's first visit to the Defense Department, comes amid a... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid worry about renewed violence on Inauguration Day, the military's top leaders issued a written reminder to all service members Tuesday that the deadly insurrection at the Capitol last week was an anti-democratic, criminal act, and that... Read More

WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden announced Kathleen Hicks and Colin Kahl as his nominees for deputy secretary of defense and under secretary of defense for policy on Wednesday.  If confirmed to the positions, they are slated to join Secretary of... Read More

WASHINGTON — In the fourth session of their ongoing virtual national security briefing series entitled “National Security in the Shadow of COVID-19,” Reps. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., and John Katko, R-N.Y., hosted retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster to discuss how the... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress sought assurances from investigators Wednesday that the kind of behavioral and criminal offenses that have plagued Fort Hood, Texas, in recent years can be brought to an end. By the end of the congressional hearing,... Read More

WASHINGTON — The House voted 335-78 on Tuesday to adopt a final version of the $731.6 billion defense authorization measure, setting up a possible end-of-year showdown as President Donald Trump has vowed to veto the legislation. House leaders have said they would cut the upcoming... Read More

WASHINGTON — A senior Defense Department official resigned on Tuesday, opening the way for a longtime ally of President Donald Trump to take on a key leadership role a day after Pentagon chief Mark Esper was fired. James Anderson, the acting deputy undersecretary of defense for policy,... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's decision to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday raised concerns that he may be planning far-reaching military moves in his final weeks in office — and is putting in place new leadership more inclined to go along. Trump named Christopher... Read More

SAN ANTONIO – The military’s newest branch, the United States Space Force, swore in its first recruits Tuesday, Oct. 20. Seven recruits, five men and two women, will commence the force’s inaugural boot camp at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland for... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans commemorated 9/11 Friday as a new national crisis — the coronavirus pandemic — reconfigured and divided anniversary ceremonies and a presidential campaign carved a path through the observances. In New York, victims' relatives gathered Friday... Read More

WASHINGTON – Two members of Congress have penned letters requesting a probe into the Pentagon’s decision to grant a multibillion dollar moving contract to American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier Group Inc. The three-year, $7.2 billion contract would privately outsource the management... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday canceled at the last minute the nomination hearing for Anthony J. Tata, President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to be the Pentagon’s policy chief. Tata, a retired Army brigadier general and regular... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is winding down the U.S. military presence in Germany, and relocating some, but not all of those troops closer to the Russian border, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced Wednesday. The decision marks a major force restructuring... Read More

WASHINGTON — House appropriators approved a $115.5 billion Military Construction-VA spending bill Thursday on a 30-20 vote, with Texas Republican Will Hurd joining Democrats to advance the legislation to the floor. The rest of the panel’s Republicans opposed Democrats’ decision to add $12.5 billion... Read More

WASHINGTON — Abandoning decades of resistance, the Pentagon signaled Monday that it is open to stripping the names of Confederate heroes off Fort Hood and nine other Army posts, including one named for the rebels’ top general, Robert E. Lee.... Read More

WASHINGTON — Glenn Fine, a top official in the Pentagon inspector general’s office, stepped down Tuesday in the latest installment of a recent drama over internal oversight in the Trump administration. Fine, who is one of five inspectors general to... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump moved swiftly this month to replace inspectors general across the government. Now Trump’s nominees for these watchdog jobs face questions about whether they will bark when needed, especially if Trump wants silence. Arguably the most... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has quietly asked Congress to reverse key parts of a recent law that tightened the rules governing retired Defense Department officials influencing their former government colleagues on behalf of defense contractors. Three years ago, Washington enacted... Read More

WASHINGTON — Top members of the House Armed Services Committee assailed Pentagon leaders Wednesday, warning that the administration’s reprogramming of $3.8 billion of Defense Department money for a border wall could damage its relationship with Congress. Echoing a letter they... Read More

WASHINGTON - A Pentagon proposal to cut funding for Stars and Stripes is causing an uproar among media organizations and reporters covering the Defense Department who contend the independent newspaper remains a vital source of information for military personnel stationed... Read More

WASHINGTON — At least 64 U.S. military personnel in Iraq suffered brain trauma in an Iranian missile attack launched in retaliation after President Donald Trump ordered the killing of an Iranian general. The 64 service members — 14 more than... Read More

WASHINGTON — The United States has made “no decision whatsoever” to pull troops out of Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday after a Defense Department memo to an Iraqi military official surfaced discussing moving U.S. forces. The comments came... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon made plans Monday to send an additional 2,500 U.S. Marines to the Middle East, the latest fallout from President Donald Trump’s order to kill a powerful Iranian general last week, but one that could increase the... Read More

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan quartet of House members is urging national security officials to start an investigation into whether foreign adversaries are engaging in an effort to incite anti-Semitism and civil unrest across the United States. Democratic Reps. Kathleen Rice,... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon should temporarily suspend training for foreign fighters after a Saudi air force officer shot and killed trainees last week at a U.S. base in Florida, two Republican lawmakers said. A top U.S. official said the attack... Read More

WASHINGTON - A high-ranking Defense Department official acknowledged during a Senate hearing Thursday that the U.S. government is considering sending more troops to the Middle East to counter an Iranian military buildup. “We’re concerned about the threat stream we’re seeing,”... Read More

NEW YORK — Defense Secretary Mark Esper asked and received the resignation of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer on Sunday over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq, the Pentagon said in a... Read More