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Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth is launching an office of religious affairs, the latest of his faith-related reforms at the Pentagon. He announced in a speech Wednesday that the office will help offer "first-class religious support" and will report directly to him. "Our department is, you might say, putting on the full armour of God, because while we wage physical war, we all know the real battle is spiritual," he said. Hegseth has infused his evangelical Christianity into his leadership of the Pentagon, hosting Christian worship services for employees and often speaking of the United States as a Christian nation. The Office of Religious Affairs, or ORA, will advocate for military chaplains and religious support "at the highest level of the Department," according to a Pentagon statement. It will not "compel religious participation, favour one faith, or diminish the rights of personnel of any faith or lack thereof." Some criticism of the initiative surfaced quickly. The Pentagon "o
President Donald Trump on Sunday ordered the Pentagon to scale back joint exercises with South Korea after he said it declined to help denuclearise Iran. The announcement comes days before one of two scheduled large-scale joint annual exercises between South Korean and US troops are set to begin this week . It also comes just days after North Korea resumed ballistic missile testing activities that are banned by the UN. The allies have said the 11-day exercises are meant to strengthen their readiness against threats from North Korea, and reiterated that they are defensive in nature.
The Pentagon is pressing the US defence industry to accelerate production of weapons to help replenish its diminished stockpile of munitions, including those depleted in the ongoing war with Iran. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Saturday that the department was actively focused on boosting munitions acquisitions to provide "the weapons our warfighters need at the pace the threat demands." He confirmed department efforts in the last week to significantly speed the process but insisted it was part of a broader modernisation effort that predated the five-month-old conflict. Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg wrote to industry leaders on Wednesday, giving them no more than 21 days to submit plans to "drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities," according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post. "Years-long development cycles are not acceptable," Feinberg wrote. "We must dramatically ...
The White House has formally requested USD 87.6 billion mostly to replenish the Pentagon after the US war against Iran, submitting the request to Congress at a politically difficult time as a majority of lawmakers have objected to any further military action. The Office of Management and Budget sent the supplemental spending request Wednesday. It arrived just hours after President Donald Trump assailed Republican senators during a private lunch -- engaging in a shouting match with one -- over their votes to approve a war powers resolution that would halt further hostilities. The request is mostly for Operation Epic Fury, but it also includes a range of other items including aid to American farmers, help for the Ebola crisis in Africa and other needs closer to home, including restoration projects in Washington, D.C. "I urge the Congress to take action on these important and urgent requests as soon as possible," said OMB Director Russ Vought in a letter to House Speaker Mike ...
The Pentagon has told senators it needs roughly USD 80 billion, mostly to cover the cost of the US war against Iran, adding to what is already a sizable military spending boost being sought by President Donald Trump. The White House Office of Management and Budget has yet to make a formal request to Congress. But Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill, including Monday evening. A top deputy defence secretary told senators about the Iran funding request last week, according to two people familiar with the situation but not authorised to discuss it publicly. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the developments. Push for Pentagon money faces skeptical lawmakers --------------------------------------------------------- The push for billions of dollars in Iran war funding comes at a fraught political moment. Lawmakers are skeptical of the deal Trump struck with Iran to bring an end to the war, and wary of next steps. The White House has reques
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that America's allies in Europe must take the lead on the defence of their own continent and help turn NATO into "a read hard-line military alliance." At a meeting of NATO defence ministers, Hegseth called for a reboot of the 32-nation organisation to turn it into a "NATO 3.0" capable of deterring any threat. His remarks came a few weeks after the United States told its allies that it would no longer supply certain warships and aircraft if one of them comes under attack. European allies and Canada are trying to work out how to plug the gaps. "NATO 3.0 is post-Cold War recognition that (NATO) needs to go back to a real hard-line military alliance that has real military capabilities capable of deterring right here on the continent and taking the lead for the conventional defence of Europe," Hegseth said. As part of that, he told reporters, the United States would be investing $1.5 trillion in its own defence in 2027, sending "a message
The Department of Defense has announced that a significant reduction in the number of religious affiliations it officially recognises. The new list of 31 is down from more than 200 previously recognised traditions that troops could choose from. The list no longer includes atheists, Unitarian Universalists, pagans and Wiccans. "This decrease in religious affiliation codes is not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief, nor is it intended to provide a list of officially approved' religions," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. "Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups." Parnell added the department values the free exercise of religion and chaplains facilitate service members' "ability to freely exercise their religion of choice, or no religion at all." The list creates bro
In another of a series of moves restricting media access at the Pentagon, the Defense Department has declared that its press office is now a classified space inaccessible to journalists. On X, acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez confirmed the move, saying there was "nothing controversial" about it and that it came because speechwriters, who use classified material, were now occupying the space. "The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility," Valdez wrote. "These speechwriters routinely handle classified material as a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space. There's nothing controversial about that." The latest move, first reported by The Washington Post, took place against a backdrop of escalating tensions between the U.S. media and the second Trump administration, which has played out both in the public ar