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Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced some major changes to the US military on Wednesday in what he called his "State of the Force" address, including establishing a new drone command and cutting 20 per cent of the nation's generals and admirals. The Pentagon also will launch an effort to study the future of warfare that will be led in part by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Hegseth said. The Defence Department will create an Office of Religious Affairs and plans to build a new base for the first time in 40 years, he added. Hegseth made the announcements to junior officers and enlisted leaders at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia - the second year in a row that he has given such an address. But this time, the US military is seven months into a war with Iran with no clear end in sight, has captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and killed more than 200 people in strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in Latin America, among ...
Taiwan's defence minister said Tuesday that existing US arms sales to Taiwan remain unchanged, and that Taipei remains in talks with the US over individual deals. A record USD 14 billion arms package to the island, however, remains stalled. The minister's remarks come as concerns mount that President Donald Trump could halt arms sales to Taiwan. China has pressed Washington to halt the arms sales, most prominently during a May summit in Beijing between Trump and China's President Xi Jinping. The United States paused the USD 14 billion arms deal after that meeting. "As for arms sales, we are in continuous discussions with the Americans on this," Taiwan's Defence Minister Wellington Koo told reporters in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. "We haven't received any notice of any changes to sales or our cooperation." Koo said he received assurances from the US side that its policy towards the island remained unchanged. Koo also said that 66 advanced F16-V fighter jets have reached
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 Chinese tech giant Alibaba has sued the US Department of Defence, demanding that it be removed from the Pentagon's list of Chinese military companies that prohibits them from landing US defense contracts and carries reputational damage. In the petition filed this week in the San Jose division of the US District Court in the Northern District of California, Alibaba, which is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, argued that the designation, announced on June 8, has "no basis in fact or law" and that the Pentagon failed to reach its conclusion through any fair process. It is the latest lawsuit by a Chinese company against the Pentagon over such national security labels. In 2021, with some in Washington seeing China as a growing military threat, Congress asked the department to create a list of Chinese companies directly controlled by the Chinese military and security forces, as well as those it believed had contributed to the country's defense industrial base. The curre
The US military said it carried out another strike on Friday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the third attack this week and pushing the overall death toll above 200 people. US Southern Command announced the latest strike in the monthslong campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific with its usual language that the vessel was "engaged in narco-trafficking operations" and operated by a designated terrorist organisation. It provided no evidence. While the military's social media announcements always include video of the attacks, this appears to be the first with the footage in colour instead of black and white. The video shows a small vessel floating in the ocean before it is hit and engulfed in a fireball. It cuts to what could be the boat in flames, surrounded by a large plume of parcels or some other objects spread around it in the water. The attack puts the death toll at 202 people from
Navy Secretary John Phelan is leaving his job, the Pentagon abruptly announced Wednesday, the first head of a military service to depart during President Donald Trump's second term but just the latest top defense leader to step down or be ousted. No reason was given for the unexpected departure of the Navy's top civilian official, coming as the sea service has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports and is targeting ships linked to Tehran around the world during a tenuous ceasefire in the war. Another Trump loyalist is taking over as acting head of the Navy: Undersecretary Hung Cao, a 25-year Navy combat veteran who ran unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. Senate and House in Virginia. Phelan's departure is the latest in a series of shakeups of top leadership at the Pentagon, coming just weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired the Army's top uniformed officer, Gen. Randy George. Hegseth also has fired several other top generals, admirals and defense leaders since taking office ..
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic's CEO a Friday deadline to open the company's artificial intelligence technology for unrestricted military use or risk losing its government contract, according to a person familiar with their meeting Tuesday. Anthropic makes the chatbot Claude and is the last of its peers to not supply its technology to a new US military internal network. CEO Dario Amodei repeatedly has made clear his ethical concerns about unchecked government use of AI, including the dangers of fully autonomous armed drones and of AI-assisted mass surveillance that could track dissent. Defence officials warned they could designate Anthropic a supply chain risk or use the Defence Production Act to essentially give the military more authority to use its products even if it doesn't approve of how they are used, according to the person familiar with the meeting and a senior Pentagon official, who both were not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of ...
President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed setting military spending at USD 1.5 trillion in 2027, citing troubled and dangerous times. Trump called for the massive surge in spending days after he ordered a US military operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicols Maduro and spirit him out of the country to face drug trafficking charges in the United States. US forces continue to mass in the Caribbean Sea. The 2026 military budget is set at USD 901 billion. Trump in recent days has also called for taking over the Danish territory of Greenland for national security reasons and has suggested he's open to carrying out military operations in Colombia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ominously warned that longtime adversary Cuba is in trouble. This will allow us to build the Dream Military' that we have long been entitled to and, more importantly, that will keep us SAFE and SECURE, regardless of foe, Trump said in a posting on Truth Social announcing his proposal. He added that he
President Donald Trump has announced a bold plan for the Navy to build a new, large warship that he is calling a battleship as part of a larger vision to create a "Golden Fleet." They'll be the fastest, the biggest, and by far 100 times more powerful than any battleship ever built, Trump claimed during the announcement at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The ship, according to Trump, will be longer and larger than the World War II-era Iowa-class battleships and will be armed with hypersonic missiles, rail guns, and high-powered lasers all technologies that are still being developed by the Navy. Just a month ago, the Navy scrapped its plans to build a new, small warship, citing growing delays and cost overruns, deciding instead to go with a modified version of a Coast Guard cutter that was being produced until recently. The sea service has also failed to build its other newly designed ships, like the new Ford-class aircraft carrier and Columbia-class submarines, on time and on ...