WebinarsNew
Deep DiveNew
Explore Business Standard
US Military
The US military attacked a boat suspected of being used to smuggle drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing four people, as the Trump administration continues its monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America. The attack on Saturday brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the US military to at least 231 in 69 strikes since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" almost a year ago. As with most of the military's statements on strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, US Southern Command said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes. The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs. A video posted on X showed an image of what appeared to be a moving boat followed by a flash. The Trump administration is pursuing deals with allied nations to extend its offensive to land across multiple Latin American countries. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth sa
President Donald Trump announced Friday he has a deal with Denmark to bolster the US military presence in Greenland after months of threatening to take the island by force from the NATO ally - an agreement that also keeps the Arctic territory in Denmark's hands. Trump in a social media post announcing the deal said the agreement "gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many US concerns." He added that with the agreement his administration would "immediately" begin the process of developing a larger military presence on the mineral-rich Danish territory. The office of Denmark's prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the deal will be signed by all three governments next week during the United Nations General Assembly, but parliamentary action is still needed by the Danish and Greenland governments before it can be enforced. In a statement she said "the agreement recognizes the sovereignty and ...
The US military's price tag for the Iran war has grown to USD43.6 billion as of September 3, according to a new estimate provided this week to lawmakers. The figure from US Central Command, which oversees operations in the Middle East, offers the most up-to-date cost for the conflict since it was launched by the United States and Israel on February 28. A Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday said the war had cost USD 38 billion through August 1 and will continue to rack up expenses of around USD 3 billion a month depending on the conflict's intensity. The new breakdown, seen by The Associated Press and reported earlier by Punchbowl News, also showed the continued use of expensive munitions by American forces. Weapons costs jumped by more than USD 6 billion in just over a month, from USD 21.7 billion listed in the CBO report to USD 28.1 billion in US Central Command's estimate. The financial cost is just one measure of the impact of the Iran war, which also is affecting
American troops need to prepare for combat not only in Earth's orbit but around the moon, President Donald Trump's top military adviser said Wednesday, looking ahead to a new frontier in warfare after the US revealed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space. Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told service members and industry figures at the Air, Space and Cyber Conference outside Washington that the US military should adapt now so it "is prepared to fight, endure and win ... from the seabed to cislunar space." Space Force, the newest military service, which was created by Trump in 2019, is preparing to fight in space and around the moon because "humanity is advancing deeper into space - the Space Force's job is to help be prepared to defend US interests," Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, head of the force's Combat Forces Command, told reporters separately. The announcement that the US military is ready to fight in the area between high Earth orbit and the
The US military has destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers following attacks on a US warship by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, US Central Command said in a social media post on Tuesday. The US strikes were in response to two Iranian efforts to hit the warship with ballistic missiles over the past two days, the statement added. Iranian state television also reported the strikes, saying US forces attacked at least three Iranian oil tankers near the southern port of Jask and near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. It said the crews were evacuated. The latest tit-for-tat strikes come as Washington and Tehran lurch back toward fighting during more than six months of war. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US will not allow Iran's attacks to go unanswered. "Iran continues to try to hit US naval ships. And for every time they do that or try to do that, they're going to lose tankers. And I think you'll see that again today," Rubio told reporters on Tuesday when asked about the latest .
Iran said Sunday it struck an unmanned US vessel trying to enter the Strait of Hormuz, a claim that the US military dismissed as a "total lie." The purported attack came a day after the US military said forces struck three Iranian oil tankers in response to Navy warships being targeted with ballistic missiles. Experts called it a dangerous escalation after Iran's previous attacks at sea targeted commercial shipping. The war began with US and Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28. But since a fragile ceasefire agreement was announced in June, on-and-off fighting has persisted, with both sides trying to inflict military and economic pain as negotiations have collapsed. Strikes came about a week after fighting resumed ------------------------------------------------------- The United States and Iran resumed attacks last week, following a month of relative calm, with the Strait of Hormuz and areas along Iran's southern coast again being targeted. At least five people were killed ear
The US Army announced Wednesday that it plans to add nuclear microreactors at five military bases from New York to Texas as a reliable source of energy independent of the commercial electric grid. The announcement comes as the Trump administration pushes hard to develop the next generation of nuclear power, including billions in loans for large nuclear reactors to meet skyrocketing power demand from data centers and a pilot program to boost advanced reactor designs and projects for military and civilian use. No nuclear microreactors are supplying power to the commercial electric grid in the United States today. Five companies selected by the Army will be awarded up to USD 2.2 billion in total over five years to own, construct and operate the microreactors, if they hit set milestones along the way for their performance. The Army expects that more than 20 nuclear microreactors will be built and operated. Army and industry officials say microreactors offer a resilient power source for
Recent fighting with Iran used up more of the US military's already diminished stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors, potentially putting American troops at more risk if hostilities resume, a new analysis says. Shrunken inventories of Patriot and THAAD interceptors may force the US and its Middle Eastern allies to take more risks to conserve those air defences, according to the analysis from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. For example, it said, American forces may launch fewer missiles against incoming Iranian drones and missiles, raising the chance of one getting through. "That percentage may not go up a lot, but it goes up a little," said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and now senior adviser at CSIS who co-authored Monday's report with research associate Chris H Park. The nation's advanced weapons stockpiles have become a flashpoint in the five-month-long conflict, along with the threat to the lives of American service ...
American and Saudi forces struck sites used by Iran-backed militias in Iraq to carry out attacks in recent days, the US military said Tuesday. "US and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq in a strong response to over 30 IRGC-directed aerial drone attacks in the last 72 hours," US Central Command said in a statement, using an acronym for Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. It said the Revolutionary Guard "and its terrorist proxies must cease these attacks to avoid further US military response." Saudi Arabia said earlier Tuesday that it for a second day shot down drones fired by Iran-backed militias in Iraq, which had attempted to target petroleum facilities in the nation's eastern region. Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi ordered security agencies to investigate after the Saudis alleged a similar attack on Monday.
The US military announced Thursday that it is conducting the 13th night of strikes against Iran as clashes escalate over shipping routes. Earlier Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, potentially widening the Iran war as international oil topped USD 100 a barrel. US Central Command said the latest attacks are designed to "further degrade Iran's ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters" as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of international shipping. Meanwhile, the Houthis threatened to shut down another key trade route, with the world economy already reeling from Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The threat came as Iran and the US have stepped up attacks as they vie for control of the strait, through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas transited in peacetime, setting off a scramble for alternative routes. President Donald Tru
The US military has confirmed that a third service member is believed to be dead in Friday's attack on a base in Jordan and identified them as Sgt Angel S Rampersad, 28, of New York. The confirmation brings the death toll to 18 US service members killed since the war began. On Monday, the Pentagon identified 1st Lt Tyler James Feehan, 25, of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, and Pvt Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, as the two other soldiers who were killed in Jordan in Friday's attacks. The soldiers were killed by Iranian ballistic missile and drone attacks in the first troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war. They were deployed to support a US mission against the Islamic State group, a US Central Command statement said. After the attack, US Central Command announced that two servicemembers were killed and another was missing. The following day, the military command said that troops found unidentified remains and that an examination process to verify the
The US military said it completed the 11th night of strikes on Iran early Wednesday as attacks across the Middle East overshadowed diplomatic efforts in Pakistan to salvage an interim ceasefire deal that has collapsed. US Central Command said targets included aircraft hangars and drone storage sites. The newest barrage came after President Donald Trump telegraphed that strikes would be intensifying. Before the latest strikes, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni visited Pakistan, a key mediator in the conflict seeking to revamp diplomacy. But it was unclear what new arrangement might be reached to end the war, which lately has become a battle for control over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway vital to world energy supplies. Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump gave a dim view on possible talks, saying the US had "no interest in meeting." He signalled that US forces could soon target an area of Iran close to one of its main sites for enriching uranium. With negotiatio
The US military said Sunday that it launched new airstrikes against Iran to "swiftly punish" the country's Revolutionary Guard for an attack in Jordan that killed two American service members, left one missing and four requiring hospitalization. The strikes were designed to further degrade Iran's ability to restrict the traffic of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command said. The waterway accounted for roughly 20 per cent of global oil supplies before the war. An area near Sirik, on the Strait of Hormuz, was targeted around 1:30 am local time, according to Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, which cited local authorities in southern Hormozgan province. The new strikes came after the U.S. military announced its first troop deaths from direct Iranian fire since the opening days of the war, following a drone and missile attack on a base in Jordan on Friday. The dead were not identified, and Central Command wouldn't offer any further details on the deaths. Since the
The US military will leave Iraq by the end of September, American and Iraqi officials have said, following a 23-year presence that started with the 2003 invasion against Saddam Hussein and ended with much smaller operations against the Islamic State group. President Donald Trump, standing alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi at the White House on Tuesday, said "we don't think we need the military there anymore" and noted Iraq's growing relationships with oil companies. "The relationship is a whole big relationship where we don't need the military," Trump said. "We're there to help them. We're there to protect them if need be. But we don't think that's going to be necessary." Speaking through an interpreter, al-Zaidi said "US forces will be out of Iraq" by Sept. 30, "while US companies will be inside Iraq." The Pentagon said in a subsequent statement that it was reaffirming a 2024 agreement with Iraq to end its mission against IS fighters. Many of the US troops still serving
The US military's official tally of deaths in the Iran war has risen to 14 service members, with the death of a Navy pilot in a helicopter crash in early July in the Arabian Sea. The number of wounded troops from the conflict also has grown to more than 400 as of Monday. Capt. Tim Hawkins, spokesman for US Central Command, said the majority of them suffered traumatic brain injuries. The Navy initially described the July 1 crash as an emergency landing and said there was "no indication the emergency was caused by hostile action". The remaining three sailors aboard the helicopter were rescued shortly after the mishap. The Pentagon's war casualty count added one non-hostile death in July. It is the first death recorded since 13 service members were killed in separate incidents in March at the beginning of the war. The first was an Iranian drone strike on a command centre in Kuwait that killed six soldiers. Then one soldier died more than a week after initially being wounded in an atta