The U.S. and its allies have intensified the battle to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, sending low-flying attack jets over the sea lanes to blast Iranian naval vessels and Apache helicopters to shoot down Iran’s deadly drones, American military officials said.
The United States is moving to bolster air defenses across the Middle East, notifying Congress of more than $16.5 billion in potential weapons sales aimed primarily at countering missile and drone threats.
Artificial intelligence is a major subtheme of the U.S. intelligence community’s annual report on threats—one increasingly described in strategic, not just technical, terms.
U.S. officials detected unidentified drones above the Washington Army base where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth live, according to three people briefed on the situation. Officials have not determined where they came from, two of the people said.
Shortly after President Donald Trump initiated Operation Epic Fury against Iran on Feb. 28, forces under U.S. Northern Command used a new “Flyaway Kit” to eliminate a drone threat at an undisclosed strategic military base, according to a top commander.
Starting this fall, all new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters delivered to the American military will come without radars, an issue that could stretch into the future and restrict the jets from participating in combat operations, Breaking Defense has learned.
India’s Defense Ministry is seeking to join one of the foreign government-industry consortia developing competing sixth-generation fighters, opening a parallel acquisition track to a more indigenous alternative, according to a government report tabled in Parliament on March 18.
Troops seeking religious waivers for beards will now have to prove to senior military service officials that they have sincerely held beliefs that require they grow their facial hair. The new military-wide policy imposes new requirements for both submitting and approving requests for such waivers, and adds new steps for a troop’s direct commanders and supervisors to weigh in on the requests.
Few people know the Middle East as well as Joseph Votel. From March 2016 to March 2019, the retired Army general served as the commander of U.S. Central Command, overseeing American military operations in the region. A big part of that job was planning for contingencies like what would become Operation Epic Fury, and especially how they would affect the massively strategic waterway that joins the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman—the tumultuous Strait of Hormuz. ... In the first part of our wide-ranging exclusive interview with Votel, we focus on what is happening in the Strait.
President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s diverging language on Israel’s decision to attack a critical Iranian gas field marks the most notable difference of opinion between the two leaders since the start of the 20-day war against Iran. The attack by Israel on the South Pars gas field prompted Iran to retaliate against energy infrastructure in other Middle East countries.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed the Pentagon would ask Congress for more money to wage war in Iran, though he said the reported $200 billion figure “could move.”
Continuing the trend of recent years, the 2025 Robert J. Collier Trophy went to a recipient conducting activities far beyond Earth’s atmosphere. The National Aeronautic Association on March 18 announced that the team behind Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 1—the first successful commercial lunar landing—took home the prestigious trophy, awarded annually since 1911 for the “greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in America.”
