Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told congressional leaders Dec. 9 that he was still weighing whether to release the full video of an attack on an alleged drug boat that killed two survivors, even as he faced intensifying demands from Congress for disclosure.
President Trump dialed up pressure on Ukraine to swiftly accept a U.S.-designed peace plan, hardening his position toward the embattled country and its European backers, who insist U.S. security guarantees are vital to a peace deal.
The U.S. military is striking alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and massing forces off the coast of Venezuela, but the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer is still focused on China. While the new National Security Strategy released on Dec. 4 prioritizes the Americas, Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Emil Michael told reporters that technology development needed to be driven by higher-tech threats overseas.
President Donald Trump said in an interview with Politico released Dec. 9 that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's "days are numbered" and declined to comment on whether the U.S. could send troops to the country.
The Defense Department should commission an independent “roles and missions” review “across the national security enterprise,” and invest in “cross-domain” capabilities to ensure that the U.S. military can achieve “space superiority,” argues a new report from the Mitchell Institute.
Congress is committing to only a fraction of the funding necessary for the Navy’s F/A-XX program in the latest version of the defense policy bill, while fully backing the development of the Air Force’s F-47 fighter.
The Defense Department is writing an updated version of its zero-trust strategy that will outline new cybersecurity frameworks for systems beyond information technology.
The Defense Department on Dec. 9 launched a major push to get military personnel, civilian employees, and contractors to use generative artificial intelligence capabilities, located on its own website.
Online flight tracking data shows that a pair of U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets flew right into the center of the Gulf of Venezuela on Dec. 9, and stayed there for some 40 minutes. This is a relatively small body of water bounded on three sides by Venezuela’s national territory, and is in the same general area where American forces are known to have previously probed that country’s air defenses.
Col. Jen “Boots” Reeves, USAF (Ret.) released her latest policy paper outlining why space superiority is foundational to America’s ability to fight and win. Achieving this will demand that the other services support the Space Force and Space Command, which is a departure from the traditional notion of spacepower acting to empower terrestrial actions. Joining the discussion is Maj. Gen. Brook “Tank” Leonard, USAF (Ret.), the inaugural Chief of Staff of U.S. Space Command.
“At sunrise in the Pacific, a fighter jet rolled to the end of the flight line as crew chiefs swarmed in final checks. Everything pointed to ‘ready.’ Then a small crack was spotted—a hole that needed to be smoothed out. The maintainer sent a waiver request. Hours later: denied. The request was out of spec by a hair—imperceptible to the naked eye,” writes Austin A. Gruber, a U.S. Air Force logistics readiness officer with over 20 years of experience and a national defense fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute.
Two unique exhibits are coming to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force this month. Within the Cold War Gallery, a rare Soviet MiG-25 is now on display. The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 (“Foxbat”) was one of the fastest and most feared combat aircraft ever built. It entered Soviet service in 1970 and was designed as a high-speed interceptor and reconnaissance platform capable of reaching Mach 2.83.
