U.S. President Donald Trump pulled back on his threats to launch devastating strikes on Iran late April 7, swerving to deescalate the war less than two hours before the deadline he set for Tehran to capitulate to a deal.
While briefing the public on how a rescue operation for a downed F-15 pilot in Iran played out, President Donald Trump made sure to shout out a specific part of America’s arsenal: the HH-60W, the U.S. Air Force’s latest combat rescue helicopter. It is a bit of strong publicity for the Jolly Green II. And it came just days after the U.S. Air Force revealed its fiscal 2027 budget request—in which it has no money to buy more HH-60Ws, potentially setting up a fight with Congress for the fourth straight year.
This account of how President Trump took the United States into war is drawn from reporting for a forthcoming book, “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump.” It reveals how the deliberations inside the administration highlighted the president’s instincts, his inner circle’s fractures, and the way he runs the White House. It draws on extensive interviews conducted on the condition of anonymity to recount internal discussions and sensitive issues.
Junior enlisted service members would see the largest of a three-tiered pay raise for troops next year under the latest proposed budget from President Donald Trump’s administration.
The American military launched more one-way attack drones last night against Iran, U.S. Central Command announced April 7, adding that “hundreds” of unmanned platforms have been involved in Operation Epic Fury in various roles to date.
The U.S. Navy is requesting $3 billion to replenish its stockpile of Tomahawk missiles that have been depleted over the course of the Iran war, according to the Defense Department’s fiscal 2027 budget request.
China is taking a “cautious official posture” toward AI in the armed forces, said Sophie Wushuang Yi, postdoctoral teaching fellow with Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University. “China’s concept of intelligentized warfare has been embedded in official defense white papers since 2019,” Yi said. “But the open-source academic literature is frank that China cannot currently close the overall gap with the United States in military AI capability.”
The Defense Department in late January launched a program offering companies no-fee patent licenses to accelerate technology development, and the initiative has already generated a lot of interest, Pentagon officials said.
A small group of Chinese satellites in geosynchronous Earth orbit made at least 75 “unusual” maneuvers over the past nine years—moving in ways that are consistent with, if not necessarily indicative of, four types of military or intelligence operations, according to a new analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The cabin doors had just sealed shut on a recent Tel Aviv flight bound for Athens when a chorus of alerts went off on passengers’ phones—an early warning that missiles were on the way. Crew and air-traffic controllers had only seconds to decide. They opened the door and rushed everyone off the plane.
