A delegation of Russian diplomats arrived Jan. 28 in a caravan of white SUVs for a summit in Damascus and an unenviable assignment: lay the groundwork for Russia to keep its military bases in Syria, less than two months after rebels had toppled Moscow’s preferred strongman, Bashar al-Assad.
Ukrainian special forces fighting in Russia's western Kursk region have told the BBC they have not seen any North Korean troops there for the past three weeks. A spokesman said it was likely they had pulled out after suffering heavy losses.
The Pentagon is readying orders for the deployment of at least 1,000 additional active-duty troops to bolster President Donald Trump’s expanding crackdown on immigration, U.S. officials said Jan. 31. They said roughly 500 more Soldiers—largely a headquarters unit from the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum in New York—will be sent to the southwest border. And about 500 Marines will go to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where some of the detained migrants will be held.
U.S. forces launched several airstrikes in northern Somalia, targeting members of the Islamic State’s branch in the country. U.S. Africa Command as well as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the operation on Feb. 1. It’s the first American military operation in Somalia announced by the Trump administration.
A relatively low-cost cruise missile that the U.S. Air Force is now developing could transform into an air-launched counter-drone weapon. The service previously disclosed that it is also eyeing an anti-ship version of the ostensibly air-to-ground Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM), work on which first started primarily to meet the needs of the Ukrainian armed forces.
In this episode of the Aerospace Advantage, Heather “Lucky” Penney chats with members of the Mitchell Institute team about air and space power issues through the congressional lens. We discuss what this means for individual programs as well as broader strategy and budget considerations. We also explore recent remarks by former Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Allvin—both of whom have been increasingly direct about the need for more resources.
Pentagon leaders late Jan. 30 revoked the Defense Department’s abortion access policy for troops, following an executive order from President Donald Trump cracking down on the use of taxpayer dollars for any abortion services. ... Under the old policy, service members could take up to three weeks of administrative leave and receive travel stipends to cross state lines for abortion services if local laws prohibited the procedures.
The deadly Jan. 29 helicopter crash outside Washington, D.C., was the Army’s first serious aviation incident in months—but it came on the heels of a fiscal year that saw the service’s highest rate of serious crashes in over a decade. Army aviation saw 17 class-A mishaps—that is, accidents that killed someone or caused more than $2.5 million in damage—during fiscal 2024, which ran from October 2023 through September. Thirteen of them have taken place since last January.
Commercial space companies are revolutionizing the global economy with groundbreaking technologies, from autonomous satellite docking to cutting-edge data services. Yet, despite their innovation prowess, companies face significant challenges navigating the labyrinthine corridors of military space acquisition. For many, understanding the United States government’s sprawling and fragmented procurement system remains a daunting task.
A new documentary film coming this spring will go behind the scenes of a highly esteemed pillar of the United States Air Force: The Air Demonstration Squadron. These pilots travel around the country performing extremely difficult and uniquely complex aerial maneuvers in military aircraft in order to showcase both the capabilities of the planes and the demo pilots themselves.