Tag: pentagon

President Trump Says U.S. to Send More Weapons to Ukraine Just Days After Pentagon Warned of Depleted Stockpiles

In a whiplash reversal that has infuriated America-First conservatives, President Donald Trump now says the United States “has to” ship still more arms, missiles, and ammo to Ukraine — just days after the Pentagon froze deliveries because our own stockpiles are running dry.

Less than a week ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth halted Patriot interceptors, artillery shells, and precision missiles, citing “dangerously low” U.S. inventories.

The Trump Administration is withholding shipments promised by the Biden Regime after the Pentagon’s policy chief Elbridge Colby found the US’s stockpiles of munitions and air defense missiles are dangerously low.

Last September, the Biden Regime announced an eye-watering $8 billion in military aid for Ukraine during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington.

Since the onset of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Congress has approved nearly $175 billion in aid and military assistance for Ukraine.

“Biden emptied out our whole country giving them weapons, and we have to make sure that we have enough for ourselves’, the president argued. ‘We’ve given so many weapons, but we are giving weapons, and we’re working with them and trying to help them,” Trump said.

Yet on Monday night, seated beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump declared that Ukraine is being hit “very hard” and must receive more “defensive weapons.”

“We’re going to send some more weapons. We have to. They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now,” Trump told reporters.

“Defensive weapons, primarily, but they’re getting hit very, very hard. So many people are dying in that mess,” he added.

Keep reading

Pentagon halting some promised munitions for Ukraine

The Pentagon has halted shipments of some air defense missiles and other precision munitions to Ukraine due to worries that U.S. weapons stockpiles have fallen too low.

The decision was driven by the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, and was made after a review of Pentagon munitions stockpiles, leading to concerns that the total number of artillery rounds, air defense missiles and precision munitions was sinking, according to three people familiar with the issue.

The initial decision to withhold some aid promised during the Biden administration came in early June, according to the people, but is only taking effect now as Ukraine is beating back some of the largest Russian barrages of missiles and drones at civilian targets in Kyiv and elsewhere.

The people were granted anonymity to discuss current operations. The Pentagon and White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Keep reading

Report: Pentagon Agency Believes US Needs To Drop A Nuke To Destroy Iran’s Fordow Nuclear Plant

The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has told US officials that in order to destroy Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant, which is buried deep underground, the US may need to drop a nuclear weapon, The Guardian has reported.

According to the report, Pentagon officials who received the briefing were told that dropping GBU-57s, conventional 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs, would not penetrate deep enough underground and that it would only do enough damage to collapse tunnels and bury the facility under rubble.

The officials were told that in order to destroy Fordow completely, the US would likely need to first soften the ground with conventional bombs and then ultimately drop a tactical nuclear weapon from a B2 bomber.

The report said that President Trump is not considering using a nuclear weapon and that the option was not presented to him by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. According to a report from Axios, Trump is casting doubt on the idea that the GBU-57s could do enough damage to destroy the facility.

Israel wants the US to drop the bunker-busting bombs on Fordow since it lacks the capability, but so far, Trump has not given the order for US airstrikes on Iran. The president said on Thursday that he would decide within two weeks, although there are indications that attacks could begin this weekend.

Keep reading

DARPA Wants to Crack the Code of Human Behavior—And They’re Betting on “MAGICS” for Bold New Ideas

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a new program to solicit paradigm-shifting research ideas to revolutionize how scientists predict collective human behavior. 

The program, known as Methodological Advancements for Generalizable Insights into Complex Systems (MAGICS), aims to address the problem that despite the rise of big data and machine learning, we’re still surprisingly bad at forecasting how large, dynamic human systems respond to change.

“For the past decade or more, there has been an assumption and hope that the explosion of digital data streams (e.g., social media, purchase patterns, traffic dynamics, etc.) combined with powerful machine learning tools would usher in a new era of research in complex, dynamic, evolving systems,” a DARPA solicitation notice writes. “[However] Despite many attempts, results have failed to meet expectations.” 

The MAGICS opportunity, announced through DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office, invites individual researchers to propose innovative concepts that could form the foundation for a new science of social prediction. 

As DARPA notes, today’s best statistical tools often falter when applied to real-world, evolving systems—whether it’s understanding how economies adapt to disruption, how populations shift under demographic pressure, or how societies react to technological upheaval.

At the heart of the MAGICS effort is answering the question: Can we develop new ways to model collective human behavior that outperform current statistical approaches and capture the dynamics of complex, evolving systems? 

The Pentagon brain trust is looking for fresh frameworks beyond what’s possible with today’s machine learning models, namely systems that can handle the messy, recursive, and often unpredictable nature of human systems.

The stakes are high for national security. From forecasting the spread of misinformation to anticipating societal responses to crises, the ability to model human behavior accurately could offer profound advantages. 

Yet DARPA acknowledges that researchers must overcome foundational challenges that large datasets and artificial intelligence have failed to address before these benefits can be realized.

Keep reading

Report: Pentagon Agency Believes US Needs To Drop A Nuke To Destroy Iran’s Fordow Nuclear Plant

The Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has told US officials that in order to destroy Iran’s Fordow nuclear plant, which is buried deep underground, the US may need to drop a nuclear weapon, The Guardian has reported.

According to the report, Pentagon officials who received the briefing were told that dropping GBU-57s, conventional 30,000-pound bunker-busting bombs, would not penetrate deep enough underground and that it would only do enough damage to collapse tunnels and bury the facility under rubble.

The officials were told that in order to destroy Fordow completely, the US would likely need to first soften the ground with conventional bombs and then ultimately drop a tactical nuclear weapon from a B2 bomber.

The report said that President Trump is not considering using a nuclear weapon and that the option was not presented to him by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. According to a report from Axios, Trump is casting doubt on the idea that the GBU-57s could do enough damage to destroy the facility.

Israel wants the US to drop the bunker-busting bombs on Fordow since it lacks the capability, but so far, Trump has not given the order for US airstrikes on Iran. The president said on Thursday that he would decide within two weeks, although there are indications that attacks could begin this weekend.

Keep reading

Pentagon Officer on Joint Chiefs Of Staff Planning Team Removed For Calling Israel a “Death Cult”

An officer serving on the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Levant desk, tasked with assessing Israel-related matters, was sacked by the Pentagon after social media posts revealed he labeled the Zionist Israeli regime a “death cult.”

Reports claim U.S. Army Capt. Nathan McCormack, who served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s J5 planning directorate for the Levant and Egypt branch, was recently expelled over posts critical of Israel’s war on Gaza and more.

“The information on the X account does not reflect the position of the Joint Staff or the Department of Defense,” the Pentagon noted in a statement to the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS). “The individual is being returned to his service while the matter is being investigated.”

“He will no longer be on the joint staff while the matter is being investigated,” the Pentagon wrote.

Keep reading

Hegseth orders ‘additional capabilities’ to Middle East

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday that he has directed “the deployment of additional capabilities” to the Middle East amid escalating tensions in the region.

“Protecting US forces is our top priority and these deployments are intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region,” Hegseth said in a post on social platform X.

He did not name the additional capabilities, though earlier on Monday a U.S. official confirmed to NewsNation, The Hill’s sister network, that the U.S. military has moved a large number of refueling tanker aircraft to Europe.

The move is intended to “provide options” to Trump amid the escalating tensions, the official added.

Pentagon and White House officials have declined to say how many aircraft have been moved, but the flight tracking website AirNav Systems counted more than 31 Air Force refueling aircraft such as KC-135s and KC-46s leaving the United States on Sunday and flying east. The military flights eventually landed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany and in the United Kingdom, Estonia and Greece, according to the website.

A Defense official also confirmed to The Hill that Hegseth directed the USS Nimitz Carrier Strike Group be sent to the Middle East “to sustain our defensive posture and safeguard American personnel.”

Multiple outlets have reported that the action was a pre-planned deployment that had been expedited. The vessel is able to hold some 5,000 personnel and more than 60 aircraft, including fighter jets.

U.S. European Command also deployed two destroyers to the eastern Mediterranean Sea on Friday. The vessels can help defend against guided missile strikes.

The Navy “continues to conduct operations in the Eastern Mediterranean in support of U.S. national security objectives,” the official said.

Keep reading

Hegseth says the Pentagon has contingency plans to invade Greenland if necessary

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to acknowledge that the Pentagon has developed plans to take over Greenland and Panama by force if necessary but refused to answer repeated questions at a hotly combative congressional hearing Thursday about his use of Signal chats to discuss military operations.

Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee repeatedly got into heated exchanges with Hegseth, with some of the toughest lines of questioning coming from military veterans as many demanded yes or no answers and he tried to avoid direct responses about his actions as Pentagon chief.

In one back-and-forth, Hegseth did provide an eyebrow-raising answer. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., asked whether the Pentagon has developed plans to take Greenland or Panama by force if necessary.

“Our job at the Defense Department is to have plans for any contingency,” Hegseth said several times.

It is not unusual for the Pentagon to draw up contingency plans for conflicts that have not arisen, but his handling of the questions prompted a Republican lawmaker to step in a few minutes later.

Keep reading

Pentagon quietly boosts presence in Syria despite ‘withdrawal’ plans

The US-led international coalition has deployed over 100 trucks of military and logistical reinforcements to its bases in northeastern Syria over the past two days, according to a report by Shafaq on 12 June. The move comes despite recent US announcements of troop drawdowns and base closures in the country.

The convoy, which crossed from Iraq through the Al-Waleed border crossing, was loaded with military vehicles, fuel, food, water, and sealed containers believed to contain weapons and ammunition. The supplies were delivered to coalition bases in Khrab al-Jeer, Qasrak, and Al-Shaddadi in Syria’s Hasakah province.

A source from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told the Shafaq news outletthat “weekly deliveries of military and logistical equipment are ongoing,” despite Washington’s claims of scaling down operations. The source confirmed that US forces remain stationed at their posts in Kurdish-controlled territories, actively cooperating with the SDF to contain Islamic State (ISIS) activities.

“The Coalition, in coordination with the SDF, continues to monitor ISIS cells to prevent the group from exploiting the current situation to reorganize or carry out attacks in Syria,” the source stated.

On Wednesday, the SDF announced a joint operation with coalition forces in Al-Mansoura, west of Raqqa, that resulted in the arrest of two prominent ISIS operatives. 

Abdul Sattar Abdul Fattah al-Mohammed, known as “Abu Amira,” and his brother, Mohammed Abdul Fattah al-Mohammed, known as “Abu Al-Baraa,” were captured at a workshop used for manufacturing car bombs and explosive silencers.“These individuals were directly involved in producing improvised explosive devices,” the SDF said in a statement. “The Islamic State’s efforts to destabilize the region will be met with firm resistance to safeguard civilians and public institutions.”

The redeployment of coalition assets comes amid renewed warnings from regional and western intelligence sources that ISIS is attempting a resurgence in both Syria and Iraq.

Keep reading

Hegseth Says DOD Was Spending Tens of Millions Sticking Marbles Inside the Rear Ends of Cats During Jaw-Dropping Senate Testimony

President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, testified before the Senate that the Department of Defense was spending tens of millions of dollars on tests that involved sticking “marbles in the rear ends of cats.”

Hegseth brought up the cruel and wasteful animal research during his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense on Wednesday.

The exchange began as Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin grilled Hegseth about his administration ending many wasteful research grants.

“Give me an example of a ‘boondoggle’ in medical research and defense health,” Sen. Durbin said, likely unprepared for the response.

“I mean, we’re talking about some stuff I shouldn’t say in public, you know, marbles in the rear ends of cats, tens of millions of dollars,” Hegseth said while pantomiming inserting a marble in a cat’s rectum. “Things that don’t have a connection to what you’re talking about.”

“Is this like three hundred and fifty year old Social Security check that the president told us about?” the senator shot back.

Hegseth replied, “I respect completely the issue that you’re speaking with, and this department couldn’t be more sympathetic to that and ensure that it’s funded. But the Defense Department has been a place where organizations, entities, and companies know they can get money almost unchecked to whether or not it actually applies to things that happen on the battlefield.”

Sen. Rand Paul thanked Hegseth for highlighting the spending that he worked with White Coat Waste, an organization dedicated to ending taxpayer-funded animal testing, to expose.

Keep reading