President Donald Trump nominated Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess as the next chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force, the service announced Friday.His nomination now goes to the Senate for confirmation. If approved, Schiess would become the Space Force’s highest-ranking officer and only the third person to hold the title of chief of space operations.He would take over for Gen. Chance Saltzman, who is expected to retire this year after serving four years in the role.”If confirmed, I will focus on sharpening our lethality and accelerating the delivery of space capabilities to the warfighter, keeping the Space Force…
Author: Tommy Grant
An “engineering casualty” broke out on Tuesday on the USS Higgins, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer currently deployed in the Indo-Pacific, Navy officials confirmed to CNN. The incident was immediately contained by the crew, and there are no reported injuries as of Friday, according to the Navy statement.While the Navy did not explicitly use the term fire, CBS News, citing unnamed U.S. officials on Thursday, described the situation as a fire limited to one piece of equipment that did not spread flames.However, the incident knocked out the ship’s electricity and propulsion for “several hours,” according to the CNN report. The…
Three U.S. Air Force units recently received the Presidential Unit Citation for actions during a 2021 deployment, including efforts during the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.The 55th and 48th Rescue Squadrons, as well as airmen from the 355th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, all located at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, received the awards April 17 and Jan. 17, respectively, according to a service release.The two rescue squadrons and airmen in the maintenance group were included in the Personnel Recovery Task Force, a 176-member joint team specifically formed to carry out the noncombatant evacuation operation in Afghanistan.The release stated…
A U.S. military-run body near Gaza that critics say failed in its mission to monitor the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and boost aid flows to besieged Palestinians is set to be shut by the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.The closing of the Civil-Military Coordination Center in Israel would mark the latest blow to President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, already undermined by repeated Israeli attacks since the October truce and a refusal by Hamas to lay down its arms.Diplomats said the move, which has not been previously reported, underscores the difficulties facing U.S. efforts to oversee the truce and…
The U.S. Marine Corps has accumulated thousands of first-person view drones over the span of several months, with thousands more on the way, the service said Thursday.The meteoric rise of the service’s autonomous weapons stockpile was a result of a clear edict from the top down and service member adaptability, according to Commanding Officer of the Weapons Training Battalion Col. Scott Cuomo, who spoke at the Modern Day Marine exposition in Washington.“Rewind your brain to October,” Cuomo said. “We had zero FPV attack drones in the United States. We have over 3,500 right now.”First-person view drones allow operators to watch…
The United States is withdrawing 5,000 troops from NATO ally Germany, the Pentagon announced on Friday, as a rift over the Iran war widens between President Donald Trump and Europe. Trump had threatened a drawdown in forces earlier this week after sparring with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday the Iranians were humiliating the U.S. in talks to end the two-month-old war and that he did not see what exit strategy Washington was pursuing.A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said recent German rhetoric had been “inappropriate and unhelpful.”“The president is rightly reacting to these counterproductive…
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has thrown his support behind proposed legislation that would give combat-wounded service members who are medically retired from the U.S. military their full retirement pay and Veterans Affairs disability compensation.During a hearing Thursday on the Defense Department’s $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 budget request, Hegseth said he supports the Maj. Richard Star Act — a bill that would give roughly 54,000 veterans their retirement pay and VA disability concurrently.“As I have said in the past to other organizations, we support the Richard Star Act,” Hegseth said during questioning by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.Blumenthal is a lead sponsor…
An Alaska-based squadron developed a new combat course aimed at furthering arctic combat capabilities as the region becomes increasingly relevant geopolitically.The 673d Security Forces Squadron, located at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, is currently running trial courses of the Arctic Combat Development Course until the region’s winter conditions thaw, most likely through mid-May, according to an April 24 release.The five-day course teaches topics such as basic arctic medicine and combat patrolling on snowmachines, among other subjects, prepping the service members going through the course to be ready to support the nation’s Last Frontier, the statement says.“The goal is to better equip…
“In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive,” James Madison wrote regarding Article 1 Section 8, Clause 11 of the U.S. Constitution. “The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it,” Madison continued. “It has accordingly, with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature.”The Constitution delineates that the legislative branch — and only the legislative…
The Marine Corps is updating its Marine Reconnaissance training curriculum through the launch of a new Ground Reconnaissance Course, according to Training and Education Command. As the new initial course in the recon training pipeline, GRC is one of two programs, alongside the Amphibious Reconnaissance Course, replacing the service’s Basic Reconnaissance Course. The new curriculum, which was launched April 27 at the Camp Pendleton-based Reconnaissance Training Company, was developed following analysis of how recon training can best support the service’s Force Design initiatives. The Reconnaissance Training Company, or RTC, trains Marines who will fight as part of scout or reconnaissance…