Category Archives: US Military

Hegseth reportedly fires high-ranking army strategist over alleged leaks

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Pentagon says it has referred leak case to justice department for criminal investigation

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has reportedly dismissed Lt Gen Brett Sylvia, a high-ranking army strategist serving on the Pentagon’s joint staff, following allegations that he disclosed classified information to the public.

The Pentagon announced on Thursday that it had referred an alleged information leak case for criminal investigation, maintaining that the removal of the senior general was essential “to protect sensitive information”, the Washington Post reported.

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Australia must recruit hundreds more to crew Aukus submarines, retired admiral warns

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As USS Colorado showcases the program in Perth, Peter Briggs says personnel is just one of the ‘huge issues’ it faces

Australia faces an uphill battle to recruit and train enough naval personnel to serve on submarines planned for the future fleet of nuclear-powered vessels under the controversial $368bn Aukus deal, a retired admiral has warned.

As the Virginia-class submarine USS Colorado arrived at HMAS Stirling south of Perth on Tuesday for a month of routine maintenance and to help build Australian expertise, retired admiral Peter Briggs said more people needed to be enrolled in the navy’s submarine program.

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US military says strike on alleged drug vessel in eastern Pacific kills five people

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US military says it carried out an airstrike on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in latest attack in region

The US ⁠military ⁠said on ​Tuesday ⁠it killed ⁠five ​people ‌after ‌an airstrike on a ‌suspected drug-trafficking vessel in ​the ⁠eastern Pacific.

Tuesday’s strike was among more than 70 such attacks since the beginning of Donald Trump’s second presidency, according to media tallies. Collectively, they have killed more than 240 people.

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US bans vehicles from China’s BYD at Japan military base, calling them ‘unacceptable’ risk

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US military says the restrictions on the electric vehicles at Kadena airbase also apply to delivery drivers and taxis

One of America’s biggest overseas military bases has banned vehicles made by the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD over security concerns, the US military in Japan said on Tuesday.

The ban, which went into effect this week at Kadena airbase on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, has fueled speculation that similar measures could be taken at other US military facilities as part of Washington’s crackdown on Chinese technology it suspects of being used to collect sensitive information.

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Japanese prosecutors charge US marine suspected of robbing and killing woman

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Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, denies charges that he fatally strangled Anna Yagi, 39, in a hotel on the island of Okinawa

Prosecutors in Japan have filed formal charges against a US marine suspected of murdering and robbing a woman while stationed on the country’s island of Okinawa, according to Japanese media.

Devin Jacob Ballard, a 20-year-old lance corporal assigned to Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa, is charged with fatally strangling Anna Yagi, 39, at a hotel in the city and stealing from her a backpack containing a wallet, the public broadcaster NHK reported.

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Some US diplomats told to leave Saudi Arabia amid Houthi attacks

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Similar withdrawals from UAE, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain reported as concerns grow about restart of war on Iran after US midterm elections

The US state department has ordered some diplomats and the families of US government employees to leave Saudi Arabia as the gulf kingdom faces a barrage of near-daily attacks, with at least three people killed at an airport and oilfield.

Attacks on “civilian airports and other critical infrastructure” by the Iranian-supported Houthis in Yemen were highlighted as the reason for the drawdown. The state department spokesperson, Tommy Pigott, said: “The safety and security of department personnel and their families remain our highest priority.”

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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘almost certainly’ behind RAF Fairford threats, says Burnham

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UK to bring further sanctions against Tehran and IRGC after assessment Iran was likely to have coordinated incident

Andy Burnham said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were “almost certainly” behind threats to RAF Fairford, the firmest attribution of responsibility made so far by the UK after an incident late last month.

The prime minister told MPs the UK would bring further sanctions against Tehran and the IRGC in the aftermath of an ambiguous episode that, despite over a fortnight of police investigation, has yet to lead to anybody being charged.

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Execution live stream could cause PTSD in viewers, say psychiatrists

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Warning follows Pete Hegseth announcement that firing squad execution of Fort Hood killer will be public

• US politics – latest updates

Livestreaming an execution could cause post-traumatic stress disorder in the viewing public, mental health experts have said, after the US confirmed plans to broadcast the death by firing squad of a man who shot dead 13 unarmed soldiers.

The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Thursday that Nidal Hasan, a former army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, would be executed by firing squad on 3 December. Officials later confirmed it would be livestreamed. It is believed it will be the first public execution in the US in almost a century.

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USS Lincoln carrier to return to port in San Diego after record-breaking deployment – US politics live

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Vessel spent over 260 consecutive days at sea without a port call, a US navy record

As Donald Trump struggled to end the war with Iran, and the Lincoln’s deployment dragged on, reports emerged over the summer of shortages of food and basic supplies, and deteriorating mental health and morale among some crew members, including that two crew members had attempted to jump overboard.

At the time, senior Trump administration officials dismissed the reports. Hegseth claimed they “completely misrepresented” the reality, while Trump, when asked in August whether the deployment had gone on too long, responded, “Not nearly long enough” – a remark that upset some naval families.

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USS Abraham Lincoln scheduled to dock in San Diego after harrowing stretch at sea

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Deployment for nearly a year was marked by reports of supply shortages, and deteriorating morale and mental health among crew

The USS Abraham Lincoln, the US aircraft carrier that has been deployed for nearly a year and has spent months supporting US military operations against Iran, is scheduled to dock in San Diego on Thursday afternoon.

It marks the end of a deployment that has been described as “one of the most operationally intense and consequential of the modern era” and that became marked by a record-stretch at sea, repeated deployment extensions, and reports of supply shortages, and deteriorating morale and mental health among some crew members.

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US marine arrested in Japan on suspicion of killing woman, police say

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Suspect allegedly killed woman at hotel in Okinawa as prime minister calls crime ‘exceptionally brutal and vicious’

A US marine stationed on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa is accused of murdering a Japanese woman and has been arrested on suspicion of murder, police said on Sunday.

The suspect allegedly “killed [a] 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet” as well as her backpack, local police told news media outlets.

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Trump asked Xi Jinping if China would like to buy US weapons, American ambassador says

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David Perdue’s remarks come after a Taiwanese minister spoke of the ‘severe’ military threat posed by Beijing to the self-ruled island

Donald Trump offered to sell weapons to China while hosting its leader, Xi Jinping, last week, the US ambassador to China said on Sunday.

David Perdue told Fox News on Sunday: “President Trump continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world. He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point.”

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US fighter jet crashes at air base in western Germany

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Officials say one pilot safely ejected as F-16 believed to have crashed on approach to Spangdahlem after training drill

⁠An F-16 fighter jet assigned to the US air ⁠base Spangdahlem ⁠in ​western Germany crashed on Tuesday, the US military said, ⁠adding that one pilot had ejected safely and was receiving ⁠medical treatment.

The cause of the incident ​is under ‌investigation, the military ‌said in a statement, with ‌emergency response personnel at the scene of the crash.

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Australia investigating how F-35 fighter jet parts bound for US went missing in Hong Kong

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Disappearance of jet components sparks concern some of the program’s technology secrets could have been exposed

The Department of Defence is examining how F-35 fighter jet parts bound for the US from Australia were unexpectedly diverted to Hong Kong, the acting prime minister, Richard Marles, has said.

Marles said “very much everything that has occurred at the Australian end” would be reviewed, but claimed the technology parts were not “sensitive”, as first reported by Politico over the weekend.

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US strikes on alleged drug boats may constitute ‘crimes against humanity’, UN expert says

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Dozens of US attacks on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean have killed more than 230 people since September 2025

A special rapporteur for the UN human rights council has concluded that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the United States attacks on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Pacific and Caribbean “constituted crimes against humanity”.

The boat strikes, carried out since September 2025 on the stated grounds of stopping drugs being trafficked by sea to the US, have killed more than 230 people. The latest, on Saturday, killed four people in the Caribbean.

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IS member sentenced to 20 years in prison for role in 2021 Kabul airport bombing

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Mohammad Sharifullah, 28, was convicted of aiding the terrorist group that took credit for the suicide bombing

An Islamic State group member was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years in prison for aiding the terrorist organization that took credit for a suicide bombing that killed 13 US service members and about 160 Afghans at the Kabul airport five years ago during the US military’s chaotic withdrawal from the country.

A federal jury in Virginia had convicted Mohammad Sharifullah in April of providing material support to the IS affiliate known as Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP). But jurors could not agree whether he bore some responsibility for the airport bombing on 26 August 2021.

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More Republicans are turning on Iran war as midterms come into view

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Three more GOP members voted for war powers resolution to force withdrawal from the conflict as election looms

As the US war with Iran drags on, the ranks of Republicans signaling the conflict is a liability for their party continues to grow.

When the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening considered its sixth war powers resolution intended to force Donald Trump to withdraw troops from the conflict, three Republicans who had not supported the previous efforts broke with their party to vote this one to passage. Earlier that day, a Republican who had lost his primary after repeatedly clashing with Trump proposed impeaching the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, alleging a variety of constitutional transgressions including prosecuting the war against Iran without congressional authorization.

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US airman recounts Iran rescue in 60 Minutes segment branded propaganda

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Critics say segment about airman’s rescue was made to boost public perception of Trump’s unpopular war

A US airman has spoken of climbing a 7,000ft ridge with a broken back, arm and shoulder after he was shot down in Iran – and of being rescued by a team of American special forces as hostile locals closed in on him.

The air force colonel, identified only by his codename Bravo, appeared on camera Sunday night on CBS’s 60 Minutes in a segment some critics have labelled Pentagon propaganda to boost public perception of Donald Trump’s unpopular war.

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As China rises, Australia is increasingly enmeshed in the US war machine. Is the alliance still worth the risk?

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Australia is being exploited by an ally that could draw it, however unwillingly, into war with China, experts warn

“Physical security matters,” said Kevin Rudd, at his axiomatic best before the National Press Club this week.

“Our first responsibility is to secure our people’s future in this most contested region of the world.”

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Rubio says US will work with allies to stop drug-trafficking as three killed in latest boat strike

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Rubio visits Ecuador and welcomes cooperation after campaign of unilateral strikes on alleged ‘narco-terrorists’

US secretary of state Marco Rubio gave new clarity on the approach toward combating drug trafficking in Latin American waters, saying the Trump administration was focused on working with allied countries and aligning with their laws but insisting the military will “still blow up ships if need be.”

The public acknowledgment of a shift in US strategy comes a year after Washington began a campaign of unilateral deadly strikes against those it calls “narco-terrorists” operating boats in international waters.

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