Category Archives: US Military

‘We’re in a space race’: Nasa sounds alarm at Chinese designs on moon

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Administrator Bill Nelson says Beijing could seek ‘own’ resource-rich areas and next two years could be key to US-China contest

The US is locked in a space race with China and the country needs to “watch out” that its rival does not gain a foothold and try to dominate lunar resources, Nasa’s top official has warned.

The assessment came from the Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, a former astronaut and Florida senator, who went on to warn that China could eventually claim to “own” the moon’s resource-rich areas.

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Chinese navy jet flies within 10ft of US air force plane over South China Sea

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US aircraft forced to take evasive maneuvers during latest incident over contested shipping, fishing and gas field-rich region

A Chinese military plane came within 10ft (three meters) of a US air force aircraft over the contested South China Sea last week and forced it to take evasive maneuvers to avoid a collision in international airspace, the US military said.

The close encounter followed what the US called a recent trend of increasingly dangerous behavior by Chinese military aircraft.

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US military academy begins removal of Confederate memorials from campus

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The elite military school is taking down monuments from its Hudson Valley, New York, site in accordance with Pentagon orders

The elite US military academy at West Point is removing Confederate monuments from its Hudson Valley campus in New York state, in accordance with a congressional review and orders set in motion by the Pentagon.

The removal, which includes a portrait of Gen Robert E Lee in Confederate uniform, began on 18 December. The academy, America’s oldest, said the operation to either take down or modify displays memorializing the Confederacy would be a “multi-phased process”.

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Senate on track to pass $1.7tn funding bill to avert US government shutdown

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Bill includes $45bn in military aid to Ukraine after lawmakers reached agreement on a final series of votes

The US Senate appeared back on track Thursday to pass a $1.7tn bill to finance federal agencies through September 2023 and provide roughly $45bn in military and economic assistance to Ukraine, after lawmakers reached agreement on a final series of votes.

The Democratic majority leader, Chuck Schumer, announced an agreement to consider 15 amendments before voting on final passage. Most of the amendments would be subject to a 60-vote threshold to pass, generally dooming them to failure in the 50-50 Senate.

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US asks Australia for extradition of former Marines pilot Daniel Duggan

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Lawyer says Duggan maintains his innocence after US accused him of training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers

The US government has sent an extradition request to Australia for former US Marines pilot Daniel Duggan, who is accused of breaking US arms control laws by training Chinese military pilots to land on aircraft carriers.

“The US has made a formal request for extradition for Mr Duggan,” Trent Glover, a lawyer for the US government, told a Sydney local court on Friday.

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Republican who urged Trump to declare ‘Marshall’ law only regrets misspelling

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Text from Ralph Norman to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, urged president to declare martial law

A Republican who urged the Trump White House to declare martial law to stop Joe Biden taking office has only one regret: that he misspelled “martial”.

The text from Ralph Norman of South Carolina to Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s final chief of staff, was given to the January 6 committee by Meadows and revealed by Talking Points Memo.

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Pentagon unveils first strategic bomber in over 30 years to counter China

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The nuclear-capable B-21 Raider is set to become a key component in US’s effort to match the Asian country’s military build-up

The Pentagon unveiled its first new strategic bomber in more than 30 years on Friday, a nuclear-capable bat-wing plane that will become a central component of the US effort to counter China’s military build-up when it enters service around 2027.

Almost every aspect of the B-21 Raider is classified, but in a tightly-controlled unveiling at the Air Force’s Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, currently home of Lockheed-Martin’s legendary Skunk Works, the new strategic plane was briefly shown to the public.

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Elon Musk says SpaceX will keep funding Starlink internet in Ukraine

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World’s richest man’s company previously said it could not pay for satellite internet in country indefinitely

Elon Musk on Saturday announced that his company would continue to pay for Starlink satellite internet in Ukraine, a day after suggesting he could not keep funding the project, which he said was losing around $20m a month.

“The hell with it,” the world’s richest man wrote on Twitter. “Even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.”

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX says it can no longer fund Starlink internet in Ukraine

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Firm reportedly asks US government to pick up bill as relationship between Musk and Kyiv breaks down

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has said it cannot afford to continue to donate satellite internet to Ukraine and has asked the US government to pick up the bill, according to a report, as the relationship between the billionaire and Kyiv breaks down.

“We are not in a position to further donate terminals to Ukraine, or fund the existing terminals for an indefinite period of time,” SpaceX’s director of government sales wrote, in a letter seen by CNN.

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Pentagon spokesperson tamps down concerns over nuclear ‘Armageddon’

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John Kirby says Biden’s warning about threat of a nuclear attack from Russia were not based on specific new information

The US military’s top spokesperson tamped down concerns of an imminent nuclear threat from Russia, days after Joe Biden warned of a potential nuclear “Armageddon”.

Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser this week, Biden talked bluntly about the threat of a nuclear attack from Russia. “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” the president said. He added that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was “not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming” after invading Ukraine earlier this year.

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Texas Fort Hood to be renamed for US army’s first Latino four-star general

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The facility, named for the late retired general Richard Cavazos, will become the first to honor a Latino service member

The US army’s first Latino four-star general is set to become the namesake of the country’s largest active-duty armored military base, replacing the Confederate leader after whom the facility was originally named.

In a recent memo to top military brass at the Pentagon, US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said officials had until 1 January 2024 to implement a recommendation to change the name of Texas’s Fort Hood to Fort Cavazos, honoring the late retired general Richard Cavazos.

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Ex-US army medic allegedly lured migrants on to flights to Martha’s Vineyard

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Perla Huerta was reportedly sent to Texas from Florida to fill planes chartered by DeSantis, offering gift cards to asylum seekers

A former US army combat medic and counterintelligence agent allegedly solicited asylum seekers to join flights out of Texas to Martha’s Vineyard that Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, chartered.

Perla Huerta was sent to Texas from Tampa to fill the planes at the center of the trips, which many have argued could amount to illegal human trafficking, a person briefed on an investigation into the case told the New York Times.

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‘These people had our backs’: US veterans lobby to rescue allies trapped in Afghanistan

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The Afghan Adjustment Act would offer permanent resident status to Afghans who fled the Taliban but Congress has not taken action

​​A group of 12 people sit in camp chairs – chatting, smoking, listening – in the dark. Behind them, the Capitol building in Washington DC is luminescent, bringing into focus the Afghan flag. Well, the version of the flag before the Taliban changed it. It flies above their heads, catching the yellowy light of dusk.

Since Kabul fell to the Taliban in August last year, military veterans and organizations have been lobbying Congress to offer Afghan evacuees long-term visas to stay in the US. Now, with no action taken and thousands coming to the end of their temporary stays, a different route is being taken to pass the Afghan Adjustment Act. This bipartisan bill would grant thousands of Afghans permanent status in the US.

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‘Fat Leonard’, fugitive contractor in US navy’s worst corruption scandal, arrested in Venezuela

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Malaysian defence contractor fled before sentencing in US over bribery scheme that lasted more than a decade and involved dozens of US navy officers

A Malaysian defence contractor nicknamed “Fat Leonard” who orchestrated one of the largest bribery scandals in US military history has been arrested in Venezuela after fleeing before his sentencing, authorities say.

The international manhunt for Leonard Glenn Francis ended with his arrest by Venezuelan authorities on Tuesday morning at the Caracas airport as he was about to board an airplane for another country, the US Marshals Service said on Wednesday.

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Taliban release American engineer Mark Frerichs in prisoner swap

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Navy veteran exchanged for Bashir Noorzai, who had been held in US since 2005 on drugs charges

The Taliban have freed an American engineer in exchange for an Afghan tribal leader linked to the group whom the US had held on drugs charges since 2005.

Mark Frerichs was exchanged at Kabul airport for Bashir Noorzai, the acting Taliban foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, told a news conference in the Afghan capital.

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US Marshals Services face questions after ‘Fat Leonard’ flees house arrest

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Leonard Francis, contractor in US navy’s biggest scandal, was able not only to escape but also rented vans to load up his possessions

The US Marshals Service and other law enforcement agencies are facing questions over their competence after the central figure in the biggest scandal in US naval history was able not only to escape house arrest but also rented vans to load up his possessions.

When marshals arrived at Leonard Francis’s home in San Diego on Sunday, they found he had cut off his GPS ankle bracelet and fled, two weeks before his sentencing hearing. The whereabouts of the Malaysian contractor’s three sons, who had been living with him, was unclear.

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US says clashes with Iran-backed militias won’t affect Tehran nuclear talks

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Nuclear negotiations under way, as US-led mission against the Islamic State exchanges fire with armed groups in Syria and Iraq

US-led forces and Iran-backed militias exchanged fire for the second day in a row, but the Biden administration said the fighting would not affect nuclear negotiations with Tehran.

US Central Command said the two bases, Conoco and Green Village, used for the US-led mission against the Islamic State (IS) had come under rocket attack on Wednesday evening, but there were no serious injuries. The US struck back with attack helicopters, killing “two or three suspected Iran-backed militants conducting one of the attacks” and destroying vehicles.

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Joe Biden announces $3bn in fresh Ukraine military aid

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US to send anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, counter-drone defences and radar equipment as Zelenskiy praises ‘unwavering support’

Joe Biden has announced nearly $3bn in new military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, counter-drone defences and radar equipment.

It is the biggest tranche of US military aid to date, bringing to over $13bn the total the US has supplied or pledged to Kyiv under the Biden administration. The new equipment, however, will have to be ordered by defence manufacturers and will not be delivered for months or years. US officials said it represented a longer-term investment in Ukrainian security.

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US carries out Syria airstrikes in reprisal attack on Iran-backed militia

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US military says strikes on Deir Ez-Zor were needed to ‘protect and defend US personnel’ after drone attacks on its forces

The US military has said it has carried out airstrikes in areas of eastern Syria used by Iran-backed militias.

The US military’s Central Command spokesperson, Colonel Joe Buccino, said in a statement on Wednesday: “Today’s strikes were necessary to protect and defend US personnel”, and were in response to an attack on 15 August targeting US forces.

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US and South Korea begin largest military drills for years as North ramps up tensions

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The show of force is expected to prompt an angry response from Pyongyang and follows failure of Trump-era policy of engagement

The US and South Korea have begun their biggest joint military drills in years – a show of force that is expected to raise tensions with an increasingly hostile North Korea.

The exercises, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, are being seen as a sign of the allies’ determination to restore large-scale training after they cancelled some regular drills and scaled down others to facilitate nuclear talks, and because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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