Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata told senators Wednesday the department has solicited input from the services, which are now coming back “with a robust set of exception” requests.

Tata said the exceptions are “draft pre-decisional” and will be gathered by the department, reviewed and sent to Hegseth for final decisions.

“We are talking submarines, we are talking about ships, we are talking about basic training, we are talking about Ranger School,” Tata said.

During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on military personnel policy, Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, raised concerns over military readiness of the U.S. armed forces as a result of the change. Noting that the U.S. Army developed the flu vaccine to halt the spread of disease, she asked whether the DoD reviewed any studies that influenced the change.

“There’s such a thing as leadership that would say to the service members, ‘This is for your health protection. It’s science based,’” Hirono said.

The Spanish Flu — a deadly postscript to WWI — started at a US military base

Tata said Hegseth made the decision — in consultation with his office and health affairs — “to get at is restoring trust and faith, restoring the warrior ethos.”

“What I’m aware of is troop morale and the significant backlash from the imposition from the Biden era of the COVID vaccine, and the mandatory COVID vaccine and the expulsion of lots of talent for refusing to take that vaccine,” Tata said.

Hegseth announced his decision to scrap the mandatory program in a post April 21 on the social media platform X.

He said the requirement was discarded “effective immediately,” adding that the “War Department is once again restoring freedom to our Joint Force.”

The flu vaccine has been required annually for U.S. military personnel since the 1950s to preserve the health of the force, although availability and operational requirements influenced the program from year to year. Generally, the Defense Department has aimed to inoculate more than 90% of active-duty personnel.

The program has been a major factor in lower rates of hospitalization among service members than national U.S. rates, according to an October 2025 Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division report.

The division found that the annual flu vaccine is effective in preventing the impact of flu on older service members and is important for protecting the health of the force, particularly in close quarters at recruit stations, which have the highest rates of flu infections each year across the services.

The incidence rate of hospitalizations for flu among recruits from 2010 to 2014 was 70 per 100,000, compared with the overall military rate of 7.4 per 100,000, according to the report.

“The higher burden of hospitalization among recruits offers DOD vaccine distribution priority considerations in the future,” wrote the report authors.

The Defense Department launched a mandatory program for troops to get the COVID-19 vaccine in August, 2021, although by the time the requirement was enacted, 73% of active-duty personnel had already received at least one dose of the vaccine.

At the time, more than 212,000 military personnel already had contracted COVID-19. A total of 96 troops died from COVID-19 between 2020 and 2022.

In early 2023, the Defense Department dropped a mandate for service members to get the vaccine for COVID-19 as a result of a law passed by Congress in 2022. Previously, more than 8,400 service members left the military rather than get the vaccine, with most citing health concerns or religious reasons.

Backed by Universal Pictures, the “Transformers” director is slated to shepherd the speed-of-light-turnaround project based on the April 3 shoot down of a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle and subsequent rescue of its crew during U.S.-led operations against the Islamic Republic, Deadline reported.

The untitled movie is expected to be based on a book by author Mitchell Zuckoff, which will be released in 2027, according to Deadline. Bay previously worked with Zuckoff on the film adaptation of 13 Hours, which chronicled the 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya.

On April 3, the F-15, call sign Dude 44, was downed by Iranian air defenses at approximately 4:40 a.m. local time, becoming the first manned aircraft to be lost to hostile anti-aircraft fire since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28.

Both crew members ejected and landed miles apart. Though the pilot was located within hours and rescued — after an intense fight — the aircraft’s weapons systems officer remained on the move, evading Iranian forces in the Zagros Mountains, treating his own wounds and taking cover in a mountain crevice, according to U.S. President Donald Trump, who called the rescue mission “one of the largest, most complex, most harrowing combat search-and-rescue missions ever attempted by the military.”

U.S. special forces eventually rescued the second downed airman following a complex operation, Trump announced on April 5.

The identities of the crew members have not yet been released.

In a statement provided to Deadline, Bay praised his “amazing partnership over [a] 30-year career working with the Department of War and amazing U.S. military members.”

Bay added that the upcoming film adaptation will celebrate “the true heroism and unwavering dedication of our service members.”

“My father didn’t speak about his war experience very much,” his daughter, Kelly Stewart-Harcourt, told Military Times. “After he died, my sister found a journal, a handwritten journal that he had kept during the war” alongside his flight logbook filled with little scribbles, drawings and sketch marks from both Stewart and his men.

The journal, according to Stewart-Harcourt, “described dad’s fears and his uncertainties, uncertainties about the war and the struggles and wanting to please his father. Dad didn’t talk very much about himself, so this was a real look inside dad that we had never had before.”

“I don’t think [the movie] could have been done without that input,” she added. “It just made it so much deeper, richer and more profound.”

Poignantly, perhaps almost fittingly, the last line of the journal stops mid-sentence.

Wednesday, in honor of Stewart’s birthday, Burns & Co. production has dropped the official “Jimmy” trailer starring KJ Apa (“Riverdale”) as the World War II veteran and famed “It’s a Wonderful Life” star.

“I was just overwhelmed by this idea that someone would do that — someone who is in his position of power, wealth and influence would choose to serve in such a profound way,” Aaron Burns, director and producer of the film, told Military Times. “Then he came back as a hero, highly decorated, won all kinds of awards, and was a full colonel, but was racked with PTSD.”

“He gave everything he had, including his soul, to the cause and for his men, and he comes back and bottoms out … but he doesn’t stay there. And that’s what I think is so hopeful for any of us. Jimmy is an example of someone who went through the worst you could imagine and came out the other side with hope and healing and inspiration for all of us, so that was the story that I was drawn to telling,” Burns continued.

The film chronicles Stewart’s rise in Hollywood — including his Academy Award-winning performance in “The Philadelphia Story” — before his shock enlistment in the U.S. Army Air Corps in March 1941, shortly before the branch became the U.S. Army Air Forces.

It concludes in 1946, as Stewart struggles to find his footing back home and in Hollywood.

“Dad would tell us that his military service was the thing he was most proud of in his life. He was proud of what he had achieved in his craft as an actor, but in terms of meaning I think his military service was what he was most proud of,” said Stewart-Harcourt.

Stewart-Harcourt’s intimate knowledge of her father helps centers the film — giving insight into specifics like Stewart’s favorite music, the restaurant he went to every week and what he ordered — as well as lines that felt true to her father.

That experience would shape his life and his acting forevermore.

Less than a year after his return home, Stewart famously starred in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” delivering the now iconic, tear-soaked monologue: “God, God, dear Father in Heaven. I’m not a praying man, but if you’re up there and you can hear me, show me the way. I’m at the end of my rope. I … show me the way, oh God.”

“I think maybe it took ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ for him to get back into being an actor, maybe no other role would work,” Stewart-Harcourt mused.

“Jimmy” is set to debut in theaters Nov. 6, 2026.

The operation, dubbed Southern Spear, has destroyed 58 vessels between Sept. 2 and May 12, according to data compiled by Military Times — as part of what the Trump administration describes as a counternarcotics campaign in the Western Hemisphere. At least 182 people have been killed in the strikes.

A spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office told Military Times on Tuesday that the inquiry encompasses “the joint process for targeted vessels in the U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility as part of Operation Southern Spear.”

She noted that “the project was self-initiated” and in line with the department’s broader assessment of programs and operations. The office would not provide a timeline in order to “preserve the integrity of our work,” the spokeswoman added.

In a letter dated May 11, the inspector general’s office said that its objective is to determine if the department acted in accordance with an established six-phase joint targeting cycle. This framework includes end state and commander’s objectives; target development and prioritization; capabilities analysis; commander’s decision and force assignment; mission planning and force execution; and assessment.

Both the Pentagon and Southern Command referred requests for comment to the inspector general’s office.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has previously described Operation Southern Spear as one that “defends our Homeland, removes narco-terrorists from our Hemisphere, and secures our Homeland from the drugs that are killing our people.”

The White House has also vehemently defended the use of lethal force as a lawful military action, casting the issue as a matter of national security. Officials argue that the trafficking of illicit narcotics into the U.S. by drug cartels has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans. Influxes of fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine have proven especially deadly.

Yet the Trump administration has offered little public evidence that the boats being targeted are engaged in drug trafficking. Legal experts and Democratic lawmakers contend that President Donald Trump is effectively ordering extrajudicial killings. Other critics say that, at a minimum, U.S. conduct raises questions about possible violations of maritime law and international human rights conventions.

The watchdog will perform its review at the Pentagon and Southern Command headquarters in Doral, Fla.

DOD’s “policy architecture really has to scale with it,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said Tuesday during a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities. “And this is where we probably lag behind.”

During the hearing, which focused on science priorities in the Pentagon’s fiscal 2027 budget request, Ernst pointed to a massive increase proposed for the Defense Autonomous Working Group, or DAWG.

The Trump administration is seeking $55 billion for DAWG, up from its $225 million budget for the current fiscal year.

With drones dominating the battlefield in Ukraine, and Iran unleashing drones against U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, DAWG has the high-priority task of developing unmanned vehicles and autonomous weapons.

In 2023, DoD updated Directive 3000.09, which provided guidelines for autonomous weapons. In particular, 3000.09 specified that “autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems will be designed to allow commanders and operators to exercise appropriate levels of human judgment over the use of force.”

Ernst expressed concern that alongside the much greater use of drones, the targeting process to employ those weapons is increasingly driving by artificial intelligence.

“And at the same time, we’re integrating the AI-driven targeting with those autonomous munitions at a pace that DoD Directive 3000.09 was not designed to contemplate,” Ernst said.

Policies needed to share AI-generated intel across NATO countries, official says

Emil Michael, the under secretary of defense for research and engineering and the DoD’s chief technology officer, agreed that policy on autonomous weapons “absolutely needs updating. Not only because of the capability potential increase, [but also] because of the threat environment, what’s possible by the adversary and partly because of the lessons we learned in Iran.”

Autonomy will be a part of future U.S. defense capabilities, from technology to detect and clear mines, to space-based intercepts to stop Chinese hypersonic missiles, Michael said.

“So there are going to be different risk levels with autonomous,” he added. “And we have to account for them in our policies. And my belief is that this will change more frequently than it has in the past.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., compared the use of AI with the U.S. effort to develop atomic weapons in World War II.

Pentagon inks $500 million deal with Perennial Autonomy for counter-drone tech

The Manhattan Project was funded by the government, even though the Roosevelt administration often hid from Congress where the money was really going. Today, innovation in AI, drones and autonomous weapons is primarily driven by the private sector, which raises questions about how the government’s ability to impose restraints.

“I do not believe that a private-sector company should get to decide what the rules are,” Slotkin said. “But I got to be honest, I think it is part of our congressional role up here to provide left and right limits, that provide some guidelines for how we govern this very new technology.”

On May 12, a T-38 Talon II aircraft from Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, was involved in a mishap, according to a base release. The crash occurred in a rural area of Lamar County, Alabama, with the cause is still unknown. An investigation is set to be completed by a Safety Investigation Board.

Almost a week after the T-38 accident, two Navy E/A-18G Growler jets collided mid-air on Sunday during an air show near Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. The four crew members involved ejected safely, and the crash is under investigation.

The Air Force says the service is acting out of an “abundance of caution,” according to a Tuesday release. The halt in flight operations is meant to give the safety board the ability to locate and assess evidence from the accident.

“The pause ensures the continued safety of Air Force personnel and equipment involved in flying T-38 operations while the investigation progresses,” the release reads.

It also notes that the length of the pause is undetermined as engineering analysis and an inspection process is needed before clearing the aircraft for a safe return to flight. Inspections are slated to begin this week.

Once the inspection process and any maintenance actions are completed, individual aircraft can resume flying operations.

Units impacted by this pause are across Air Education and Training Command, Air Combat Command, Air Force Materiel Command and Air Force Global Strike Command, the statement says.

The T-38 Talon, which was introduced in the 1960s, is primarily used by Air Education and Training Command for joint specialized undergraduate pilot training.

While the aircraft’s flying operations are paused, aircrews are going to utilize simulator training as impacted major commands work to alleviate stress on operations, training and readiness, per the release.

Last week’s incident is not the only T-38 accident seen in recent years. In early November 2022, a T-38C crashed around 20 miles outside of the Columbus base and forced the pilot to eject safely, while sustaining non life-threatening injuries.

Then just two weeks later, another T-38C experienced an in-flight emergency that caused the aircraft to land gear-up.

By 2027, the Air Force hopes to achieve Initial Operating Capability for the T-7A Red Hawk, which is meant to phase out the T-38C Talon for pilot training. The force allowed for production of the T-7As to begin in April 2026.

Adm. Brad Cooper, the chief of U.S. Central Command, said on Tuesday that American forces in the Middle East remain deeply entrenched in the region and are at the highest level of readiness.

“I am prepared to execute a broad range of contingencies,” Cooper testified before the House Armed Services Committee. “We’re prepared for further direction depending on how negotiations go.”

In the meantime, Cooper told lawmakers that CENTCOM will maintain its blockade on all vessels entering of leaving Iranian ports — a posture that has led the military to redirect a reported 88 commercial vessels since it went into effect on April 13.

The United States said it had also disabled four boats “to ensure total compliance.”

Washington and Tehran are deadlocked over how to resolve their nearly three-month conflict, with no discernible path toward a peace deal. The talks have foundered over the specifics of Iran’s nuclear program and access to the Strait of Hormuz, which has been effectively closed since the beginning of the war. In ordinary conditions, the strait accounts for roughly one-fifth of global oil supply.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed he had been “an hour away” from authorizing a major strike on the Islamic Republic but ultimately backed off after the leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia urged him to postpone the attack in favor of continued dialogue.

“The ships were all loaded — loaded to the brim — and we were all set to start," the president told reporters at the White House. Such a move would have ended the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire.

“I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit,” he continued. “I’m not sure yet, you’ll never very soon.”

Trump said that Iran has “two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week – a limited period of time," to come to the table.

Vice President JD Vance, speaking at the White House press briefing on Tuesday, stressed that the current conflict with Iran is “not a forever war.”

“We’re going to take care of business and come home,” he said.

Vance led a U.S. delegation for face-to-face meetings with Iranian officials in Pakistan last month, but the talks failed to produce a breakthrough after 21 hours.

“We have an opportunity here, I think, to reset the relationship that has existed between Iran and the United States for 47 years,” he said. “So, as the president just told me, we are locked and loaded. We don’t want to go down that pathway, but the president is willing and able to go down that pathway if we have to.”

The Islamic Republic’s Deputy Foreign Minister, in response to Trump’s threats, asserted that Iran is primed to confront any military aggression.

“Iran, united and resolutely, is prepared to confront any military aggression,” Kazem Gharibabadi wrote in a post on X. “For us, surrender holds no meaning; we either triumph or become martyrs.”

The single-engine, prop-driven OA-1K, a militarized version of the Air Tractor AT-802 crop duster, is built to give isolated special operations teams eyes overhead and firepower on call from rough dirt strips with little support.

“It is essentially a Swiss Army Knife of airborne capability,” Lt. Col. Robert Wilson, AFSOC’s armed overwatch requirements branch chief, told reporters.

“Rapid disassembly and reassembly means, in a matter of hours, the aircraft can be loaded into mobility aircraft like a C-5 or C-17 for worldwide deployment,” Wilson said in an AFSOC release. “With the OA-1K, ‘any place, any time, anywhere’ is not just a motto, but an actual capability.”

Lt. Gen. Mike Conley, AFSOC commander, added in the release that the OA-1K “offers a unique and modular solution for a wide range of operations, including armed overwatch, at a fraction of a cost of other platforms.”

The cost case rests on platform consolidation. A 2023 Government Accountability Office report noted SOCOM refers to the mix of close air support, strike and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft flown over a single special operations mission as “the stack.” AFSOC has pitched the modular Skyraider II as a cheaper airframe that can do the work of many.

The Air Force now flies 18 Skyraider IIs and expects “a handful more” by October, Wilson said.

The aircraft, named for the Vietnam-era A-1 Skyraider, currently operates out of Will Rogers Air National Guard Base, Oklahoma, and will eventually operate from Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico, and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.

The program of record is 75 aircraft, but the Pentagon has cut the funded total to 53. The same GAO report found that SOCOM had not justified the 75-aircraft fleet and urged a slowdown.

The cuts align with a broader Pentagon shift toward a potential high-end fight with China, where a slow, low-flying turboprop with no ejection seat is a hard sell.

“The 75 quantity figure is the program record,” Wilson said. “I would say, as the capability sponsor, less than 75 is not desirable. We would like to see it at the program record of 75, but ... just being pragmatic, obviously, with resource constraints that could potentially limit the program less than that.”

For the second year , no VA hospitals received a one-star rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, the agency within the Department of Health and Human Services that publishes quality assessments for U.S. hospitals based on mortality rates, patient safety, hospital readmissions and other measures.

CMS began rating VA hospitals in 2023. That year, of 114 facilities that were evaluated, nearly 30% received five stars; 37% received four stars; 15% were awarded three stars; 11%, two stars; and 8% -- or nine facilities -- one star.

In 2026, 45% of VA facilities received five stars, 33% earned four stars, 16% received three stars and 6% were given two stars.

Since the first assessment, the percentage of VA facilities that have earned four or five stars rose from 67% to 78%, despite dipping to 58% in 2024.

The assessments compare favorably against more than 4,600 hospitals reviewed by CMS nationwide. Roughly 12% of U.S. hospitals received five-star ratings, 30% were awarded four stars, 31% received three stars, 21% earned two stars and 6% were given one star this year.

Officials said the new ratings mean VA hospitals account for nearly 15% of the country’s five-star rated hospitals.

“The Trump Administration has a proven track record of improving Veterans’ care, and these ratings underscore that success,” VA Secretary Doug Collins said in a release. “We look forward to continuing to deliver the results veterans have earned at VA facilities across the nation.”

The list of high- and low- performing facilities at the VA has fluctuated over time, with some marked improvements in facilities that received one star in 2023.

For example, the VA Pittsburgh Health Care System, Providence VA Medical Center in Rhode Island and the Bronx VA Medical Center in New York City each received one star in 2023 but earned four stars in 2026.

Two facilities that earned one star each in 2023 continue to be among the VA’s list of facilities performing under national averages on several measures. The Overton Brooks VA Medical Center in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the San Juan Medical Center, Puerto Rico, are among the seven VA facilities that received two stars.

The VA maintained its own internal star ratings and began publishing them in 2017 following a series of news reports. In late 2019, the department dropped the effort because VA leaders said it provided little value to veterans.

Twenty Veterans Health Administration medical centers were not rated because they did not meet the criteria for inclusion. CMS does not rate facilities that have a low number of cases or incidents that are specific to its assessment criteria.

It also does not rate specialty hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and some inpatient care facilities, such as psychiatric hospitals.

The CMS star ratings can be found on Medicare’s Care Compare website.

The redeployment of U.S. troops from Europe will be an ongoing process for several years, even if there’s no exact timeline, Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Alexus Grynkewich said in a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday, following a meeting of NATO military chiefs.

“What we’re basically saying is, as the European pillar of the alliance gets stronger, this allows the U.S. to reduce its presence in Europe and limit itself to providing only those critical capabilities that allies cannot yet provide,” Grynkewich said. “So we should expect there to be a redeployment of U.S. forces over time as allies build their capacity.”

The remark comes as Polish government leaders expressed concern about the Pentagon abruptly canceling a planned rotation of an armored brigade combat team of more than 4,000 soldiers to the country on NATO’s eastern flank.

The military chiefs discussed the U.S. decision to redeploy the armored brigade combat team, which Grynkewich said doesn’t impact what he called “executability” of NATO’s regional plans. He said the U.S. is withdrawing a total of 5,000 troops from Europe, with the armored brigade combat team accounting for a large part, as well as the cancellation of a long-range fires battalion deployment.

Grynkewich said planning is ongoing to redeploy “additional minor elements” accounting for another several hundred troops.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed animosity towards European NATO members, prompting concern in European capitals about whether American commitments to the alliance still hold. The Pentagon said earlier this month it will withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, whose Chancellor Friedrich Merz has criticized Washington’s handling of the war with Iran.

The withdrawal of additional troops is a decision for U.S. political leadership, according to Grynkewich. He said the timeline will “vary broadly” across different capabilities as NATO members meet spending commitments agreed in 2025 in The Hague and as they meet their capability targets.

NATO’s top military commander said a lot has happened since 2022, as the Baltic countries, Poland and “many others have really built up their ground combat power. So there’s substantially more capability in the ground domain than there was previously.”

Army leaders in hot seat over Poland deployment cancellation

Grynkewich name-checked the Canada-led Multinational Brigade in Latvia, which he said is fully operational and “highly effective,” and noted Germany continues to build up a brigade in Lithuania.

“As allies build up their capability, the United States is able to pull capability back and use it for other global priorities,” Grynkewich said.

The general said he’ll continue work in his joint role as the commander of U.S. European Command and NATO’s top military commander, “to ensure we’ve got the right coverage in the right places to maintain deterrence.”

The conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have shown war is now shaped by “speed, mass, software, drones, electronic warfare, space and data, areas where we have a lot to do,” said Adm. Pierre Vandier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, at the press conference.

While NATO needs more missiles, artillery shells, air defense, high-end capabilities and stockpiles, those will not be sufficient on their own, according to Vandier. He said legacy platforms are not obsolete, but “the decisive question is the force mix” of combining ships, aircraft and tanks with robots, drones, sensors, software and new effectors.

 ”More of the same is necessary, but more of the same will not be enough by far,” Vandier said. “If we want mass and speed, we need to know how we can build fast, produce at scale, adapt quickly, and still deliver real operational effect. And we need to identify which part of our industrial base can actually deliver it.”

Lt. Col. Mark Natale, chief strategy officer for Space Base Delta 41, completed over 36 hours of preparation, months of coordination and multiple “no-go” attempts before taking to the southwest Colorado Springs’ sky on April 24.

Natale’s family has a long history serving in the U.S. military, according to an April 14 release. Before and after World War II, his family emigrated from Italy to the U.S. and has served the nation for nearly 80 years in every branch.

His grandfather and great-grandfather served in the Army, saying “the price of being an American is to serve this country.” Natale joined the Army in 2006, aiming to become an officer and a paratrooper.

After serving as an enlisted soldier, he made it to the rank of sergeant before Officer Candidate School and commissioning, the release states.

He spent the next 18 years in the Army, with over a decade in special operations forces and 12 years overseas notched under his belt.

Once the Space Force was created in 2019 and after some influence from his wife Sonia, Natale decided to apply for an interservice transfer during the first segment of non-Air Force personnel.

“[Sonia] knew we were in the next great ‘space race’ and entering the second golden era of space dominance... I wanted to be a part of that,” Natale said in the release.

Natale searched for a way to combine his combat experience with space-based operations, the release says, which laid the foundation for the demonstration of joint interoperability.

Fast forward to last month, Natale utilized his Army experience as a senior parachutist and jumpmaster to join the 10th Special Forces Group in jumping into the Sullivan Drop Zone at Fort Carson, Colorado, from a U.S. Marine Corp KC-130 Hercules based out of Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii.

“This was much more than a technical demonstration, it was a validation of our proof of concept that we can take a guardian with a unique skillset, get them cross-trained and recertified, then have them embed with an elite joint force, jump from an aircraft in flight and provide Space capabilities on the drop zone,” Natale said.

After demonstrating his abilities in the initial manifest and jumpmaster refresher, Natale highlighted that the elite forces valued his experience and requested more guardians follow his path and become embedded in their unit, the statement reads.

“I hope that this shows every guardian, regardless of rank, that we can expand our capabilities and prove to the Joint Force that we can hang with the most elite of the elite,” Natale said.

“As guardians, we need to operate outside our comfort zone. To prove that we are combat focused, we need to do what they do, train like they train and operate where they operate,” he concluded.

According to Monday’s press release, the decision to award the contract was made by the Joint Interagency Task Force 401, or JIATF-401, a Defense Department organization charged with researching, testing, and procuring counter-drone technology.

Perennial will deliver a range of AI-enabled counter-unmanned aerial systems currently used by U.S. forces. These include Merops interceptors, Bumblebee quadcopters and Hornet midrange strike drones.

In a statement, the company said the contract “validates the operational reliability of that technology in the world’s most actively contested environments,” and “deepens the existing strategic partnership” between it and the Defense Department.

U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Matt Ross, director of JIATF-401, in the statement called drones “the defining threat of our time,” and reiterated the need to maintain partnerships with companies like Perennial.

“We must be proactive with creating a layered defense that deploy and scale low-cost, attritable air-to-air drone interceptors at all our facilities at home and abroad,” he added.

In December, the Pentagon launched the billion-dollar Drone Dominance initiative to equip troops with cheap, disposable drones and prepare them for technological changes on the battlefield, many of which were demonstrated in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Another part of the initiative included investing heavily in the domestic drone industry, so within the next few years, equipment could be produced at scale for significantly less money.

But the Iran war further accelerated the U.S. military’s demand for the types of drones combatants have been using to attack or harass troops, destroy equipment or infrastructure and conduct surveillance, among other things.

During last month’s budget hearings, Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll told lawmakers that Perennial began rapidly scaling production of its Merops drones.

Perennial, originally launched by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as Project Eagle, developed the Merops interceptor for Ukrainian forces to counter Russia’s one-way attack drones known as Shaheds.

The U.S. military is using the interceptors the same way against Iran’s Sheheds.

When answering questions about the investment, Driscoll described a war of attrition, saying the Merops currently costs about $15,000 per unit, whereas a Shahed costs somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000.

Additionally, JIATF-401 awarded Perennial a separate $5.2 million contract in January for the Bumblebee V2 counter-drone system, and the Army reportedly tested the Hornet midrange strike drones in March.

The company has also opened manufacturing operations in Europe through a partnership aimed at expanding production of its Merops drones.

Perennial’s contract will end in three years or whenever the Pentagon pays out the full $500 million, whichever comes first.

Taking the stage at a rally for Ed Gallrein, Hegseth railed against Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican who has publicly feuded with Trump and is facing Gallrein in a contentious primary for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District.

Hegseth’s support has sparked online condemnation as a violation of the Hatch Act, which bans federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty. Pentagon officials and military leaders have historically avoided overtly partisan political activity to align with the armed forces’ nonpartisan identity.

Hegseth said he attended the event after awarding Purple Heart medals to soldiers but gave a perfunctory statement at the start of his speech in an attempt to distance himself from role as Defense Secretary.

“I have to say upfront, for the lawyers, that I’m here in my personal capacity as a private citizen, a fellow American, and a fellow combat veteran here to support Navy Seal Ed Gallrein,” he said.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell pushed back against accusations that Hegseth’s participation violated the neutrality of his role, arguing in a statement that the secretary’s attendance was “in his personal capacity,” and would not use taxpayer money.

“His participation has been thoroughly vetted and cleared by lawyers, including the Department of War Office of General Counsel, and does not violate the Hatch Act or any other applicable federal statute,” Parnell said.

Hegseth’s appearance came as the U.S. remains heavily embroiled in the war with Iran, a conflict that Massie has denounced. Massie has also broken with Trump on other issues, criticizing U.S. aid to Israel and spearheading legislation to release the Epstein files.

In his roughly 12-minute speech, Hegseth repeatedly chastised Massie, saying, “President Trump does not need more people in Washington who are trying to make a point, especially from his own party. He needs people willing to help him win and vote with him when it matters most.”

The secretary also railed against “woke trainings, political indoctrination, diversity quotas, climate seminars, pronouns [and] dudes in dresses,” before lauding Gallrein’s military service.

According to Gallrein’s website, he served for 30 years and deployed repeatedly as a Navy SEAL officer.

At a May 12 hearing of the House Appropriations Committee, Hegseth thanked Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nevada) for pushing legislation to override the Catch 22-type rules that have blocked veterans from getting the benefits received by Department of Energy civilians who also worked at the Nevada Test and Training Center (NTTR) north of Las Vegas.

“You have the authority to provide the [Veterans Affairs] with documents they need today to get those veterans the help they need,” Lee told Hegseth.

“Thank you for what you’re doing for those folks,” but “it’s not a situation I have all the facts on,” Hegseth told Lee, adding that he wanted an internal review before giving an endorsement. Hegseth also sought to assure Lee that he wasn’t stalling.

“I’m not talking about a full review, I’m just talking about a familiarization” on the issues that have blocked the NTTR veterans from receiving benefits and compensation under the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, or PACT Act.

At the same hearing, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, the Joint Chiefs chairman, said he would press to lift the bureaucratic restrictions blocking the VA from granting benefits to service members who were stationed at the NTTR.

“You bet, Ma’am,” Caine told Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada) when she asked whether he agreed that DOD personnel deserved “the same presumption of radiation exposure as DOE (Department of Energy) employees who worked alongside them.”

The issue for affected veterans, meanwhile, has remained that the VA requires documentation proving personnel actually served at the NTTR before they can be eligible for benefits.

That proof, however, cannot be released due to its classification under Cold War regulations, said former Air Force Sgt. Dave Crete, who previously served at the NTTR.

Crete said he founded The Invisible Enemy advocacy group with the sole purpose of getting previously denied health care benefits and compensation to “those who served on the range.”

The government acknowledges that the site is contaminated, but only for Energy Department workers who “get lifetime medical and compensation up to $400,000,” Crete said in a phone interview.

“That hasn’t happened for us,” he told Military Times. “The first thing that has to happen is to acknowledge that we were there.”

To attain that confirmation, Sens. Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto have sponsored the bipartisan Forgotten Veterans Act — Fighting for the Overlooked Recognition of Groups Operating in Toxic Test Environments in Nevada.

“It is unconscionable that one U.S. government agency (DOE) deems portions of the range as contaminated and their personnel exposed, while another U.S. government agency (DOD) does not,” Rosen said in a statement.

Currently, the NTTR consists of nearly three million acres of restricted land that includes the highly secret Area 51 site. The area makes up “the largest contiguous air and ground space available for military (training) operations in the free world,” according to a Nellis Air Force Base release.

The first atmospheric atomic bomb test at what would become the NTTR occurred on Jan. 27, 1951, during the “duck-and-cover” era, when schools nationwide would conduct air raid drills to guard against a potential Soviet attack.

The first atom bomb test would be followed by 927 others — 100 of them above ground. The last test in Nevada was underground and occurred on Sept. 23, 1992.

Gen. Dagvin Anderson, head of U.S. Africa Command, seemed concerned that the answer might be “no” when he testified to Congress last week.

Anderson said that Africa is the epicenter of global terrorism, but warned that a 75% U.S. force reduction over the past decade – coupled with a parallel drawdown of allied troops – has created “an intelligence black hole” on the continent.

“AFRICOM’s lack of expeditionary capabilities and diminished force posture compromise our crisis response,” Anderson testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, noting the command is operating with “minimum necessary resources.”

“Our reduced presence on the continent also allows disruptive actors to drive the agenda, undercutting American interests,” he said. “ISIS leadership is [in] Africa. Al-Qaeda’s economic engine is in Africa. Both of these groups share the will and intent to strike our homeland.”

Asked whether his command is capable of disrupting such threats, Anderson gave a circumspect response. “That is very difficult for us to ascertain in the Sahel right now given our limited posture,” he cautioned.

The implicitly critical remarks came just before President Donald Trump ordered a strike that killed the Islamic State’s second-in-command in Lake Chad Basin. Additional armed actions in northeastern Nigeria followed soon after.

“At my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday night. “He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans.”

Trump identified the target as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, a top figure in ISIS who was labeled a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the State Department in 2023 during former President Joe Biden’s administration.

The joint commando raid was the result of extensive intelligence sharing and reconnaissance between the U.S. and Nigeria, according to the Nigerian Army. The assault on al-Minuki’s fortified enclave in Metele, Borno State, commenced shortly after midnight and culminated in airstrikes on the site following a three-hour clash. Several of the ISIS leader’s lieutenants were also killed in the firefight.

There were no American or Nigerian military injuries reported as of Monday, a U.S. official told Military Times.

AFRICOM, in a statement, said al-Minuki provided “strategic guidance to the ISIS global network on media and financial operations as well as the development and manufacturing of weapons, explosives, and drones.” It added that he had a “significant history of involvement in planning attacks and directing hostage taking.”

Officials in Washington and Lagos announced on Sunday that the two countries conducted further strikes against ISIS in Metele in the ensuing days, resulting in the deaths of at least 20 militants.

The Islamic State has transformed the Sahel into a breeding ground for some of its most lethal affiliates, notably ISIS-West Africa, also known as ISIS-WA, and its rival, Boko Haram.

Both groups are especially active in the Lake Chad Basin, which spans Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. Myriad factors — including violent extremism, poverty, food insecurity, climate change and weak governance — have converged to make the theater the locus of one of the world’s most intractable humanitarian crises.

The operation that killed al-Minuki was the most dramatic moment so far in the ongoing effort by the Pentagon to aid the Nigerian government in its quest to beat back insurgents.

On Christmas night, American and Nigerian forces carried out joint missile strikes in the Sokoto State. Trump said “ISIS Terrorist Scum” were the targets. Soon after, the Pentagon deployed roughly 200 troops to the West African nation to assist in training the country’s armed forces as they battle an Islamist insurgency.

Dr. Omar Mohammed, a senior research fellow within the program on extremism at George Washington University, told Military Times that Africa has emerged as a focal point of terrorist activity since the collapse of the Islamic State’s territorial caliphate in 2017.

He said jihadist movements have expanded rapidly across the Sahel, in part through the recruitment of child soldiers who become more susceptible to radical recruitment amid destitution.

“Poverty is the reason that leads to child soldiers,” Mohammed asserted, adding that the Islamic State has infiltrated schools to create conditions in which indoctrinations begin early. “When there is no access to regular schools, imagine: Their teacher is an imam with the Islamic State teaching them how to be terrorists, promising them money. It makes it very concerning.”

According to the United Nations, violence has forced more than 1,827 schools across the Lake Chad Basin to close, depriving thousands of children access to education. Today, Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the least educated regions on earth.

Mohammed argued that the U.S. must bolster efforts to confront the rise of terrorism in Africa, not scale back.

“Without continued pressure, terrorists will always find a way to plot against the United States, the West and American interests around the world,” he said. “It is their ideology that goes against everything civil and everything democratic.”

But scarcely any could be called heroic.

In the case of the F4F Wildcat, usually outnumbered and almost always outclassed by its opponents, an exception can be made.

Distinctive in that it was first designed as a biplane in 1935, the U.S. Navy soon realized that the first iteration, the XF4F-1, could not compete with monoplane fighters.

Modifications continued throughout the next couple of years until the XF4F-3’s debut, which first flew on Feb. 12, 1939, about two months after the first flight of the Mitsubishi A6M1 Zero prototype in Japan.

First combat with the Wildcat was not with any U.S. service, however, but with Britain’s Royal Navy. Its first victim was German. (The Royal Navy called the aircraft the Martlet until March 1944, when it adopted the Wildcat moniker.)

According to historian Bruce Crawford, the British had shown great interest in the Wildcat as a replacement for the Gloster Sea Gladiator, and the first platforms were delivered in late 1940.

On Christmas Day that year, the stubby plane had its combat debut when it shot down a Junkers Ju-88 bomber over the Scapa Flow naval base in Scotland’s Orkney Islands archipelago.

By the close of 1940, the U.S. Navy, perhaps recognizing the effectiveness of the pugnacious plane, awarded Grumman a contract for 600 Wildcats.

Their American debut was less than auspicious, however.

As morning dawned at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, 11 Wildcats were caught on the ground. Nearly all were destroyed.

It was the subsequent defense of Wake Island from Dec. 8 to Dec. 23 — by Marine squadron VMF-211 — where the Wildcat’s tenacity was first displayed.

A small, undermanned outpost 2,000 miles west of Oahu delivered what Maj. Gen. Thomas Holcomb described to Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox as “A cheery note” from Wake.

The initial Japanese attack left seven of 12 F4F3s wrecked on the field, with 23 of the squadron’s 55 men on the ground killed and 11 wounded. Not a single aircraft mechanic escaped injury. According to Ian Toll in his Pacific trilogy, VMF-211 suffered 50% casualties in the first minutes of combat alone.

Despite this, VMF-211 fought on for nearly two weeks, using its three airworthy planes — described by Toll as Frankenstein’s monster, “rattling, bullet-ridden, patched-over amalgamations of parts” — to bomb and sink the Japanese destroyer Kisaragi and eventually repel the Japanese invading force.

The plane was neither as fast as the Japanese Zero nor as aerobatic, but it was sturdy, stable and able to take severe punishment.

“I would still assess the Wildcat as the outstanding naval fighter of the early years of WWII,” British test pilot Eric M. Brown wrote in his evaluation of the Wildcat. “Its ruggedness meant that it had a much lower attrition rate on carrier operations than, say, the Sea Hurricane or the Seafire, and although it had neither the performance nor the aesthetic appeal of the latter, it was the perfect compromise solution designed specifically for the naval environment, to such a degree indeed that it was easier to take-off or land on an aircraft carrier than a runway.”

“I actually flew one sortie of four-and-a-half hours in this fighter — and fine ditching characteristics, for which I can vouch as a matter of personal experience, this Grumman fighter was, for my money, one of the finest shipboard aeroplanes ever created,” Brown continued.

Despite the carnage at Pearl, enough Wildcats had been received by the fleet that as carrier operations began in February 1941, the Wildcat was ready and the plane’s latest iteration, the F4F-4, carried with it a new innovation: folding wings.

The new mechanism allowed for carriers to accommodate 27 of the fighters — nine more than before, but at a cost. The addition of two more machine guns caused a falloff in climb and maneuverability, and the .50-caliber machine guns fired for only 22 seconds before ammunition was expended, down from 40 seconds in earlier versions.

“That, in combination with the placement of the cockpit high on the fuselage to give good vision,” writes Crawford, “helped give the Wildcat its distinctive, pugnacious appearance.”

Nearly 85 Wildcats flew from Yorktown, Enterprise and Hornet during Midway. And while it was the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber that made a name for itself at the historic naval battle, the stubby Wildcat continued to make significant contributions to the American victories at the battles of Guadalcanal, the Solomons and in the Battle of the Atlantic.

A large part of the Wildcat’s success was tactics.

“The agile Zero, like most Japanese army and navy fighter craft, had been designed to excel in slow-speed maneuvers,” writes Crawford. “U.S. Navy aviators realized early on that the Zero’s controls became heavy at high speeds and were less effective in high-speed rolls and dives.

“Navy tacticians like James Flatley and James Thach preached that the important thing was to maintain speed – whenever possible – no matter what the Zero did. Although the Wildcat was not especially fast, its two-speed supercharger enabled it to perform well at high altitudes, something that the Bell P-39 and Curtiss P-40 could not do.”

So rugged was the F4F that terminal dive airspeed was not redlined, meaning that the Mitsubishi A6M Zero’s 7.7mm cowl guns and 20mm cannons were only effective at point-blank range.

Conversely, the Wildcat’s .50-caliber wing guns were enough to cause the complete disintegration of a Zero.

By 1942, the F4F kill-to-loss ratio for air combat was 5.9 to 1; for the entire war, the ratio was 6.9 to 1, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. The impressive ratio was earned despite the Wildcat being the only carrier-based fighter operated by the Navy during the first half of the war in the Pacific. Forty-eight Marine pilots would become WWII aces in Wildcats.

Two problems would continue to plague the F4F throughout its life, however. The manual landing gear retraction mechanism required 30 turns with a hand crank to retract — with one slip resulting in a serious wrist injury.

It also, in the ensuing years, was unable to be modified to keep pace with wartime fighter development.

While the Wildcat continued to fly for the duration of the war, by 1943 it had become largely supplanted aboard carriers by the F6F Hellcat.

Yet the burly fighter had one more fight left in it as it helped contribute to eliminating the U-boat menace in the Atlantic as its ruggedness and range — enhanced by two 58-gallon drop tanks — continued to make it ideal for use off small escort carrier decks, according to Crawford.

By the numbers, the F4F’s kill tally was less than the Corsair and significantly less than the Hellcat. But in the early days of the war, when the Japanese’s march through the Pacific seemed unstoppable, it was the bite of the Wildcat — the rugged, unflappable fighter — that delivered moments of heroic victory to a beleaguered nation.

Changes to the process for airmen and guardians are vast and include items such as the termination of the Religious Resolution Teams and changes to the application process and military chaplains’ involvement, according to a Friday Air Force release.

“This updated guidance ensures a critical balance between accommodating the sincerely held religious beliefs of our airmen and guardians and maintaining the rigorous safety and readiness standards required for operational superiority,” Richard Anderson, assistant secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, said in the release.

The Religious Resolutions Teams were previously used by the department to process, review and determine the result of a service member’s religious accommodation request.

Now, unit commanders will assess the requests without calling on a formalized board through acquiring chaplain, legal and subject-matter input, per the release.

In line with the March 11 Department of Defense memorandum, the DAF amended the application process to now require a sworn written statement from airmen and guardians that demonstrates that their belief is “sincerely held and religious in nature.”

Airmen and guardians have to describe their religious belief and explain how it conflicts with military duties or standards alongside supporting evidence, like personal testimony or statements from religious leaders, the statement reads.

Under the new guidance, military chaplains will no longer evaluate the sincerity of a service member’s belief or remark on possible impacts operationally.

Instead, military chaplains will only give advice on the “religious nature of the belief” and unit commanders are the ones required to comment on the request’s sincerity and operational impact through a written assessment.

“This includes specific evaluations of the members’ current and anticipated work environments, upcoming deployments, and the expected use of personal protective equipment, such as helmets and respirators,” the release says.

Airmen and guardians need to have their previously approved religious accommodations for facial hair reevaluated with regard to the DoD guidance or risk having their accommodation removed. The statement did not specify a timeline for reevaluation.

For facial hair accommodations, the decision authority now falls under the offices of Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services and Space Force Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Personnel.

Smither, who recently retired as a professor of history at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was also the creator and director of the university’s Veterans History Project.

“I got a call from a fellow named Jeff Wilcox,” Smither told Military Times. “And he said, I’ve got a Vietnam story you’ve never heard before. And he was right.”

That story, the Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord — the last major American offensive effort in the Vietnam War — would lead Smithers on a nearly two-decade research quest to write “The End of the Rope: The Ripcord Campaign and American Disengagement in Vietnam”.

What first began as a series of interviews quickly expanded as veterans began tracking down Smither to learn more about the campaign.

“I found the veterans were coming to me, asking me to explain to them what had happened to them,” said Smither. “My first reaction was, ‘wait a minute. You were there. I wasn’t.’ The response was ‘Well, we have our individual pieces of the puzzle. You’re looking at all of them.’”

From March 12 to July 23, 1970, the 101st Airborne Division — the only remaining full-strength American division left in Vietnam at that time — was tasked with regaining initiative of the A Shau Valley, strategic ground for the North Vietnamese Army.

The A Shau Valley is the same area where the Hamburger Hill campaign had occurred a year prior. It was a main supply and staging area that the North Vietnamese used for launching invasions toward the coast and into populated areas to the south, according to Smither.

The objective was to destroy as much of the NVA’s infrastructure as U.S. troops could while America — which had quietly started withdrawing soldiers from Vietnam in 1969 — still had the forces available.

Roughly 25,000 NVA soldiers began silently streaming into the valley, digging in deep to await the Americans.

But that wasn’t the only issue plaguing the campaign.

According to Smither, officer promotions were on a “different clock,” geared to “a different world.” After six months of combat duty leadership would shift midstream, even in the heat of battle, meaning “most of the time, the new guys don’t get much of a chance to learn the craft before they’re responsible for guys’ lives.”

The brigade commander who planned and led the early stages of the operation was rotated out in June of that year. Lt. Col. Andre Lucas, the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry, had no practical combat experience prior to Ripcord and had not been to Vietnam since 1963. Capt. Isabelino Vasquez, an experienced “hard as nails” commander was sent to the rear to be battalion supply officer. Vasquez was replaced by Capt. Thomas Hewitt who, at the time, had no combat experience.

Hewitt was killed on July 2, 1970, during the opening rounds of an early morning NVA assault after he inexplicably strung up his hammock between two tree stumps on the crest of a hill. When the rocket propelled grenade barrage began, he was killed instantly.

“I call the book the ‘End of the Rope,’ in part, because there’s a limit to what they can actually accomplish,” Smither said. “But it’s actually kind of worse than that, because they’re really put in a position where there isn’t any way to accomplish the mission they’re given. And of course, the commanding officers realize they have their six months to make their mark. If they fail, they might not get the next promotion. Lt. Col Lucas is determined to succeed without understanding what the men on the ground could do.”

Despite the “terrible hand they’re dealt,” stressed Smither, most of the men perform exceptionally well.

“Most of the officers turned out to be really pretty good, including some new guys who didn’t have a lot of experience until they were tested. The enlisted men, they’re mostly either draftees or people who enlisted to take get a step ahead of the draft. They don’t really want to be there, but by and large when they’re out in the field, they do the best they can with the knowledge and experience they have.”

From July 1-23, 75 U.S. soldiers were killed in action, making the Battle of FSB Ripcord one of the deadliest battles in the Vietnam War for the United States, according to the Army.

On July 22 alone, 14 Americans were killed and 56 were wounded. When the Americans were ordered to withdraw the following day, the total number killed had risen to 139 men over the four-and-a-half-month battle. Lucas was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and names like Bob Kalsu, the only recently active pro football player to die in Vietnam, and Weiland Norris, the brother of actor Chuck Norris, were also killed during Ripcord.

Despite this, very little was known about the battle for decades and no comprehensive research has ever been done on the siege — until now.

Calling the book a “labor of love” Smither noted that the extended time he spent writing the book allowed him to grasp a complicated set of events that “you wouldn’t normally do if you’re trying to crank out a book in a year or so.”

“I promised them I would give them a book,” he said. “And so I did.”

The proposal, called Project Able Baker, would solve two problems, the Air Force said. First, the new Sea-Based Recovery Stations would offer a cheaper way of retrieving reusable heavy-lift rockets so they can be launched again. And, it would provide a new purpose and refurbishment for decommissioned oil platforms before they become environmental hazards.

“This approach aims to provide the U.S. Space Force and its commercial partners with a distributed network of recovery sites that enhance launch cadence, reduce sonic-boom exposure, and leverage existing maritime infrastructure to lower operational costs,” according to an Air Force solicitation posted through the Small Business Innovation Research program.

The Air Force sees these old oil platforms as an alternative to using ships to recover rockets — a method used by companies like SpaceX. One benefit would be “reducing dependence on expensive, custom-built drone ships and facilitating higher launch frequencies,” the solicitation says.

To accomplish this, old oil rigs must be strengthened to handle the “specific plume, vibration, and high-intensity point-load dynamics” of modern rockets, such as SpaceX’s Falcon 9, United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan and Blue Origin’s New Glenn, the Air Force said. The rockets are capable of sending heavy equipment into orbit.

Other desired features of the offshore oil platforms include “passive/active flame deflection, remote fire suppression systems, and precision navigation aids for autonomous landing guidance.”

In addition, these platforms should have “integrated barge or Vertical Takeoff and Landing systems to move boosters from the landing pad to transit vessels.”

The first phase of the solicitation calls for companies to establish the technical and economic feasibility of the concept. The focus is on “structural load analysis, environmental impact assessment, and the development of a regulatory roadmap for operations in federal waters.”

Companies may also be asked to identify at least three offshore platforms that can handle heavy-lift rockets.

Part of the assessment process should include the impact of sonic booms on nearby shipping and coastal populations, as well as the impact on the local ecosystem, the Air Force said. The platforms must align with the federal government’s Rigs to Reefs initiative to turn decommissioned oil rigs into aquatic habitats.

The second phase would involve fabricating and installing “a modular reinforcement kit on a representative deck section of an offshore structure to validate construction techniques and material resilience,” said the SBIR. Testing would use “inert-mass drops (10—25 tons) or static-fire simulations —to capture high-fidelity strain, vibro-acoustic, and plume-interaction data.”

The Project Able Baker SBIR has an unusually detailed list of potential dual-use benefits for the government and commercial sectors.

With the number of space launches and orbital satellites soaring in recent years, the Air Force envisions a series of converted oil platforms that can ease the strain on land-based sites to speed up the entire launch and recovery process.

“By repurposing legacy offshore assets, the system provides a strategic alternative to traditional coastal launch-landing operations, significantly increasing launch cadence while reducing acoustic and debris risks,” the SBIR said.

It would also enable Tactically Responsive Space capabilities “in deep-sea or high-latitude environments, critical for responsive space access.”

China is already building offshore platforms to recover heavy rockets.

Perhaps anticipating scrutiny from environmentalists, the Air Force emphasizes that the Sea-Based Recovery Station concept is an “environmentally conscious solution.”

There are “hundreds of offshore oil and gas platforms in federally controlled waters are reaching the end of their operational lifecycle,” the Air Force said. “Traditional decommissioning and full-removal processes are capital-intensive, costing upwards of $1.6 billion per platform, and often cause significant disruption to established marine ecosystems.”

Two E/A-18G Growler jets collided in mid-air two miles from the base during the two-day Gunfighter Skies Air Show, said Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, a spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

The two jets with four air crew collided “while performing an aerial demonstration” at around 12:10 p.m. MDT as part of the air show, Umayam added, noting that all four crew members ejected safely.

“The incident is under investigation. More information will be released as it becomes available,” Umayam said.

The air show’s official site lists the U.S. Navy’s E/A-18G “Vikings” Growler Demo Team as one of the scheduled performers. The jets involved in the collision were assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 129 from Whidbey Island, Washington, Umayam said.

A portion of State Highway 167, where the aircraft crashed, will remain closed for several days while the investigation continues, according to the 366th Fighter Wing, which is based at Mountain Home.

Sunday marked the first Gunfighter Skies Air Show in eight years. A hang glider pilot died in a crash during the last show in 2018.

The Mountain Home Fire Department, Mountain Home Police Department and Elmore County emergency management coordinator did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The bill — advanced by Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. — would phase out the Selective Service System, citing its annual operating cost of more than $31 million per year. The senators argued that the agency has been largely defunct since 1973, the last time the United States conducted conscription.

“The Selective Service is an outdated program that costs millions of taxpayer dollars to prepare for a military draft that Americans don’t want or need,” Wyden said in a statement. “Our volunteer military forces are the strongest in the world, and there is no need to replicate the same draft that sent two million unwilling young men to war 50 years ago.”

Paul, in a separate statement, added: “I’ve long stated that if a war is worth fighting, Congress will vote to declare it and people will volunteer. This outdated government program no longer serves a purpose and should be eliminated permanently.”

In its 2024 annual report, the SSS acknowledged a recent decline in registration rates, but noted that an automated registration provision could help bolster future enrollment levels.

Congress later incorporated the rule change into the fiscal year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. The shift from a system of self-registration to automation is set to take effect in December, with noncompliance constituting a felony offense.

“This statutory change transfers responsibility for registration from individual men to SSS through integration with federal data sources,” according to its website. “SSS will implement the change by December 2026, resulting in a streamlined registration process and corresponding workforce realignment.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also drew scrutiny earlier this year when declining to rule out reviving the draft following the launch of Operation Epic Fury, saying that “President Trump wisely does not remove options off the table.”

Acting Army Chief of Staff Gen. Christopher LaNeve said in an Army budget hearing that the order to halt a planned 9-month rotation to Europe by 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division to Eastern Europe came from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

LaNeve and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said they were informed of the order and had been consulted, but they wouldn’t provide the exact timing of the decision. On May 1, the unit had cased its colors in preparation for deployment, dispatched its advanced team and launched its equipment overseas.

Soldiers began discussing the decision to scrap the deployment publicly early Tuesday morning; the order was confirmed Wednesday by Army Times and other news media.

LaNeve said the decision was made “in the last two weeks” by the Defense Department and Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, commander of U.S. European Command and the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

LaNeve and Driscoll downplayed the move as part of routine manning reviews conducted throughout the year.

“We are constantly in contact with [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] and the combatant commanders … and this is not meant to hide the ball,” Driscoll said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

“This type of conversation is going on throughout the year, every single year, and the Army is always ready to move people and things based off combatant commander and Secretary of War preferences,” Driscoll added.

But lawmakers questioned the timing and the reasons, lambasting the order that Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said sent a “terrible message to Russia and our allies.”

Bacon said he had spoken with Polish leaders who were “blindsided” by the decision and understood that Grynkewich had expressed reservations to the order, saying that it was not without risk.

“This is a slap in the face to Poland. It’s a slap in the face to our Baltic friends. I think it’s a slap to the face in this committee, because we’ve put floors and restrictions on the Pentagon on further reductions in Europe because of what they did with Romania,” Bacon said.

CNN reported Thursday that Hegseth made the decision in relation to the administration’s efforts to pressure Europe to increase its own defenses.

CNN also reported that Hegseth’s order canceled a deployment of 3rd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment to Germany later this year and a command that oversees long-range rockets and missiles will be removed from Europe.

The news follows an announcement May 1 that the U.S. would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany — a decision Pentagon officials said was made following a review of “theater requirements and conditions on the ground.”

But critics say the withdrawal is retribution for NATO countries deciding not to join the U.S. in attacking Iran. President Donald Trump repeatedly has criticized NATO countries for not investing more in their own defense and said in March that NATO would face a “bad future” if they didn’t help defend the Strait of Hormuz.

“If there’s no response, or if it’s a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” Trump told the Financial Times.

Army leaders did not say how many soldiers were affected by the decision or provide the number of personnel in the advanced echelon that now must return to Fort Hood, where the brigade is based.

The order has upended the lives of at least 4,500 soldiers, however, many of whom made preparations to vacate homes and apartments, store belongings and relocate their families.

The order also cost money: in a text message reviewed by Army Times Tuesday, a brigade member estimated the cost and retrieval of equipment at $4 million.

Acting Pentagon Press Secretary Joel Valdez said Thursday the decision was “not an unexpected, last-minute decision,” but lawmakers pushed back on that assessment, with Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., saying he didn’t see how the “statement can be true.”

“These are major decisions that appear to many of the members of this committee to be last-minute decisions,” Scott said.

LaNeve and Driscoll noted that in their roles as chief of staff and secretary, their jobs are administrative and they have no authority in operational decisions.

LaNeve’s multiple references to the law that dictates the structure of the armed forces — and the pair’s lack of response — irritated several committee members.

“We have been very focused on this committee about force posture, and EUCOM in particular not being disturbed, particularly without — what the statute requires — is consultation with us, and we didn’t get that, so we don’t know what’s going on here, but I just tell you we’re not happy,” said Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala.

“It is a pretty dramatic decision to, at the last minute, pull a team that you’re trying to send over there,” agreed Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the committee’s ranking member. “If there’s some strategy behind it, then you guys ought to know, and you ought to be able to communicate it to us.”

The U.S. has roughly 80,000 service members in Europe.

European Command did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

Unplanned maintenance — the inevitable surprises that are discovered when aircraft undergo scheduled work — are not being reflected in metrics that assess depot performance. The result is that the Air Force “is not reporting the full extent of depot maintenance challenges and may not be able to make accurate comparisons across the fleet,” warned the Government Accountability Office in a report released Thursday.

The question is how unplanned maintenance is recorded. When assessing whether depots are meeting their deadlines or experiencing delays, the Air Force is supposed to use the scheduled target date for completion.

But depots often discover unexpected problems with an aircraft, such as corrosion or stress cracks, that require additional time to fix.

“Air Force officials cited unplanned work as a major issue contributing to overall delays,” GAO said.

When this happens, depots often miss their deadlines.

“The depot planned to fix, say, 20 things,” Diana Maurer, a director in GAO’s defense capabilities and management team, told Military Times. But as far as the depots are concerned, “if it turned out that 30 things need to be fixed, that shouldn’t be on the depot.”

So, depots often file revised target dates for completing maintenance of an aircraft. The Air Force tends to use those revised target dates when assessing depot performance, as part of a system that tracks the reasons for delays.

However, regarding unplanned maintenance, “the system does not include it as a category, including delays obtaining parts and engineering reviews related to the unplanned work,” said the report. For example, “targets are often revised after maintenance is completed, leading to many targets being revised to match actual performance, thereby showing no delays in those instances.”

“Moving the target date makes it look like things are better than they really are,” Maurer said.

Depot maintenance performance varies widely depending on which metrics are used.

“More than half of the Air Force’s depot maintenance is delayed, and timeliness is worsening, according to the original target,” the report said. “However, according to the revised target, the Air Force completes more than half its depot maintenance on time and has improved in fiscal year 2024, compared with 2023.”

Nor does the Air Force always analyze the reasons for delays.

“We found root causes that are entered into the tracking system are not analyzed by AFMC [Air Force Material Command] to quantify the relative scale of delay causes and their trends across the depots,” the report noted.

GAO recommended that the Air Force use the original target date as its metric for depot maintenance performance. The watchdog also suggested that unplanned work be tracked as a separate cause for delays.

Burnishing numbers is hardly uncommon in the commercial or government spheres. Airlines, for example, are notorious for padding flight times to make their on-time performance look better.

But maintenance depots have been struggling for years, as they deal with aging aircraft and a shortage of skilled workers. In 2019, 31% of aircraft experienced delays in meeting their target maintenance date, according to GAO. By 2024, that figure had soared to 74%.

Masking problems with depots only complicates the search for solutions, GAO said.

“Without complete and credible metrics to understand the full extent of depot maintenance delays, decision-makers will not fully understand the sustainment challenges related to its aging fleet,” the agency concluded.

“Consequently, they will not have the information needed to determine the resources necessary to sustain the Air Force’s aging fleet and thereby be able to accurately plan for impacts on aircraft availability for training and operations.”

“The Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-U.S. relations,” Xi told Trump during a summit in Beijing, according to a Chinese government readout. “If it is handled properly, the bilateral relationship will enjoy overall stability. Otherwise, the two countries will have clashes and even conflicts, putting the entire relationship in great jeopardy.”

For decades, Washington’s ties with Taipei have been among one of the most combustible flashpoints in U.S.-China relations. The Chinese Communist Party regards the island as a wayward province destined for reunification. Xi has instructed the People’s Liberation Army to be prepared to invade by 2027.

Since the 1970s, successive American administrations have adhered to a policy known as “strategic ambiguity,” deliberately maintaining uncertainty over whether the U.S. would come to Taiwan’s defense in the event of a Chinese attack.

George Chen, partner for the Greater China practice at the Asia Group, said in an interview with Military Times that Xi’s message to Trump should not be seen as an escalation, but rather an effort to establish boundaries from the outset.

“President Xi’s opening remarks, right in front of President Trump, puts a huge emphasis on Taiwan because Xi wants to make it crystal clear that he has zero tolerance for any moves toward Taiwan independence,” Chen said.

“It’s clear that Xi is not interested in taking the military path for Taiwan issues — at least not yet,” he added. “And he hopes Washington will align with him to avoid bringing military forces into the Taiwan issues, which could only destabilize Northeast Asia.”

The State Department recently stalled a proposed $14 billion arms package for Taiwan, a move that Trump said he would underscore with Xi.

“President Xi would like us not to. And I’ll have that discussion,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday ahead of the planned trip.

U.S. officials, however, have highlighted last year’s largest-ever arms sale to Taiwan, valued at approximately $11 billion, as a sign of Washington’s commitment to Taiwan.

The war in Iran previously forced a postponement of the high-stakes summit in Beijing, which had originally been scheduled for six weeks ago.

Trump and Xi met in the Chinese capital on Friday for a welcome ceremony steeped in pageantry, featuring a 21-gun salute and crowds of children waving U.S. and Chinese flags, followed by bilateral talks, a tour of the Temple of Heaven and a state banquet.

But the trip unfolds against a continued air of crisis and uncertainty around Iran. The fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran teeters on collapse, while the Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed.

According to a White House readout, Trump and Xi concurred Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon and the Strait of Hormuz needs to reopen.

“The two sides agreed that the Strait of Hormuz must remain open to support the free flow of energy,” the White House said. “President Xi also made clear China’s opposition to the militarization of the Strait and any effort to charge a toll for its use.”

In a subsequent interview with Fox News, Trump said that Xi had signaled interest in facilitating the reopening of the strait.

“President Xi would like to see a deal made,” Trump asserted. “Anybody that buys that much oil has obviously got some sort of relationship with them.”

The president also claimed Xi had assured him China would not supply military equipment to Iran, calling it “a big statement.”

The grounds currently contain housing for 955 veterans in apartments, tiny homes and rooms, as well as a peer support facility that serves 36 veterans daily.

But it also is plagued by pests and crime, including illicit drug use and sales and prostitution, according to Rep. Mark Takano of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

During a committee hearing, Takano shared stories of veterans whose belongings were stolen after they died and veterans’ dogs needing to be revived with Narcan after they were exposed to drugs.

“I fear that we will doom this property to becoming a vast west-side Skid Row,” Takano said. “This concentration of veterans without adequate supportive services has jeopardized tenant safety, sobriety and mental health. We have created a pressure-cooker.”

Efforts have been underway to build a development for homeless veterans that will provide housing and support, including counseling, medical treatment, recreation and employment services for veterans in California, the state with the largest percentage of homeless veterans.

Last May, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to create a Center for Warrior Independence that promises housing and services for up to 6,000 homeless veterans by 2028.

In December, a federal appeals court ordered the VA to use the property for veterans housing and services, saying the VA broke the law because it failed to provide housing for veterans with mental illnesses or traumatic brain injuries.

The VA unveiled a master plan for the community in 2022 calling for expanded housing, a wellness center, parking facilities and walking trails. The campus has grown from having 55 housing units in 2017 to being able to accommodate nearly 1,000, officials said Wednesday.

In creating the community, the VA is now contending with leases it signed under previous administrations that rented portions of the land to private and public entities, including the University of California-Los Angeles, which built its baseball stadium there. A private school’s sports facilities are also located on the site, as well as an oil company and a preservation organization that intended to restore a historic chapel on the property but has not started.

This year, the VA canceled leases with the private Brentwood School, a parking company and Wadsworth Chapel Heritage Partners. Litigation over UCLA’s baseball stadium is ongoing.

In a report delivered to Congress Tuesday, the VA said it received $324,052.83 in lease payments from UCLA from October 2024 to September 2025, and UCLA said it has provided additional services and support to veterans worth $2.7 million, although the VA could not “confirm or substantiate if the benefits claimed by UCLA were in fact provided to veterans.”

Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., said it is critical to “correct course” at the West LA VA campus, to include the leases.

“The VA is being significantly underpaid for renting land intended to be used to the benefit of veterans,” Bost said. “Veterans are always at the top of my mind and all of my colleagues’ minds, and I want to ensure you that those using this land have the same mindset.”

Jim Zenner, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said during the hearing that campus security is a problem because of jurisdictional issues and understaffing of the VA Police Department.

The location, which is in LA County, not the City of Los Angeles, sits in a “jurisdictional dead zone” that contributes to “critical gaps in services and safety,” Zenner said.

Department officials said they are taking steps to improve security at the campus, recently awarding a “multimillion dollar” lighting contract and hiring up to 160 VA police officers, an increase from last year.

Zenner urged the administration to provide diverse housing options, such as homes for veterans who work on the campus, transitional housing for veterans who have recently left military service and their families, and student veterans, as well as the homeless.

And Zenner proposed creating a federal Veterans Treatment Court on campus that provides mentorship, management and treatment to veterans who commit non-violent crimes.

“Nationwide this model works. It produces reduces recidivism, improves housing outcomes and significantly enhances public safety,” Zenner said.

VA officials said the facilities show promise in that 98% of those served have remain housed and have not returned to the streets.

VA Under Secretary for Health John Bartrum said the department i committed to building a “community, not just a housing complex.”

“This campus … has not been living up to the needs, and so we are taking this opportunity to address those needs and to make sure that it lives up to the fulfillment of the promise,” Bartrum said.