WASHINGTON — A month before President George W. Bush first sent American troops into Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was warned that the war might end up costing the United States billions of dollars. Mr. Rumsfeld’s reply to retired Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, the American tasked with overseeing Iraq’s postwar reconstruction, would constitute a […]
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s European Command on Thursday released the first declassified video images of the events leading up to a Russian fighter jet colliding with an unarmed U.S. reconnaissance drone on Tuesday, forcing the American aircraft down into the Black Sea. The dramatic 42-second color video clip shows two high-speed passes by two Su-27 […]
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ISTANBUL — If you had to rank the spots around the globe where the militaries of the United States and Russia could physically run into each other, the Black Sea would probably be near the top of the list. The giant body of water on Europe’s southeastern flank has long been a theater of international […]
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WASHINGTON — A Russian warplane struck a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, hitting the drone’s propeller and causing its American operators to bring it down in international waters, according to the Pentagon, in the first known physical contact between the Russian and American militaries since the war in Ukraine started last […]
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Why are Kinzhals so worrisome for Ukraine? Ukraine has no weapons capable of shooting down the Kinzhals, according to Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Air Force. And their use on Thursday significantly increased the proportion of Russia’s missiles reaching targets. Of the 81 missiles Russia fired overnight and through the morning, Ukraine said that […]
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Biden’s 2024 defense budget focuses on China, Russia Skip to content AP Photo/Susan Walsh Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on Oct. 27, 2022. President Biden proposed a more than 3 percent increase to the defense budget on Thursday, pushing up the Pentagon’s spending amid heightened tensions with China […]
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“We’re in a total strategic cul-de-sac on the right, and our fiscal warriors and strategists have totally failed in the sense that, point to any cuts we’ve had success-wise since 1997,” Mr. Vought said in an interview. “I actually think that that’s the worst part of the federal spending, because it’s the bureaucracy. Understand the […]
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WASHINGTON — Nearly 60 years after one of the first Black officers in the Special Forces was nominated — and then overlooked — for the nation’s highest military honor, President Biden on Friday awarded the Medal of Honor to that officer, Col. Paris Davis, for exemplifying “everything our nation is at our best.” “Brave and […]
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WASHINGTON — In the battle to become the country’s most senior military commander — a position inhabited at the moment by one of the most voluble of men and a frequent target of the right — it has come down to a choice between the fighter pilot and the Marine infantryman. Gen. Mark A. Milley’s term […]
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WASHINGTON — Republicans in Congress sharply questioned senior Pentagon officials on Tuesday about the tens of billions of dollars in military and other aid the United States has sent to Ukraine, casting doubt on whether they would embrace future spending as Democrats pleaded for a cleareyed assessment of how much more money would be needed. […]
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The Biden administration unveiled new rules Tuesday for its “Chips for America” program to build up semiconductor research and manufacturing in the United States, beginning a new rush toward federal funding in the sector. The Commerce Department has $50 billion to hand out in the form of direct funding, federal loans and loan guarantees. It […]
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WASHINGTON — President Biden marked the start of a second year of war in Europe on Friday by announcing billions of dollars in additional military aid for Ukraine, imposing more sanctions on those helping Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and delivering a grim warning about an alliance between Russia and Iran. Just days after making […]
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White House announces additional Russia sanctions, Ukraine aid on anniversary of invasion | The Hill Skip to content President Joe Biden delivers a speech marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at the Royal Castle Gardens, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023, in Warsaw. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci) The White House on Friday marked […]
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As the Russian assault largely ground to a halt — or even reversed, in places such as Kyiv Oblast — arms transfers to Ukraine began to include more weapons designed for attacking rather than defending. In successive batches starting last spring, Poland donated more than 200 old tanks. Some were ex-Soviet T-72s. Others were locally-made […]
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Other murky actions have challenged U.S. analysts trying to read Chinese intentions. On Jan. 28, when the balloon approached the Aleutian Islands and American airspace over Alaska in its off-course trajectory, the balloon’s self-destruct function did not activate, U.S. officials said. Chinese operators may not have wanted to destroy the balloon; it is also possible […]
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These are not safe times to be a weather balloon. Until a couple weeks ago, the high altitude weather and research balloons we all know are up there doing all sorts of nonnefarious things were not even on the public’s risk radar screens. But now they’re certainly a bright pulsing blip on the screen of […]
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. government and Canada have been busy intercepting unidentified flying objects in the skies, shooting down one on Friday over Alaska, another on Saturday over the Yukon Territory and a third over Michigan on Sunday. White House officials said on Monday that the military had not yet identified the source of the […]
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WASHINGTON — An American fighter jet, acting on the orders of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, shot down another unidentified flying object on Saturday, Canadian and American officials said, in the latest twist of the ongoing drama playing out over the skies of North America. “I ordered the take down of an unidentified object that […]
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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon downed an unidentified object over Alaska on Friday at the order of President Biden, according to U.S. officials. John Kirby, a White House spokesman, confirmed the incident at a news conference on Friday. U.S. officials said it was not confirmed if the object was a balloon, but it was traveling at […]
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BEIJING — Since the spy balloon saga started, China has tried to play down the incident and prevent it from further inflaming relations with the United States. But as American alarm and accusations have mounted, that strategy is increasingly coming under strain — forcing China into an awkward, at times self-contradictory position. Beijing has continued […]
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. government is combing over a variety of intelligence — debris, reconnaissance plane photos and old observations — to learn what the Chinese spy balloon was after as it made its way across the United States in early February, before being shot down by a Sidewinder missile fired by a stealth fighter […]
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WASHINGTON — The top military commander overseeing North American airspace said Monday that some previous incursions by Chinese spy balloons during the Trump administration were not detected in real time, and the Pentagon learned of them only later. “I will tell you that we did not detect those threats, and that’s a domain awareness gap,” […]
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Of course, there is nothing new about superpowers spying on one another, even from balloons. President Dwight D. Eisenhower authorized surveillance of the Soviet Union by lofting cameras on balloons in the mid-1950s, flying them “over Soviet bloc countries under the guise of meteorological research,” according to an article published by the National Archives in […]
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WASHINGTON — Navy divers were working to locate portions of the debris from the Chinese spy balloon that a U.S. fighter jet shot down six miles off the coast of South Carolina, defense officials said on Sunday. The recovery effort, which is expected to take days, began not long after debris from the balloon hit […]
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“You are sitting up there and it was kind of amazing,” said Commander Long, now retired, recalling the moment they set out on the deployment in early 2020, after more than two years of training and preparation. “Just how fast you were going and how smooth.” But the dream began to crumble as the ship […]
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WASHINGTON — The Chinese spy balloon floating over the continental United States generated deep concern on Capitol Hill in part because it came on the heels of a classified report to Congress that outlined incidents of American adversaries potentially using advanced technology to spy on the country. The classified report to Congress last month discussed […]
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A Chinese balloon seen hovering over Montana this week has been described as an “intelligence-gathering” airship by the Pentagon and a stray civilian research airship by China. Whatever its intended use, the balloon offers a reminder of how for more than a century, governments have used balloons for surveillance and observation, most often during times […]
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WASHINGTON — American military officials on Thursday said they had detected a “high-altitude surveillance balloon” launched by China floating in the skies of Montana, causing a diplomatic panic that led Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing. On Friday, Chinese officials declared that the floating orb was a “mainly […]
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A balloon suspected to have come from China and seen floating over Montana has suddenly upstaged a long-anticipated visit to Beijing by the American secretary of state and threatens to undercut efforts to reduce the simmering antagonism between Beijing and Washington. Pentagon officials disclosed on Thursday that they had detected the “intelligence-gathering balloon, most certainly […]
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WASHINGTON — The United States has detected what it says is a Chinese surveillance balloon that has been hovering over the northwestern United States, the Pentagon said on Thursday, a discovery that comes days before Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s visit to Beijing. The Pentagon has chosen, for now, not to shoot down the […]
Read MoreThe United States is increasing its military presence in the Philippines, gaining access to four more sites and strengthening the Southeast Asian nation’s role as a key strategic partner for Washington in the event of a conflict with China over Taiwan. The agreement, announced on Thursday, allows Washington to station military equipment and build facilities […]
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