Author: Robert Burns
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No immediate military transgender change, top officer says
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military will keep permitting its transgender members to serve openly until Defense Secretary Jim Mattis receives President Donald Trump’s actual direction to change its policy and then figures out how to implement it, America’s top military officer said Thursday. In a memo to all military service chiefs, commanders and enlisted military…
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Trump: Transgender people will not be allowed to serve ‘in any capacity’ in the military
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump abruptly declared a ban Wednesday on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump’s “guidance.” His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo. “Please be advised…
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Security of US nukes now an official secret
WASHINGTON— The Pentagon has thrown a cloak of secrecy over assessments of the safety and security of its nuclear weapons operations, a part of the military with a history of periodic inspection failures and lapses in morale. Overall results of routine inspections at nuclear weapons bases, such as a “pass-fail” grade, had previously been publicly…
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Pentagon: ‘active preparations’ by Syria for chemical attack
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Tuesday said it detected “active preparations” by Syria for a chemical weapons attack, giving weight to a White House statement hours earlier that the Syrian government would “pay a heavy price” if it carried out such an attack. The U.S. accusation and ominous warning marked a further escalation of tensions…
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US says it shot down Iranian-made drone in Syria
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military says it shot down what it called an Iranian-made, armed drone in southern Syria. A defense official says the drone was approaching a military camp near the Syria-Jordan border. That is where U.S. forces have been training and advising local Syrian Arabs for the fight against Islamic State militants. The…
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US shoots down Syrian Air Force fighter
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Sunday shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet that bombed local forces aligned with the Americans in the fight against Islamic State militants, an action that appeared to mark a new escalation of the conflict. The U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Iraq said in a written statement that a…
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APNewsBreak: About 4,000 more U.S. troops to go to Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will send almost 4,000 additional American forces to Afghanistan, a Trump administration official said Thursday, hoping to break a stalemate in a war that has now passed to a third U.S. commander in chief. The deployment will be the largest of American manpower under Donald Trump’s young presidency. The decision by…
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Pentagon declares success for key test of missile defense
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save WASHINGTON — The Pentagon scored an important success Tuesday in a test of its oft-criticized missile defense program, destroying a mock warhead over the Pacific Ocean with an interceptor that is key to protecting U.S.…
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Once at risk of extinction, iconic A-10 Warthog plane lives on
WASHINGTON — The Warthog is sitting pretty. Once on the brink of forced retirement, the A-10 attack plane with the ungainly shape and odd nickname has been given new life, spared by Air Force leaders who have reversed the Obama administration’s view of the plane as an unaffordable extra in what had been a time…
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Pentagon: US dropped largest non-nuclear bomb in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Thursday struck an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan with “the mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military, Pentagon officials said. The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 11 tons of…