Military News

Secretary of Defense James Mattis has news for Congress and for the nation: The military buildup will have to wait until next year. Mattis delivered that message in a back-to-back series of appearances before Congress, one of them taking place in a rare prime-time hearing on Monday night. During both testimonies—which were delivered before the…

Testifying in front of the Senate Appropriations’ defense subcommittee last Wednesday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley was characteristically blunt. When asked, he told the assembled senators that in his opinion, the Army does not have enough soldiers to accomplish the missions it has been assigned. Acknowledging that Secretary of Defense James Mattis is…

President Donald Trump made helping the “forgotten man” a key theme of his presidency from the get-go. The challenge for Trump is how to aid the forgotten man by shrinking the programs and institutions that left him behind to begin with while moving toward policies that will help him thrive in the 21st century. One of…

The United States Missile Defense Agency has accomplished a historic feat. On Tuesday, the agency successfully intercepted an intercontinental ballistic missile in an important test utilizing its ground-based midcourse defense system. The ICBM—mocked up to resemble a missile capable of carrying a nuclear payload similar to the ones that North Korea is feverishly pursuing—was launched…

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s recent use of chemical weapons against his own people is a grim reminder of the deep challenges that continue to exist in Syria and the surrounding region. Compounding the problem is the brutal and ongoing presence of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which has taken a toll in recent…

The House Armed Services Committee scheduled a hearing Wednesday with the chiefs of staff of the U.S. armed forces to assess what the impact of a yearlong continuing budget resolution would be on the military. That such a hearing is even necessary is an indication of how far Congress has veered from accomplishing its constitutional…

Just a few short months after President Donald Trump was elected, the American people have come face to face with a reality known for years to defense leaders and military service members—the armed forces are facing a distinct crisis. Budget cuts, sequestration, and operational overuse have resulted in a force that is undermanned, underequipped, and…

On Monday, President Donald Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, announced that the administration will seek a defense budget of $603 billion for 2018—“one of the largest increases in history.” Trump said nondefense spending would be cut by an equal $54 billion, “the largest proposed reduction since the early years of the Reagan administration.” The White House…

This week on Capitol Hill, several top U.S. military leaders from across the armed services presented a sobering case to Congress: U.S. military readiness is the lowest it has been in decades, leaving it unprepared to defend America’s interests at home and abroad. In testimony before the Senate and House Armed Services committees, the vice…

Rumor has it that Judge William H. Pryor Jr. topped President Donald Trump’s short list for the Supreme Court. But in recent weeks, he’s come under intense scrutiny from some who claim that he supports the LGBT agenda and would be a foe to religious liberty. I have known Bill Pryor for more than three…

Melvin Laird, secretary of defense under President Richard Nixon and nine-term Wisconsin congressman, died Wednesday in a Florida hospital. Before his election to the Wisconsin state Senate in 1946, Laird served in World War II as an ensign aboard the USS Maddox, where he was injured in a kamikaze attack and awarded the Purple Heart. From…

As a new presidential administration prepares to take office, the responsibilities it inherits are daunting. Threats to U.S. interests and security around the globe continue to grow and fester. At the same time, budget cuts have forced the Department of Defense into unsustainable practices, foregoing longer-term modernization to service the military’s more immediate needs and…

Dumping raw sewage into a storm drain is a federal crime that has landed some unaware Americans in prison. Someone aboard a bus chartered by the Democratic National Committee, which depicted the Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates, reportedly dumped sewage into a storm drain in Lawrenceville, Georgia. A DNC spokesperson described the sewage dump…

Four of America’s top military officers recently testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on long-term budget challenges facing the military. While the hearing didn’t grab many headlines, some of the statements from these leaders should make all Americans concerned about the status of our military. Ultimately, these four officers (the chiefs of staff of…

In the waning days of his tenure, President Barack Obama is reportedly contemplating declaring a “no first use” pledge for U.S. nuclear weapons. Such a policy decision, a dramatic reversal of America’s post-World War II security strategy, would be another step toward Obama’s utopian vision of global nuclear disarmament. U.S. allies rely on America’s extended…

After the carnage like we’ve witnessed in American cities such as San Bernardino and Orlando, and more recently in Europe, the national conversation tends to shift temporarily back toward gun control legislation and how to best protect ourselves in the homeland from future terrorist attacks. On 9/11, Todd Beamer’s simple “Let’s roll” directive inspired his…

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing Tuesday on one of the most important pieces of religious liberty legislation before Congress in years: the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA), introduced by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Raúl Labrador, R-Idaho. Several Democratic House members and their invited witnesses made some stunning claims…

At a time when threats against America are growing, the U.S. military is facing a combat readiness crisis that jeopardizes its ability to protect the country. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, discussed this problem recently at The Heritage Foundation. Thornberry explained that this readiness shortfall has occurred as a result of “budget cuts…

Last week, the Department of Defense ended its recognition of service members’ biology and supplanted it with a radical ideology pushed by the Obama administration. As other commentators pointed out recently (here and here), there is no military justification for this move. According to a study the Department of Defense commissioned, personnel who consider themselves transgender currently…