Military News

The House of Representatives is expected this week to debate H.R. 1370, which would fund national defense through the remainder of fiscal year 2018 and extend funding for all other discretionary programs until Jan. 19 via a continuing resolution. It would also provide funding extensions to several mandatory programs and potentially add more supplemental funding…

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cost an additional $295 billion over the next four years to execute President Donald Trump’s plans to rebuild the military. Its calculation was done by comparing the current Budget Control Act defense caps with the Trump budget outline. Those budget caps, established in 2011, limit how much…

Thirty-three minutes. That’s all the time we’d have to respond to an incoming intercontinental ballistic missile from anywhere in the world. Roughly half an hour to avert disaster—if we’re lucky. Sure, that isn’t the most cheerful thought to entertain, especially at Christmas time. But with all the saber-rattling coming from North Korea these days, not…

On Dec. 11, a federal lower court judge in Washington, D.C., refused to stay her earlier Oct. 30 order blocking President Donald Trump’s Aug. 25 directive regarding transgender military service. That directive, transmitted to the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, put to a halt the Obama administration’s June 2016 plan to allow transgender individuals…

It appears that the reign of one of the world’s worst rulers is finally over. The military of Zimbabwe began moving into the nation’s capital of Harare on Tuesday, and appeared Wednesday morning to have deposed President Robert Mugabe, who has misruled his southern African country since it achieved independence in 1980. The coup is the…

It’s not exactly “Man Bites Dog,” but “Congress Gets Defense Spending Right” is almost as surprising a headline. For too long now, we’ve been cutting corners when it comes to the military. Years of underfunding have given us a weakened force that, despite the hard work of our brave troops, is ill-equipped to handle the…

Arguably the federal government’s first obligation to Americans is to keep us safe from foreign attack and to defend our vital national interests wherever they are threatened. Alarmingly, our government is on the verge of failing in this core responsibility. Our military is minimally ready, rapidly aging, and has so shrunk in size that even…

Editor's note: The Daily Signal's coverage and commentary on President Donald Trump's plan to bar openly transgender individuals from military service got our audience talking, as did our examination of the role of culture in maximizing opportunity in America. Write us at [email protected]—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: Thank you to Walt Heyer for sharing his…

“The [base realignment and closures] process offers us the opportunity to address readiness by providing our forces the best possible ranges and installations for them to be stationed at.” This is how Lucian Niemeyer, the new assistant secretary of defense for energy, installation, and environment, described the importance of Congress authorizing a new round of…

For the past 12 years, Congress has resisted calls from the Department of Defense to authorize another round of base realignment and closures. A new round is needed and is the best way for the Pentagon to objectively evaluate its infrastructure and shed capacity it no longer needs. Base realignment and closures have emerged as…

While North Korea reportedly achieved another milestone in developing a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile capable of reaching the U.S. homeland, The Heritage Foundation visited the annual Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Alabama, a city that lives and breathes ballistic missile defense. The conference is a gathering for policy experts, the military, industry representatives, on…

As a transgender military veteran, an Army retiree, and the first person in the United States to have their sex legally declared as nonbinary, I have a vested interest in the outcome of the transgender military service ban. In the days when transgender military service was banned, I spent 18 years of torment fearing that…

The current House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act both seek welcome increases in the Pentagon’s defense budget. Unfortunately, the law of the land is the Budget Control Act and the limits and consequences imposed by it. This means that in 2018, the defense budget is legally limited to $551 billion. Any…

As President Donald Trump contemplates the next steps for the U.S. in Afghanistan, it is time to inject a dose of realism into what the U.S. mission is there and what America’s goals should be. For too long, many of our policymakers have explained the U.S. mission in Afghanistan in terms of nation building or…

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced that he was reversing an Obama-era policy that opened the military to people who identify as transgender. That policy, announced during the last year of President Barack Obama’s second term, was scheduled to go into effect earlier this month, but Secretary of Defense James Mattis announced a six-month delay…

Congress is currently deliberating the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2018. The NDAA is an important tool for Congress as it offers it an opportunity to influence defense policy, as well as indicate its wishes with regard to armed forces and defense programs. How do the two versions of the NDAA measure up…