Department of Defense (DOD) - Page 11

The U.S. Army has launched an investigation after 11 Fort Bliss soldiers became sick Thursday from consuming a substance during a training exercise. 

Austin said he supported overturning the Trump administration’s policy on transgender troops serving in the military.

Lloyd Austin, President-elect Joe Biden’s nominee for defense secretary, said Tuesday during his confirmation hearing that he would work to rid the military of “racists and extremists.”

Miller announced on Friday that United States troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan have now reached 2,500 in each country.

President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday announced he has nominated three former senior Obama administration officials for top positions at the Pentagon, prompting praise from the foreign policy establishment.

The Pentagon responded to Biden’s accusations that its leadership has been obstructing the transition process.

President-elect Joe Biden is accusing the Trump administration’s senior political staff within the Department of Defense (DOD) and other agencies of putting national security at risk by obstructing the White House transition process.

ROYAL AIR FORCE STATION MILDENHALL, United Kingdom — Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller on Monday visited American troops stationed in the United Kingdom, including the U.S. Air Force air wing who took part in the rescue of an American hostage from Nigeria in October.

The Pentagon lost track of nearly $1 billion in military hardware in the fiscal year 2020, including equipment for Syrians fighting the remnants of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and over 100 drones in Afghanistan, home to one of the largest concentrations of terrorist groups in the world, an annual government waste report Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) released on Wednesday revealed.

The Pentagon is postponing one day of meetings with the Biden transition team until after the holidays, in order to focus on Operation Warp Speed and other priorities, according to senior defense officials.

Kash Patel, chief of staff to Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, has filed a $50 million lawsuit against CNN and several reporters who work at the cable outlet for what he claims are false reports that defamed him.

President Donald Trump signaled that he would veto the bill if it did not eliminate Section 230 protections for tech companies.

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) on Wednesday struggled to defend his decision to nominate Army Gen. (Ret.) Lloyd Austin as his defense secretary, amid rising opposition from Senate Democrats at the prospect of another retired general at the helm of the Defense Department.

Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of defense on Tuesday, retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin III, was met with strong criticism, largely from Democrats, with some expressing unwillingness to confirm him.

The DOD refuted an NBC News report claiming Patel has been blocking access to officials and documents requested by the Biden transition team.

President Donald Trump said he will veto the annual defense authorization bill over its exclusion of provisions that terminate Section 230, which grants Big Tech companies such as Twitter and Facebook special immunity from lawsuits.

Google VP of Wireless Services Milo Medin has been fired from the Defense Innovation Board, a group of business leaders and academics created by the Obama administration in 2016 to advise the Department of Defense on technological innovation.

Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller announced a U.S. troop withdrawal down to 2,500 in Afghanistan and Iraq, consistent with President Trump’s promises to bring U.S. troops home and in furtherance of his goal to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Trump can cement his legacy as the president who ended America’s longest war, said his nominee for Ambassador to Afghanistan, William Ruger.

Miller issued a memo on Saturday to the entire Defense Department that hinted of a coming U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

A former official from the Barack Obama administration, Shawn Skelly, has joined former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential transition team as an agency reviewer for the Department of Defense.

President Donald Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday, in a long-anticipated move.

President Trump signed an executive order to increase domestic production of critical minerals needed for the economy and national security.

Despite its long track record of hostility to the Trump movement, including the wholesale suppression of pro-Trump media in its search engine, Google is on track to secure a major lobbying objective — the establishment of a new 5G strategy. Google seems to have an ally in reaching its target in the form of the Department of Defense’s “Defense Innovation Board.”

The Justice Department said it has indicted two men on charges connected to the hacking of dozens of websites in retaliation for the U.S. assassination of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani.

Trump appointed Tata to a senior policy role, after Senate Democrats and Republicans fought his nomination into the top policy job.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced at a Pentagon briefing Wednesday that approximately 11,900 United States troops will leave Germany, reducing the U.S. troop presence from approximately 36,000 to 24,000.

Esper issued guidance on Friday that effectively banned the public display of the Confederate flag on Pentagon properties.

Department of Defense officials are said to be drafting a policy that would ban the display of the Confederate flag in Pentagon work environments.

Rep. Liz Cheney co-sponsored an amendment with Rep. Jason Crow to restrict Donald Trump’s ability to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

The Trump administration recently appointed Simone Ledeen as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, the first woman in the position for at least 10 years.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) produced an internal document this week listing 20 Chinese companies it believes are owned or controlled by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The list, first reported by Reuters on Wednesday, includes telecom giant Huawei and Hikvision, a top supplier of video surveillance equipment. Both companies were blacklisted by the United States last year over security concerns.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) identified China and Russia as its chief adversaries in potential outer space warfare on Wednesday, announcing a new Defense Space Strategy aimed at deterring the threats posed by the two countries and maintaining U.S. dominance in space.

Axios reports that Google, the tech giant known for the sharp anti-Trump bias of its executives and founders and its self-admitted “shift toward censorship” in the wake of Trump’s election, has landed a massive contract to build cloud technology for the Department of Defense.

Pentagon calls on China to allow the international community access to early coronavirus patients, researchers, and scientists.

The Pentagon has stayed silent on why it gave a multimillion-dollar contract to a firm that sent U.S. taxpayer money to a lab in Wuhan.