When Pentagon comptroller Jules Hurst III stepped to the podium at the Department of Defense on April 21, he was about to announce a number that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago. The United States military, he told reporters, was requesting $1.5 trillion for
Greg Rathburn spent years helping keep some of the most advanced aircraft in U.S. military history airborne. As an avionics technician in the Air Force and Air National Guard, he worked on the SR-71 Blackbird — a reconnaissance plane so secretive it flew at the edge of space, and so
Every veteran knows about federal VA benefits. The disability compensation. The GI Bill. The VA home loan. The healthcare system. Those federal programs are the foundation of what this country offers the men and women who served — and they are critically important. But there is an entire second tier of
The transition from active duty to veteran status is one of the most consequential shifts a service member will ever make — and one of the most administratively complex. The military tells you where to be and what to do. The VA does not. Navigating the Department of Veterans Affairs, understanding
For most of its history, the United States Marine Corps has been defined by amphibious operations in warm-water theaters — the beaches of the Pacific, the shores of the Korean Peninsula, the deserts of the Middle East. The Corps has always prided itself on being ready to fight anywhere, but the
It looks like any one of the millions of shipping containers moving through the world's ports, railways, and highways every day. Standard dimensions. Unremarkable exterior. Nothing to distinguish it from the corrugated metal boxes stacked forty feet high in every major logistics hub on earth. But inside, according
In the predawn hours of May 4, 2026, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and MH-60 Seahawk gunships lifted off from U.S. Navy vessels in the waters near the Strait of Hormuz. Within hours, they had sunk six Iranian small boats that were threatening commercial shipping — the opening shots of Operation
The Pentagon has taken one of its most concrete steps yet in the race to harden American military installations against the growing threat of unauthorized and adversarial drones, selecting five bases across the country to receive high-energy laser and high-powered microwave counter-drone systems before the end of 2026. The announcement,
The United States has approved a new $108.1 million sustainment package to keep Ukraine's hybrid FrankenSAM HAWK air defense batteries combat-ready, the latest chapter in one of the most unconventional defense partnerships to emerge from the war with Russia. The sale, formally announced by the State Department
On May 13, 2026, the Pentagon made an announcement that would have seemed implausible even five years ago. The Department of War had signed framework agreements with four defense technology companies — Anduril, CoAspire, Leidos, and Zone 5 Technologies — to procure more than 10,000 low-cost, containerized cruise missiles over three
On the evening of May 29, 2026, President Donald Trump sat in the White House Situation Room to make what aides described as a "final determination" about a framework for extending the ceasefire with Iran. The meeting ended without a clear decision being announced. Hours earlier, Trump had
On May 26, 2026, the House Armed Services Committee released the Chairman's Mark of the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act — the annual defense policy bill that sets the legislative framework for the U.S. military's spending, programs, and priorities. At $1.14 trillion in