The Pentagon says more than 800 military personnel have seen their service records upgraded to honorable discharges after previously being kicked out of the military under its former “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

A Miami Beach fire rescue personnel and police officers stood near a red truck with a U.S. flag and an “Always Remember” sign during a pause to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The new Sentinel nuclear weapons program is 81% over budget and is now estimated to cost nearly $141 billion.

President Joe Biden says troops who were convicted under an old military policy criminalizing consensual gay sex can now apply for full pardons.

The U.S. is expected to announce Tuesday it is sending an additional $150 million in critically needed munitions to Ukraine.

Pentagon officials are cautiously optimistic that an overall decline in reported sexual assaults among active-duty service members and the military academies suggests that leaders are finally getting a handle on what has been a persistent problem.

U.S. officials say the number of reported sexual assaults across the military decreased last year.

U.S. officials say the Pentagon is poised to send $1 billion in new military aid to Ukraine as the Senate begins debate on long-awaited legislation to fund the weapons Kyiv needs to stall gains made by Russia.

The Pentagon says a controversial policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel if they or a family member have to go out of state for reproductive health care — including abortions — was only used 12 times from June to December of last year.

The Defense Department this month found $300 million for weapons for Ukraine, even though the bill to fund the military aid is stalled in Congress.

The Pentagon is working through all channels with Niger officials on whether there is a viable way for U.S. troops to stay in the country following a March 16 directive that they leave.

A new Pentagon study that examined reported sightings of UFOs over nearly the last century has found no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence.

The Pentagon has completed its review of Defense Secretary’s Lloyd Austin’s failure last month to quickly notify the president and other senior leaders about his hospitalization for complications from prostate cancer surgery and how the notification process can be improved.

The Defense Department will install solar panels on the Pentagon as part of a Biden administration plan to promote energy conservation and clean energy.

The U.S. military is now putting independent lawyers in charge of its investigations of sexual assault and other major crimes, what Secretary of Defense Lloyd J.

U.S. officials say the number of suicides among military members and their families dipped slightly in 2022, compared with the previous year.

The Pentagon has sent advisers, including a Marine Corps general versed in urban warfare, to Israel to assist in its plans to conduct a ground assault in Gaza.

The Pentagon has released footage of some of the more than 180 intercepts of U.S. warplanes by Chinese aircraft that have occurred in the last two years — more than the total amount over the previous decade and part of a trend U.S. military officials called concerning.

The Pentagon says the U.S. military shot down an armed Turkish drone that came within 500 meters of American troops in northeastern Syria.

The Pentagon is warning Congress that it is running low on funding to replace weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine and has already been forced to slow down resupplying some troops.

The Pentagon’s Central Command has ordered interviews of roughly two dozen more service members who were at the Kabul airport when suicide bombers attacked during U.S. forces’ chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, as criticism persists that the deadly assault could have been stopped.

The Pentagon says it has not restarted counterterrorism operations in Niger, a day after the head of U.S. airpower for Europe and Africa said those flights had resumed.

A new report says the U.S. military academies must improve their leadership, stop toxic practices such as hazing, and shift behavior training into the classrooms in order to address an alarming spike in sexual assaults and misconduct.

U.S. officials say the Pentagon is developing plans to restructure the National Guard in Washington, D.

The Pentagon is pulling 1,100 troops from the U.S.-Mexico border that it had deployed in response to a surge in migrant crossings.

The Pentagon has overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by at least $3 billion.

The Pentagon says the number of reported sexual assaults across the military inched up about 1% last year, as a sharp decline in Army numbers offset increases in the other three services.

The Pentagon is moving additional troops and equipment to a Naval base in the tiny Gulf of Aden nation of Djibouti to prepare for the possible evacuation of U.S. Embassy personnel from Sudan.

The Pentagon says an additional six troops were injured in attacks last week in northeastern Syria that U.S. officials have blamed on Iranian-backed militants.

The Pentagon has released video of what it said was a Russian fighter jet dumping fuel on a U.S. Air Force surveillance drone before the warplane clipped the drone’s propeller in international airspace, leading to its crash in the Black Sea and raising tensions between Moscow and Washington.

The Pentagon intends to load up on advanced missiles, space defense and modern jets in its largest defense request in decades in order to meet the threat it perceives from China.

Defense officials are telling Congress that the military services are still reviewing possible discipline of troops who refused the order to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

A U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron on Sunday on orders from President Joe Biden.

The U.S. has now collected 510 reports of unidentified flying objects, many of which are flying in sensitive military airspace.

The Pentagon has formally dropped its COVID-19 vaccination mandate, but a new memo signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also gives commanders some discretion in how or whether to deploy troops who are not vaccinated.

A new Pentagon office set up to track reports of unidentified flying objects has received “several hundreds” of new reports, but no evidence so far of alien life.

Google, Oracle, Microsoft and Amazon will share in the Pentagon’s $9 billion contract to build its cloud computing network.

U.S. officials say Army investigators have launched a broad review of at least 1,900 National Guard and Reserve soldiers who were swept up in a recruiting bonus scandal up to a decade ago.

U.S. officials say the Pentagon is sending Ukraine a new $275 million package of weapons and other aid, in a move to bolster the effort to drive Russian forces out of key areas in the south as the winter closes in.

The Pentagon will provide travel funds and support for troops and their dependents who seek abortions but are based in states where they are now illegal.

Alarmed by a dramatic increase in reported sexual assaults in the military, defense leaders say they want beef up prevention.

Reports of sexual assaults across the U.S. military jumped by 13% last year, driven by significant increases in the Army and the Navy as bases began to move out of pandemic restrictions and public venues opened back up.

The Pentagon will set up a new center to help avoid civilian casualties in military operations around the world through better education and training and increased screening before strikes are launched.

The Pentagon has once again denied a request from the District of Columbia seeking National Guard assistance in dealing with thousands of migrants being bused to the city from Texas and Arizona.

The Air Force has filed criminal charges against an airman in connection with an April explosion that injured U.S. troops at a base in eastern Syria.

A government report says the Pentagon and the State Department failed to investigate whether a Saudi-led coalition used arms bought from U.S. suppliers in attacks alleged to have killed civilians in Yemen.

A U.S. service member has been identified as a possible suspect in an April explosion that injured several U.S. troops at a base in eastern Syria.

The U.S. military says explosions earlier this month on a base in eastern Syria that injured several U.S. service members were not, as it originally reported, caused by artillery or another form of indirect fire.

The Pentagon has approved the deployment of 700 unarmed National Guard troops to Washington, D.

The Pentagon has declassified and publicly released video footage of a U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians in the final hours of a chaotic American withdrawal that ended a 20-year war in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon says it's streamlined the approval process for urgent use of National Guard forces in the District of Columbia.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the Pentagon intends to work better with private industry to develop high-tech systems and to strengthen relations with allies in the Indo-Pacific region in order to maintain a competitive edge over China,.

The Pentagon says it has temporarily removed from its visual information website tens of thousands of photo and video images of Afghans who supported the U.S. war effort and who may be vulnerable to retaliation by the Taliban.

The Pentagon has retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month.

The Pentagon has retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month.

The Pentagon is taking a rare look at whether it is properly prepared for an emergency in which the portable communications system nicknamed the “nuclear football," which always accompanies the president, is lost or stolen.

Officials say the Pentagon is reconsidering how to make a massive shift to cloud computing, suggesting it could scrap a contract potentially worth $10 billion.

The Pentagon is preparing for the possibility of Taliban attacks on U.S. and coalition forces during a withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Pentagon has announced it will keep a Navy aircraft carrier in the Middle East to provide protection for the more than 10,000 American and coalition troops withdrawing from Afghanistan in coming weeks.

The Pentagon is developing ways to better screen military recruits for extremist behavior, while improving training for troops leaving the service so they can be more prepared if violent hate groups lure them to join.

Stephanie Miller, director of ascension policy at the Pentagon, left, speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Wednesday, March 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON – The Pentagon on Wednesday swept away Trump-era policies that largely banned transgender people from serving in the military, issuing new rules that offer them wider access to medical care and assistance with gender transition. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin then gave the Pentagon two months to finalize the more detailed regulations that the military services will follow. AdMiller also said that medical costs associated with treatment and gender transition is very small, “a handful of million dollars per year." Four of the military service chiefs told Congress in 2018 that they had seen no discipline, morale or unit readiness problems with transgender troops serving openly in the military.

There are currently about 5,100 Guard troops in Washington, and they were scheduled to leave this weekend. Early on, Guard members were briefly forced to take rest breaks and meals in a nearby cold garage, sparking outrage within the Biden administration. In addition, Guard members complained of bad food, and some said they became sick. On Monday, Kirby said about 50 Guard troops had been treated for gastrointestinal issues, out of the 26,000 that deployed to Washington. AdActing Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman made the request to have the Guard members stay on, setting off a series of discussions with the Pentagon and National Guard leaders.

(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has approved the deployment of 20 more military vaccination teams that will be prepared to go out to communities around the country, putting the department on pace to deploy as many as 19,000 troops if the 100 planned teams are realized. Chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Friday that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's latest approval brings the number of COVID-19 vaccination teams so far authorized to 25, with a total of roughly 4,700 service members. The team is expected to begin providing vaccines to the public on Tuesday, but will likely do some initial vaccinations, including of team members, on Monday. The Pentagon first received the original request from FEMA in late January, for 100 vaccination teams with a total of 10,000 troops. AdThe 20 new teams will include 10 that will have 222 members, and 10 smaller units with 139 personnel.

Pentagon chief spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. stands by its commitment for a full troop withdrawal, but the agreement also calls for the Taliban to cut ties with al-Qaida and reduce violence. Echoing what senior military and defense leaders have asserted in recent months, Kirby said the Taliban has not yet met the requirements set in the peace agreement. “The Taliban are not meeting their commitments to reduce violence and reduce their ties to al-Qaida,” Kirby told a Pentagon press conference on Thursday. AdA key concern in the Pentagon is the continued high levels of Taliban violence against the Afghans. But frustration and fear have grown over a recent spike in violence, and both sides blame the other.

In this photo reviewed by U.S. military officials, the Office of Military Commissions building used for Periodic Review Board hearings is seen, Thursday, April 18, 2019, in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. Gen. Lloyd Austin, Biden's nominee to be secretary of defense, this week reaffirmed the intention to close Guantanamo to the Senate committee considering his nomination. The case was rejected by the Pentagon legal official known as a convening authority for reasons that aren't publicly known. Obama reduced the prisoner population but his effort to close Guantanamo was blocked by Congress, which prohibited transferring anyone from the base to the U.S. for any reason. “I believe it is time for the detention facility at Guantanamo to close its doors," he said.

A U.S. official confirmed Saturday that the Pentagon has a plan for separating the National Security Agency and Cyber Command. In his letter to Miller, Smith said the Pentagon has not met conditions set by the 2017 defense bill for severing the NSA from Cyber Command. The notion of splitting NSA from Cyber Command goes back to the Obama administration, which proposed to elevate the status of Cyber Command by making it a unified military command, taking it from under the purview of U.S. Strategic Command. That move was approved by President Donald Trump in 2017, and it was foreseen that at some point Cyber Command would split away from the NSA, although such a move had strong opponents in Congress. It's not clear who the Trump administration might install as head of the NSA if it were split from Cyber Command before President-elect Joe Biden takes office Jan. 20.

The Pentagon has endorsed a new slate of initiatives to expand diversity within the ranks and reduce prejudice, including in recruiting, retention and professional development across the force. After extensive wrangling and debate, Esper this summer issued a directive that banned the display of the Confederate flag, without mentioning the word “ban” or that specific flag. Confederate flags, monuments and military base names became a national flashpoint in the weeks after Floyd's death. Ten major Army installations are named for Confederate Army officers, mostly senior generals, including Robert E. Lee. Among the 10 is Fort Benning, the namesake of Confederate Army Gen. Henry L. Benning, who was a leader of Georgia’s secessionist movement and an advocate of preserving slavery.

The vaccinations will be voluntary because the Pfizer vaccine initially is to be made available on an emergency use basis. The Pentagon is to received slightly fewer than 44,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine initially, Hoffman said. The timing depends on when the FDA gives the go-ahead for distribution and use of the Pfizer vaccine. The initial 16 sites are:—Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, Texas. —Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at Bethesda, Maryland (which will distribute to the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington, D.C).

The Pentagon has appointed two close political allies of President Donald Trump to a defense advisory board, continuing a purge of the Defense Department in the waning weeks of the Trump administration. The acting secretary of defense, Christopher Miller, said in a written statement Friday that nine members of the Defense Business Board had been replaced with the appointment of 11 new members. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has appointed two close allies of President Donald Trump, Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, to a defense advisory board, continuing a post-election purge in the final weeks of the administration. The Miller statement initially said the nine individuals removed from the board had been serving in ”expired positions," implying they were overdue to leave. But later the Pentagon amended the statement to say some board members had been “terminated.” It gave no reason for the firings.

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon's acting defense secretary has made a rare visit to Somalia, a conflict-plagued nation in the Horn of Africa where American forces have been assisting in the fight against al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab. Just hours after Miller's visit, the Somali government announced that a suicide bombing in Mogadishu killed at least seven people, and the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab extremist group claimed responsibility. Trump is expected to order a withdrawal of most or all of the 700 U.S. troops based in Somalia before he leaves office Jan. 20. Miller has been in the Middle East and parts of north Africa this week on his first international trip as acting defense secretary. Miller, who previously headed the National Counterterrorism Center, has not been nominated by Trump for Senate confirmation as Pentagon chief.

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has raised to $95.8 billion the estimated cost of fielding a new fleet of land-based nuclear missiles to replace the Minuteman 3 arsenal that has operated continuously for 50 years, officials said Monday. The Trump administration affirmed its commitment to fielding a new generation of ICBMs in a 2018 review of nuclear policy. The Pentagon's $95.8 billion cost estimate for the Minuteman replacement was first reported by Bloomberg News. Last month the Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion contract for engineering and manufacturing development of the new missiles. The total “lifecycle” cost, including operating and sustaining the missiles over their expected lifetime into the 2070s, is set at $263.9 billion.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Friday that he won't allow the Pentagon to cut funding for the military's independent newspaper, Stars and Stripes, effectively halting Defense leaders' plan to shut the paper down this month. “The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch,” Trump tweeted. The Defense Department has ordered the paper to halt publication by Sept. 30, and dissolve the organization by the end of January. The Pentagon proposed cutting the paper's funding when making its budget request earlier this year, triggering angry reactions from members of Congress. The House-passed version of the Pentagon budget contains funding for the paper's publication, but the Senate has not yet finalized a defense funding bill.

WASHINGTON The Pentagon on Friday reaffirmed Microsoft as winner of a cloud computing contract potentially worth $10 billion, although the start of work is delayed by a legal battle over rival Amazon's claim that the bidding process was flawed. The department has completed its comprehensive re-evaluation of the JEDI cloud proposals and determined that Microsofts proposal continues to represent the best value to the government, the Pentagon said. In April, a government watchdog concluded that the contracting process was in line with legal and government purchasing standards. The Defense Department inspector general found no evidence of White House interference in the contract award process. Amazon has asserted that the bidding was improperly influenced by President Donald Trumps dislike of Amazon and its CEO, Jeff Bezos.

WASHINGTON The Pentagon is considering adjustments to its military presence in South Korea and around the globe as it shifts from years of countering insurgencies and militants in the greater Middle East to focusing on China, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Tuesday. Esper said he has issued no order to withdraw from South Korea. The Pentagon said Esper spoke by phone Monday with his South Korean counterpart to discuss the payment issue and other matters, including the stalemated U.S. effort to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons. President Donald Trump has questioned the value of stationing U.S. troops in South Korea and elsewhere in the world, saying Seoul and other host governments must pay more of the cost. The U.S. military presence in South Korea dates to the 1950-53 Korean War in which American forces fought in support of the South after North Korean troops invaded and were later supported by Chinese troops.

That was before the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic became apparent and before nationwide civil unrest threw the Pentagon's relations with Trump into crisis. Esper said he saw no need for such an extreme measure, a clear counterpoint to Trumps threat to use force. The House and Senate versions of the 2021 defense budget legislation require name changes at those 10 Army bases. But that list was delayed for weeks because the White House asked for an investigation of Vindman, one of the officials said. A senior defense official said the list was held up by a routine personnel review not related to Vindman.

Copyright 2019 CNN(CNN) - The Pentagon on Thursday identified the two US service members killed in Afghanistan earlier this week. Last week, Trump met with top national security advisers at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, to review a US-Taliban peace plan. We're talking to Afghanistan, both the government and also talking to the Taliban, having very good discussions. "I have plans on Afghanistan, that if I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth. "If we wanted to fight a war in Afghanistan and win it, I could win that war in a week.

CNN Video(CNN) - The Pentagon is preparing to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan as part of a proposed peace deal with the Taliban, both The Washington Post and Fox News reported Thursday. So far, no agreement has been finalized, Fox News said. The withdrawal would cut the number of troops in the country from 14,000 to between 8,000 and 9,000, the Post said. Months of negotiations have taken place between the Taliban and Zalmay Khalilzad, an Afghanistan-born American diplomat who was appointed by President Donald Trump, the Post said. An agreement could be finalized ahead of the Afghan presidential election in September, but officials cautioned that Taliban leaders could delay that timetable.

Copyright 2019 CNNWASHINGTON, D.C. - The Pentagon on Tuesday identified the two US service members killed in Afghanistan earlier this week. Kandahar police told CNN on Monday that an Afghan soldier had opened fire on the service members. The American service members were the fourth and fifth to be killed in Afghanistan in a little over a month. "I have plans on Afghanistan, that if I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the Earth. "If we wanted to fight a war in Afghanistan and win it, I could win that war in a week.