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The Army held an activation ceremony for its Futures and Concepts Command on Thursday at Fort Eustis, Virginia, marking the headquarters’ transition to full command status.The move represents the organization’s shift from a center to a command under the Army’s Transformation and Training Command, reaffirming its authority in force design and development as the Army accelerates modernization efforts. The official activation order, read during the ceremony, said the unit was formally activated in October 2025. The Futures and Concepts Command, or FCC, is charged with determining what the Army will look like years from now by developing how its units…

SAN DIEGO — Service chiefs from the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard speaking at the WEST Conference in San Diego on Wednesday defended the necessity for continued investment in their respective services while laying out the goals they will set to achieve with present and future infusions of cash.In the wake of the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill, which allotted roughly $150 billion for defense, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric M. Smith said the financial windfall allowed the service the ability to afford the absolute necessities it needed to operate.It was expensive, yes, but essential, he said.“Everything costs…

Top enlisted leaders from each service told lawmakers Wednesday that they support women serving in any role in the military, including combat arms, if they meet the established standards. Enlisted leaders from the five services, as well as the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that they have yet to see any indication that women serving in combat units have caused standards to lower.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent call for a review of the effectiveness of women in combat roles prompted Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, to question the service leaders during a Senate…

The U.S. Air Force said Thursday that government-owned autonomous software programs have been successfully integrated into both of its prototype collaborative combat aircraft, in a major milestone.In a statement, the service said this shows a central pillar of its CCA strategy — that they can be easily modified and upgraded using a modular open systems architecture — can work, and improve how the defense industrial base operates.CCAs are drone wingmen that are intended to fly sem-autonomously alongside aircraft such as the F-35A and next-generation F-47 fighter. The Air Force hopes to field at least 1,000 CCAs in varying configurations, and…

Top senior enlisted leaders for the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Space Force told lawmakers Wednesday that access to health care is the most substantive complaint they’re hearing lately from their troops.During a hearing on quality-of-life issues before the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force David Wolfe cited a lack of available appointments for health care, and problems with Tricare’s reimbursement rates for health care providers in communities.“What we’ve all seen over the length of our careers is a gradual erosion in the availability of that health care for our service…

SAN DIEGO — The fiscal 2027 defense budget could double the number of ships the Navy is set to procure under the fiscal 2026 defense budget, Navy Secretary John Phelan said during a keynote address at the WEST Conference in San Diego, California, on Thursday.While the 2026 budget allotted $27.2 billion dollars for the Navy to build 17 ships, Phelan said President Donald Trump’s proposed fiscal 2027 defense budget of $1.5 trillion could bump that number up to at least 34, with a large contingent of auxiliary and support ships.“It is an area that we are in grave need of…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news—plus a free month of onX Hunt Elite. The U.S. Forest Service proposed a new rule over the weekend that could chip away at the role the public plays in guiding how our national forests are managed. Under the current process, most major projects or decisions made by the USFS (as well as other federal agencies) are opened to public comment, usually for a period of 30 to 45 days. This allows individuals and larger organizations to submit formal comments in support or opposition of any given proposal. It…

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych, a likely medal contender at the Milan Cortina Games, was barred from racing Thursday after refusing a last-minute plea from the International Olympic Committee to not use a helmet that honors more than 20 athletes and coaches killed since Russia invaded his country four years ago.The decision came roughly 45 minutes before the start of the competition and ended a three-day saga where Heraskevych knew he was risking being pulled from the Games by wearing the helmet, one that the IOC says breaks rules against making statements on the field of…

This article was originally published by G. Calder at The Exposé. On Tuesday, February 10th, the European Parliament moved the digital euro one step closer to reality, backing amendments that support a push by the European Central Bank (ECB) for a central bank digital currency intended to work both online and offline. This does not mean the new currency is in place yet, but it’s another unmistakable signal that the project is gaining momentum after years of discussion. The digital euro remains framed by EU institutions as a strategic and sovereignty project, designed to reduce reliance on non-European payments infrastructure and to…

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a U.S. Marine and his wife will keep an Afghan orphan they brought home in defiance of a U.S. government decision to reunite her with her Afghan family. The decision likely ends a bitter, yearslong legal battle over the girl’s fate.In 2020, a judge in Fluvanna County, Virginia, granted Joshua and Stephanie Mast an adoption of the child, who was then 7,000 miles away in Afghanistan living with a family the Afghan government decided were her relatives.Four justices on the Virginia Supreme Court on Thursday signed onto an opinion reversing two lower courts’…

Sign up for the Deer Camp Newsletter Get everything from whitetail news and opinion pieces, to advanced hunting tactics and cutting-edge gear reviews. Even more than he wanted to show me his world-record whitetail buck, Milo Hanson wanted to show me his Quonset. Inside the modest outbuilding near the Grain Belt town of Biggar, Saskatchewan, was the nerve center of his tidy farm. There was his tractor and drum of hydraulic oil, and over there his rack of tools mostly in place on their pegboard, on the workbench various jars of bolts and nuts and greasy bearings.  But on the…

Editor’s note: This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter.Each year, the Department of Veterans Affairs’ internal watchdog sends a survey to all 139 of the agency’s medical centers coast to coast with a straightforward question: Which jobs have severe staffing shortages?In fiscal year 2025, the responses raised alarm: VA health care facilities reported more than 4,400 severe staffing shortages — a 50% hike from the previous year.And once again, the job that topped the list for clinical positions among VA facilities: psychologists. It’s the…

Border czar Tom Homan has announced that President Donald Trump has agreed with his proposal to conclude a federal immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota. Homan’s announcement came less than three weeks after Trump deployed him to Minnesota to run immigration operations there. Homan said that a “small footprint” of personnel will stay in the area “for a period of time” to transition command back to a local field office, and to ensure “agitator activity” does not flare back up. Minnesota has been a hotbed of contention between ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and those who consider themselves “anti-ICE” protestors. Murders…

War has a way of changing the lives of its participants. Sometimes, it puts the main actor through a moment of decision that leads to an extraordinary feat. In the case of Ralyn Hill, it involved rushing where the average soldier would fear to tread, simply to retrieve a complete stranger from the jaws of death. Hill was born in Lindenwood, Illinois, on May 6, 1899. After the United States declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917, he enlisted in the Illinois National Guard and after training shipped out with Company H, 129th Infantry Regiment, 33rd “Prairie” Division. Once…

A federal judge agreed Thursday to block the Pentagon from punishing Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy pilot, for participating in a video that called on troops to resist unlawful orders.U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that Pentagon officials not only violated Kelly’s First Amendment free speech rights, but they also “threatened the constitutional liberties of millions of military retirees.” The judge invoked an old-fashioned rebuke — “Horsefeathers!” — in response to the government’s claim that Kelly is trying to exempt himself from the rules of military justice.“To say the least, our retired veterans deserve more respect from their…

Two Navy ships deployed as part of the Trump administration’s massive military buildup in the Caribbean Sea have collided, leaving two troops with minor injuries, U.S. Southern Command said Thursday.The destroyer USS Truxtun and the supply ship USNS Supply collided on Wednesday as the warship was getting a new load of supplies. The maneuver typically has the vessels sailing parallel, usually within hundreds of feet, while fuel and supplies are transferred across the gap via hoses and cables.The military statement said two personnel reported minor injuries after the collision and that both were in stable condition. The two ships now…

Sign up for the Outdoor Life Newsletter Get the hottest outdoor news—plus a free month of onX Hunt Elite. I have an orchard and garden that I put a lot of work into. Unfortunately, every summer the local squirrels, opossums, and raccoons really appreciate all that work as they help themselves to my fruit and tomatoes. I’ve yet to have one of my home-grown peaches because both of my trees get stripped before the fruit has a chance to ripen. All my attempts to use netting, sprays, and sonic deterrents have failed. I’ve tried diplomacy, and now I must go…

Washington should force the neighboring countries to turn their backs on Beijing, a group of democratic United States senators has said. They are suggesting that U.S. ruler Donald Trump drag both Canada and Mexico into the ongoing trade war. The U.S. has already taken several steps to keep Chinese EVs (electric vehicles) out of the U.S. market. The previous presidential administration raised import tariffs on them from 25% to 100%. The executive orders issued by Trump shortly after taking office in January 2025 brought the total effective US import tariff to 127.5%, reported RT.  Trump Finally Admits The U.S. Is…

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government forces have taken control of a base in the east of the country that was run for years by U.S. troops as part of the war against the Islamic State group, the Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday.The al-Tanf base sits on a strategic location close to the borders with Jordan and Iraq. In a terse statement, the Syrian Defense Ministry said the handover of the base took place in coordination with the U.S. military and Syrian forces are now “securing the base and its perimeters.”The U.S. Central Command said in a statement that…

A Marine who fell overboard from the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima on Feb. 7 has been declared dead after exhaustive search-and-rescue efforts were unsuccessful, the service announced. Rescue efforts for Lance Cpl. Chukwuemeka E. Oforah, 21, were suspended on Feb. 10, three days after the Marine went overboard in the Caribbean Sea, II Marine Expeditionary Force officials announced. Oforah, of Florida, was an infantry rifleman assigned to 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, the service announced. He graduated from Marine Corps Recruit Depot-Parris Island in February 2024 and was deployed with the 22nd Marine…

According to a peer-reviewed study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), children who received the Moderna COVID-19 “vaccine” have a much higher risk of a febrile seizure within a day of vaccination. Among children aged 2 to 4, the risk was approximately 2.5 times higher, according to the report published on February 4th in Vaccine. Flu Vaccines Are Neither Safe Nor Effective Febrile seizures are convulsions most often caused by fevers that are triggered by infections related to common childhood illnesses. These seizures typically occur in children 6 months to 5 years old, and when they have a…

Beside a urinal and bin of used paper towels, an assault rifle was photographed leaning against a tiled bathroom wall in an image that spread quickly across the internet. The M4 carbine was issued to a Louisiana National Guardsman who left it in a New Orleans bathroom this week. The weapon has since been recovered, according to a spokeswoman for the Louisiana National Guard. The rifle was left in a Bourbon Street bathroom on Sunday, Feb. 8 and recovered the same day, Lt. Col. Noel Collins confirmed on Thursday in a statement to Military Times. “The soldier and incident are…