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The Pentagon has temporarily halted delivery of F-35 fighter jets to the military branches and international customers after Lockheed Martin discovered a metal component used in the jet’s engine had come from China, according to the Pentagon. The Defense Contract Management Agency notified the F-35 Joint Program Office at the Pentagon on Aug. 19 that an alloy used in magnets contained in the F-35's turbomachine pumps came from China. Lockheed Martin builds the overall aircraft, but the turbomachine is produced by Honeywell. The discovery does not affect flight operations of F-35s already in service, the Joint Program Office said. “We...

"The Pentagon has released new color photos as proof that Iran was behind last week's attack on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman," ABC News reported. Hours before that attack, Iranians launched surface-to-air missile at a U.S. drone monitoring the tankers. The missile missed. In response, 1,000 American troops are being dispatched to the region for the declared purpose of defending American forces already there. Reacting to these charges and U.S. military moves and threats, Iran has said it will resume (did it ever stop?) the enrichment of uranium by next week, which it had pledged not to...

Washington (AFP) - President Donald Trump's administration has asked a federal court to block the Pentagon from starting the hiring of transgender recruits next year. The filing by the Justice Department late on Wednesday is the latest in a series of legal measures that have unfolded since Trump sent out three tweets in July saying that transgender troops could not serve "in any capacity" in the military. Those tweets, later followed by a formal White House memorandum, set off a roar of protest -- with several service members and rights groups quick to sue. Two federal courts have since temporarily...

The way the Department of Defense does math, two plus two never equals four. Take this simple equation. Add the growing threat from theater ballistic missiles to the Army’s search for relevance in the post Iraq/Afghanistan world and the answer should come up: expand the Army’s role in missile defense. What does the Pentagon/Army do? They have decided to cut the number of batteries of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system that will be acquired in the near-term by a third, from nine to six batteries. The THAAD is an extremely capable, mobile, land-based system that can perform...

The Pentagon’s 2013 budget marks the beginning of the end of the post 9/11 era of no-holds barred military spending. But even under the worst-case scenario, defense budgets in the coming decade will be larger than they were in the last year of the Bush administration. The upshot for defense industry is that it can expect the Pentagon to spend at least a trillion dollars on new equipment between now and 2023. “We’re not going to take a procurement holiday like we did after the Cold War,” said Frank Kendall, acting undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics. “National...

There is growing pressure on US President Barack Obama to sell advanced F-16 fighters to Taiwan. “The time to provide these fighters is now,” Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican, told a major hearing held by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on Thursday. It became clear as witnesses were questioned that many, if not most, of the commissioners agreed. Taiwan’s request to buy 66 F-16C/D fighters is now being considered by the White House. “The military and strategic imperatives for Taiwan are real and urgent,” said Diaz-Balart, the opening witness at the day-long hearing on developments across the...