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The military’s record of hitting intermediate-range missiles is less than perfect. That makes the decision to attempt an intercept much harder. This story has been updated to reflect recent developments overnight. North Korea launched another medium-range missile on Monday, this one right over Japan. Despite Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ threats to shoot down missiles aimed at Guam and President Donald Trump’s Pyongyang-aimed bluster, the United States and Japan let it fly. Why? After the test, Trump on Tuesday said that “all options are on the table,” as every president has said for decades. But the Pentagon is still reluctant to...

US Secretary of Defense James Mattis sent a letter to Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist warning the Nordic nation of a negative impact on relations should they sign an anti-nuclear bomb treaty, according to a report in a Swedish newspaper. Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) reports that the letter was registered at the Swedish Department of Defense on Tuesday, and regards Sweden’s intention to sign a treaty banning nuclear bombs when it opens for signatures from any UN member state in September. […] “The implication is that if the government signs the convention banning nuclear weapons, including on Swedish territory, it would...

— Transgender troops will be allowed to continue serving in the military pending a review, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced Tuesday. His announcement comes just days after President Donald Trump directed the military not to recruit transgender troops. Trump initially tweeted that transgender individuals could no longer serve in the military

Defense Secretary Mattis loves the troops and the feeling is obviously mutual. Believe me, I know you’re far from home, every one of you; I know you could all be going to college, you young people, or you could be back on the block, just grateful. The only way, the only way this great big experiment you and I call America is gonna survive is if we’ve got tough hombres like you. If you remember — some of you are too young — on 9/11 we were matched up against an enemy that thought if you hurt us you can...

Amman (AFP) – US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis confirmed Sunday that the Trump administration had decided on a new strategy for Afghanistan after “rigorous” debate, but said President Donald Trump would be the one to announce it. Mattis refused to hint at any details of the decision, which came after months of speculation over whether Trump, frustrated with a stalemate after 16 years in Afghanistan, would allow the Pentagon to boost troop numbers on the ground in the country. However Mattis appeared satisfied after what he described as an in-depth review of the policy by much of the president’s cabinet...

Tillerson, Mattis rebuff Bannon claim of no 'military solution' for North Korea Published August 17, 2017 Fox News Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Thursday rebuffed White House chief strategist Steve Bannon’s claim to a liberal magazine that “there’s no military solution” for North Korea’s nuclear threats. Bannon unloaded in an interview published late Wednesday by The American Prospect. He hammered the importance of what he called the “economic war with China,” dubbing the tensions with Pyongyang a “sideshow” and rejecting the notion there’s a military solution. Asked Thursday about those comments, Tillerson and Mattis...

(CNN)Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Monday that the White House had still not provided policy guidance on transgender persons serving in the military, adding that they were still studying the issue, raising the prospect that transgender service members may be allowed to continue to serve despite President Donald Trump's July announcement of a ban via twitter. "We are going to study the issue," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon. "The policy is going to address whether or not transgenders can serve under what conditions, what medical support they require, how much time would they be perhaps non-deployable leaving others...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday that the United States would know the trajectory of a missile fired by North Korea within moments and would "take it out" if the missile looked like hitting the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. U.S. officials and South Korea's president in recent days have played down the risk of an imminent conflict after Washington and Pyongyang exchanged fiery rhetoric last week. But Mattis told reporters that war could break out if North Korea were to fire a missile at the United States. "If they fire at the United States, it...

U.S. military strategists at the Pentagon have a military solution in place to address the growing threat emanating from North Korea, but they are holding their fire in favor of ongoing diplomatic efforts by Washington and its allies, Defense Secretary James Mattis said Thursday. The Pentagon chief remained largely mum on the details of that military solution, which theoretically would curb Pyongyang’s efforts to develop a nuclear-capable, ballistic missile arsenal, except to say any military option would be a multilateral one involving a number of regional powers in the Pacific. “Do I have military options? Of course, I do. That’s...

Vietnam has won the promise of a visit from a U.S. aircraft carrier and deeper defense cooperation from the United States.. U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich in Washington on Tuesday that a strong defense relationship was based on common interests that included freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. A Vietnam flag flies as U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (L) hosts an honor cordon for Vietnamese Defense Minister Gen. Ngo Xuan Lich (R) at the Pentagon...

The US defense secretary, James Mattis, has warned the North Korean regime that it risked the “end of its regime and the destruction of its people” if it attacked Washington or its allies, as an eruption of brinksmanship from both sides rattled the region. Mattis’s Wednesday reminder to Pyongyang that the allied militaries “possess the most precise, rehearsed and robust defensive and offensive capabilities on Earth”, capped an unprecedented 24 hours of sabre-rattling sparked by Donald Trump’s surprise threat to rain “fire and fury” down on the Pyongyang regime. The defense secretary, however, couched his remarks in the language of...

Forty-five senators, including one Republican, are urging Defense Secretary James Mattis to advise President Trump against implementing a ban on transgender troops he announced this week on Twitter. “We strongly oppose this policy change and urge you to advise the president against it,” the senators wrote in a letter to Mattis on Friday. “This announcement contradicts existing Defense Department policies, undermines our military readiness and puts our transgender service members as well as their commanders in an impossible situation.” The letter was organized by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who has promised to introduce legislation blocking the president from implementing the...

Defense Secretary James Mattis was caught off guard by President Trump's announcement that he was banning transgender people from serving in the military, according to a New York Times report. Mattis, who was on vacation at the time of Trump's decision, only had one day's worth of notice before Trump tweeted his announcement of the policy, the paper reported. The report described him as "appalled." Sources close to the Defense secretary told the Times that Mattis was infuriated by the tweets, and saw them as an insult to transgender Americans currently serving in the military. On Wednesday morning, Trump wrote...

Logan Ireland, an Air Force staff sergeant who began his transition to a man after two years of service, tells PEOPLE exclusively that he’d “love” to meet with President Trump and discuss the implications of the new sweeping ban on transgender military personnel. “For the President to deny an able-bodied, fully qualified person the inherent right to raise their right hand and serve their country, potentially giving their own life for our freedoms, is doing this country an injustice,” Ireland says. He continues, extending his invitation to Trump for a conversation, “I would love for my President to meet me...

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he plans to reinstate the ban transgender individuals from serving “in any capacity” in the US armed forces. The decision reversed a policy initially approved by the Defense Department under President Barack Obama, which was still under final review, that would allow transgender individuals to openly serve in the military. Defense Secretary James Mattis announced last month that he was delaying enactment of the plan to begin allowing transgender individuals to join the US military.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday slammed President Trump’s call to ban all transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military and vowed to fight the president’s proposal. “69 years ago, President Truman desegregated the US Military. This morning, @POTUS turned anti-#trans prejudice into policy,” Pelosi wrote on Twitter. “.@realDonaldTrump’s decision to ban transgender Americans from the military is a vile attack on brave individuals defending our country.” Pelosi said it is “disgusting” to see members of the LGBT community “devalued for a hateful political agenda.”

Donald J. Trump‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump · 16m16 minutes ago After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow..........Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.........victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you

Chelsea Manning on Wednesday blasted President Trump’s decision to ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, saying it “sounds like cowardice.” “[S]o, biggest baddest most $$ military in the world cries about a few trans people… but funds the F-35?” she wrote in a tweet. Manning, who was imprisoned for leaking classified information to Wikileaks in 2010 while serving in the Army, became a transgender rights activist after revealing in 2013 that she identifies as a woman. While in prison, she demanded and eventually received hormone therapy treatment.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Wednesday morning, July 26th in a series of tweets that transgender people will not be allowed to serve ‘in any capacity’ in the US military.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis has ordered a full review of any military training not directly relevant to warfighting. Mattis told the services to conduct a review of the “requirements for mandatory force training that does not directly support core tasks,” according to a Friday memo obtained by Military Times. In other words, Mattis wants a full examination of all the hours of burdensome, irrelevant training service members have to undergo before deployment.