Senate Armed Services Committee - Page 2

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), a potential 2020 Democratic presidential contender, attacked Navy Vice Adm. Craig Faller Tuesday during his confirmation hearing to become commander of U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) over a decision 14 years ago to attend a party during a port visit to Hong Kong.

A Chinese electronics company called Hikvision, partly owned by the Communist government, was one of several such firms banned from working for the U.S. government under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed into law by President Trump on Monday.

Senators on the Armed Services Committee from both sides of the aisle expressed growing impatience and skepticism with the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan during a hearing on Tuesday to vet the next incoming commander, Army Lt. Gen. Austin “Scott” Miller.

The United States must accelerate the development of high-velocity rocket technology that is able to “defeat” ballistic missiles defense systems to keep up with the capabilities being honed by China and Russia, warned a top commander and key lawmakers.

Climate change coupled with wide-spread famine is “creating more terrorism” in Africa, home to jihadist organizations like the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and al-Qaeda, declared Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

WASHINGTON, DC — The Russian- and Iranian-assisted regime of Bashar al-Assad is winning the civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands in Syria since 2011, suggested the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, stressing that toppling the dictator is not part of the American mission in the conflict-ridden country.

Defense One reports that China has begun aggressively pursuing its own version of the U.S. military’s outreach program to military officers in Latin America by funding expensive programs to educate them at Chinese military academies.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump could announce his secret decision on the future of the Iran nuclear deal next week.

WASHINGTON, DC — American President Donald Trump is ready “to take whatever steps are necessary” to pressure Pakistan into taking action against terrorist groups killing and maiming American troops in neighboring Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis tells lawmakers.

The autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq will likely become an independent state after the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) is defeated in the country, the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) told lawmakers.

The U.S. Air Force considers “maintaining space superiority” one of its “core missions,” high-ranking American military officials told lawmakers Wednesday, warning that “space is now a warfighting domain.”

President Donald Trump is deciding between two rival ideas – one more “kinetic” and the other “less kinetic” – for U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, according to a senior White House official.

A top general warned Congress that the United States is running out of bombs to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) “because of the number of targets getting hit.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States is facing “significant challenges” sustaining its defense capabilities, both in the nuclear and conventional realm, and is at risk of no longer holding a military advantage over its enemies, warned the head of the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) Tuesday.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Russia’s involvement in war-ravaged Libya “is very concerning,” the top American commander in Africa told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Democrats and the media are once again targeting Attorney General Jeff Sessions — this time, using fake news that distorts his confirmation hearing.

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the 2008 Republican nominee for president blasted former national security adviser retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and the capability of President Donald Trump’s national security team in a Tuesday statement.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to head the Pentagon said Thursday that the United States should continue treating Tel Aviv as Israel’s capital, breaking with Republican members of Congress and intimations the incoming president could fulfill his campaign pledge to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.

The Republican-led Senate has approved a waiver to allow retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis to serve as incoming President Donald Trump’s secretary of defense.

President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, retired U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James “Mad Dog” Mattis, told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that, while he supports engagement with Russia, the “reality” is the Kremlin poses a “principal” threat to the United States.

The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee scheduled a full committee hearing, named “Foreign Cyber Threats to the United States,” Thursday — the day before the Congress meets in joint session to accept and approve Donald J. Trump’s final victory in the Electoral College.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) has released his “America’s Most Wasted” list for 2016, featuring $13 billion that Congress spent on incapable ships, bad-behaving Pentagon employees, African rats and more.

Capitol Hill conservatives allowed Democrats to strip the “Russell Amendment” out of the Pentagon’s fiscal year 2017 budget during conference negotiations after Vice-President Michael R. Pence and other members of the presidential transition team assured them that the incoming administration will restore protections for religion and conscience stripped by President Barack Obama.

The Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), as it loses territory in the Middle East, is infiltrating Latin America, warns Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) in a letter sent to President Barack Obama this week.

The highest-ranking military officer in the U.S. confirmed that the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) used a potentially deadly “sulfur-mustard blister agent” to target a base in northern Iraq that houses American troops. This marks the first recorded chemical attack on the United States since the jihadist group conquered swaths of Iraq in 2014.

The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) stands against “any terrorist group” that attacks Turkey, a Pentagon spokesperson indicated to Breitbart News.

Flourishing in the ruins of post-Qaddafi Libya, the Islamic State has grown ambitious enough to attack neighboring Tunisia. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has drawn up plans for U.S. military operations, including airstrikes against up to 40 targets.

Senator John McCain (R-AZ), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said on Sunday that he may subpoena the 10 U.S. sailors held prisoner by Iran in January to testify about the incident.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The latest annual Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) indicates that 2016 may be the worst year in history for terrorism, primarily at the hands of Sunni extremist groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) and al Qaeda (AQ).

Wednesday before a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter confirmed what Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing a week earlier, which was

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, while testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, indicated that the death of Delta Force Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler in Iraq will probably not be the last American ground combat fatality in that country.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Jack Reed (D-RI), the ranking-member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on Thursday that the use of “ground forces” is required to resolve the Syrian conflict.

As the Associated Press notes, the defense policy bill “is one of the few bipartisan measures in Congress that has readily become law for more than a half-century,” but President Obama is threatening to veto this one, with Senate Democrats standing behind him.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ) should hold up the nomination for the next Secretary of the Army until the military overturns its decision to kick out a decorated Green Beret for striking a child rapist, according to Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA).

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) does not believe the Pentagon’s claim that U.S. troops in Afghanistan are not being told to ignore the sexual abuse of children by Afghan security forces, according to the lawmaker’s office.

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Retired General David Petraeus appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday to discuss the administration’s current Mid East strategy.