The U.S. Air Force dropped a dozen ground-penetrating bombs, each weighing 30,000 pounds (13,607 kilograms), in a raid on Iran’s nuclear site^[1] at Fordo on June 21, 2025. The attack was an attempt to reach the uranium enrichment facility buried deep

When U.S. forces attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities^[1] on June 21, 2025, the main target was metal tubes in laboratories deep underground. The tubes are centrifuges that produce highly enriched uranium needed to build nuclear weapons.

Inside of a centrifuge,

You wake up in the morning and, first thing, you open your weather app. You close that pesky ad that opens first and check the forecast. You like your weather app, which shows hourly weather forecasts for your location. And the app is free!

But do you

Hundreds more miles of federal land along the U.S. southern border in Arizona is set to be transferred to the Department of Defense, further expanding newly created military zones -- and the footprint of the military's role in immigration enforcement.

The newest military zone in Arizona -- the fourth border zone created by the Trump administration -- will encompass 140 miles of Department of Interior land near the Barry M. Goldwater range and will be transferred to the military as an extension of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma^[1], Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told reporters Wednesday.

The administration has created the zones as a way to tap the military to enforce its border security and immigrant deportation agenda, and they allow additional court charges to be filed against those who trespass. Most recently, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month said an additional 250 miles, this time along the Rio Grande River, would be handed^[2] to the Department of the Air Force^[3] as an extension of Joint Base San Antonio^[4], Military.com previously reported.

Read Next: Army Creating New Artificial Intelligence-Focused Occupational Specialty and Officer Field^[5]

Once those two new federal leases are transferred, it will mean that the Army^[6], Air Force and Marine Corps^[7] will all have an ownership stake in enforcing security at the U.S. southern border.

Two other military zones have already been created at the border, one in New Mexico that is an extension of the Army^[8]'s Fort Huachuca^[9], Arizona, and another in West Texas that is considered a part of Fort Bliss^[10]. Last month, U.S. attorneys announced some of the first convictions^[11] of migrants who crossed into the zones.

Meanwhile, officials are offering differing numbers on just how many active-duty troops are involved in the expanding border mission.

At the press briefing, Parnell told reporters that about 8,500 military personnel are currently assigned to the active-duty Joint Task Force Southern Border mission. The figure is a drop from earlier figures of around 10,000. One defense official said the new figure doesn't reflect any units being removed but rather the normal ebb and flow of personnel for a long-standing mission.

Maj. Geoffrey Carmichael, a spokesman for the border mission, told Military.com on Wednesday that the total number of Joint Task Force Southern Border personnel was hovering around 7,600.

Another defense official said the roughly 1,000-person difference between the two figures was because the 7,600 number was troops directly on the border while the larger 8,500 number Parnell offered included various personnel supporting or on loan to the Department of Homeland Security and the border mission.

In total, upward of 600 miles of the U.S. southern border with Mexico has either been placed, or is soon to be placed, under the Department of Defense's ownership.

Following President Donald Trump's earliest executive orders this year, the military has expanded its integration with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Customs and Border Protection, a move that continues to alarm defense and legal experts, Military.com has previously reported^[12].

"It seems to be a growing trend," Jennifer Kavanagh, the director of military analysis at the Defense Priorities think tank in Washington, D.C., told Military.com on Wednesday. "There are obviously limits to how much of the land along the border they can militarize easily -- private land will be more challenging -- but I would expect them to keep pushing ahead with this tactic."

In addition to the thousands of military personnel now patrolling the border alongside the Border Patrol, the Pentagon says that the efforts to build the first ICE detention center on a military installation are making progress.

The first defense official who spoke with Military.com said that the ground at Fort Bliss, located near El Paso, Texas, has already been prepared for a "temporary, soft-sided holding facility" that will be paid for by the Army but run by contractors, not military personnel.

When asked whether there were plans to expand efforts for holding facilities to other bases, the official noted that the Pentagon is "a planning organization" but that they had nothing to announce at the present time.

The result, according to Parnell, is that there have been more than 3,500 patrols, including 150 with the Mexican military, since March 20.

Parnell boasted that between June 28 and June 30 there were zero "get-aways" -- people crossing the border who either flee from patrols back into Mexico or into the U.S.

"We have made incredible progress and will continue to work toward achieving 100% operational control of the border," Parnell told reporters.

However, the claims come as the Pentagon heads into a budget season that leaves a lot of questions about how it will pay for the expanded operations.

Last week, officials said that more than $5 billion is being budgeted in the upcoming year for operations at the U.S. southern border.

But defense officials, who briefed the press on annual budget plans, said they are betting on a Trump agenda bill in Congress to backfill any money pulled from current military funds to help pay for not only the thousands of troops deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border but also those sent to Los Angeles after immigration raid protests in the city.

Meanwhile, the military services have been raiding other parts of their budgets -- namely those aimed at upkeeping and building new barracks -- to make ends meet.

The Pentagon has already moved to gut $1 billion from the Army's facilities budget, which the service was planning to use on living quarters for junior troops that have suffered from dilapidated conditions for years.

Related: Guardsmen Pulled off LA Mission as State Warns Troops Are 'Stretched Thin' Amid Wildfire Season^[13]

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will hold back delivering to Ukraine some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons as part of its announced pause^[1] to some arms shipments amid U.S. concerns that its own stockpiles have declined too much, officials said.

The details on the weapons in some of the paused deliveries^[2] were confirmed by a U.S. official and former national security official familiar with the matter. They both requested anonymity to discuss what is are being held up as the Pentagon has yet to provide details.

The pause includes some shipments of Patriot missiles, precision-guided GMLRS, Hellfire missiles and Howitzer rounds.

Elbridge Colby, Defense Department undersecretary for policy, said the decision to halt some weapons comes as Pentagon officials have aimed to provide Trump “with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine, consistent with his goal of bringing this tragic war to an end.”

“At the same time, the department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving U.S. forces’ readiness for administration defense priorities,” Colby added in a statement.

Ohio Rep. Marcy Kaptur, co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, blasted the move that came just days after Russians forces launched one of the biggest air assaults on Ukraine^[3] since it launched the war more than three years ago.

“U.S. made air defense systems, including the Patriot platform, are the centerpiece of Ukraine’s defenses against Russian strikes. They work. They save lives every day," the Ohio Democrat said. "But there are no parallel defensive alternatives for Ukraine if the U.S. stops supplying these vital munitions."

One of the officials said other weaponry being held up includes the AIM-7 Sparrow — a medium-range radar homing air-to-air missile — as well as shorter-range Stinger missiles and AT-4 grenade launchers.

The Pentagon review that determined that stocks were too low on some weapons previously pledged comes just over a week after Trump helped forge a ceasefire between Israel and Iran^[4] to end their 12-day conflict.

The U.S. has provided provided air defense support to Israel, Qatar and other Mideast neighbors. It's unclear if that conflict had any impact on the Trump's move in Ukraine.

The U.S. deployed air defenses systems as it knocked down an Iranian ballistic missile assault^[5] last month launched on the Al-Udeid Air Base^[6] in Qatar. The retaliatory strike from Tehran against the U.S. military installation came days after Trump ordered a barrage of strikes^[7] on three key Iranian nuclear sites.

Army^[1] Secretary Dan Driscoll has ousted his entire slate of civilian advisers in a sweeping move aimed at clearing space for voices from the tech world, as the service doubles down on its push to modernize with a Silicon Valley-style lens.

On Friday, Driscoll notified the 115 members of the Civilian Aides to the Secretary of the Army program, or CASA, an all-volunteer group that serves as the secretary's eyes and ears in communities across the country, that their roles were being terminated.

"Moving forward, the Civilian Aide Program will focus on leveraging civilian expertise in strategic communications, advanced technology, innovation and digital transformation to advise the Army as we build a force capable of dominating the future fight," Driscoll wrote in a letter to all civilian aides Friday.

Read Next: Tech Executives Commissioned as Senior Army Officers Won't Recuse Themselves from DoD Business Dealings^[2]

The move marks a significant break for the century-old program, whose unpaid members have traditionally served to facilitate connections with local businesses, university campuses and state lawmakers, and help boost recruiting^[3] efforts and community outreach.

"One of the big losses is I think the decision is short-sighted," said John Phillips, who was an Atlanta-based aide who worked on recruiting initiatives. "The key things lost are community and industry. We're the conduit to get the Army connected to the local community."

It's unclear how Driscoll plans to reinvent the program -- or whether it will remain as large as it has grown in recent years. The shake-up comes as the Army becomes increasingly singular in its focus on emerging technology, drone warfare and deepening ties with Silicon Valley.

Just last month, in a virtually unprecedented move, the service granted direct commissions at the rank of lieutenant colonel^[4] to a group of wealthy tech executives from firms including Palantir, Meta and OpenAI.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Army planners are quietly trimming down, or outright dismantling, programs seen as peripheral to the service's high-tech future.

While some Pentagon officials and lawmakers have applauded the push toward more rapid innovation, some are quietly worried the Army is becoming too narrowly focused, potentially at the expense of its broader mission, and that recent major decisions about the force are being made without consulting outside of a very cloistered group of officials at the top of the Army hierarchy.

The civilian aide program has long been viewed as uneven, with aides contributing at widely varying levels. Some aides were deeply engaged in local outreach or policy advising, but others were seen as largely symbolic or duplicative, according to officials familiar with the program.

In practice, civilian aides were the Army's means of networking in cities and small towns, often helping coordinate events between the service and external stakeholders, from meetings with local officials and school administrators to attending ribbon cuttings, recruiting fairs and dinners with mayors.

They've also served, in many cases, to figuratively fly the Army's flag -- or represent the service -- in areas far from major military installations.

"It was an honor," said Edward Salo, a history professor at Arkansas State University and former CASA, who worked as a liaison between the National Guard^[5], his university and the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. "It felt good to be able to contribute to help the Army in any way possible."

"I hope that they do redo the program to meet the new Army's needs and not let it sit on the back burner," Salo added. "It's an important tool for the secretary and the Army."

Related: Army ROTC Programs at Dozens of Campuses Are Being Shut Down or Reorganized^[6]

Can a monkey, a pigeon or a fish reason like a person? It’s a question scientists have been testing in increasingly creative ways – and what we’ve found so far paints a more complicated picture than you’d think.

Imagine you’re filling out a March Madness bracket. You hear that Team A beat Team B, and Team B beat Team C – so...

More than 60% of traffic collisions at intersections^[1] involve left turns. Some U.S. cities – including San Francisco, Salt Lake City and Birmingham, Alabama – are restricting left turns^[2].

Dr. Vikash Gayah^[3], a professor of civil engineering at Penn State University and the interim director of the Larson Transportation Institute^[4],...