Pentagon | DD News

November 5, 2026 12:27 PM

Trump says Hegseth doing ‘a very good job’ as questions swirl about his future

US President Donald Trump backed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, a day after Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in midterm elections that reflected voter anger over the Iran war. Asked whether he was considering replacing Hegseth, whom he has described as a champion of the war, Trump ‌told reporters: "No, I think he's doing a very good job." The response contrasted with then-President George Bush, who fired Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld the morning after t...

October 28, 2026 1:50 PM

US costs of Iran war rise to over $47 billion, according to Pentagon estimate

The US military has spent over $47 billion so far to prosecute the war in Iran, more than 25% higher than the Defense Department's estimate in July, according to Pentagon data obtained by Reuters. The disclosure about the rising cost of the Iran war comes as Republicans wrestle with the political fallout of the unpopular conflict ahead of the November 3 election that will determine control of Congress for the next two years. The war's impact on global energy costs has weighed on support for Re...

May 13, 2026 1:08 AM

US budget watchdog estimates Golden Dome will cost $1.2 trillion, dwarfing Pentagon’s $185 billion estimate

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump's Golden Dome missile defense shield could cost approximately $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy and operate over 20 years, a figure that dwarfs an $185 billion price tag offered by the program's Pentagon director. Golden Dome envisions expanding ground‑based defenses such as interceptor missiles, sensors and command‑and‑control systems while adding space‑based elements meant to detect, tr...

April 6, 2026 9:35 AM

How a perilous US rescue mission in Iran nearly went off course

The rescue had unfolded with near‑perfect precision. Under cover of darkness, U.S. commandos slipped deep into Iran, undetected, scaled a 7,000‑foot ridge and pulled a stranded American weapons specialist to safety, moving him toward a secret rendezvous point before dawn on Sunday. Then everything stopped. Two MC-130 aircraft that had ferried some of the roughly 100 special operations forces into rugged terrain south of Tehran suffered a mechanical failure and could not take off, a U.S. of...

March 25, 2026 9:14 PM

Pentagon reaches deals with defense firms to expand munitions production

The Pentagon said on Wednesday it had reached framework agreements with BAE Systems, Lockheed and Honeywell to boost production of defense systems munitions as part of a push to put the U.S. military on a "wartime footing." The announcements come more than three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump and Israel launched a war on Iran. They also follow Trump's meeting earlier this month with executives from seven defense contractors as the Pentagon sought to replenish weapons stocks depleted by...

March 2, 2026 10:35 PM

US not veering into a new, endless war, Pentagon says

The Pentagon played down concerns on Monday that the U.S. attack on Iran risked plunging the United States into a new, open-ended conflict in the Middle East, even as officials declined to offer a timeline and cautioned they expected more U.S. casualties. The United States and Israel launched their most ambitious attacks on Iran in decades on Saturday, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sinking Iranian warships and hitting more than 1,000 targets so far. In the first Pentagon brief...

February 27, 2026 10:01 AM

Anthropic cannot accede to Pentagon’s request in AI safeguards dispute, CEO says

Anthropic said it would not accede to the Pentagon's request to eliminate safeguards from its AI systems, despite threats to deem the company a "supply chain risk" and remove it from the Department of Defense's systems, putting a $200 million contract at risk. The Pentagon's dispute with Anthropic stems from the AI startup's refusal to remove safeguards that would prevent its technology from being used to target weapons autonomously and conduct surveillance in the United St...

February 11, 2026 10:32 AM

Trump to direct Pentagon to buy coal to revive industry, Bloomberg News says

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to direct the Pentagon to use government funding and Pentagon contracts to sustain U.S. coal-fired power plants, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing a White House official. Reuters was not immediately able to verify the report. The White House did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment outside of regular business hours, while the Pentagon deferred to the White House for comment. The Bloomberg report said the move will come via an execu...

January 19, 2026 12:38 PM

Pentagon readies 1,500 troops for potential Minnesota deployment, US officials say

The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers in Alaska to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the site of large protests against the government's deportation drive, two U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday. The U.S. Army placed the units on prepare-to-deploy orders in case violence in the midwestern state escalates, the officials said, though it is not clear whether any of them will be sent. President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to use the Insurrection Act to ...

October 30, 2025 10:57 PM

Pentagon’s DOGE unit to revamp military drone program, sources say

The Pentagon's DOGE unit is leading efforts to overhaul the U.S. military drone program, including streamlining procurement, expand homegrown production, and acquire tens of thousands of cheap drones in the coming months, according to Pentagon officials and people with knowledge of the matter. In July, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pledged to cut red tape and assert U.S. drone dominance by approving hundreds of American-made drone models and launching training programs to prepare units for ...