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109 stories from Planck Standard. Latest: November 11, 2026.
After a wreath-laying, someone in the defense secretary's party laughed after a photo and a guard demanded silence. The Pentagon says the soldier was right.
After the president said on Election Day he was cutting $4 billion, analysts say the money is being repackaged under the defense bill, with less congressional oversight.
WatchThe surprise vote spares the Defense Secretary a floor vote this week, but incoming Democratic leaders promise investigations when they take the majority in January.
Jeffries is a 'hard yes' while GOP leaders vow to defeat the resolution, which charges the Defense Secretary over the Iran war, the Caribbean boat strikes and the Maduro raid.
WatchRep. Thomas Massie says he will force a vote when Congress returns, and GOP sources expect it to pass after midterm losses tied to the Iran war.
WatchA Pentagon official says the three-star failed three polygraph tests on sharing classified information with the press. Others say the accusation is false, and the case is now with the Justice Department.
CENTCOM figures obtained by CBS News show munitions replacement driving the bill, which excludes damage to U.S. bases and arrives a week before the midterms.
Two federal agents near a western U.S. national security site reported a dark delta-wing craft that climbed without a sound, stopped for 20 seconds and then vanished at fighter-jet speed.
WatchIsrael had wanted to hit in mid-October, but Trump objected, a person briefed on the planning said. Iran's foreign minister says Tehran is ready for diplomacy or war.
An Oct. 20 memo names Polymarket and Kalshi and warns that bets on military outcomes can tip off foreign spies, months after a Special Forces soldier was arrested over Maduro-raid wagers.
Hegseth advisers have told Pentagon staff the all-but-finished report on the Minab school attack will not go public before the Nov. 3 election, Bloomberg reports.
Sources tell CBS News the plans exist if President Trump orders them, even as he says the U.S. will not attack Iran before the midterms.
Gen. Randy George, later fired by Hegseth, told the Pentagon the THAAD and Patriot shortage would last about five more years, two months before the Iran war began, officials say.
A U.S. official says the president was persuaded a public execution would run counter to American values and could fan recruitment for Islamist extremist groups, but critics say the damage was done once Hegseth announced it.
Project Meridian, announced by Hegseth with Newt Gingrich, is to be run through MITRE over 120 days, but the Defense Department won't say whether the two executives are government employees or contractors.
WatchFootage and witness accounts show ballistic missiles, drones and Iranian F-5 jets hitting the base. Troops fled into the desert at night, and one source says the camp was demolished.
WatchThe Army has set Dec. 3 at Fort Hood for the execution of Hasan, who killed 13 people in 2009. It would be the first U.S. military execution in more than 60 years.
The hasty Sunday departure follows the arrest of six people over a suspected plot against the British base; UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham says there are "strong indications" Iran was behind it.
The USS Theodore Roosevelt and Marines aboard the USS Makin Island head toward Iran as the U.S. blockade continues and Trump says new strikes are 'possible' after the midterms.
Judge Paul Engelmayer rejected two of the government's three secrecy claims and gave the Justice Department two weeks to submit the memo for his private review.
WatchThe Pentagon says the withdrawal is complete, but Kurdish officials worry about losing U.S. air defenses and Iran-backed militias have yet to disarm.
The 'State of the Force' address also unveiled a new base for up to 25,000 troops, an Office of Religious Affairs and cuts of 20% of general and admiral posts.
The defense secretary is expected to announce the reductions at Quantico. Officials say some posts will be downgraded rather than eliminated, with changes due by Jan. 1, 2027.
Unauthorized users had access to a Defense Manpower Data Center system for nine months. Another 294,000 records belong to people who have died, and the data was not encrypted.
Brig. Gen. Clint Barnes kept his unit at Kuwait's Port of Shuaiba despite intelligence briefings that it was a likely Iranian target, CBS News reports. More than 20 Democrats now want public hearings.
In a letter obtained by CBS News, the Illinois senator and former Army helicopter pilot called the idea of snipers and drones on a 250-foot arch in Reagan National's flight path a "foolhardy plan."
A cockpit canopy and weapons bay door bound from Australia to the U.S. ended up in Hong Kong in late May, Bloomberg reports. The Pentagon is trying to get them back, and nobody has explained how they got there.
WatchThe fact-finding mission says two Feb. 28 strikes killed at least 178 civilians, most of them schoolgirls. It goes to the Human Rights Council Monday. Washington hasn't answered its June requests for a meeting.
The nonpartisan budget office's first full accounting excludes damage to U.S. bases, the fuel bill for other agencies and interest on the debt. It says restocking missile defenses could take five years, and it notes the Pentagon refused to provide detailed data.
The inspector general's first mandatory report to Congress contradicts Trump's claim two weeks ago that the U.S. has 'virtually unlimited' ammunition. A CSIS analyst says the stockpile is fine for Iran and would last about a month against China.
In his first public appearance since leaving the Pentagon, Driscoll praised the DELTA platform and warned that the U.S. plans to buy 300,000 drones a year while Ukraine builds 7 to 10 million.
WatchOn the 25th anniversary of the attacks, Bush, Clinton, Obama and Biden joined Vice President Vance in Lower Manhattan for the reading of nearly 3,000 names. Across the river from Washington, the president told the Pentagon crowd that 'Iran will never, ever have a nuclear weapon.'
U.S. forces fired more than 30 Patriot missiles defending Muwaffaq Salti Air Base overnight. No American deaths were reported.
WatchTwenty-five years after the September 11 attacks sent U.S. troops into Afghanistan, the group they were sent to remove is back in power — and equipped by the country that spent two decades trying to defeat it. Kabul says the weapons are not up for negotiation.
Rep. Jason Crow sits on House Armed Services and Intelligence. He says neither panel has been briefed on the polygraphs given to senior officers over leaked weapons-stockpile numbers.
Adam Telle, who until Friday handled flood control and Clean Water Act permitting, becomes acting Army secretary after Dan Driscoll resigned amid reported friction with Pete Hegseth.
An interagency agreement running to 2036 moves funds from the National Institutes of Health to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War. Rep. Rosa DeLauro says up to $2 billion could come out of a single infectious-disease institute.
The tests followed reporting on how fast the United States burned through its most advanced weapons during the Iran war. According to officials briefed on the matter, nobody failed.
Judge Trevor McFadden found the publisher, editor and a reporter were likely speaking as employees rather than private citizens, which puts their words outside the First Amendment's protection.
Three U.S. officials say the defense secretary personally removed at least six colonels selected for two-star rank by an Army board. More than 80 generals and admirals have now been fired or blocked under him.
Defense and NATO officials told the AP that American forces in Europe could not stop a sustained Russian ballistic missile attack. The Pentagon says the reports are false.
The publisher, the editor-in-chief and a reporter say they were served separation notices for insubordination after the paper documented conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.
U.S. Northern Command says the aircraft were downed Tuesday night and Wednesday morning after being judged hostile. It won't say where, or which cartel they belonged to.
U.S. District Judge Rita Lin permanently barred the administration from enforcing a supply-chain-risk designation she said was retaliation for the AI company's criticism of the Pentagon.
The report counts nobody killed in the Caribbean and Pacific boat strikes — roughly 215 people over two years — and arrives after the office that tracks civilian harm shrank from 40 staff to nine.
A memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg lands as an outside analysis estimates the U.S. Patriot interceptor stockpile has fallen at least 65% since the Iran war began.
U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut found the Defense Department blew its own regulatory deadlines when it stopped evaluating whether wind farms interfere with military operations, stranding roughly $50 billion in investment across 25 states.
Frank Kendall, who ran the Air Force from 2021 to 2025, was accused of leaking classified details about the Qatari-donated presidential jet. 'I'm completely mystified,' he told the AP.
WatchDefense officials tell CBS News the American arsenal of ATACMS and Precision Strike Missiles is all but empty, and an independent tally says Patriot interceptors have fallen by roughly two-thirds since the fighting began.
Defense Department estimates provided to Congress project an average of 2,500 troops in Washington through January 2029, at a cost covering fiscal years 2027 through 2029.
Survivors of the Iranian strike on Port of Shuaiba say commanders ignored force-protection warnings and denied requests for medical supplies. Sen. Tammy Baldwin wants the investigation released.
Separation boards for transgender service members are held behind closed doors on military bases with no cameras, no transcripts and no public access. At least six troops were barred from their own hearings.
WatchSources tell CBS News the two governments want any campaign against Iran's energy grid wrapped up before financial markets open Monday. President Trump has not given final approval.
The document says tenure 'more often leads to stagnation, complacency, and inflexibility.' It would give officials 60 days to begin a line-by-line review of every class at the service academies and war colleges.
WatchThe Defense secretary's memo makes hormone screening a standard part of the periodic health assessment for active-duty and reserve troops, and endocrinologists are warning that the treatment it opens the door to carries real risks.
Two razor-thin votes — 216-212 and 216-214 — sent the defense authorization and a reconciliation framework to a Senate where Republicans still need Democratic votes they do not have.
WatchThe Defense Casualty Analysis System dropped four service members — three killed in Jordan and one in northern Iraq — in the space of a day. Military officials said the deaths were struck because they came after President Trump declared a cease-fire in April.
WatchPresident Trump warned of "strong" retaliation after three more U.S. service members were killed over the weekend, and the Pentagon is rushing F-16 and F-35 jets to the Middle East as fears of a prolonged war grow.
WatchDefense Department officials privately peg the price of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran at $80 billion to $100 billion once destroyed aircraft, battered bases and spent munitions are counted — far above the roughly $30 billion the administration has cited publicly.
The defense secretary said the joint effort will pursue unauthorized disclosures 'with the full force of the law,' days after the government subpoenaed New York Times reporters.
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