Latest Military and defense News

Russia says it shot down two British-made Storm Shadow missiles

Nov. 21, 2024 04:58 AM EST

The Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday its air defense systems shot down two British-made Storm Shadow missiles, six HIMARS rockets and 67 drones. The announcement came in the ministry’s daily roundup of the “special military operation” in Ukraine. It didn’t say when or...

US to give antipersonnel mines to Ukraine to help slow the Russian advance

Nov. 20, 2024 23:41 PM EST

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it will give Ukraine antipersonnel mines to help it slow Russia’s battlefield advances, marking the second major shift on U.S. military support for Kyiv in days. After allowing Ukraine to use longer-range...

Trump chooses former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker as NATO ambassador

Nov. 20, 2024 20:28 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO, the bedrock Western alliance that the president-elect has expressed skepticism about for years. Trump, in a statement, said Whitaker...

US will send Ukraine at least $275 million in new weapons in push to bolster Kyiv before Trump

Nov. 20, 2024 17:39 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will send Ukraine at least $275 million in new weapons, including an undisclosed number of antipersonnel land mines, as the Biden administration rushes to do as much as it can to help Kyiv fight back against Russia before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. ...

The US is sending antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine. Here's what it means

Nov. 20, 2024 13:44 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. decision to provide Ukraine with antipersonnel land mines expands the use of a weapon that the international community has long condemned because of its danger to innocent civilians. And it reflects another in a long line of American policy shifts on the controversial...

Trump's casting call as he builds out his administration: TV experience preferred

Nov. 20, 2024 13:32 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — There's a common trait that President-elect Donald Trump is clearly prizing as he selects those to serve in his new administration: experience on television. Trump loves that "central casting" look, as he likes to call it. Some, like his choices...

Ugandan opposition figure appears before a military court at home days after disappearing in Kenya

Nov. 20, 2024 13:24 PM EST

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A well-known Ugandan opposition figure appeared in a military court Wednesday days after he was reported missing in neighboring Kenya, and denied a charge of seeking military support from abroad to destabilize Uganda’s military forces. Kizza Besigye, a...

The Czech military to buy 14 Leopard tanks from Germany in a $167 million deal

Nov. 20, 2024 13:03 PM EST

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Defense Ministry said on Wednesday it plans to buy 14 Leopard 2A4 tanks from Germany in a $167 million deal that's part of a major modernization of the country's military amid Russia’s war against Ukraine. The ministry said it hopes the deal, worth almost...

What to know about a standoff between police and illegal miners at a South Africa mine

Nov. 20, 2024 11:14 AM EST

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African authorities are embroiled in a standoff with an unconfirmed number of illegal miners who remain underground at an abandoned mine, apparently fearing arrest by police officers deployed at the site. The miners in Stilfontein, in the country’s...

ICC prosecutor urges nations to help arrest 6 Libyans allegedly linked to a brutal militia

Nov. 19, 2024 20:13 PM EST

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court urged Libya and other nations Tuesday to help arrest six men allegedly linked to a brutal militia blamed for multiple killings and other crimes in a strategically important western town where mass graves were discovered in...