DefenceTalkAn aircraft carrier the US Navy said was steaming toward the Korean Peninsula amid rising tensions has not yet departed, a US defense official acknowledged Tuesday. The Navy on April 8 said it was directing a naval strike group headed by the USS Carl Vinson supercarrier to “sail north,” as a “prudent measure” to deter […]https://www.defencetalk.com/trumps-threatened-armada-still-far-from-north-korea-official-69757/

DefenceTalkIt’s strange that the latest U.S. war is so rudderless, given that it was launched from a pair of Navy destroyers boasting rudders 14 feet high and wide. To anyone or anything hit by a Tomahawk cruise missile, its 1,000-pound warhead is deadly and destructive. But the 30 tons of firepower President Trump ordered fired […]https://www.defencetalk.com/waging-war-on-a-whim-69720/

DefenceTalkPresident Donald Trump is raising pressure on North Korea, touting the US naval “armada” he ordered to the troubled peninsula and promising America will “solve the problem” if China won’t help. He wants to stop Pyongyang from developing a long-range nuclear missile, but North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sees such a weapon as key to […]https://www.defencetalk.com/no-easy-way-for-us-to-back-military-threats-to-pyongyang-69710/

DefenceTalkU.S. President Donald Trump has asked officials to give him options for removing the threat of a nuclear-armed North Korea, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster said Sunday. As a U.S. Navy strike group steamed toward the Korean Peninsula to send a message to North Korea, McMaster told Fox News, “This is a rogue regime that […]https://www.defencetalk.com/trump-wants-options-to-end-north-korea-nuclear-threat-69699/

DefenceTalkThe United States has launched cruise missile strikes on an airbase in Syria, US officials said on Thursday, responding to a deadly poison gas attack that Washington has blamed on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces. One of the officials said more than 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from US Navy destroyers in the eastern […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-launches-cruise-missile-strikes-on-syrian-airbase-69677/

DefenceTalkNuclear-armed North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan on Wednesday, in what analysts said was a warning ahead of a China-US summit at which Pyongyang’s accelerating atomic weapons programme is set to top the agenda. South Korea’s defence ministry said the missile -– launched days after Pyongyang warned of retaliation if […]https://www.defencetalk.com/north-korea-fires-missile-into-sea-of-japan-69662/

DefenceTalkPresident Donald Trump has boosted the US military’s authority to step up air strikes in the fight against Islamist insurgents in Somalia, the Defense Department said. According to a Pentagon official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the new leeway accorded to the military will mean they no longer will have to justify a decision […]https://www.defencetalk.com/trump-boosts-us-military-authority-for-somalia-fighting-69629/

DefenceTalkGermany has hit back at US President Donald Trump’s claims that Berlin owed “vast sums of money” to Nato, following a less than cordial meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House. The comments from German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen came as Trump’s spokesman denied that the US leader had refused to […]https://www.defencetalk.com/germany-hits-back-at-trump-over-nato-after-icy-meeting-69535/

DefenceTalkIn a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan today, President Donald J. Trump asked for another $30 billion for the Defense Department in this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, to rebuild the armed forces and accelerate the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The fiscal 2017 budget amendment provides $24.9 […]https://www.defencetalk.com/trump-seeks-30b-more-in-fiscal-2017-to-rebuild-military-fight-isis-69526/

DefenceTalkPresident Donald J. Trump today promised to rebuild the U.S. military and called for a 12-carrier Navy during a visit to the future USS Gerald R. Ford in Newport News, Virginia. Trump addressed the pre-commissioning unit of the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier on the ship’s hangar deck. He told the crew that if Congress passes […]https://www.defencetalk.com/trump-calls-for-12-carrier-navy-promises-rebuilt-military-69371/