With only one month until Election Day, the group transitioned from recruiting election workers to trying to inform the U.S. population that veterans will make up a large swath of the volunteers at election sites this November. During a time when misinformation is eroding trust in U.S. elections, the group believes veterans are the key to quashing skepticism and restoring confidence.

About one out of every 10 election workers in November will be a veteran or a family member of a veteran, according to We the Veterans.

“Many of our poll workers for this current election are actually from the veteran and military community family. We are a very trusted population of Americans,” said Julie Hendricks, director of operations for Vet the Vote. “The big push from now on is making sure that as many Americans as possible know that this group of trusted individuals are there to make your vote count when you head to your local jurisdiction.”

Between 800,000 and 1 million temporary workers will be needed to staff polling locations across the country this November, said Thomas Hicks, chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Those workers welcome and check in voters, issue ballots and explain how to use voting equipment.

Vet the Vote tackles election misinformation with Super Bowl launch

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission acts as an independent agency that supports state and local officials to administer elections. The agency partnered with Vet the Vote to help boost the nation’s confidence in the November election.

“There’s been so much negativity about elections and the way that they’re run, and it should be noted that the people who are doing this are our neighbors,” Hicks said. “They’re the folks that are part of the PTA, people you’re seeing at church, and so forth. If you go into a polling place, you’re likely to know these folks. Know that they’re doing their best to serve the country and serve you.”

We the Veterans brought on other partners to help spread their message, including NASCAR, the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, Microsoft and Walmart.

The group traveled across the country this year, hosting events to teach communities about the election process and recruit poll workers. We the Veterans worked with secretaries of state in New Hampshire, Montana, Rhode Island, Vermont and Michigan to host those events, Hendricks said.

“It’s really important that we were able to partner with the people in charge of elections in those states to show communities that elections are local,” she said. “Although we count numbers nationally and talk about poll workers nationally, this is hyperlocal and state regulated. Not everybody understands that.”

The group is holding another event in Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday as a “thank you” to those veterans and military family members who are volunteering. Attendees will be able to talk to Florida and Georgia election officials and interact with ballot equipment to learn more about the voting process in those states.

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

Trump’s allegations involve the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, or UOCAVA, a law protecting the rights of such groups to vote in federal elections.

The Republican presidential nominee wrote on his Truth Social platform last week that Democrats are working to get millions of votes from overseas voters.

“Actually they are getting ready to CHEAT!” Trump wrote. “They are going to use UOCAVA to get ballots, a program that emails ballots overseas without any citizenship check or verification of identity whatsoever.”

Trump further alleged that Democrats “want to dilute the TRUE vote of our beautiful military and their families.”

Trump’s post comes amid Republican concerns that absentee voting allows the potential for greater voter fraud, and for ballots to be cast by noncitizens. Some critics have also questioned the verification process for absentee ballots.

No evidence has arisen of any widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, and some analysts warn that raising concerns about such systems without evidence decreases Americans’ trust in their elections.

When it comes to UOCAVA voters, experts say it would be practically impossible to alter the vote tally in any meaningful way.

While UOCAVA ensures the rights of overseas and military voters to cast their ballots, voter eligibility is determined by thousands of local election officials across the country who handle UOCAVA voter ballot requests and ballots separately.

A soldier with a home of record in Hennepin County, Minnesota, for example, must contact the Hennepin County election office to register and request a ballot. A sailor with a home of record in Cobb County, Georgia, must contact the Cobb County election officer to register and request a ballot.

As such, experts in the field say, any unified effort to steal or inflate the UOCAVA vote would be essentially impossible, given all the election offices involved.

“We’re talking about ballots that go through 7,500 jurisdictions, where election officials can pinpoint erratic patterns,” Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, president and CEO of the nonpartisan U.S. Vote Foundation, told Military Times. “To be a fraudulent UOCAVA voter, you’d have to come up with an identity of someone who lives in a certain place at a certain time, and had an address and their identification.”

Absentee voting deadlines loom for troops and their families

The system for overseas and military absentee voting is so diffuse that any large-scale fraud couldn’t conceivably happen, she said.

Dzieduszycka-Suinat has worked in the field of overseas voting for years, and said she had never heard of a case where a UOCAVA voter who didn’t have identification was allowed to vote.

Trump’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment this week regarding the Truth Social post.

Dzieduszycka-Suinat said there may be more attention on overseas voters this cycle because of the role UOCAVA ballots played in the close races in Arizona and Georgia in 2020.

On the same day that Trump posted about UOCAVA ballots, the Democratic Party arm for American expats noted that “votes from abroad ensured that both Arizona and Georgia went for Biden-Harris.”

Trump’s post is accurate in noting that Democrats have announced efforts to get out the overseas vote, saying there are 9 million eligible American citizen voters, far higher than government estimates of 2.9 million.

While there has been a significant rise in overseas citizen ballot requests for this election, Bob Carey, a retired Navy captain and former director of the government’s Federal Voting Assistance Program, or FVAP, said Democrats’ estimate of 9 million overseas voters is “unrealistically high.”

Carey, who has also worked on several Republican campaigns, said such an estimate makes it “understandable why people would be concerned.”

“But I still don’t think there will be widespread voting by noncitizens using UOCAVA,” he said.

Each local election jurisdiction has different requirements regarding what they will accept to determine an overseas or military voter’s eligibility and legitimacy.

“I think that election officials are exceedingly careful about who they approve when they come with the Federal Post Card Application, and they don’t give the voters an easy time,” Dzieduszycka-Suinat said. “They want to be sure it can stand up to scrutiny.”

“We’ve had situations lately where UOCAVA voters who didn’t have the requested ID are being turned down,” she added, pointing to three would-be UOCAVA Ohio voters and one Oregon voter who have recently been turned down because they didn’t have the requested ID, and Dzieduszycka-Suinat suspects there are probably more.

Amid the partisan rancor of American election season, Dzieduszycka-Suinat said she prefers to view Trump’s post as an indicator that the overseas vote is increasingly relevant to those back home.

“Maybe this informs people that they do have the right to vote and it’s all hogwash,” Dzieduszycka-Suinat said. “I can only assume the power of the overseas vote is growing. Why else would a candidate care?”

Deputy editor Leo Shane III contributed to this report

Nearly 7,000 Guardsmen and another 1,000 active duty soldiers have already been sent to communities across the Southeastern United States to conduct search-and-rescue missions, clear damaged roads and transport aid to hard-hit areas.

Maj. Gen. Win Burkett, director of domestic operations and force development for the National Guard Bureau, told reporters that military officials are continuing to coordinate with state officials to best respond to their needs.

“As the states determine that they need more capability, or they need to start replacing some of the formations that they have, then we’re going to provide that,” he said. “We’re going to continuously look for solutions that would enable that as quickly as possible.”

Fort Liberty soldiers deploying to help with Hurricane Helene relief

Guard and Reserve forces from 16 states are involved in the response to the hurricane, which has killed at least 191 individuals in six states. More than 40 rotary wing aircraft and 600 military vehicles are assisting local emergency personnel with their work.

According to state officials, about 1 million homes are still without power, and many residents in mountainous areas remain trapped due to mudslides and washed-out roadways.

Officials in South Carolina are already expecting to need additional forces for relief efforts there. About 1,000 military personnel are currently operating there.

“The main effort right now has been debris clearing. … We work in concert with the power companies to ensure they can have access to the locations they need,” said Col. Jason Turner, director of military support for the South Carolina National Guard. “But clearing the roadways is the first and foremost priority for the state, and then establishing communications.”

Col. Paul Hollenack, commander of the North Carolina National Guard’s 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team, said forces there have delivered about 1 million pounds of emergency supplies in the week since the storm struck the state, and more than 500 people have been rescued by military specialists.

“And we are still doing significant flight operations in support of search and rescue at this point,” he said.

Burkett warned that additional bad weather could complicate those efforts and extend the domestic military missions.

“There’s another system that’s making its way into the Gulf now,” he said. “It’s not completely formed, and even if it doesn’t form, if it turns into a rain event, it could exacerbate the recovery operations.”

The Guard leader said he has been impressed by the military’s response thus far, but noted the level of destruction was unsettling.

“It’s a really dangerous environment,” he said. “I wouldn’t say that it was worse than what people thought was possible, but I think you really don’t get a feel for it until you get out and see it. That’s what makes every storm and every response unique.”

In a Sept. 16 liberty order, U.S. Forces Japan banned troops from visiting off-base drinking establishments and publicly consuming alcohol from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. every day.

The edict applies to all service members, regardless of age.

The rules went into effect on Tuesday, according to the order, and apply to any service members serving in Japan under U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

Japan protests sex assault cases involving US military on Okinawa

The memorandum calls upon military personnel to police both their own and other service member’s conduct, and report any lawlessness immediately to their superiors.

“Acts of indiscipline or misbehavior by U.S. military personnel adversely impact international relations, tarnish the image of the United States military, and affect our military readiness,” the order states.

Commanders retain the right to strengthen the policy when appropriate, as well as provide exemptions to the curfew, according to the order.

The restrictions come after several service members were arrested for sexual assault in the Okinawa region of Japan over the last six months.

US envoy expresses regret over alleged sex crimes by troops on Okinawa

The order also calls on commanders to refrain from granting liberty to service members “not in compliance with Service-specific and DoD directives regarding sexual assault prevention and response training.”

Commanders are also required to remain current on personal accountability training involving sexual assault and its prevention, according to the command.

50,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Japan, with half of them in Okinawa, according to an earlier Military Times report.

The website was one of nearly two dozen flagged in a recent report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a research group focusing on foreign policy and national security. The group warned that Iranian operatives were trying to pass off the sites as legitimate news outlets and use the content to cast doubt on America’s democratic process.

In addition to veterans, the sites target various minority groups, including Black, Spanish-speaking and Muslim voters, FDD reported.

“Not Our War” posts articles that disparage U.S. military operations overseas and criticize both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Many of its posts are written in a way to elicit strong reactions from veterans, and its homepage includes a tab labeled “Veterans,” said Max Lesser, a senior analyst on emerging threats at FDD.

“The broader aim of the website is to discredit US military actions across the board, but then there is another focus, which is targeting veterans,” Lesser said.

Disinformation creates ‘precarious year for democracy,’ experts warn

The cybersecurity company Mandiant warned of the same website during a briefing about election interference given to members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission earlier this year. The company, a subsidiary of Google, said the site praised the Iranian government and prominent pro-Iran political figures, denigrated the Israeli government, criticized U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and posted about divisive issues in the U.S., including the upcoming presidential election.

Experts have warned for months that U.S. adversaries — such as China, Russia and Iran — would target American voters with disinformation leading up to the election. Some of the messaging meant to sow division is reaching veterans by preying on their sense of duty to the U.S., some experts warned.

A 2017 study from Oxford University found Russian operatives disseminated “junk news” to veterans and service members during the 2016 presidential election. In 2020, Vietnam Veterans of America warned that foreign adversaries were aiming disinformation at veterans and service members at a massive scale, posing a national security threat.

“Conspiracy theories are a threat to vulnerable veterans, and they could drag your loved ones into really dark and dangerous places,” Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Military Times in May.

Microsoft reported in August that Iran had begun an election-interference campaign in the United States by setting up four websites that masqueraded propaganda as news. FDD used Microsoft’s findings to uncover other websites using the same web-hosting servers, it said.

Russian election interference scheme targeted US military competency

FDD released its report quickly after finding the other websites in an attempt to warn people they were fake before one of the posts gained significant traction online, Lesser said.

“We’re exposing it left of boom, before this network goes viral,” Lesser said. “That’s a note of optimism.”

Targeting veterans with disinformation isn’t a new tactic for Iran. Vlad Barash, a scientist at the social media research company Graphika, testified to Congress in 2019 that both Russia and Iran were trying to exploit veterans’ frustrations with the U.S. government by promoting the narrative that democracy was broken. At the time, Barash said such attacks “show no signs of stopping.”

In its report, FDD recommended the U.S. government sanction and indict the operatives running the websites. It also urged social media companies to monitor and block the domains. The FBI declined to comment Monday when asked whether it was investigating the websites.

Despite the room for improvement, Lesser said America’s response to election-interference campaigns has come a long way since 2016. He cited an increase in researchers uncovering disinformation attacks, as well as the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s regular warnings about election interference and efforts by the Justice Department to seize websites spreading propaganda.

“Yes, foreign adversaries are still launching operations targeting our elections,” Lesser said. “But I think as a society, we have become markedly more resilient in terms of exposing these operations and taking action against some of the operators.”

This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.

In the video released Monday, the Russian plane comes from behind the camera and swoops by the U.S. jet, just feet from the aircraft.

The video release of the close encounter Sept. 23, with the U.S. pilot under the direction of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, comes after a series of Russian incursions into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone just beyond U.S. sovereign airspace.

WATCH: US, Canadian jets intercept Chinese, Russian planes near Alaska

The interaction drew condemnation from NORAD’s top officer and one of Alaska's U.S. senators.

“The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot, commander, NORAD and U.S. Northern Command. The NORAD aircraft flew “a safe and disciplined” routine to intercept the Russian aircraft, he added.

A message sent to the Russian Embassy Monday seeking comment was not immediately returned.

The close pass of the Russian jet comes just weeks after eight Russian military planes and four of its navy vessels, including two submarines, came close to Alaska as China and Russia conducted joint drills.

None of the planes breached U.S. airspace. However, about 130 U.S. soldiers were sent along with mobile rocket launchers to Shemya Island, about 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage. They were deployed to the Aleutian island for a week before returning to their bases.

In July, Russian and Chinese bombers flew together for the first time in international airspace off Alaska, a sign of cooperation that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said raised concerns.

In 2022, a U.S. Coast Guard ship about 85 miles north of Alaska’s Kiska Island in the Bering Sea came across three Chinese and four Russian naval vessels sailing in single formation.

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, said the close pass of the Russian jet is another reason to build America’s military presence in Alaska and the Arctic.

“The reckless and unprofessional maneuvers of Russian fighter pilots — within just a few feet of our Alaska-based fighters — in Alaska’s ADIZ on September 23 put the lives of our brave Airmen at risk and underscore the escalating aggression we’re witnessing from dictators like Vladimir Putin,” Sullivan said in a statement.

The F-16, whose pilot was assigned to the 35th Fighter Squadron of the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base, crashed during a training flight on the morning of Dec. 11, 2023, causing the loss of the $28 million fighter. The pilot safely ejected from the jet before the crash, sustaining no injuries, and was rescued by South Korean maritime forces.

The pilot was flying in formation along with three other F-16s as part of a defensive counter-air training mission, according to the report released Sept. 26. But the weather was poorer that day than expected, and the pilot flew through dense cloud coverage.

About 13 minutes into the flight, the report said, the jet’s attitude indicator stopped working due to the failure of its embedded GPS inertial navigation system. The attitude indicator is an instrument that tells the pilot where the horizon is relative to the aircraft.

US pilot safely ejects in F-16 crash off South Korea

The word “FAIL” appeared on the jet’s center display unit. The pilot switched to a backup attitude indicator, but that instrument was likewise glitching and yielding incorrect information, disorienting him, the report said.

That backup system indicated the fighter’s nose was high, but showed its altitude continued to decline. The pilot later told the investigation board he became “task saturated” — or overloaded with too much information to process and things to do at once — trying to keep the jet under control.

A wingman helped guide the pilot down, hoping to break through the clouds. But weather data later showed the cloud cover was so thick — as low as about 795 feet above sea level — that he would not have been likely to reach clear skies, the report said.

As the pilot reached 3,000 feet above sea level, he tried to level off but his disorientation became worse. As the jet neared the water, the pilot grew increasingly worried that his instruments were unreliable and ejected, 19 minutes after takeoff and 1,730 feet above sea level.

Little wreckage from the F-16 has so far been recovered, the report said. The jet’s black box containing more precise flight data was not found, nor was the Northrop Grumman-made GPS unit in the attitude indicator that is believed to have failed.

Investigators couldn’t determine why the GPS unit malfunctioned, the report said, but that it most likely lost power or experienced power fluctuations, as happened in other F-16 mishaps. That unit’s failure was the primary cause of the crash, the report said. The pilot’s need to rely on a backup attitude indicator that was also unreliable, and his disorientation, substantially contributed to the crash.

The 7th Air Force, which oversees Kunsan, said that the Air Force is working to limit the effects of temporary power fluctuations on F-16 flight instrument systems. Air Combat Command is also increasing its training to help pilots catch and fix problems with flight instruments during emergency situations, the 7th said.

The claimed attack comes as the one-year anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip approaches. The Houthis have targeted ships traveling through the Red Sea over the war as U.S.-led airstrikes pound their positions in Yemen. That’s imperiled a waterway that typically sees $1 trillion of trade pass through it, as well as crucial shipments of aid to war-torn Sudan and Yemen.

The Houthis also continue to launch missiles targeting Israel, drawing retaliatory airstrikes from the Israelis this weekend on the port city of Hodeida.

All the Houthi-US Navy incidents in the Middle East (that we know of)

The Houthi-run broadcaster Al-Masirah claimed shooting down the MQ-9, hours after video footage circulated online showing the purported missile striking the aircraft over Yemen's Saada province. A single image online also appeared to show wreckage of the drone, with pieces resembling that of an MQ-9.

The U.S. military did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land. The aircraft have been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA over Yemen for years.

Since Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital of Sanaa in 2014, the U.S. military has seen Reapers shot down in Yemen in 2017, 2019, 2023 and 2024. The U.S. military acknowledged the Houthis shot down two MQ-9s in September.

Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the war in Gaza started in October. They seized one vessel and sank two in the campaign that has also killed four sailors. Other missiles and drones have either been intercepted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Red Sea or failed to reach their targets, which have included Western military vessels as well.

The rebels maintain that they target ships linked to Israel, the U.S. or the United Kingdom to force an end to Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza. However, many of the ships attacked have little or no connection to the conflict, including some bound for Iran.

Those attacks include a barrage that struck the Greek-flagged oil tanker Sounion in the Red Sea. Salvagers have towed away the burning oil tanker, hoping to avoid a catastrophic leak of its 1 million barrels of oil on board. Firefighting efforts onboard the Sounion began last week and “the operation has proceeded with promising results as some fires are extinguished and other under control,” the Joint Maritime Information Center reported Monday.

The center, overseen by the U.S. Navy, also acknowledged the last attack on a merchant ship by the Houthis came on Sept. 2, but the rebels remain a threat.

“Despite a drop in attacks against merchant vessels over the last two weeks, the Houthis have shown ability and willingness to target U.S. Navy assets and coalition partners,” the center said. The Houthis claimed an attack targeted American warships last week.

U.S. Central Command said it struck northwestern Syria on Tuesday, targeting a senior militant from the al-Qaida-linked Hurras al-Deen group and eight others. They say he was responsible for overseeing military operations.

US-led drone strike in Syria kills al-Qaida-linked leader

On Sept. 16, a “large-scale airstrike” on an IS training camp in an undisclosed location in central Syria killed 28 militants, including “at least four Syrian leaders," Central Command said.

“The airstrike will disrupt ISIS’ capability to conduct operations against U.S. interests, as well as our allies and partners,” the statement read.

There are some 900 U.S. forces in Syria, along with an undisclosed number of contractors, mostly trying to prevent any comeback by the extremist IS group, which swept through Iraq and Syria in 2014, taking control of large swaths of territory.

U.S. forces advise and assist their key allies in northeastern Syria, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, located not far from strategic areas where Iran-backed militant groups are present, including a key border crossing with Iraq.

The Marines aimed to bring in 30,500 new enlisted Marines this fiscal year, which ends Monday.

They notched one additional Marine above their target number, and brought in 28 officers more than their target of 1,778, according to data provided by Marine Corps Recruiting Command.

The Marine Corps and Space Force were the only military branches to meet their recruiting goals last fiscal year, and the Corps has not missed its accession mission since 1994, officials said.

How the Marine Corps is retaining a lot of its first-term Marines

Col. Michael Hays, assistant chief of staff for operations at recruiting command, said he was “very proud” of Marine recruiters for achieving their mission. But he had a word of caution.

“It was a challenging year, but once again our Marine Recruiters and Officer Selection Officers stayed in the fight and made mission,” Hays said. “We know [Fiscal 2025] will be a similar fight, but our Marines are focused and determined to do what Marines always do – accomplish the mission.”

Those top-line numbers are for brand-new enlisted and officer Marines. The Corps also met its prior service Reserve accessions goal of a mix of 3,979 officers and enlisted who had previously served in one of the military branches and joined the Marines in fiscal 2024.

Due to historic success at retaining first-term Marines this fiscal year, the Corps was also able to schedule 600 enlistees to ship to recruit training in fiscal 2025. That figure puts the service at 27% of their enlisted recruiting mission for the next fiscal year before it begins. The fiscal 2025 enlisted accessions mission is 32,835.

And that 27% is the highest it’s been since COVID-19 disrupted recruiting for all services in 2020.

Last year, the number of recruits on contract awaiting ship dates at the beginning of fiscal 2024 was only 22% of their recruiting mission, according to data provided by the Marines.

That is an upwards trend, officials said, but it remains lower than typical pre-pandemic numbers.

Before the pandemic, the Marines averaged 53% of their “start pool,” or number of recruits already contracted and awaiting training ship dates, Marine Corps Recruiting Command spokesman Jim Edwards told Marine Corps Times.

“Rebuilding a quality start pool takes time, but [fiscal 2025] marks the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic the start pool has shown growth compared to the previous [fiscal year].” Edwards said.

Those “start pool” recruits remain in the Delayed Entry Program pool, which lasts anywhere from a few days to a year.

Longer times in the pool can help recruits better prepare physically and mentally for the rigors of recruit training, which can spell higher graduation success rates. However, any hiccups between contracting for enlistment and shipping, such as legal trouble or physical injuries, can put a dent in those committed numbers.

The Corps continues its pledge to recruit high-quality members. Along those lines, recruiters tripled the number of prior-service enlistees from 121 last year to 335 in fiscal 2024, Edwards said.

Among the fiscal 2024 enlistees, the Marines tallied 98% as high school graduates, Marine officials said, besting the Pentagon standard of 90%.

More than two-thirds of Marine enlistees scored in the top three tiers of the Armed Forces Qualification Test, again eclipsing the 60% standard set by the Pentagon.

An estimated 35% of all commissioned officer accessions included individuals from traditionally underrepresented categories, including female and racially or ethnically diverse candidates, officials said.

More than 12% of all officer accessions were women. Ten percent of all enlisted accessions were women.

The Marines have historically had the youngest members as its decades-long practice of “recruit and replace” saw about one-third of first-term Marine enlistees staying in the service, and only 45% staying beyond the second term.

These Marine Corps jobs have the highest turnover

Nearly two-thirds of subsequent-term Marines, meaning any Marine on their second or subsequent term of service, decided to stay in uniform for fiscal 2024, the highest since fiscal 2017, Marine Manpower and Reserve Affairs officials said.

But in recent years, Marine leaders are seeking to keep more Marines past their first enlistment, creating a more experienced, seasoned Marine leader in the junior and mid-career ranks.

The new model has been dubbed “recruit and retain.” And some recent developments suggest the strategy is working.

The service exceeded its first-term enlisted retention rate for fiscal 2024, keeping 117% of its target goal.

The Corps had a goal of keeping 6,950 of its first-term Marines eligible to reenlist. The service kept 7,947, according to service data.

That was the highest number of first-term Marines who stayed in the force since fiscal 2010, Marine officials said.

Part of that success was credited to a multi-year enlistment strategy in which career planners are going to Marines earlier in their contract to reenlist early, instead of waiting until their final year or months on their initial contract, officials said.

In other recruiting new, the Army announced Wednesday that it met its annual recruiting goal for the first time in two years, while the Air Force announced this summer that it was on track to hits it goals.

Meanwhile, Navy leaders said in August that the sea service would meet its goal to sign up 40,600 recruits by the end of September thanks to several new recruiting programs, but the crush of last-minute enlistments meant it won’t be able to get them all through boot camp by that time.

Guardsmen mobilized in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, with assistance from the Maryland, Pennsylvania, Mississippi and Connecticut National Guards, according to the Army.

“It’s pretty devastating to look at a lot of homes that have been wiped off the foundations and a lot of people that are probably going to be having to restart their lives pretty shortly,” Army Brig. Gen. Alex Harlamor of the Florida National Guard told CNN on Saturday.

The hurricane, which touched down in Florida on Thursday evening, caused devastating floods, significant infrastructure damage and power outages across the Southeastern United States and has so far claimed the lives of at least 100 people, according to The Associated Press.

In Florida, 3,900 National Guard members, along with 18 Mississippi Guardsmen, maneuvered 13 helicopters and Zodiac boots to rescue over 150 people and 50 animals. They also cleared more than 1,180 miles of roads and set up 30 locations to provide supplies to those affected by the natural disaster.

MacDill Air Force Base without power after Hurricane Helene

In Georgia, where The Associated Press reports 25 people have died as a result of the storm, roughly 900 Georgia Guardsmen chainsawed through clogged roads and helped first responders with their rescue efforts. Tennessee mobilized 120 Guardsmen to save 54 people stranded by flooding and the Virginia National Guard mobilized 48 Guardsmen to rescue six people.

Nearly 500 South Carolina Guardsmen also contributed to the national cleanup and rescue efforts.

“Our National Guardsmen are trained and ready to support the citizens of South Carolina,” U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Robin B. Stilwell, South Carolina National Guard director of the joint staff, said in a release.

More than 400 Guard members responded to the crisis in North Carolina — along with 30 Guardsmen from Maryland, Connecticut and Pennsylvania — clearing roads and carrying out search-and-rescue missions.

North Carolina was hit particularly hard by the hurricane, with one county that includes Asheville reporting 30 dead, according to The Associates Press.

Developed by Eprius, the long-pulse, high-power microwave technology known as Leonidas Expeditionary can drop swarms of drones with massive and pointed walls of electromagnetic energy.

Epirus has already delivered high-powered microwave systems to the Army as part of a $66 million contract last year.

It developed its latest Leonidas capability in partnership with the Office of Naval Research, Joint Counter-Small UAS Office, the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Lab and the Joint Counter-small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Office (JCO).

The company unveiled the system on Sept. 23 and is expected to deliver the completed system to the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab by the end of this year.

So far there are four iterations of the Leonidas system including the newest, which is formally known as the Expeditionary Directed Energy Counter-Swarm, or ExDECS.

Earlier Leonidas offerings have included systems that can be attached to vehicles or air drones.

Army gets first high-power microwave prototype to counter drone swarms

Leonidas ExDECS is another systems entry on the smaller side, capable of “swarm defeat,” with a transportable profile that’s highly mobile and provides a low physical signature, according to Andrew Wargofchik, a spokesperson for Epirus.

The crown jewel of the Epirus system, aside from its microwave system, is a technology called Line Replaceable Amplifier Module, or LRAM. It’s an architecture that allows the company to scale systems up or down.

“We like to think of them as sort of very scalable Lego blocks,” Wargofchik said.

The announcement of the Leonidas Expeditionary comes on the heels of the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, where AI’s role in the defense industry was the talk of the town.

But as the future of warfare arrives, Wargofchik said Epirus doesn’t buy into the concept that killer robots are on the horizon.

He noted projects like the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or unmanned fighter jets, as a better embodiment of what lies ahead.

Half-man, half-AI is the defense landscape the company envisioned - manned systems existing harmoniously alongside unmanned ones.

“Our CEO, Andy Lowery, likes to call it centaur warfare,” Wargofchik said.

While some in the industry criticize the Defense Department for not adopting existing and emerging AI and machine learning technologies quickly enough, Epirus is more optimistic.

Epirus directed energy to face off against vessels in US Navy testing

One of the main challenges involves bridging the gap between research and development to mass production, Wargofchik said.

Though the company began with the explicit goal of providing high-powered microwave systems for counter-drone missions, it’s expanding the development of the same systems as a counter for any-and-all electronics.

In April, Epirus demonstrated its capability to effectively take out certain vessel motors at sea during a Navy event.

“We’re kind of arriving at the shores of a whole new beach of maritime applications,” Wargofchik said.

The Next Generation Squad Weapon program includes a 6.8mm rifle and automatic rifle to replace the 5.56mm M4 and Squad Automatic Weapon, respectively.

The NGSW also includes a fire control, which contains advanced ballistics and aiming assistance not available in currently fielded rifle optics.

“We haven’t fielded a gun in this magnitude to the close combat force since the M16 started fielding in 1967,” said Col. Jason Bohannon, who manages the soldier lethality portfolio at Program Executive Office-Soldier.

The Army fielded the NGSW package to a battalion in the 1st Brigade, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, in late March with the XM7 rifle, XM250 automatic rifle and the XM157 fire control.

This summer, the 30th Armored Brigade Combat Team with the North Carolina Army National Guard also received the weapons.

101st Airborne first Army unit to field Next Generation Squad Weapons

The Army is ramping up production of the rifle, automatic rifle, optic and ammunition to field to the close combat and adjacent forces ahead of upcoming deployments, officials said.

The Army is building a separate ammunition production line at the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Missouri, while Sig Sauer, the firearm producer, is churning out 6.8mm rounds at a facility in Arkansas, officials said.

The current focus is to stockpile enough 6.8mm ammunition for training, deployment and war reserves for all Army close combat units, Bohannon said.

A host of units are slated to get a mix of the combined rifle, automatic rifle and optic, while others will receive only the rifle for now, according to information presented by Army officials on Thursday at the National Defense Industrial Association’s annual Future Force Conference.

“We’re fielding as the material is coming off the line, directly to the units,” Bohannon said.

The weapon combo gives shooters 7.62mm performance or better as far as range, lethality and barrier penetration, all noticeably more capable than the existing 5.56mm round for the individual carbine and squad-level light machine gun.

With increased distance and barrier penetration, Army planners expect soldiers to be more effective at distances in more modern, urban-type battlefield settings.

Reports on poor performance at range and ineffective barrier penetration by the 5.56mm round during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan pushed Army leaders and developers to look for a better round for the close combat force.

There are about a dozen units in the NGSW fielding pipeline for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1. They include:

• From October to December, the Army Reserve’s 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Infantry Regiment at Fort Shafter, Hawaii; elements of the 25th Infantry Division, at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; the Army’s Ordnance School, at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia.
• From January to March, the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington; 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, at Fort Bliss, Texas.
• From April to June, the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Georgia.
• From July to September, the 1st Brigade, 34th Infantry Division with the Minnesota Army National Guard; multiple 10th Mountain Division battalions, Fort Drum, New York.

The NGSW is currently confined to close combat units such as infantry, reconnaissance, combat engineers and associated combat units. The conventional non-close combat Army is expected to continue its use of the 5.56mm M4 and M249 SAW for the foreseeable future, officials have said.

Ukraine had wanted more. It has repeatedly sought permission to use U.S.-built Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles for long-range strikes deep in Russia. They have a range of up to 190 miles and, with their speed, are better able to hit mobile targets. Prior to Zelenskyy’s visit, there were hints the U.S. might provide Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM). Unlike ATACMS missiles, these missiles are abundant in the U.S. arsenal, and their stealth capability make them more effective at hitting defended targets.

White House announces billions in new Ukraine aid, new F-16 training

Sentiment in NATO is growing to give Ukraine more scope for action. This month the European Parliament asked European Union members to “immediately” lift deep strike restrictions, and so have top U.S. House Republicans and several leading congressional Democrats. Nonetheless, the U.S. approach remains hesitant.

There may be risks. On Sept. 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned an attack on Russia by a state backed by a nuclear power could lead to a nuclear response. He often cries nuclear wolf, but this time, his timing suggested worry that Biden might cave to pressures and unleash Ukraine to conduct more deep attacks.

A Russian nuclear response, however, seems unlikely and would probably bring little, if any, military gain. Russian troops are not trained to fight on a nuclear battlefield, as in the Cold War. Ukraine has few, if any, concentrated, high-value military targets. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have warned Putin not to go nuclear, while Biden has warned of “catastrophic consequences” if he does.

There is also a risk that some JASSMs might miss their targets or not be fully destroyed. Russia — and China — could analyze the debris to try to learn more about their stealth capability and sensitive electronics.

Time and again when Ukrainian forces have surprised or shocked Russia — from destroying or damaging one-third of its Black Sea fleet to seizing territory in Russia’s Kursk region — the Kremlin’s response has been weak. Suffering steep manpower losses and needing arms from Iran and North Korea, Russian forces may face limitations.

To its credit, Ukraine is doing a lot on its own to strike deep inside Russia. On Sept. 18, it carried out a stunning attack in Russia’s Tver region, blowing up a huge weapons depot in a blast akin to an earthquake. To overwhelm air defenses, Ukraine used over 100 slow-flying drones. The depot was 300 miles away from Ukraine, well beyond the 190-mile range of ATACMS missiles.

A welcome surprise has been Ukraine’s high-tech drone innovation. Former CIA Director General David Petraeus called it “unprecedented” in scale and pace. Even more is coming. Last month, Zelenskyy said Ukraine had deployed its first high-speed missile-drone, the Palianytsia.

But Ukraine needs more long-range strike power than its own aviation sector can provide. U.S. arms may be a valuable complement, despite their higher cost.

Last spring the U.S. began sending the long-range variant of ground-to-ground ATACMS missiles to Ukraine for use inside its territory. In occupied Crimea, they have ravaged Russia’s navy and air defenses and supporting infrastructure. ATACMS missiles are responsive and can hit mobile targets that elude drones. In June, the U.S. allowed Ukraine some added flexibility — to strike across the border inside Russia with ATACMS missiles wherever enemy forces were engaged in attacks.

On Sept. 26, Biden also promised to send hundreds more Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM). Armed with them, Ukraine’s F-16s could shoot down some Russian combat aircraft in flight before they release devastating glide bombs.

The long-range strike mission is important for Ukraine, but so are other factors. It faces challenges in several areas, including a soldier shortage, inadequate defensive fortifications and uncertainties about future Western aid.

Nonetheless, the U.S. could benefit Ukraine by doing more to help it to conduct long-range strikes in Russia. Neither U.S. weapons nor Ukraine’s, by themselves, are enough. Together, they could raise the cost to Russia of its perfidy and help strengthen European security.

William Courtney is an adjunct senior fellow at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND research institution and was U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan, Georgia, and a U.S.-Soviet commission to implement the Threshold Test Ban Treaty.

John Hoehn is an associate policy researcher at RAND and a former military analyst with the Congressional Research Service.

The White House claimed that “thousands” of veterans could benefit when President Biden announced this summer he was issuing pardons to gay veterans who were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation “and have carried the burden of this great injustice for decades.”

But three months later, only eight veterans have applied for pardons — six from the Air Force, two from the Army, and none from the Coast Guard, Navy, or Marines.

The dismally low numbers are disappointing advocates who say the promise of Biden’s pardons raised hopes that thousands of LGBTQ veterans would not only lose the stigma of courts-martial but also qualify for long-denied veterans benefits.

The War Horse discovered only eight veterans have applied for pardons since Biden’s June 26 announcement after reaching out over the last two weeks to each branch of the military. The White House did not respond to questions about the lack of applicants or whether it was doing anything more to promote the pardons.

Steve Marose, an Air Force veteran who lives in Seattle, is among the eight who’ve applied, and his case is still under review.

Marose said he was shocked by the response and wondered if the pardons’ limitations have discouraged other veterans. Only those convicted in a military court of consensual sodomy qualify, but experts say many LGBTQ veterans were forced from the military for decades simply under the threat of a court-martial.

“It sounds like it’s very broad, that thousands of people will be positively impacted,” Marose says. “When you look under the hood,” he said, it seems doubtful that such a large number of veterans will benefit.

Marose was convicted in 1990 of two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer in addition to three counts of consensual sodomy, so he is worried he may not receive a full pardon but decided to submit an application anyway.

His case is not unique. As The War Horse has reported, gay service members who wound up in a military court often faced other charges, including misconduct or conduct unbecoming, putting their eligibility for the pardon in question.

Michael Wishnie, a professor at Yale Law School and veteran law expert, was also surprised to learn that so few have jumped at the opportunity to apply for a pardon.

“It’s early, but these numbers are disappointing,” he told The War Horse.

Biden’s pardons still fall short for many LGBTQ veterans

Neither the Biden administration nor the Department of Defense could tell The War Horse how they came up with the claim that “thousands” of veterans would be eligible.

In July, The War Horse submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for Defense Department memos or reports that informed the White House that thousands of veterans would benefit from Biden’s act of clemency. However, the agency denied the request, saying the documents were part of the decision-making process, and therefore protected.

This week, The War Horse is filing a lawsuit to compel each branch of the military to turn over court-martial records that will help determine how many service members were convicted for consensual sex or other charges that criminalized their sexual orientation.

“Hopefully this lawsuit will make it easier for thousands of service members to receive some measure of recognition for how they were unfairly treated … and also allow the public to fully appreciate the scale of this injustice,” said attorney Joel Richert, an associate with Davis Wright Tremaine, a law firm that represents The War Horse.

The Department of Defense had no comment about the lawsuit.

Wishnie and other attorneys familiar with the military justice system believe that some veterans have likely found the pardon process too cumbersome. Veterans must gather documents related to their conviction, and submit a personal statement of why a pardon is being sought. If a pardon is granted, there’s also an entirely separate process for upgrading dishonorable discharges and earning VA eligibility for benefits including health care.

The pardon Biden issued this past summer is known as a “mass” pardon, meaning individuals aren’t named. That places the onus on veterans to work out whether they’re eligible and then commit to the application process.

Wishnie and other advocates say the Defense Department should take the lead in identifying veterans who were harmed and automatically upgrade their discharges. Until then, he said, little progress will be made in the effort to rectify the harms of past anti-LGBTQ policies.

“Rather than do the work itself to correct the Pentagon’s wrongdoing, the administration put the burden on veterans to prepare lengthy applications,” Wishnie said. “These low figures are the natural and foreseeable result of that choice.”

A Defense Department official told The War Horse that it isn’t practical to notify every person who is eligible for a pardon. Because the pardon period spans 60 years — from the end of World War II up until the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in 2011 — a majority of the court-martial records are not digital, meaning thousands of cases would have to be reviewed one by one. Instead, the same official said, veterans who think they may be eligible are encouraged to apply.

In 2013, a House bill to upgrade discharge records for LGBTQ troops indicated that between the end of World War II and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” about 114,000 service members were involuntarily separated based on sexual orientation.

Army vet still paying the price for bad paper discharge for being gay

A class action lawsuit filed last year in the Northern District of California found more than 29,000 service members were booted between 1980 and 2011 without receiving an honorable discharge due to real or perceived homosexuality or sexual perversion. That case seeks automatic discharge upgrades for gay veterans forced to leave the military.

Many of those like Army veteran Mona McGuire won’t qualify for the pardons. Earlier this year, The War Horse told the story of McGuire, a military police officer who in 1988, at the age of 20, was outed by a fellow soldier, taken into custody and told she either had to accept an other than honorable discharge or face a court-martial and possibly prison. She chose the less than honorable discharge in lieu of court-martial and gave up VA benefits and her dream of a career in the Army.

Without an actual court-martial, she doesn’t qualify for Biden’s pardons.

There is still hope for some veterans who are not eligible.

Last September, the Defense Department announced it would proactively review about 2,000 military records of service members who served during the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era and whose sexual orientation resulted in a separation. An update to this effort is expected sometime this fall. But it appears that too won’t help McGuire or Marose, who were discharged before “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a 1993 policy that forced gay service members to stay quiet about their sexual orientation or face punishment.

In 1990, Marose, a former Air Force second lieutenant, was sent to federal prison at Fort Leavenworth for 18 months following his convictions for consensual same-sex relationships and sharing an apartment with a fellow airman.

Marose is pursuing every possible path to clear his record and access VA benefits. Along with his pardon application, he’s appealed his case directly to an Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records, which can’t forgive his convictions but can upgrade his dishonorable discharge. He’s also made his case directly to the VA, which has become increasingly accepting of veterans who did not separate from the military with spotless records.

More than 30 years after Marose was kicked out of the military for his sexual orientation, he understands why some LGBTQ veterans are not up for the lengthy process that may only lead to frustration or disappointment. And there is also the added question about who will be in the White House in the fall and how that could impact the pardon process.

“I have a lot of balls in the air, and I was hoping something would land,” Marose says, “but instead I feel like I’m constantly having to argue and defend and hope and pray.”

This War Horse investigation was reported by Anne Marshall-Chalmers, edited by Mike Frankel, fact-checked by Jess Rohan, and copy-edited by Mitchell Hansen-Dewar. Abbie Bennett wrote the headlines.

While many thrive in service, we must grapple with the reality that too many military families, particularly junior and middle enlisted families, are experiencing food insecurity, defined as the inability to consistently afford or access adequate meals.

Food insecurity among military families unacceptable, advocates say

According to Military Family Advisory Network’s latest research, one in four (27.7%) active duty military families are food insecure compared to 13.5% of U.S. households. MFAN’s findings are consistent with the Defense Department’s own research, which found that 24% of service members experienced food insecurity in 2022.

While the military is a microcosm of the broader population, the unique challenges and lived experiences of service members result in disproportionate rates of food insecurity. The nuances and complexities of military life, including the consequences of financial hardship, lead many to skip meals or choose less nutritious options.

How is it that those who put country before self experience food insecurity at more than twice the rate of civilians? The answer may be traced to the unique demands of military life, most notably frequent moves.

Military families move every two to three years on average. During a permanent change of station, families undergo a complete reset. Many military spouses are forced to leave their jobs and find new employment opportunities. Families must also pay first- and last-month’s rent to secure their next home and stock up on household essentials while also navigating new doctors, schools, child care and community — all without the support of an extended network.

Simply put, this reset is taxing on both pocketbooks and overall well-being.

Policy efforts to address food insecurity in the military are underway, pointing to a significant step in reducing the stigma surrounding this issue.

The Defense Department’s Taking Care of Our People initiative seeks to strengthen economic security for service members and their loved ones. The basic needs allowance, a monthly payment for military families whose household income falls below 150% of federal poverty guidelines, has been rolled out force-wide.

Inflation has some military families ‘grasping at pennies’

In the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress instituted a 5.2% pay raise, the largest in more than 20 years. In 2023, basic allowance for housing rates were increased by an average of 12%. The House Armed Services Committee formed a special panel and introduced a 31-point plan in the fiscal 2025 NDAA to evaluate military policies and strengthen service members’ quality of life.

Lawmakers have also proposed legislation to reduce barriers to federal nutrition programs, like removing service members’ housing allowance from income calculations for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, more commonly known as SNAP or food stamps.

Yet, the issue persists. The reality is that policy changes take time and families struggling to make ends meet do not have the luxury of time.

This is when public-private partnerships and motivated citizens have the opportunity to fill the gap. For example, initiatives are emerging to help active duty military families who have recently moved stock their pantry, offset moving costs, screen for food support and connect with their new community.

As a nation, we owe an immense debt to those who serve. And this is not just a military issue — our national security impacts us all. Solving food insecurity is about more than putting food on the table; it is offering dignified support for those who sacrifice so much for our freedoms. We must give service members and their families every opportunity not just to get by but thrive.

Shannon Razsadin is the spouse of a recently retired service member and CEO of the Military Family Advisory Network. MFAN’s mission is to understand and amplify the needs of military-connected families and inspire data-informed change.

Dave Flitman is CEO of US Foods, a leading food service distributor and corporate sponsor of Military Family Advisory Network programming. With a son serving in the U.S. Army, Flitman is passionate about serving members and veterans of the U.S. military forces.

Gone are the days of static target shooting without a time limit. The infantry marksmanship assessment, or IMA, now used primarily at Marine Corps secondary training locations such as Schools of Infantry–East and West, will be the evaluation standard for all grunts within the next five years, according to a new marksmanship campaign plan announced this month by Marine Corps Training and Education Command.

Much of what has been the shooting standard for decades is now out the window in what Marines are calling the biggest change to shooting protocols in more than a century.

The new small arms shooting standard, like the Annual Rifle Qualification introduced in 2021, will have Marines moving, changing positions and hitting realistic human targets under pressure, according to details published by the Marine Corps.

But the “secret sauce,” according to Col. Scott Cuomo, commander of Weapons Training Battalion in Quantico, Virginia, is a tablet-based data collection system that tells Marines not only how accurately they shot, but also how quickly.

Known as the Joint Marksmanship Assessment Program, or JMAP, the device, which was developed by the Naval Health Research Center, creates a digital score sheet that officials say will give Marines a much better picture of how they’ll perform under pressure in combat.

Also gone is the framework that allows Marines to max out their shooting scores. With the IMA/JMAP combo, scores will be tabulated by assessing each round’s proximity to lethal zones on targets that feature human silhouettes, according to videos released by the Marine Corps.

Accuracy scores will be divided by time — the number of seconds it takes to get into position, reload under pressure and put rounds on target, all of which will be tracked by JMAP. The actual scoring classification system has yet to be developed, but it is expected to be finalized by next fall, according to the marksmanship plan.

As described in Marine Corps documents, the IMA, as it will be implemented, consists of the following four courses of fire, totaling 49 rounds in all:

Known Distance Traverse (18 rounds). Three exercises of six rounds each will see Marines firing two rounds at a 100-meter steel target from a supported kneeling position; moving to a barricade-supported position to fire another two shots at a 200-meter target; and then placing weapons on safe while moving into a prone position to the right of the barricade before firing another two shots at a 300-meter target.

Short bay distance (15 rounds). Marines fire five rounds in a standing position, another five rounds in the kneeling position and then move in closer to the targets while speed-reloading to fire the last five rounds from a standing position.

Shooting on the move (6 rounds). Marines fire at two side-by-side targets resembling enemies while continuously on the move. They will fire two shots to the chest of the left target, two to the chest of the right target, conduct a rapid reload and fire one shot each into the heads of each target.

Manipulation and recoil control (10 rounds). In a rapid shooting evolution, Marines will unload six rounds into the chest of a humanoid target, followed by shooting four rounds to the head.

In the marksmanship plan, this high-pressure, combat-simulating shooting strategy is designated by the acronym SPEAR: Speed, Precision, Executive Control, Adaptability and Risk Exposure.

While officials acknowledge risk exposure is likely the toughest element of the group to simulate, it involves many more of the variables than legacy range-qualification assessments, which essentially only evaluated precision.

Cuomo said the changes connect to the combat future Marines envision, in which they’re fighting in smaller elements and at greater distances from each other in an environment like the Indo-Pacific.

“Translated, that means there’s going to be [fewer] Marines and maybe as many of the adversary, or maybe more of the adversary,” Cuomo said. “So, if you really believe these things, then you had better make sure that the Marine is ... objectively more lethal with the ammo that you’re giving.”

The present reality, however, is that Marines have been deeply concerned about shooting — and their lacking performance on past battlefields — for years.

As Marine Corps Times reported last year, a 2018 study by Marine Corps Combat Development and Integration exposed glaring gaps, not only in Marines’ shooting performance, but also in what the Corps knew about the effectiveness of its own shooting program.

That study, which sparked the development of JMAP, also spawned a wide-ranging literature review and experimentation.

In 2022, the Corps introduced the Infantry Marksmanship Training Program, or IMTP, for grunts, a new curriculum that represented an early step in embracing battlefield lethality over what officials call “Olympic-style” static shooting.

The results of the new program were astounding.

“[The Office of Naval Research] unequivocally demonstrated that a squad of IMTP-trained [infantry Marine course] graduates would win against a squad of legacy Basic Infantry Marine graduates 99.7 percent of the time,” Cuomo wrote in a newly published Marine Corps Gazette article describing the overhaul.

More changes related to the shooting assessment transition, meanwhile, are on the horizon, according to the new campaign plan.

New NMOS

By next spring, Marine marksmanship leaders will draft a new necessary military occupational specialty, or NMOS, a subspecialty job description, for marksmanship instructors specific to the new assessment program.

“There’s nobody trained at scale” to run the new programs, Cuomo said, though he added that the Weapons Training Battalion had just completed a proof-of-concept IMTP instructor course.

To avoid creating a new tasking that will take Marines away from other duties, officials plan to look at ways to consolidate the legacy combat marksmanship and IMTP instruction programs under a single MOS for trainers, he said.

An app for that?

Leaders are also figuring out how to give Marines and their trainers access to the vast wealth of data that JMAP will collect from shooting evaluations.

According to Marine Corps promotional materials, the real-time feedback available through JMAP will help evaluate not only a single Marine’s lethality, but also his or her performance in the context of their squad, unit or company. It will then determine how the element is performing as a whole, allowing commanders to distribute personnel in the most impactful way.

“Part of that is definitely an app on a phone, 100 percent,” Cuomo said.

While shooting data is currently siloed between ranges, with JMAP connected to a tablet for on-the-spot evaluation, the goal is to have a central hub where evaluators, leaders and maybe Marines themselves can get deep into the data.

“The neat thing about that system is you can pull data and compare yourself to every infantry Marine course student that’s ever gone through,” Col. Greg Jones, the retiring former commander of Weapons Training Battalion, told Marine Corps Times.

“You can compare yourself to the Marine Corps shooting team. ... Like a Peloton, you can have a ride and get your personal best, and you can compare yourself against everyone else’s personal best.”

Funding questions

The Marine Corps still needs to find a way to pay for all the new JMAP systems, which represent the priciest part of the new shooting program, according to the campaign plan.

The plan gives officials until the end of this year to develop a funding approach for JMAP sustainment at Weapons Training Battalion and the schools of infantry. Additionally, they will have until the first quarter of next calendar year to figure out how to buy JMAP systems for all Marine Corps infantry units by the end of 2025, while formal marksmanship training units will receive them by fall of that year.

While Cuomo wouldn’t say exactly what the systems cost, he likened the total amount needed to the cost the equivalent of a half-dozen amphibious combat vehicles.

Lt. Gen. Benjamin Watson, head of Marine Corps Training and Education Command, demonstrated his confidence that the Corps would find the funding by signing off on the plan, Cuomo said.

Future timeline

While the immediate focus around the new program will be on infantry Marines, signs point toward a service-wide goal of making all Marines proficient in shooting under pressure and in combat-like conditions.

By fiscal 2029, all entry-level Marines should be executing the full Annual Rifle Qualification, rather than the legacy Annual Rifle Training they begin with now, the plan states. This will include range updates to allow Marines to shoot the full ARQ course of fire, including flat 25-meter segments for short-bay drills.

The Rifle Marksmanship Assessment, which closely resembles the IMA, is also on track to become standard for all non-infantry Marines; TECOM is tasked with completing a range analysis by the end of next summer to determine how much it will cost to make that happen.

And while the Marines technically have five years to complete all these taskers, Cuomo emphasized that, in light of an uncertain combat future, they’re motivated to move as fast as they possibly can.

Regarding the tasker of integrating JMAP data and readouts into the existing Marine Corps Training Information Management System, Watson has budgeted three years, Cuomo said, with a deadline of fall 2027.

“That doesn’t mean he wants this to happen three years from now,” Cuomo said. “He would love for this to happen tomorrow.”

The Corps hit 114% of its stated first-term Marine retention goal this fiscal year, according to Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

That percentage translated to 7,947 Marines staying in the Corps after their first term of enlistment in Fiscal Year 2024, which ends on Sept. 30. The goal was 6,950, officials said.

That’s the highest number of retained first-term Marines since fiscal 2010. But it isn’t a total outlier.

Marines on target for active, Reserve recruiting and retention goals

“Retention directly enhances our service’s lethality,” Lt. Gen. Michael Borgschulte, deputy commandant for manpower, said in a release. “This year’s historic success in retaining the most highly qualified Marines is a ‘spike the football’ moment and is a testament to our engaged, people-focused leaders across the Marine Corps.”

The Corps has long used a “recruit and replace” model for first-term enlistees and historically has retained the fewest first-term members compared to the other military services.

Those healthy FY24 retention numbers represent a steady annual increase in retention since fiscal 2020, according to Marine data. Marine officials credited multi-year retention efforts, which allows Marines to reenlist earlier than the end of their current contract, as a large part of their success.

The Marines are the only military service to consistently meet their recruiting goals in recent years. Retaining more Marines eases the strain to recruit more new individuals, allowing for the Corps to better meet its total end strength needs.

The Marines fiscal 2024 end strength approved by Congress is 172,300 Marines. T

The service is also on track to meet its recruiting goal of approximately 28,000 new Marines this fiscal year, but those final numbers have not been released yet. The Marines met their fiscal 2023 goal of 33,302.

The Corps also retained 64%, or 5,700, of the eligible subsequent-term Marines, or Marines in enlistment periods beyond their first term, officials said. The subsequent-term Marine population eligible for retention is at its highest since fiscal 2017.

The total Marine Corps retention mission for all enlistment terms for this fiscal year was 12,912 but fiscal 2025 is higher, sitting at 13,970.

Being a Marine is enough of a bonus, No. 2 Marine Corps general says

The Corps is already halfway to reaching its fiscal 2025 total retention goal, officials said.

“Although this is a huge accomplishment, we have more work to do and cannot rest on our past successes,” Borgschulte said. “We must maintain the momentum into Fiscal Year 2025 and continue to prioritize our Marine Corps’ most valuable and lethal asset—its people.”

In recent years, the Corps conducted an overhaul of its talent management mechanisms, looking at ways to improve Marine quality of life and doing more to reach out to Marines earlier in their contracts to encourage re-enlistment or a move to the Reserve from active duty.

On that front, the Corps also exceeded its goals with the Direct Affiliation Program, or DAP, which allows active-duty Marines to directly transfer to the Reserve component.

The average number of Marines transferring directly between fiscal year 2019 and 2023 was 495, officials said.

This year, the Corps doubled that number.

Another program eases the path to return to service by specifically targeting prior service Marines who’ve left the military but want to rejoin.

In fiscal 2023 the Prior Service Enlistment Program netted 121 Marines. For fiscal 2024 the number was 335, Marine officials said.

If you’ve already registered to vote, requested your ballot and received your ballot, fill out that ballot and return it as soon as possible, said Scott Wiedmann, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, or FVAP. Give it plenty of time to get back to your local election officials.

About three-fourths of the 1.4 million active duty service members are eligible to vote by absentee ballot because they are stationed away from their voting residence, according to FVAP. In addition, their family members can vote by absentee ballot.

Over the years, FVAP, postal officials, lawmakers, local and state election officials and others have worked to shore up the processes for getting absentee ballots to local election officials in time to be counted.

Your voting residence is within your state of legal residence or domicile. For service members, it is typically the same address listed on your Leave and Earnings Statement.

Check the deadline for your returned ballot based on your state. According to FVAP.gov, the Military Postal Service Agency also has recommended mailing dates for the Nov. 5 election, although officials recommend returning the voted ballot as soon as you receive from you election officials.

Those recommended dates include:

From a ship at sea: Oct. 1.

From outside the United States: Oct. 24.

Stateside: Oct. 31.

And again this year, military members and eligible family members living overseas are able to use the free expedited mail service, using the Label 11-DoD at their military post office.

Military absentee voters, whether voting from overseas or from another location in the U.S. when they’re away from their voting residence, have certain protections under federal law. The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, commonly referred to as UOCAVA, applies to military members and their eligible family members who are away from their voting residence, as well as U.S. citizens living overseas. Among other things, UOCAVA requires states to transmit absentee ballots to UOCAVA voters who have requested them, no later than 45 days before a federal election.

Need to register to vote?

If you haven’t registered to vote, you still have time. The FVAP.gov site can help. Voting assistance offices at military installations can also provide specific information. The services also provide voting assistance officers at the unit level; if you can’t find assistance locally, you can contact your service branch voting action officer.

Military absentee voters can use the Federal Post Card Application, or FPCA, to both register to vote and to simultaneously request their absentee ballot from their local election jurisdiction. Some states allow voters to send their FPCA electronically. You can download the FCPA from the FVAP.gov site. Deadlines for requesting the ballot also vary depending on the state. Voters can find specifics on states’ deadlines on the FVAP site.

Don’t assume you’ll automatically receive an absentee ballot if you voted by absentee ballot in previous years. FVAP officials encourage military voters to send the FPCA every year and when they move.

Voters can also request absentee ballots through state applications.

However, officials encourage the use of the FPCA among military absentee voters and U.S. citizens living overseas. Returned ballots requested using the FPCA were counted by local election officials at a higher percentage than ballots requested through state applications, according to an analysis of the 2020 general election conducted by FVAP.

Tips to help your vote get counted

FVAP reminds absentee voters to provide a complete mailing address to their local election officials, whether they are overseas or stateside.

States have reported that common reasons for ballots to be rejected are missed deadlines for ballot returns, and missing signatures on their voted absentee ballot package, Weidmann said.

So FVAP encourages voters to stay up-to-date with their respective state’s deadlines, as well as the absentee voting requirements of their state.

What if you don’t receive your ballot in time?

If voters haven’t been able to receive their requested state ballot by mail or electronically, Weidmann said, they should download a Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, or FWAB, from FVAP.gov and submit it. If the state absentee ballot arrives after the FWAB has been sent, voters can fill out and mail that state official ballot, too. Only one ballot will be counted. On average, the number of FWAB downloads have been about 50% below the numbers from 2020 at this point in the election cycle, he said.

More resources

-Check the status of your registration and ballot through your state site at https://www.fvap.gov/links#verification

-Check your state’s specific deadlines at https://www.fvap.gov/military-voter

-Add election dates and reminders to your mobile calendar at https://www.fvap.gov/calendar-alerts

-The non-partisan Overseas Vote Foundation also offers extensive information and assistance in the absentee voting process.

That month began with a Chinese balloon — the U.S. said it was loaded with spy equipment; Beijing claimed it was just a weather balloon blown off course — drifting across much of the contiguous United States and igniting a furor. That was before it was blowed up real good — the technical terminology — by an F-22 off the coast of South Carolina.

But February’s bizarre occurrences didn’t stop there. U.S. pilots soon shot down three more mystery objects over Alaska, Canada’s Yukon territory and Lake Huron in as many days.

None of those subsequent objects were ever recovered, with the official line indicating they were probably hobbyist or research balloons.

But one grainy image — it’s always a grainy image, isn’t it? — of the object shot down over the Yukon has now emerged, and it’s giving significant “I want to believe” vibes.

An image of the unidentified object shot down over Canada's Yukon territory in Feb. 2023 has been released through a freedom of information request. Thanks to researcher @Steve_uap2020 for sharing this! See "UAP 23" & read my latest @CTVNews 👉https://t.co/lx7G5AYceB #FOIA 🍁❓🔍

— Daniel Otis (@dsotis) September 24, 2024

Canada’s CTV News obtained a report from their nation’s Department of National Defence on the Feb. 11, 2023 Yukon incident, the contents of which include a brigadier general’s description of the unknown object as “cylindrical,” with a metallic top quarter and the rest of it white. It also mentions a package attached to the object by a 20-foot wire.

The report contains an unclassified image of the object, which CTV says “appears to be a photocopy of an email printout.”

Canada’s military originally planned to release the image, but a public affairs official nixed the idea to avoid stirring up more questions. But now that the image has (belatedly) arrived in the public sphere, it’s got aviation — and UFO — enthusiasts chattering.

Due to the poor resolution, it remains difficult to tell exactly what the object is. CTV noted that they’ve requested a higher resolution version. Still, the object’s circular shape, containing a gap on the left side, has sparked speculation.

In the interest of indulging outlandish hypotheses, here are a few of our in-house theories about the true identity of the Yukon object, accompanied by a validity rating system of one spy balloon (least likely) to five spy balloons (most likely).

It’s the droid control ship from ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’

The Yukon object might be too small for this to be the case, but the shape looks identical to something Anakin Skywalker would love to blow up from the inside.

Remember, NORAD: Try spinning, that’s a good trick.

4/5 spy balloons

It’s the Millennium Falcon

OK, this one is a stretch, but we needed to include something from a non-Jar Jar “Star Wars” film.

The image obviously doesn’t have the side-mounted cockpit Han and Chewie used to barnstorm around the galaxy, but one can detect hints of the forward mandibles that gave their YT-1300 light freighter its iconic silhouette. If you squint hard, maybe you can see it?

1/5 spy balloons

It’s a UFO

UFO researcher and government transparency activist John Greenewald, who runs the Black Vault database, noted the similarities between the shape of the Yukon object and the subject of a video purportedly taken in Busan, South Korea, in 2012.

“The object in the [Busan] UFO video has a striking resemblance to the official photo release of the unknown object (”balloon”?) shot down over the Yukon in 2023,” Greenewald tweeted. “Coincidence? Connection? … I’m posting without endorsement, but rather, for discussion.”

3/5 spy balloons

It’s a frakking Cylon Raider!

Just look at that thing. It’s the spitting image of a Cylon Raider fighter — with its swept-forward wings — from the reimagined “Battlestar Galactica.”

We never knew fighting toasters was one of NORAD’s missions, but after seeing how they handled this one, we feel a lot better. So say we all!

5/5 spy balloons

It’s Peloton, the Roman goddess of wealthy stationary cyclists (not really)

Just look at Peloton’s logo and compare it to the unidentified object in the photo.

Is it really out of the realm of possibility that amid the mass hysteria that was 2020′s pandemic-prompted Peloton-palooza that the interconnected exercise network took tangible, sentient form and bicycled its way out of the hearts of millionaire cardio enthusiasts and into the celestial domain?

“Peloton did not wake up to be mediocre,” Peloton reportedly said.

7/5 spy balloons

It’s Pac-Man

If this is the case, with Pac-Man’s insatiable hunger and apparent new flight capabilities, God help us all.

5/5 spy balloons

Army Secretary Christine Wormuth made the announcement Wednesday that the Army had surpassed its 55,000 recruit goal for Fiscal Year 2024. Final numbers will not be available until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

“We not only met our goal, we exceeded it,” she said.

The results represent a reversal of recent years when the Army and other services struggled to overcome restrictions on in-person recruiting mandated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a low unemployment rate and stiff competition from private companies able to pay higher salaries and provide similar or better benefits.

Army enlists AI to identify prospective new recruits

Despite this fiscal year’s success, Wormuth warned that “the headwinds that we’ve been facing are not going to stop blowing.”

An expected drop of about 10% in the number of college-age young people nationwide in 2026 is a significant concern, Wormuth said. The dip comes 18 years after the financial recession in 2008, which triggered a decrease in the number of children born.

Wormuth also said the service doubled its goal this fiscal year for the delayed entry program, putting it ahead on numbers as it begins the next fiscal year on Oct. 1.

The Army had sought 55,000 new enlistment contracts this year and another 5,000 for the delayed entry program to ship to basic training.

Wormuth said recruiters already have 11,000 individuals in the delayed entry program headed to training next year. The delayed entry program allows enlistees to sign up but leave for initial training later, often so that they can complete high school or college.

The service did not meet its accessions goal in both fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023.

In 2022, the Army added 44,901 new soldiers into the active Army, three-quarters of its 60,000 goal, according to Army data. Last year, it recruited 54,000 soldiers, falling 11,000 short of the “stretch goal” of 65,000 recruits it needed.

A host of new initiatives and restructuring helped the service meet its goal, Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, head of the Army’s recruiting command, told reporters Thursday.

“From the Big Apple to Watertown, Wisconsin, and every community in between, our recruiters crushed it,” Davis said.

The Army conducted a major overhaul of its recruiting efforts last year, adding dedicated enlisted and warrant officer job positions, extending recruiter training by two weeks and using artificial intelligence to help comb through prospective recruit data.

The AI tool is being provided by Deloitte, a professional services provider, in five U.S. cities to better target individuals who might be interested in service, Davis said.

The service is also restructuring how it manages a variety of commands, adding a digital dashboard of key recruiting metrics and moving as many as 40 physical locations to better areas to attract recruit attention.

Recruiters got some help with getting soldiers through the training pipeline and into uniform by adding 62 medical providers at the various Military Entry Processing Stations used to assess the physical and mental fitness of military candidates, Davis said.

In addition, the Future Soldier Prep Course, a pre-basic training program that helps get prospective recruits up to physical and academic standards within 90 days, has seen more than 28,000 individual complete the prep and basic training since its inception in 2022.

That has resulted in a 90% graduation rate for prep course attendees, Davis said.

This fiscal year, the Army also saw more than 13,000 prep course graduates move on to basic training from all components total – active, reserve and Guard, according to Brig. Gen. Jennifer Walkawicz, deputy chief of staff for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command.

That provided 25% of the total new recruits this year, which helped fill the shortfall that the Army might have otherwise faced if it had not been able to rely on the prep course.

All prep course graduates must meet all minimum standards before attending basic training, officials emphasized.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

The service recently introduced an artificial intelligence component, dubbed “Recruit 360,” along with several other changes, to revitalize its struggling recruiting efforts that have missed goals for multiple years.

Speaking Tuesday at the Association of the U.S. Army, Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, head of Army Recruiting Command, and Brig. Gen. Antoinette Gant, chief of the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, laid out a series of changes over the past year to how the service recruits.

One of the newest developments is the AI-driven approach.

About two months ago, the service began using AI software to review 30 million potential applicant files, using 1,700 variables to determine if the person on the other end has a propensity to serve, Davis said.

Army won't rule out any possible fixes to recruiting, housing woes

“Recruit 360 is an ability to provide a more refined prospective applicant list to a recruiter based off artificial intelligence,” Davis said. “It’s changing the way we do business and the way our recruiters connect.”

They’ve been experimenting with the software in five selected cities, said Davis, who did not name the company providing the software or the cities in his remarks.

The service failed to meet its accessions goal in both fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023. In 2022, the service recruited 44,901 new soldiers into the active Army, about 75% of its 60,000 goal, according to Army data. The following year, it recruited 54,000 soldiers, falling 11,000 short of the 65,000 recruits it needed.

In April, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said the Army had recruited 5,000 more soldiers compared to the same time in 2023 and was “on track” to meet its goal of 55,000 recruits

During Wednesday’s event, Davis deferred questions on recruiting numbers, saying the secretary would be making an announcement soon.

Following those shortfalls in recruiting, the Army embarked on an ambitious restructuring of its recruiting force and added a host of new initiatives.

A big one, Gant said, is that leaders have recognized shifts in the data aligning with the Army’s expanded recruiting approach.

As the population 18- to 20-year-olds in the U.S. declines, the services have turned to older, nontraditional recruits.

According to Gant, the average age of recent enlistees is 22 years old, with about 14% of the current crop of new soldiers at least that age.

That means recruiters now need more flexibility in where and how they look for new soldiers. They’re looking at community colleges, online platforms and in workplaces where people may be interested in improving their career prospects through Army training, Gant said.

As part of the outreach effort, Gant noted recent online developments.

“In May we launched GoArmy.com website, now in the cloud, it’s a better user experience,” Gant said.

They’re seeing individuals interested in the Army directly text or email questions and receive specific answers and information if they want a recruiter to call them back.

In other recruiting efforts, the service graduated its first cohort of dedicated recruiting warrant officers, is currently training a second cohort and is selecting next year’s class. Nearly 300 soldiers applied for the first 25 positions, according to Davis.

Starting in January, the Army briefly offered a $5,000 bonus for soldiers willing to volunteer for recruiting. That bonus has since ended, but since that offer, thousands have volunteered, he said.

The new soldier referral program, where the Army asks newly minted soldiers to refer friends to recruiters, yielded 75,000 referrals in 16 months that resulted in 5,000 new soldier contracts, Davis said.

Enlisted are not the only focus, however. Over the past year, the Army has sent nearly 500 first-term lieutenants to recruiting stations to better share their experience with prospective officer candidates.

The service built a kind of “dashboard” that allows recruiting battalion commanders and sergeants major to see what metrics are doing well across their recruiting efforts in geographically disparate locations and which are underperforming.

Just before the defense secretary visited Subic Bay, Philippines, the former site of a massive U.S. Navy base, Israel killed the political leader of Hamas, who was visiting Iran.

Austin’s July visit was meant to show his focus on Asia, the region America says is its top priority. Instead, he ended the trip distracted by the Middle East, spending hours containing the crisis on a flight back to Washington.

“We’re going to do everything we can to make sure that we keep things from turning into a broader conflict,” Austin told reporters that day.

The U.S. military has spent much of the past year backing up that sentiment.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas’ attack on Israel provoked all-out war in Gaza, the Pentagon has been on call. When the region has approached a wider war, the Defense Department surged forces there to calm it down. But after a year, some in Congress and the Pentagon are growing concerned about how to sustain that pace, and what it will cost the military in the long term.

Call it the U.S. Central Command squeeze. The Pentagon insists its surge has helped stop the Middle East from falling into chaos. But the longer the region borders on conflict, the more the U.S. tests its endurance for crises later on, most notably, a future conflict with China.

The pressure on the military increased even further this week. After their most intense attacks in almost 20 years, Israel and the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah are close to a larger war. On Monday, Austin yet again ordered more troops to the region, joining 40,000 other American personnel there, 6,000 more than normal. Another aircraft carrier may soon follow.

“We’re caught in this kind of never-ending quagmire of having to divert resources, and we’re burning [out] on the back end,” a senior congressional aide said.

This story is based on interviews with analysts, current and former defense officials and congressional staffers, many of whom were allowed to speak anonymously either because they weren’t permitted to talk to the press or because they were discussing sensitive topics.

Their message was that America’s military wouldn’t exhaust itself anytime soon, but that a year of unplanned deployments and spent missiles come with a cost. Even more, they said, the longer the crisis continues, the more the Pentagon will have to manage tradeoffs between the urgent needs of the Middle East and the rising challenges of the Indo-Pacific.

Merging

The way American military leaders in the Middle East describe it, they woke up to an entirely new world on Oct. 7.

For the last several years, the narrative around U.S. forces in the region had been one of decreased focus, with adversaries in the Europe and the Pacific taking priority.

That changed when Hamas fighters stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 and taking hundreds more hostage. For the short-term, at least, the U.S. was refocused on the Middle East.

“We didn’t know what this was the start of,” an American military official told Defense News. “We immediately started to go to worst-case planning.”

Within weeks of Oct. 7, in support of Israel, the U.S. sent two carrier strike groups, the Gerald R. Ford and the Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and Middle East. It doubled the number of Air Force fighter squadrons in CENTCOM. And to defend its forces already in the region, the Pentagon rushed valuable air defense batteries nearby.

“Our advice to those who might seek to exploit the situation or amplify the conflict is simple, don’t,” a senior U.S. defense official warned in an October press briefing.

This phrase, which became a cliché among senior members of the U.S. government, was still a clear statement of mission. America was sprinting to defend Israel and its own forces in the region.

That became harder the longer the war lasted. Oct. 7 brought direct attacks between Hamas and Israel, but it also upset a delicate balance among other groups.

Soon after the attack, Israel and Hezbollah — which has a formidable force, armed with over 130,000 rockets — started trading fire in a cycle of escalating skirmishes.

Militant groups armed by Iran started attacking Israeli and American forces, especially the 3,500 or so stationed between Iraq and Syria, with three soldiers dying in one such attack in January.

Meanwhile, the Houthis, a terrorist group in Yemen, started firing on commercial ships in the Red Sea, a vital economic waterway where 15% of global trade flowed before last fall.

The Navy’s running sea fight with the Houthis is the longest and most kinetic since World War II, according to service leaders.

“There’s flavors of all those activities in the past and previous rounds that I’ve been involved in, but I don’t recall a period when so many of them have merged,” said another senior U.S. defense official, describing the different attacks.

‘Bear the burden’

As the threats rose, so too did the demand on America’s military. By December, the U.S. began Operation Prosperity Guardian, a multinational mission to protect shipping in the Red Sea. It devoted an aircraft carrier and destroyers to the task.

In April, when Iran lobbed hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel, the U.S. and its partners helped intercept nearly all of them.

America’s national defense strategy accepts that its military can’t be everywhere in the numbers it would want. Instead, the plan is to have a movable force. Put more practically: the U.S. argues it can rush to contain crises like the Middle East after Oct. 7 while still deterring a conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific.

“That’s what we were saying before Oct. 7 and we just demonstrated it,” said Dana Stroul, a top Pentagon Middle East official until early this year. “It’s been a proof of concept.”

But the plan requires these emergencies to eventually end. Despite months of intense diplomacy in the region, the administration is now showing less confidence in its proposed ceasefire deal. And now Israel — the country America has spent the last year defending — may itself be opening a new front in the war against Hezbollah.

“You can’t employ diplomacy without the backbone of military capability,” said retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, who led CENTCOM until 2022. “Military capability without diplomatic messaging is not a good way to approach the problem either.”

“You need both but you have to be willing to bear the burden,” he continued.

For some in Congress especially, the concern is that the Middle East is a distraction from the Indo-Pacific.

Pentagon leaders say they calculate the risk in pulling assets from one region to another, and that the choice to move forces away from Asia is a sign that they consider the region stable enough to do so.

Not everyone in the region is convinced.

“I have relayed messages that it is better to invest in deterrence where there is no overt conflict, rather than intervene in a conflict where there is one already,” the Philippines Secretary of National Defense Gilberto Teodoro said in an August interview. He wouldn’t specify who in the U.S. those messages have reached.

‘We had mission and purpose:’ A chat with the CO of the USS Eisenhower

Cost and benefit

The benefit, in the Defense Department’s eyes, of such a large response in the Middle East over the last year is to contain a crisis that threatened to engulf the entire region.

The periodic surges haven’t accomplished everything the U.S. has wanted. The Navy regularly intercepts Houthi drones and missiles, but the attacks by the Iran-backed group continue, and most shipping companies have chosen to reroute rather than risk becoming a target. Nor is it certain that the militia group will stop even if there is a ceasefire — something Pentagon officials say they still don’t know.

As the recent fire between Israel and Hezbollah has shown, the U.S. is also stuck responding to the rise and fall in the regional conflict, what Pentagon leaders often liken to riding a roller coaster.

“It’s obviously lasted longer than anyone would want,” the second defense official said.

That notwithstanding, there hasn’t yet been a wider war in the Middle East. And while it acknowledges other forces at work, the Pentagon says it’s helped avoid one.

Amid Red Sea clashes, Navy leaders ask: Where are our ship lasers?

“The force posture does matter,” Secretary Austin told reporters this month. “In some cases, Iran can see … many of the capabilities that we have available. In many cases, they can’t.”

That said, the cost of this posture is also becoming clearer.

The first, and perhaps the most important, part of that tally is the military’s ability to meet future needs, known as “readiness” in defense jargon. By sending more forces to the Middle East, the Pentagon is accepting what amounts to a mortgage: higher costs on its forces to avoid an even bigger bill.

There’s no more pressing example of this trade than aircraft carriers.

These ships are the Navy’s most powerful, most visible weapon, and they’re a primary way the U.S. often flexes its military muscle.

That said, carriers need a lot of maintenance, and spend about two-thirds of their life in port undergoing some kind of repair. The Navy calibrates their time at sea and their time for maintenance, allowing for some margin, but not much.

Central Command spent two years without a carrier after America left Afghanistan in 2021. But since Oct. 7, the U.S. has rotated four of them into the Middle East. Most of them have also been deployed longer than their scheduled seven months at sea.

“If we delay a carrier from going back into port and going back into a maintenance period by a month, it causes an even longer period” of disruption, the third defense official said. “It’s not a one-for-one delay.”

Without specifying the impact of these extensions so far, multiple defense officials and congressional aides said the U.S. is already having to manage “tradeoffs” between the needs of the Middle East today and other areas in the future.

Still, in an interview, the head of readiness for the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, which oversees the East Coast-based fleet, argued that the schedules and ships themselves have proved resilient and aren’t yet showing higher wear.

“Sailing those ships in harm’s way for more months certainly will put stress on that, but I really don’t see that process breaking,” Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta said.

Close calls

This February, the Houthis shot a ballistic missile at the Navy destroyer Gravely in the Red Sea, one of many times the militia group targeted American ships in the waterway.

But this one came close. In fact, the ship used a short-range weapon — rather than the typical missile — to intercept the attack. The Houthis came within a nautical mile of success, according to Navy officials.

This is an example of the other two costs involved in the Pentagon’s response. One is to personnel, who are being targeted by militia groups more often and are, in some cases, being deployed longer than planned. The other is the military’s own weapons needed to respond.

The Navy estimates that between Oct. 7 and mid-July, it fired $1.16 billion worth of munitions while on station in the Red Sea.

Many of these are older versions of missiles — such as Tomahawks and Standard Missile 2 interceptors — that wouldn’t be as useful in a fight against China, said a second congressional aide.

Still, as long as the Navy is around the Red Sea, it will need to fire weapons that cost more than what they’re shooting down — an equation known in the military as an “exchange ratio.” That deficit has fallen as the U.S. escorts fewer vessels and experiments more with other ways to stop these attacks, multiple officials and analysts told Defense News. But there’s only so many ways the military can adapt, and it won’t risk losing sailors or ships that cost billions.

“We’ve dodged disaster so far, but that doesn’t really mean it’s mission accomplished,” said a third congressional aide.

In April, Congress passed a $95 billion addition to the Pentagon budget, with $2.44 billion in extra money for Central Command. That funding was designed to last six months, according to the first congressional aide, which would mean it’s almost out today.

The Pentagon comptroller office declined to offer an estimate of how much more the surge in forces is costing and whether the Defense Department was still running a deficit to pay for it.

Multiple staffs in Congress said the bill for the last six months will be about the same number as in April: $2 to $3 billion.

Lawmakers can either pay the bill down in another supplemental or by folding the total into their overall defense spending bill, as the Senate did with $1.75 billion for Central Command. That said, lawmakers will soon start the year on a short-term budget called a continuing resolution, which freezes Pentagon spending at last year’s level.

‘Still in the crisis’

Meanwhile even as funding runs out, the war in Gaza shows no sign of ending.

In August, after Austin returned to Washington from the Philippines, he sent a fighter squadron, a submarine, destroyers and a second aircraft carrier rerouted from the Indo-Pacific this year to CENTCOM. Iran didn’t attack, and Hezbollah’s response to an Israeli strike was limited. After a month and a half of relative calm, one of the two carriers in the region left.

During regular briefings, the Pentagon even started arguing that it had gotten in the “headspace” of Iran.

Then, earlier this month, Israel detonated thousands of devices belonging to Hezbollah and launched airstrikes in Lebanon — prompting the group to vow revenge. The two sides are now exchanging heavy fire across the border. Austin postponed a trip to Israel and Jordan this week, containing yet another flare up.

Between the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and CENTCOM, the U.S. now has at least one submarine, an aircraft carrier, three amphibious warships and nine destroyers, a defense official said. Two of those destroyers are in the Red Sea and were once slated to exit, the official said. After the attacks last week, the official continued, the Pentagon ordered them to stay.

In a call with reporters after Israel and Hezbollah’s latest standoff began, a senior administration official yet again said that the U.S. had helped avert a wider war and that a ceasefire was the best option for all in the region.

In the days after, Israel continued striking Lebanon killing hundreds in attacks that escalated their conflict further.

Another carrier strike group deployed for Europe this week on a previously scheduled deployment. The defense official said the Pentagon is drawing up plans in case it needs to divert into CENTCOM and transit the Red Sea.

“We very much will maintain that deterrent posture, because we are still in crisis,” the senior administration official said.

North Korea has repeatedly vowed to expand its nuclear arsenal, but the latest threat by Kim Yo Jong came after North Korea dialed up regional tensions by unveiling a uranium-enrichment facility and testing a new ballistic missile earlier this month.

In a statement carried by state media, Kim Yo Jong said that the submarine's visit “clearly reveals the frantic military and strategic attempt of the U.S.” She said North Korea’s nuclear war deterrent must be bolstered “both in quality and quantity continuously and limitlessly” in response.

“The U.S. strategic assets will never find their resting place in the region of the Korean Peninsula,” she said. “We will continue to inform that all the ports and military bases of the ROK are not safe places." ROK stands for the Republic of Korea, South Korea’s formal name.

Her comments suggested North Korea may test-fire a missile whose range covers a South Korean site where the U.S. submarine is docked, some observers say.

South Korea’s military said the Vermont, a nuclear-powered and fast-attack submarine, arrived at the southeastern South Korean port city of Busan on Monday to take on supplies and allow its crew to rest.

Temporary deployments of powerful U.S. military assets like aircraft carriers, nuclear-powered submarines and bombers to South Korea are not unusual, but Washington has boosted them over the last year in a show of force against North Korea’s evolving nuclear threats.

Pyongyang often responds furiously to such visits, calling them proof of hostile intentions, and reacts with missile tests.

On Sept. 13, North Korea’s state media published photos of a secretive facility to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. It was North Korea’s first unveiling of a uranium-enrichment facility since it showed one at the country’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting American scholars in 2010. Last week, North Korea tested a newly built ballistic missile designed to carry what it calls “a 4.5-ton super-large conventional warhead” and a modified cruise missile.

Since late May, North Korea has also floated thousands of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea in a Cold War-style psychological campaign, prompting South Korea to restart anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at border areas.

South Korea’s military warned Tuesday of unspecified military action if the North pushes its balloon campaign to a point that seriously threatens the safety of South Korean civilians.

Military spokesperson Lee Sung Joon didn’t say what action South Korea could take, but he reiterated that the military isn’t considering shooting down the balloons midair because they could be carrying hazardous substances.

So far, North Korea’s balloon activities haven't caused serious damage.

Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.

U.S. District Judge Mark Mastroianni blamed both parties for the March 2019 crash in his ruling Monday, but said the government was 60% responsible for parking the helicopter on a snowmobile trail. He criticized Jeff Smith for not operating the snowmobile safely, for speeding and for wearing tinted goggles.

Smith, a Massachusetts lawyer, had asked for $9.5 million in damages to cover his medical expenses and lost wages and to hold the military responsible for the crash.

Man who crashed snowmobile into Black Hawk sues government for $9.5M

“We are grateful for Judge Mastroianni’s thoughtful consideration of the complicated facts of this case,” Smith’s lawyer Doug Desjardins said. “We believe justice was served, and the decision encourages public safety.”

The government has 60 days to pay Smith or appeal, Desjardins said. The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Smith’s lawyers argued that the crew of the Black Hawk helicopter that flew from New York’s Fort Drum to Worthington, Massachusetts, for night training was negligent for parking a camouflaged 64-foot aircraft on a rarely used airfield also used by snowmobilers.

“The court finds the government breached its duty of care in failing to take any steps to protect against the obvious risk of a camouflaged helicopter parked on an active snowmobile trail, in a somewhat wooded area, as darkness set,” Mastroianni wrote. “The helicopter and area where it was parked were not illuminated or marked in any way.”

Smith also sued the owner of Albert Farms airfield in Worthington, accusing them of both giving permission to snowmobilers to use the trail and the Black Hawk crew to land in the same area. He settled with the farm owner for an undisclosed sum.

Smith, who was airlifted to a trauma center with a dozen broken ribs, a punctured lung and severe internal bleeding, has been surviving on disability assistance. The 48-year-old struggles with simple tasks, including putting on socks or pulling up his pants. He no longer golfs or snowmobiles.

“It was a mess,” he said.

His lawsuit argued that the helicopter crew didn’t do enough to protect him, including failing to warn snowmobilers of the Black Hawk’s presence on the trail, leaving the 14,500-pound aircraft briefly unattended and failing to illuminate it. The helicopter landed on an air strip approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and the crew members testified that trainings are often conducted in similar locations. But Smith, who said he had snowmobiled on the trail more than 100 times, said the last time an aircraft used it was decades ago when he was a child — and never a military aircraft.

The government attempted to dismiss the case several times, arguing that it could not be sued under the Federal Tort Claims Act because a policy decision was involved. But the judge disagreed and said the act allows for exceptions.

The government also argued that the court lacked jurisdiction and that the crew members weren’t told that they were landing on a snowmobile trail. The government also pushed back on claims that it could have prevented the accident and said the crew was not required to illuminate the helicopter. The government also attempted to cast blame on Smith, claiming he was driving his sled more than 65 mph and that he had taken both prescription drugs and drank two beers before his ride.

In its investigation, the Army concluded the crew members weren't aware they were landing on a snowmobile trail. It also questioned whether glow stick-like devices known as chem lights used to light up the craft would have made a difference.

The night of the accident, Smith said he was over at his mom’s helping fix a computer. He had a beer with dinner and another with his dad before setting off to meet his brother, Richard Smith, on the trail. Jeff Smith drove in the dark alongside farm fields and forests before going over a ridge. His headlights reflected off “something,” he said, but Smith only knew it was a helicopter after the crash.

“I found him face down in the snow,” Benjamin Foster, one of the crew members, told the court. “We rolled him on his back and I might remember yelling or telling one of my crew chiefs to grab some trauma shears and space blankets from the aircraft. ... I remember him gasping for breath.”

“As soon as I heard that somebody on a snowmobile hit the helicopter, I knew it was my brother,” Richard Smith said. “My heart hit my stomach. I just knew it was him. I went down there and my father told me he was alive. I didn’t sleep that night. I spent that night on my knees praying.”