Base commanders can approve new types of drones for training exercises, something which previously required Pentagon authority.

Hegseth's meeting comes a day after President Donald Trump hosted Bahrain's crown prince and Qatar's prime minister at the White House. The meetings focused on strengthening diplomatic and economic ties with the Persian Gulf region.

The Trump administration is pushing back on a new intelligence assessment that contradicts President Trump's assertions that U.S. airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities have destroyed them, with U.S.

The Pentagon awards $200 million contracts to Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI to develop AI systems for US defense and national security operations.

The U.S. Department of Defense plans to continue investing in critical minerals projects to ensure a diverse American supply of the building blocks for weapons and many electronics, a defense official told Reuters on Tuesday.

The announcement comes days after Grok spewed antisemitic and racist statements to its users, including praise for Adolf Hitler and “the white man.” It also referred to itself as “MechaHitler.” The debacle kick-started a wave of celebration amongst online extremists, many of whom called for the creation of more hateful AI chatbots.

Top officials at the Pentagon office that played a key role in designing the bombs used in the strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities more than two weeks ago cannot say whether the weapons were successful in reaching the deeply buried bunkers.

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI has announced a nearly $200 million contract with the US Department of Defense for developing AI tools for the agency. The news comes a week after xAI's foul-mouthed Grok chatbot had a full-blown Nazi meltdown,