Russia and China are increasingly closing the technology gap with the US military by developing weapons systems that challenge traditional US advantages, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said. Hagel was speaking Wednesday to members of the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance at a conference on defense innovation, before a NATO summit expected ...

[caption id="attachment_112825" align="alignright" width="238"] Photographer: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty ImagesA Kurdish peshmerga fighter looks at smoke rising in the horizon following U.S. airstrikes targeting Islamic State militants at Mosul Dam on the outskirts of the northern city of Mosul.[/caption] The militant Islamic State poses an imminent ...

The report also touches on Iran's covert operations abroad, citing that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) along with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah have been actively fighting in Syria and neighboring Iraq. A classified assessment by the US Pentagon has claimed that Iran is increasing its military capabilities, exercisesand ...

[caption id="attachment_111360" align="alignright" width="253"] Displaced Yazidis crossing the Iraqi-Syrian border at the Fishkhabur crossing, in northern Iraq, on Wednesday. Thousands who had been besieged have escaped. Credit Ahmad Al-Rubaye/Agence France-Presse Getty Images[/caption] WASHINGTON Defense Department officials said late Wednesday ...

[caption id="attachment_110847" align="alignright" width="208"] U.S. F/A-18 fighter jets take off for mission in Iraq from the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush, in the Persian Gulf, Monday, Aug. 11, 2014. U.S. military officials said American fighter aircraft struck and destroyed several vehicles Sunday that were part ...

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel flew to Saudi Arabia Tuesday for meetings with leaders there at the outset of a week-long Middle East trip designed to reassure allies of the Obama administration's commitment to their defense. Hagel arrived in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah and immediately met with the deputy defense ...