Task & Purpose

Dozens of National Guard members have deployed to help monitor ballot drop boxes in multiple counties in Washington State, following threats to officials ahead of the midterm elections. The Washington National Guard confirmed some members had been mobilized  Gov. Bob Ferguson called the effort an “Election Neighborhood Watch.” His office confirmed National Guard members are in seven counties: King, Snohomish, Pierce, Thurston, Clark, Lewis and Island. King County is home to Seattle

The Space Force is looking for a new crop of guardians who can keep up physically with troops in highly specialized units like Navy SEALS and Army Green Berets, while bringing technical space expertise to those missions, the head of its new specialized command told Task & Purpose. Col. Peter “Charlie” Norsky, commander of the new Space Force Special Operations Command or SPACEFOR-SOC, discussed the vision for the new formation on a call Friday with Task & Purpose and one other media o

A new system developed by airmen could save billions of dollars, boost aircraft readiness, and improve the quality of life for maintainers. The Advanced Maintenance Analytics and Troubleshooting System (AMATS) lets maintainers “read the matrix” of C-130 fault data, letting them pinpoint exactly what broke, what the root cause of the failure was, and then forecast when it might happen next. AMATS has already saved $180 million in maintenance costs and could save billions more as it expands acr

Airmen living in dormitories at more than two dozen sites now have access to free wireless Internet, as the Air Force works to expand Wi-Fi across its barracks. Boingo Wireless, an Internet provider, announced last week that it was providing the service to airmen living in on-base dormitories. The program has launched at 28 initial sites, such as the Air Force Academy and multiple buildings at the Air Education and Training Command, which is headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio. The ser

The Air Force sent several F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets to a remote part of the western Aleutian Islands this month, as part of a wider North American Aerospace Defense Command exercise. The deployment was notable as it was the first time in years that fighter jets were at Eareckson Air Station in an air defense alert role. The use of the station on Shemya Island for this role comes as the U.S. looks to expand its abilities to rapidly move forces to remote or austere spots in the Arctic.

A former Fort Bragg contractor was arrested Tuesday and charged with leaking national defense information online. The Department of Justice said that contractor James Thomas Ashbacher, 37, was charged with theft of government property and unlawfully transmitting and retaining national defense information.  Prosecutors alleged that Ashbacher photographed or took photos and videos showing military operations and kept some of write ups inside his home.    Starting in 2021, Ashb

A Navy corpsman with Marine special operations forces was recognized with a battlefield medic award for saving the lives of French soldiers injured in a drone attack during the first month of the Iran war. “It was just a surreal moment … You train and you practice for real-world scenarios like this. However, every corpsman doesn’t get the opportunity or will not have that experience to actually be in a moment like that, or to even provide real-world care to that extent,” Petty Officer 2

Two airmen supporting U.S. operations against Iran died this month in noncombat incidents, the Pentagon revealed late Thursday, bringing the total number of American military fatalities in the war to 23.  The incidents were logged in the Defense Casualty Analysis System, the Defense Department’s casualty database, on Oct. 29. The Department of Defense has not identified the two airmen but said that the deaths occurred in October. According to details in the casualty database, bo

The Army is rehearsing how to temporarily bury thousands of fallen soldiers and honor their religious beliefs in a future war where recovering bodies and returning them home may be impossible until the fighting ends.The exercise, reported by Military Times, brought together Army chaplains, engineers and mortuary affairs specialists to rehearse a scenario in which the military could no longer provide individual funeral ceremonies for its fallen. Instead, religious leaders had to consider how to h

A California Congressman is pushing for the Navy to include military housing in its massive redevelopment project in San Diego that has drawn public backlash over plans for a potential data center. “When you talk to active duty folks, they talk about how tough it is to make it and to pay for housing even with their housing allowances,” Rep. Scott Peters, a Democrat who represents California’s 50th Congressional District, which includes parts of San Diego, told Task & Purpose. “It se

The Pentagon’s criminal investigative service is leading a joint investigation into mysterious refrigeration failures at military commissaries across the country amid concerns that the incidents may have been caused by cyberattacks, a Defense Department official confirmed Thursday. “We are aware of speculation regarding a potential cyber incident,” the official said. “The Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the criminal investigative arm of the [Department of Defense] Office

The top planner on the Joint Chiefs of Staff was fired from his post this week.  A Pentagon official told Task & Purpose in a statement that Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, director for strategy, plans and policy was fired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “for severe misconduct” and that he is under investigation for giving information to the press about the Iran war and the Russia-Ukraine war. Sylvia’s departure was first revealed by The Atlantic Wednesday. The official als

A team of engineers noticed a safety gap aboard Navy ships, prompted by several man overboard incidents in recent years. Now, they say they’ve developed a new system that can detect if a sailor falls or jumps from a ship while it’s underway. “Being a former sailor myself, that was always something that was in the back of my mind: ‘Wow, if I fall overboard in the middle of night, hopefully someone sees me,’” said Eric King, a former petty officer first class who served 13 years. “There&#

The U.S. military killed five people Tuesday aboard what Southern Command described as a “go-fast vessel” associated with “narco-terrorists” in the eastern Pacific Ocean, bringing the death toll from its campaign against suspected drug traffickers to at least 240 since September 2025. U.S. Southern Command said Joint Task Force Western Hemisphere carried out the Oct. 27 strike against a speedboat traveling along known drug-trafficking routes. The command said intelligence confirmed the ves

A team of close to 50 reconnaissance and intelligence-focused Marines are being sent to join a NATO mission that oversees the network of undersea internet cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The Marines are being sent to join the NATO-led operation due, at least in part, to their expertise with unmanned reconnaissance drones and other tactical intelligence-gathering skills. In a Marine Corps press release, the senior officer in the Finnish Navy said the Marines would work alongside Finns

Four robotic vehicles were sent hunting for enemy targets during a military demonstration at Fort Knox, Kentucky, recently, but only one initially moved. Guided by satellite imagery, the unmanned vehicle climbed a hill, scanning the surrounding terrain while the other three waited behind. Halfway up, it spotted a potential target and abruptly stopped. Two other robotic vehicles advanced to provide support before a simulated rocket strike hit a target roughly 300 yards away. Autonomous o

A unit is fighting on an island in the Pacific. It’s short on ammunition and food, and enemy fire makes bringing in supplies by plane, helicopter, or ship impossible. But back in the United States, needed supplies are loaded into a massive rocket and launched toward space. Less than 90 minutes later, the supplies land next to the unit. That’s an idea the military is actively pursuing, and last week the Air Force got one step closer to making that a reality.  The Air Force Research Lab

The Pentagon has directed the Air Force to stand up a new Air National Guard Special Tactics Squadron. It would be one of only a few Air National Guard units made up of special operations personnel. The Pentagon announced the decision last week and referenced a Sept. 23 memo signed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, which directed the Air Force to establish a new Florida-based unit.  Pentagon officials said that the move “strategically positions a premier Special Tactics capability

U.S. Southern Command’s top general publicly urged Cubans to take action to change their country’s future over the weekend, amplifying a Central Intelligence Agency appeal for intelligence cooperation that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had endorsed days earlier. Gen. Francis Donovan wrote that the “now is the time” for Cubans to “seize the moment,” in a statement on X, sharing a post by the CIA that called for them to work together. Donovan’s message comes as several U.S. governm

Space Force intends to send more guardians to support combatant commands in frontline roles, the service’s new leader said. In a message to the force, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Douglas Schiess outlined several of his mission priorities for Space Force. Alongside growing the size of the force — Space Force is currently the smallest branch of the military but has goals to double its personnel size — Schiess called for better integrating guardians into the wider force “at scale.&#8221