Earlier this week, Trump detailed his plans to build the "Golden Dome," previously known as the "Iron Dome for America," as defense contractors and tech companies already line up to be considered for development.

"We'll have it done in three years," Trump told reporters at the White House on May 21. "Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world."

While Israel's air defense network is considered one of the most advanced aerial defense systems in the world, the missile shield is responsible for defending a country roughly the size of the state of New Jersey — the second smallest US state — from short-range threats.

Trump aims to make the Golden Dome a space-based missile system to defend the US — about the size of continental Europe — against advanced ballistic and hypersonic missile threats from the world's most powerful countries. Russia has an estimated 4,300 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, each of which a system like Golden Dome must be capable of defeating, necessitating an even larger number of intercept missiles and other weapons.

"I think that this year, we're going to see a different national conversation about space," Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider.

About 15% of Israel's defense budget comes from the US. Since its founding in 1948, the US has sent Israel about $300 billion in economic and military aid, making it the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid.

Nearly all of the aid the US has sent in recent months has been allocated to its advanced defense systems and military equipment. But America's involvement in Israel's war in the Gaza Strip has grown controversial. The US is providing limited humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza while also providing military support and weapons to Israel.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The most well-known of Israel's air defense systems, the Iron Dome, consists of a network of radar detectors and missile launchers used to intercept enemy fire, including short-range rockets and artillery.

Deployed in southern Israel in 2011 following the war between Israel and Hezbollah, the US helped and funded the development of the short-range rocket defense system. It contributed at least $1.6 billion to the Iron Dome system from 2011 to 2021, as well as another $1 billion in 2022.

The Israel Defense Forces said the objective of the Iron Dome is to "protect Israeli civilians from the constant threat of rockets by intercepting them." The IDF described the Iron Dome with three adjectives: "accuracy, speed, and capacity."

Armed with Tamir interceptor missiles, the multi-mission defense system can shoot down enemy rockets and artillery up to 43.5 miles away. The advanced missile system has a radar station that detects and tracks the course of enemy rockets before launching a missile to intercept them. The missiles track their target with electro-optical sensors and detonate in the air when close.

While the Iron Dome doesn't have a perfect interception record, it has blocked a majority of enemy fire in Israeli airspace, especially at times of intense barrages from Hamas militants.

But the Iron Dome is just one layer of what is considered one of the most advanced air defense systems in the world.

Missiles have a much longer range than shells, but they also have the disadvantage of being expensive. The Tamir missiles fired by Iron Dome are estimated to each cost around $50,000.

The middle layer of Israel's Iron Dome defense system is David's Sling, a medium- to long-range air defense system designed to intercept missiles as far as 185 miles away.

Also known as the Magic Wand, the versatile missile system carries up to 12 interceptors. Its command and control center, known as the Golden Almond, provides threat assessment and plans and controls interception, complemented by the system's multi-mission radar used to detect and track airborne threats.

Developed in collaboration with the US and Israel, David's Sling is "a central factor in Israel's multi-tiered defense array," according to Israel's Ministry of Defense. It supports other layers of its air defense system by "tackling large-caliber rockets, short-range ballistic missiles," and other types of enemy fire.

The top layer of Israel's sophisticated air defense system is Arrow-3, which is capable of engaging targets at longer ranges and higher altitudes and more precisely intercepting ballistic missiles.

Arrow-3 interceptor operates with the Arrow Weapon System, the world's first operational, national, stand-alone anti-tactical ballistic missile defense system, according to Israel Aerospace Industries, the primary contractor for the AWS. The system was developed in partnership with Boeing and with significant funding from the United States.

Arrow-3 works in conjunction with its predecessor, Arrow-2, to intercept ballistic missiles and other warheads using a two-stage interceptor.

Arrow-3's "interceptor is a world-class missile that, together with the Arrow-2, significantly expands the State of Israel's defense capabilities," according to Israel's Ministry of Defense.

In November 2023, Israel confirmed the first operational use of the Arrow-3 to stop an inbound enemy missile launched by Houthi militants from Yemen, marking the first time all three layers of Israel's aerial defense were working simultaneously.

"All of these provide protection in every layer of aerial defense and enable optimal protection of the Israeli home front," the IDF said in a statement at the time.

Last October, Iran attacked Israel with a large barrage of ballistic missiles — a rare direct attack that came after a White House warning to its ally.

The missile attack came after the IDF killed the head of Hezbollah and then launched a "limited" ground offensive against Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. At the time, the US adjusted its force posture in the Middle East, stationing a substantial force of warships and fighter aircraft across the region to defend Israel and its bases.

Israel also deployed Arrow 3 to intercept the drones and missiles Iran fired during its retaliatory attacks in mid-April last year.

Israel's chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told reporters at the time that Arrow 3 had "proved itself against a significant number of ballistic missiles" fired by Iran.

Israel's air defense system isn't just limited to land. The country also has a naval version of its Iron Dome system, mounting it aboard Israeli missile boats.

The naval version of the aerial defense system, known as C-Dome, is deployed aboard Sa'ar 6-class corvettes, four German-made warships ordered for Israel's navy.

In addition to the C-Dome, Sa'ar 6 vessels are also equipped with a 76mm Oto Melara Super Rapid main gun, which is effective against close aerial threats.

After two years of development, Israel's military announced Monday that the seaborne defense system was used for the first time to intercept a "suspicious aerial target" that entered Israeli airspace near the city of Eilat, which has been frequently targeted by Houthis in Yemen in support of Hamas.

"Overnight, for the first time ever, an IDF Sa'ar 6-class corvette missile ship successfully intercepted a UAV (uncrewed aerial vehicle) that had approached from the east and had crossed into the area of the Gulf of Eilat," the IDF said.

In addition to the four Sa'ar 6-class corvettes, the Israeli naval fleet includes 11 other warships and five Dolphin-class submarines.

To further bolster its air defenses, Israel is also looking at a new "all-in-one" surface-to-air missile system called SPYDER, manufactured by Israeli defense company Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

Israel, in collaboration with Rafael, is testing a new configuration for the weapons system, taking the missile launcher, radar, command and control system, and technology for surveillance and target acquisition, and fitting it to an eight-wheel drive vehicle.

"Developed to address the critical operational needs of the modern battlefield, the SPYDER AiO provides an agile, autonomous, air defense asset, capable of rapid deployment within minutes, in challenging terrains, and with short reaction times," according to a fact sheet from Rafael.

Designed to carry up to eight canisterised missiles, including I-Derby SR, I-Derby ER, and Python-5 SR, it can engage up to four targets at a time, with a maximum range of up to nearly 25 miles and an altitude of 7.4 miles, according to the fact sheet.

In January 2024, Israel's defense ministry announced a successful test run of the new weapons system configuration, which is capable of intercepting drones, aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, and precision-guided munitions.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in April 2024 and has been updated in May 2025.

Earlier this year, the Ford carrier strike group departed its homeport in Norfolk for a routine training exercise ahead of its potential deployment to the US 5th Fleet.

The composite training unit exercise was adapted to prepare US forces for the drone fight against Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea, putting the anti-drone interceptors to the test.

Capt. David Dartez, commander of Carrier Air Wing Eight, told the Norfolk local news station WTKR that a "big example" of the changes includes "a lot of unmanned aircraft and training against those unmanned aircraft."

The anti-drone missile interceptors are designed to act as short-range loitering munitions, capable of targeting drones nearly 10 miles away.

The Raytheon Coyote Block 2 is an expendable counter-drone aircraft designed for surveillance, electronic warfare, and precision strikes.

The small high-speed drone is estimated to cost about $125,000 per unit. The Coyote launches from a small container and deploys wings; it can operate for up to one hour and carry various payloads.

The Coyote is propelled by a boost rocket motor and a turbine engine, allowing it to "handle reasonably large accelerations during launch, a critical feature for all tube-launch applications," according to Raytheon."

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey described the Roadrunner-Munition as "somewhere between a reusable missile and a full-scale autonomous aircraft."

The roughly $500,000 Roadrunner-M, the explosive variant of Anduril's reusable autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV), is purpose-built to detect and target aerial threats.

Its twin turbojet engines are capable of vertical take-off and can fast-maneuver to intercept an assigned target, or even circle around until one is acquired and land back on its ship if not.

The US military has already acquired Roadrunner-M and Coyote drones as part of the Pentagon's push for AI-driven ground-based air defense capabilities.

In October, the Defense Department procured over 500 Roadrunner-M interceptors as part of a nearly $250 million contract with Anduril.

The US Army has also integrated the Coyote as a crucial component in its counter-UAS strategy, known as the "Low, slow, small, unmanned aircraft Integrated Defeat System" (LIDS).

"Both these systems were originally designed for use over land; however, the US Navy has tested and demonstrated these systems in the maritime environment," Capt. Ronald Flanders, a spokesman for the Navy's research and acquisition department, told Military.com.

The Roadrunner-M and the Coyote are "both specifically designed to go after UAVs," Navy Adm. Daryl Caudle, head of US Fleet Forces Command, told reporters in March.

The anti-drone interceptors add more firepower and magazine capacity to protect high-value naval assets like aircraft carriers without sacrificing larger and more expensive missiles stored in the ship's vertical launchers.

Costing from $125,000 to $500,000 per unit, the drone-killers come at a fraction of the cost of the cheapest interceptors with a similar range currently in use by the Navy.

The Roadrunner-M is just over half the $920,000 cost of the short-range Rolling Airframe Missile, and it only gets more expensive from there. The medium-range Evolved Sea Sparrow Block 2 interceptor costs about $1.5 million per unit, the longer-range SM-2 missiles carry a price tag of about $2 million, and SM-6 missiles cost over $4 million each.

The Navy said in January that nearly 400 munitions, including over 100 SM-2 missiles, 80 SM-6 missiles, and 20 ESSM and SM-3 missiles, had been fired to counter Houthi strikes since October 2023. The Trump administration called off an intensified air war in early May in exchange for a Houthi agreement to cease attacks on shipping.

Because multimillion-dollar missiles and other expensive weapon systems are often used as counter-drone defense, the Navy is facing mounting pressure to address its so-called "cost-curve problem."

Smaller missiles to counter smaller threats may be only part of a future solution. The UK military is deploying a new laser weapon to four of its ships. Lasers face technical issues at sea but offer the possibility of zapping an unlimited number of threats.

Air Force One is a call sign that refers to any US Air Force aircraft transporting the president, though it is commonly recognized by its blue-and-white livery.

The Air Force has two "specially configured" Boeing 747-200B jets that are primarily used as Air Force One. The VC-25A aircraft is uniquely modified to serve as an airborne command-and-control center for the president, staff, and guests with the same level of safety and security as the White House.

Other than the number of passengers it can carry, the main differences between the VC-25 and the standard Boeing 747 include more advanced electronic and communications equipment, a self-contained baggage loader, and the capability for in-flight refueling.

The VC-25 also has a rest area and mini-galley for the aircrew, six passenger lavatories, and a compartment with medical supplies and equipment for minor in-flight emergencies.

For shorter distance trips, especially to and from the White House, the president flies in Marine One, which includes military helicopters like the VH-3D Sea King and the VH-60N White Hawk.

In service for nearly five decades, both military helicopters are set to be phased out and fully replaced with modernized rotary-wing aircraft, the VH-92A.

The next-generation Marine One is designed to be a militarized variant of the Sikorsky VH-92 Patriot.

The presidential fleet also includes other fixed-wing aircraft besides the modified 747. The C-32A, a modified Boeing 757-200, is better suited for smaller airports or low-profile missions.

The C-40, based on the Boeing 737, can be used to fly the president but is more often used for Cabinet members or other VIP individuals.

Based on General Dynamics' Gulfstream long-range business jets, the C-37 is used to transport high-ranking government and Defense Department officials for worldwide missions.

The two planes currently being used as Air Force One have been in service for nearly four decades. They are set to be replaced by a modernized variant dubbed the "Next Air Force One."

Officially designated the VC-25B, the new presidential aircraft is set to feature "electrical power upgrades, a mission communication system, a medical facility, an executive interior, a self-defense system, and autonomous ground operations capabilities," according to an Air Force release.

The two future VC-25B jets were initially scheduled to be fielded in 2024, but supply chain issues and shifting requirements could postpone their delivery to 2029.

Facing pressure from the White House to have the new aircraft ready before Trump leaves office in January 2029, the Air Force and Boeing are aiming to have the new aircraft delivered by 2027, according to Darlene Costello, the Air Force's principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition, technology, and logistics.

An Air Force official told Air and Space Forces Magazine that the service is coordinating with the White House and Boeing "to further define the requirements and acceleration options while ensuring we provide a safe, secure, and reliable aircraft for the president."

Trump has previously expressed his frustration with receiving the next-generation Air Force One, suggesting earlier this year that he may seek "alternatives, because it's taking Boeing too long."

Despite the backlash, the president doubled down on his proposal to use the Qatari jet as Air Force One, saying he doesn't plan on using it after his term and would donate it to a future presidential library.

"I could be a stupid person and say, 'No, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane,'" Trump told reporters Monday.

Though free in cost, there's still a major cost to overhaul and retrofit the plane with the strict security requirements needed to serve as Air Force One.

"Along with the obvious ethical and legal issues, a $400M gifted luxury jet is not Air Force One," US Rep. Joe Courtney of Connecticut wrote on X. "Retrofitting a plane from Qatar would create huge costs & a security nightmare that would impede the work underway to deliver the actual AF1 by 2027."

Dating back to World War II, the term "elephant walk" referred to the taxiing of military aircraft en masse before taking off in single-file formations like a herd of elephants walking trunk-to-tail.

Elephant walks not only demonstrate operational airpower and readiness but also train military pilots in wartime operations that involve launching a large number of sorties in a short period of time.

Elephant walks typically involve a large number of aircraft, and the Kadena Air Base event on Okinawa was no exception — 53 Air Force and Navy aircraft, as well as two Army Patriot air defense batteries, participated in the runway display.

The elephant walk could be the largest to ever take place in Japan, nearly twice the size of last year's 33-aircraft display at the base, which featured F-22 Raptors and F-16 Fighting Falcons.

The Kadena elephant walk is among the largest ever by the US Air Force, outnumbering an elephant walk in 2020 at Hill Air Force Base in Utah that only featured F-35A Lightning II aircraft.

In April 2023, 80 aircraft were displayed in an elephant walk at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

At Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, a 70-aircraft demonstration consisted of only F-15E Strike Eagles, making it the largest single-type elephant walk.

Fighter jets made up more than half of the elephant walk, with 24 F-35As, eight F-15Es, and two Navy EA-18 Growlers.

Six HH-60 Pave Hawk rescue helicopters led the herd, along with two MQ-9 Reaper drones, which are used for surveillance and precision strikes.

Two MC-130J Commando II special operations cargo planes and six KC-135 Stratotanker refueling aircraft brought up the rear of the formation.

Three spy planes also made an appearance in the elephant walk — one E-3G Sentry radar surveillance aircraft, one RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft, and one P-8 Poseidon operated by the Navy for maritime patrol and reconnaissance.

The formation was flanked by two US Army MIM-104 Patriot missile interceptors, which have proven to be vital assets in the US' air defense strategy against Chinese missile threats.

The airpower demonstration on Okinawa was an iteration of Exercise Beverly Herd, an annual military exercise that prepares US and allied forces for combat in the Pacific.

Aside from the elephant walk, rescue and maintenance squadrons stationed at Kadena also practiced surveilling damage on an airfield, and Air Force civil engineers worked with Navy specialists to remove simulated unexploded ordnance from the runway.

At Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, about 11 miles from Kadena, F-35 fighter squadrons from Eielson Air Force Base are also training in warfighting concepts and maneuvers focused on Agile Combat Employment, which is designed to increase lethality and survivability in combat.

The military exercises come as China escalates its military presence in the Pacific over Taiwan, the self-governing island which Beijing claims as its own.

"An elephant walk like this sends a message you can't ignore," Chief Master Sgt. Brandon Wolfgang, 18th Wing command chief master sergeant, said in a statement. "It shows our Airmen, allies, and adversaries that we're united, capable, and ready."

China's rapid military build-up has been fueling tension with other US allies on the First Island Chain, which includes Japan and the Philippines. The latter nation also has ongoing territorial disputes with China, primarily in the South China Sea.

The Beverly Herd exercises were among a series of military drills the US and its allies are hosting in the Indo-Pacific theater to counter growing Chinese aggression in the region.

Earlier this month, the US and the Philippines held a joint exercise, Balikatan, at a strategic chokepoint south of Taiwan. China criticized the military drills, accusing the US and the Philippines of using Taiwan as an excuse to "provoke tension and confrontation."

"This kind of teamwork and presence is exactly how we maintain deterrence in the Indo-Pacific," Wolfgang said of the Kadena elephant walk.

Defense officials told NBC News that the parade and static displays could cost as much as $45 million, and the Army could end up largely bearing the brunt of the expenses. In some cases, it would cost individual units over $1 million to participate.

"Could the parade potentially impact training? Absolutely," one official said. "Will it impact training? That's unclear."

In a May 4 interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press," Trump said the high cost of the US military parade is "peanuts compared to the value of doing it."

"We have the greatest missiles in the world. We have the greatest submarines in the world. We have the greatest army tanks in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world," the president said. "And we're going to celebrate it."

However, the cost estimates could change as the White House and the Army finalize plans, a little over a month before the event is set to take place.

While the Army has been planning its anniversary celebration for over a year, the military parade was a recent addition to the festivities, which also includes military demonstrations, musical performances, a fitness competition, and a fireworks display.

The Army said it was "exploring options to make the celebration even bigger, with more capability demonstrations, additional displays of equipment, and more engagement with the community."

Planning documents showed that a Stryker battalion could be on display during the Army's anniversary celebration to commemorate the war on terrorism.

The Stryker combat vehicles are 20-ton vehicles with eight wheels designed for roads and off-roading.

The Army also plans to exhibit the M109 Paladin artillery vehicle in its anniversary celebration, though it isn't clear if it will be part of the parade or part of a static display.

The Paladin is a 155mm turreted self-propelled howitzer used by the US Army. Its 38-ton weight and tank treads could damage roads.

The parade could also include an infantry battalion with Bradley fighting vehicles and light mobility vehicles like Humvees and Infantry Squad Vehicles.

Highly maneuverable and formidable, the Bradley revolutionized mechanized infantry operations, not only primarily serving as troop transport across hostile territory but also allowed soldiers to fight from the armored vehicle.

The Bradleys were previously displayed on the National Mall in 2018 during Trump's "Salute to America" event — a toned-down version of his original request to parade American tanks through the streets of Washington.

But Trump's first-term goal of showcasing the Army's battle tanks could come to fruition this year, as plans detailed that a tank battalion with two companies of tanks could be part of this year's Flag Day festivities.

Army plans did not detail how many of each vehicle would be transported to DC for the parade, but 92 of the 152 vehicles are categorized as "heavy," which could include tanks or other tracked vehicles.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said in April that the White House reached out about holding the event, but she said she didn't know if it would be "characterized as a military parade."

Nonetheless, Bowser said that "if military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads."

Officials said that the plan for showcasing the tanks is not yet final, and they are taking into consideration how to minimize damage to streets and bridges.

The parade's finale will feature a parachute jump by the Golden Knights, the Army's demonstration and competition parachute team, according to planning documents obtained by USA Today.

Members of the Golden Knights are planning to land and present a "flag to the POTUS on behalf of the Army," per an event planning slide.

This isn't the first time Trump pushed the idea of hosting a military parade in Washington.

Inspired by the military parade on Bastille Day in France, the president said he wanted to host a similar militarized celebration to commemorate the centennial anniversary since the end of World War I in 2018.

However, the plan ended up being scrapped due to logistical issues and skyrocketing costs of about $92 million — up from initial estimates of $12 million.

Rather than acknowledging the military parade's large-scale scope and costs to repair potential damage to city infrastructure, Trump took to Twitter to blame local politicians for the event's cancellation.

"When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I canceled it," Trump wrote on social media at the time.

"Maybe we will do something next year in D.C. when the cost comes WAY DOWN. Now we can buy some more jet fighters!" he added, referring to Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II aircraft.

Bowser, who has been DC's mayor since 2015, responded to Trump's remarks, saying that she "finally got thru (sic) to the reality star in the White House with the realities ($21.6M) of parades/events/demonstrations in Trump America."

The NMESIS is a missile system mounted on an uncrewed 4-wheel truck developed as part of the Force Design initiative, a modernization plan to restructure the US Marine Corps for naval expeditionary warfare, particularly in the Indo-Pacific.

A standard NMESIS unit will include 18 launchers, and the Marines plan to field 14 such batteries by 2030 — three of which are planned to be stationed in the Pacific region.

The NMESIS is designed to fire the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), a long-range precision strike weapon designed to hit heavily defended surface ships and land targets.

Manufactured by Norwegian defense supplier Kongsberg Defence Systems in partnership with RTX, NSMs are highly survivable and maneuverable with a range of over 120 miles.

The subsonic, sea-skimming missiles, which cost nearly $2 million each, can accurately home in on a target without electronic interference, guided by an onboard infrared system, GPS, and terrain-based navigation.

In November, Kongsberg was awarded a $900 million military contract to supply NSMs to the Navy and Marines.

Carrying two ready-to-fire NSMs in its canisters, the NMESIS launcher is mounted on an uncrewed Joint Light Tactical Vehicle chassis known as ROGUE-Fires (Remotely Operated Ground Unit for Expeditionary Fires), which allow it to be controlled remotely or autonomously over difficult terrain.

"Marines can control the ROGUE-Fires with a game-like remote controller or command multiple launchers to autonomously follow behind a leader vehicle," according to a Marine Corps statement.

The three-week-long Balikatan exercises will focus on anti-ship, anti-air, and coastal defense drills simulating real-world combat, including missile defense, invasion deterrence, and live-fire and strike tests on a decommissioned vessel.

"The full battle test is intended to take into consideration all of the regional security challenges that we face today, beginning in the South China Sea," Lieutenant General James Glynn, the US director for the exercise, said during a media briefing.

Maj. Gen. Francisco Lorenzo, the Philippine director for Balikatan, said the drills were not intended to be a show of force against China but acknowledged that they could act as a deterrent against conflict in Taiwan.

"The Balikatan exercise may probably help deter the conflict in Taiwan," Lorenzo said in a statement. "But for our concern, it is only for deterrence of any possible coercion or invasion to our country."

During Exercise Balikatan, the NMESIS launchers will be airlifted from Northern Luzon to the Batanes Islands, where US and Philippine Marines will establish an expeditionary fires base.

Located about 120 miles from Taiwan's southern coast, the Batanes Islands are positioned near the Luzon Strait and the Bashi Channel, which connects the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, setting up a significant — albeit high-risk — anti-access strategy against China.

"The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access point to enter or exit the Pacific Ocean from the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait, and the deployment of NMESIS allows the US to assert control over that access," Ben Lewis, a cofounder of PLATracker, an organization that tracks Chinese military activity, told Naval News.

With the anti-ship missile's baseline range of over 100 nautical miles, any vessel transiting in waters from the southern tip of Taiwan to northern Luzon could be targeted by the NMESIS deployment to the Batanes chain.

The military also temporarily deployed the mid-range Typhon missile system to the Laoag Airfield in northern Luzon as part of Exercise Balikatan in April 2024. Instead of being removed, the Typhon systems were relocated last December and will remain stationed in the Philippines indefinitely.

Operated by the US Army, the Typhon Weapon System is capable of firing Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have a range of 1,000 miles, and SM-6 interceptor missiles, which can hit targets nearly 300 miles away.

In mid-April, China condemned the joint US-Philippine military drills, saying it "firmly opposes any country" using Taiwan as an "excuse" to strengthen its military posture in the region and "provoke tension and confrontation."

"The parties concerned are advised not to provoke on the Taiwan issue, and those who play with fire will burn themselves," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said during an April 21 briefing.

Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order giving the Department of Defense jurisdiction over the Roosevelt Reservation, a 60-foot-wide stretch of federal land that runs through New Mexico, Arizona, and California.

The Department of the Interior previously maintained the nearly 110,000-acre swath of federal land before the "emergency withdrawal and transfer of administrative jurisdiction" on April 15. The order excludes the jurisdiction of "Federal Indian Reservations."

The Army requested the jurisdiction transfer to increase patrols by federal personnel and implement security measures and infrastructure to "curb illegal cross-border activities," like illegal immigration and drug and human trafficking, according to a DOI statement.

The April 11 order outlines a phased rollout, starting by testing the implementation of a controlled perimeter in a "limited sector of federal lands" in New Mexico.

For the next 45 days, soldiers will detect and patrol routes and apprehend trespassers in the area. They will also construct temporary barriers and install signs to indicate the boundaries of the military zone.

Following the initial assessment and the Army's acceptance of jurisdiction, the federal land will become a "national defense area," granting the Pentagon the authority to establish and enforce security measures around it.

The 170-square-mile stretch of land will be considered an extension of Fort Huachuca in Arizona — despite not being physically connected to all of it — and remain under control by the Army for three years, according to the DOI press release.

"Our southern border is under attack from a variety of threats," Trump said in the memo. "The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past."

While under the Army's control, the militarized zone, known as the "New Mexico National Defense Area," will be governed and defended like any other military base, allowing US troops to search and temporarily detain trespassers before appropriate civilian or federal law enforcement officials take over.

Military personnel will also work alongside US Customs and Border Patrol agents at the southern border "to repel unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, and other cross-border criminal activities," per a Pentagon press release.

Though thousands of military personnel have already been deployed to the southern border, the Posse Comitatus Act bars active-duty troops and federalized National Guardsmen from acting as domestic law enforcement.

The US military could be authorized to enforce civil or criminal law on US soil through the Insurrection Act of 1807, which provides a statutory exception to the PCA in specific circumstances of civil disorder or armed rebellion. To enact it to stop migrants, however, would be an extraordinary use of the federal law.

Since Border Patrol agents and civilian law enforcement are only allowed to apprehend migrants, the vast majority of troops deployed to the border have been tasked with "enhanced detection and monitoring," Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of the US Northern Command, said.

Some personnel "operating in close proximity to the border" have been armed with rifles or pistols, Guillot said. Military officials have sought authorization for troops to shoot down suspected cartel drones surveilling the border.

Thousands of active-duty troops aren't the only military assets the Trump administration is using to ramp up its crackdown.

Two US Navy warships, several military aircraft, and over 100 combat vehicles have been deployed to support the Pentagon's southern border operation.

On April 1, Defense Department officials estimated the cost of militarization at the US-Mexico border since January 20 at roughly $376 million, or about $5.3 million per day.

Traditionally seen as a steward protecting public federal lands, the DOI emphasized the "environmental crisis" at the border — not caused by the accelerated military build-up or deferred mitigation efforts, but by the migrants themselves.

The department said "repeated foot traffic, unregulated vehicle use, and the creation of informal trails or camps" cause harm to "ecologically sensitive areas along the southern border."

"Securing our border and protecting our nation's resources go hand in hand," Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said during a visit to New Mexico. "This transfer reflects Interior's commitment to public safety, national security, and responsible stewardship of our public lands."

In mid-April, US Army 1st Lt. Gabrielle White and her teammate, Capt. Seth Deltenre, competed against more than 50 two-member teams to earn the Best Ranger title.

White graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2021. Upon completing Ranger School in April 2022, she earned her Ranger tab, an embroidered patch symbolizing the elite qualification.

The 25-year-old infantry officer was assigned to an Army leadership development program at the Maneuver Centre of Excellence, the Army's training hub for ground combat forces, at Fort Benning in Georgia, where the Best Ranger events are held.

The Best Ranger Competition was created "not just to see who is the toughest or the most physically fit," but also to "see who is mentally the strongest, the most determined to finish," according to Lt. Gen. David E. Grange Jr., a commanding general of Fort Benning and namesake of the event.

For nearly 62 continuous hours, Ranger-qualified soldiers work in teams of two to demonstrate tactical skills, complete difficult obstacle courses, and traverse dozens of miles on both land and water.

The competition events mirror real-world Ranger missions, from helocasting and fast-roping to positioning mortars and cutting through steel-reinforced frames.

Jeffrey Mellinger, a former sergeant major who served in the 75th Ranger Regiment, described the difficulty of the Best Ranger as the Ironman triathlon, the CrossFit Games, and several marathons — stacked back-to-back.

"There is not another competition anywhere in the world that comes close to the mental and physical exertion of this competition," he told The New York Times.

The Best Ranger Competition is so difficult that only a handful of competitors actually make it to the finish line.

White and Deltenre secured a 14th-place finish after 36 other duos were eliminated over the course of the competition.

In 2015, the Army allowed women to participate in its 62-day Ranger School course. Nearly two dozen female candidates attempted to complete the course, and in August 2015, then-Capt. Kristen Griest and then-1st Lt. Shaye Haver became the first women to graduate from one of the service's most elite programs.

Four months later, the Pentagon opened all military positions to women, including over 200,000 direct combat roles that were previously barred to them. Women make up about 16% of the Army's active-duty troops, according to the Pentagon's 2023 demographics report.

As of January 2025, 154 women have graduated from Ranger School.

White's groundbreaking finish in the Best Ranger Competition comes as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders a broader review of the requirements for combat roles.

In late March, Hegseth ordered a 60-day review of the military's physical fitness standards to distinguish combat roles from non-combat and implement higher requirements as needed.

"We need to have the same standard, male or female, in our combat roles," Hegseth, a former National Guard infantryman and Fox News host, said in a video posted to X. "Soon, we'll have nothing but the highest and equal standards for men and women in combat."

Hegseth had said during a podcast in November that he didn't believe women should be in combat roles at all, arguing that it "hasn't made us more effective, hasn't made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated."

However, ahead of his confirmation hearing, Hegseth appeared to soften his staunch opposition.

"If we have the right standard and women meet that standard, roger. Let's go," he said during a December interview on the "Megyn Kelly Show."

The Army is shifting to a new Army Fitness Test with gender-neutral scoring for troops in combat specialties.

Military occupations, like special operations and infantry, subject all candidates to higher physical, mental, and psychological standards, regardless of sex or age.

To become an Army Ranger specifically, the rigorous entry standards are identical, including the eligibility requirements and physical assessment.

Mellinger, who served on an advisory board that oversaw the opening of Ranger School to women, said no standards have been lowered to accommodate the integration. He said White still has to earn her Ranger tab "every day, like every other ranger, like every other soldier."

Kris Fuhr, a former Army captain who advocated for integrating women into Ranger School, described White competing for the Best Ranger title as "a three-day public display of what we've been saying for 10 years."

"This administration sometimes makes decisions based on misinformation and myths," she told The Times. "Military policy should not be based on either of those."

Mellinger, who attended this year's Best Ranger event, said, aside from "a bun on the back of a head," White was indistinguishable from the other male competitors until another spectator pointed her out.

"She had the skill and the physical ability to get it done," he said.

China's increasing military presence in the East and South China Sea — particularly in proximity to Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines — prompted the US to counter Beijing's influence in the Indo-Pacific.

As both nations vie for influence in the region, the US has been running joint military exercises with allied nations to ready their forces to operate together.

Beijing has also increased its naval and air operations in waters near Taiwan, leading US military officials to deem them not as "exercises, they are rehearsals" for a forced reunification of Taiwan with mainland China.

Taiwan has bolstered its defense measures ahead of a potential invasion from China, which claims that the self-governing democracy is part of its territory.

With numerous short-range ballistic missiles and international ballistic missiles at its disposal, China's nuclear arsenal poses as much of a threat to global adversaries as it does to its neighbors.

The Financial Times first reported the complex's construction in January, showing satellite images of the site spanning nearly 2.5 miles.

In February 2022, the site was built in an area north of the Chongqing Reservoir that appeared to be residential, with large tracts of open land, according to satellite imagery.

Satellite imagery taken in February 2023 showed the area largely cleared of residential buildings in preparation for major construction of the complex, which appeared to begin in mid-2024.

In June 2024, the construction site hardly resembled what it looked like a little over a year earlier, with new tunnels and roadways surrounding a central block of land potentially reserved for the main complex building.

There are no official mentions of the construction site on Chinese government websites, and the Chinese embassy said they were not aware of the details of the new command center.

While there hasn't been any visible military presence at the complex, access to the facility is strictly prohibited.

Signs show that drones and pictures are not allowed near the site, and a checkpoint has blocked off the back of the site. People have also been banned from using hiking trails near the site.

Brady Africk, the deputy director of Media Relations and Data Design at the American Enterprise Institute, posted a timelapse on X capturing the site's speedy build-up in just a year.

A former senior US intelligence official told the Financial Times that the new command center could replace China's existing military headquarters, which was built during the Cold War.

"The size, scale, and partially buried characteristics of the new facility suggest it will replace the Western Hills complex as the primary wartime command facility," the official said.

Aside from being the anticipated central hub of Chinese military operations, the former US official said the facility could also offer "greater security against US 'bunker buster' munitions" for Chinese officials in the event of war.

Renny Babiarz, a former imagery analyst at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, told the Financial Times that satellite images appeared to show about 100 cranes at the site constructing subterranean facilities and passageways.

With deep underground tunnels and spaces reinforced in concrete, a China researcher told the Financial Times that the complex had "all the hallmarks of a sensitive military facility."

"Nearly 10 times bigger than the Pentagon, it's fitting for Xi Jinping's ambitions to surpass the US," the researcher said. "This fortress only serves one purpose, which is to act as a doomsday bunker for China's increasingly sophisticated and capable military."

The new command center is the latest move that demonstrates China's advancing military ambitions. The Chinese People's Liberation Army set a goal to modernize the country's military by 2027.

As of mid-2024, the Pentagon estimated that China's Rocket Force likely had more than 600 operational nuclear warheads, and the figure is only expected to grow. Defense officials estimate China's nuclear arsenal could have as many as 1,500 deployed nuclear warheads by 2035 — roughly matching those of the US.

Senior producer Olivia Nemec and associate producer Erica Star Domena contributed to this report.

The Legend-class National Security Cutter James led the 112-day patrol and returned to its homeport in North Charleston, North Carolina, on April 14. The 418-foot vessel is one of the Coast Guard's most advanced ships, equipped with advanced radar, a 57mm deck gun, and a close-in weapons system.

With a 50-by-80-foot flight deck and aircraft hangar, National Security Cutters like the James are used for missions like drug interdiction, search and rescue, and maritime law enforcement.

USCGC James is built for long-range patrols in both domestic and international waters, making it a frontline asset in intercepting go-fast boats and narco-subs, seizing illegal narcotics, and detaining suspected smugglers.

Crews aboard the Legend-class cutter Stone and the Famous-class cutter Mohawk also assisted in some of the interdictions earlier this year, as well as a fleet of helicopters and aerial drones for airborne surveillance at sea.

The Coast Guard ran 11 interdictions over two months, detaining 34 suspected drug smugglers and seizing over 48,000 pounds of cocaine and marijuana from go-fast vessels off the coast of Peru, Ecuador, and the Galapagos Islands.

Helicopters embarked on the Stone and the James intercepted multiple suspected drug-smuggling boats. The boarding team on the James used aerial drones to detect several boats, resulting in the seizure of nearly 5.5 tons of cocaine from late January to early February.

On January 18, a go-fast vessel about 185 miles off the coast of Ecuador jettisoned the drug bales into the water in an attempt to flee law enforcement. Cutter James chased the boat for 60 miles while the crew aboard the Mohawk collected the floating narcotics, recovering nearly 6,000 pounds of cocaine in the bust.

In the most "remarkable" drug bust of the patrol, maritime law enforcement intercepted six go-fast boats and one narco-sub off the coast of Ecuador in just 72 hours. Capt. Thomas Rodzewicz, commanding officer of James, said in a statement the operation culminated in the "extraordinary seizure of over 24,000 pounds of cocaine and 15 suspected narco-traffickers."

From January 5 to January 7, maritime patrol aircraft and drones spotted the suspicious vessels and intercepted them with the help of the Coast Guard's Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron (HITRON) aircrew.

The boarding crew apprehended three suspects and seized over 8,000 pounds of cocaine aboard the so-called "narco-submarine." The operation was part of a broader mission in which the Coast Guard interdicted several other vessels in just 72 hours.

Narco-subs are semi-submersible boats designed to evade radar and aerial searches in the vastness of the eastern Pacific. They carry most of their illicit cargo below the vessel's waterline.

After maritime patrol aircraft spotted a low-profile go-fast vessel about 330 miles off the coast of the Galapagos Islands on January 7, the James' embarked helicopter aircrew disabled the "non-compliant" vessel to stop.

"We delivered a substantial blow to narco-terrorism organizations, sending those attempting to bring drugs to our border to face federal prosecution, halting the profits criminals use to fuel the fentanyl trade, and most importantly, preventing deadly contraband from reaching American communities and families," Rodzewicz said.

After documenting the drug-smuggling vessels for evidence, the boats are declared "stateless" and destroyed under international maritime law.

The Coast Guard strips the boat of illegal narcotics and any environmentally hazardous materials and scuttles the vessel using controlled charges or gunfire from cutter-mounted weapons or helicopters.

The seized narcotics are securely stored aboard a US vessel before being offloaded at a port and handed over to federal authorities, who weigh, test, and document the drugs as evidence.

The Drug Enforcement Agency handles the destruction of the narcotics once they are no longer needed in legal proceedings.

Nearly three dozen suspects were apprehended and transferred ashore for federal prosecution. Eleven people have been indicted so far.

Investigators have linked the suspected drug traffickers to cartel networks in Mexico and Colombia — Clan del Golfo, Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, and Sinaloa Cartel, one of the most powerful and well-known criminal groups in Mexico once led by Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.

The US designated the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación as foreign terrorist organizations. President Donald Trump has made stemming the flow of opioids into the US a top priority.

"This administration has labeled them foreign terrorist organizations because that's what they are," FBI Director Kash Patel said during a press conference last Wednesday.

Traditionally used for groups like ISIS or Al Qaeda that use attacks against civilians to pursue political goals, the FTO designation allows US authorities to employ counterterrorism tools, such as freezing assets, imposing sanctions, and other criminal penalties.

However, critics argued that such a designation on the cartels could strain US-Mexico relations and militarize what is largely a law enforcement issue, potentially affecting migrants and asylum seekers with only tangential cartel links or who were coerced or unknowingly connected to the crime groups.

The Trump administration has already implemented several aggressive measures to combat drug trafficking, including imposing tariffs to pressure neighboring countries to take stronger actions and deploying US military assets to the southern US border.

Shortly after midnight on April 8, Kim launched aboard a Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky.

A little over three hours later, the trio docked at the orbital laboratory around 5 a.m. the same day, boarding the ISS two hours later to join the Expedition 72/73 crew.

A video taken aboard the ISS captured the moment Kim was welcomed aboard the space station.

For the next eight months, the NASA flight engineer will assist in scientific research intended to benefit future space missions and people on Earth.

Kim's research includes observing the flammability of certain materials in microgravity and testing new space-related technologies.

Becoming an astronaut is a popular career aspiration for children, but Kim said he didn't have a dream job until he turned 16 and was drawn to serving in the Navy.

"As a kid, I did not have really any dreams until I was 16 years old, and I heard about Naval Special Warfare and the kinds of things that Naval Special Warfare operators do," Kim said in an interview with the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Emergency Medicine.

"That was really the first time, when I was 16, that I actually had a vision and a dream and felt that I was called to do something," he continued. "I never once thought I could be a physician, or an astronaut, or anything else."

When Kim, a Korean-American born to immigrant parents, told his mother about his decision to enlist, he said she tearfully urged him to reconsider.

"My mother, with tears in her eyes, [said], 'It's not too late; you can come home, and we'll do this family business,'" Kim told Business Insider in 2020. "And for a fleeting moment, I considered it."

But Kim said, "There wasn't anyone or anything to talk me out of it. It was the first time I set my sights on a dream."

After graduating from high school in 2002, Kim enlisted as a seaman recruit in the Navy, later completed Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) training, and was assigned to SEAL Team 3.

As a Special Warfare Operator, Kim participated in more than 100 combat missions as a combat medic, navigator, sniper, and point man, receiving the Bronze Star, Silver Star, and other service awards.

The decorated Navy SEAL said serving in the military was "a very growing experience" that helped him find his identity, build confidence, and "see challenges for what they are and be able to draw off the strength to overcome."

"Going into the Navy was the best decision I ever made in my life because it completely transformed that scared boy who didn't have any dreams to someone who started to believe in himself," Kim said in a Q&A published by the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Kim's combat experiences — particularly when he provided medical aid to his injured teammates and observed other medical doctors saving "lives and limbs" — are what led him to become an emergency medicine physician after serving in the Iraq War.

In his mid- to late 20s, Kim earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of San Diego and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He then completed a Harvard-affiliated internship in emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

While in medical school, Kim said physician-astronaut Scott Parazynski "opened up my eyes to NASA and its mission," which resonated with him much like Naval Special Warfare did a decade earlier.

"It really struck a chord with me, of going to the unknown of space and overcoming these impossible challenges, with technology we had not yet developed," Kim said in the medical journal interview.

Kim added that he was especially drawn to the idea that he "would have a chance to inspire young children who may be in tough situations as kids."

Kim was among a record number of people who applied to become astronauts in 2016. The rigorous application process included a range of mental and medical tests, including ECGs, blood draws, a chest radiograph, and a multiple-choice personality and behavioral test.

While Kim said he couldn't go into the specifics of the interview process, he said one of the rounds of interviews included team-oriented games and evaluations with behavioral specialists to see "how you react to stress and interactions with your team members, all of whom I had never met before."

While he was shopping at the grocery store the following year, Kim said he got a call from NASA that he would be one of 12 new astronaut candidates selected from a pool of over 18,300 applicants.

Kim said he "just couldn't foresee" getting selected among "so many amazing people who apply for this job." Most applicants don't get in on their first application, which he said initially made him feel "survivorship guilt" upon hearing the decision until he thought back to his time in the Navy.

"We have a saying in the [SEAL] teams — it's 'earn your Trident every day,'" Kim told Business Insider in 2020, referring to the insignia that Navy SEALs wear after earning their special warfare certification. "What that means is that you have to earn your right to be where you are every single day."

"I take that to heart when I think of this job," he said.

After joining the new class of astronaut candidates in 2017, Kim embarked on a two-year-long training program, in which he learned how to operate on-board systems and robotics on ISS simulators, received physiological and expeditionary training, and practiced space walk procedures in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab in Johnson Space Center in Houston.

He also trained in field geology and water and wilderness survival, became proficient in Russian, and even completed a solo flight as a pilot on a Navy T-6 trainer aircraft.

In 2020, Kim graduated from astronaut boot camp and supported ISS expeditions before serving on his first space mission aboard the space station this year. But it likely won't be Kim's last time in space — he was also selected as an astronaut on NASA's Artemis moon-landing missions.

He said he credits his success as a NASA astronaut to "an extraordinary team of dedicated individuals who truly care."

"It's not the rockets, planes, satellites, or science that define this agency," Kim wrote in a post on X a day before launching to the ISS, "it's the remarkable individuals who bring it all to life — always has been, and always will be."

On April 1, Defense Department officials said the militarization at the US-Mexico border had cost roughly $376 million since Trump returned to the White House on January 20, or about $5.3 million per day.

After making illegal immigration a major campaign issue, with Trump criticizing Biden's border policies, the Trump White House has touted plummeting numbers of illicit border crossings. US Customs and Border Patrol reported that March saw the lowest number of attempted crossings in decades.

Illegal immigration was already on the decline prior to the start of Trump's second term, but the president is taking things further. He's got numerous military assets at the border. Here's what the administration has deployed.

During a House Armed Services Committee hearing on April 1, Pentagon officials said 6,700 active-duty troops had been deployed to the US-Mexico border, in addition to about 2,500 National Guardsmen that were already stationed there.

Only Border Patrol agents or civilian law enforcement can actually apprehend migrants, leaving a large majority of the troops tasked with "detection and monitoring," Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of the US Northern Command, said.

Active-duty forces are limited in their actions on US soil.

The general said that deployed military personnel "operating in close proximity to the border" are armed with rifles or pistols, and military officials are seeking authorization for troops to shoot down suspected cartel drones surveilling the border.

Two Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers — USS Gravely and USS Spruance — have also been deployed to help "restore territorial integrity at the US southern border," officials said in two statements in March.

"Gravely's sea-going capacity improves our ability to protect the United States' territorial integrity, sovereignty, and security," Guillot said. The destroyer departed Yorktown, Virginia, in mid-March to waters off the Texas coast to support the border mission and counter maritime weapons and drug crime in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Gravely played a key role in Red Sea combat prior to this deployment. In December 2023, USS Gravely shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles and was involved in sinking three Houthi small boats, marking the first time the US Navy killed Houthi fighters since the Red Sea conflict began.

A second Navy destroyer, USS Spruance, which also saw combat in the Red Sea, left its homeport in San Diego last month to patrol waters off the West Coast as part of the border operation.

Guillot said that the warship "brings additional capability and expands the geography of unique military capabilities working with the Department of Homeland Security."

"With Spruance off the West Coast and USS Gravely in the Gulf of America, our maritime presence contributes to the all-domain, coordinated DOD response to the Presidential Executive Order and demonstrates our resolve to achieve operational control of the border," the general added.

The warships have been conducting operations alongside the Coast Guard.

Migrant deportations are typically carried out using civilian charter flights operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Trump administration supplemented the deportation effort by using military cargo aircraft, like the C-17 Globemaster and C-130 Hercules, to transport migrants to Guatemala, Ecuador, Honduras, Panama, Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, and even India.

But the military aircraft, which are designed to transport both troops and cargo, come with a steep operational price tag. It costs about $28,000 per flight for one deportation on a C-17, whereas civilian flights cost an estimated $8,500.

Following backlash from Democratic lawmakers, the Trump administration halted military deportation flights in early March.

Though there are no further flights scheduled, Air Force Gen. Randall Reed told the Senate Armed Services Committee in March that his command is prepared to carry them out should the order be reversed.

"If I get the task, I'll absolutely fly it," Reed said.

The big cargo planes aren't the only military aircraft being used at the southern US border. Spy planes and drones have been conducting regular intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance flights.

Reconnaissance aircraft like the U-2 "Dragon Lady" and Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint have been used for ISR missions above Mexico. The Navy has also reportedly used Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime reconnaissance aircraft to conduct maritime patrol and surveillance along the US-Mexico border.

Additionally, there have been reports of MQ-9 Reaper drones conducting flights as well. The Reaper is an uncrewed surveillance and combat asset.

The Trump administration also directed Pentagon intelligence agencies to direct satellite surveillance to the southern border region, Reuters reported last month.

Border patrol agents typically drive SUVs, sedans, and pick-up trucks donning a green-and-white paint scheme to traverse the rugged terrain at the border.

But as more active-duty troops are deployed to the region, armored tactical vehicles have become a regular sight in an apparent intimidation tactic.

"This sends a clear and unequivocal message to the criminal organizations operating on either side of the border that we will not tolerate illegal incursions or illicit activities along our border," Border Patrol spokesman Claudio Herrera-Baeza said.

He added that "these vehicles have incredible detection technology that the Border Patrol will incorporate into its mission of safeguarding our borders."

The US Army sent over 100 Stryker armored fighting vehicles, along with hundreds of soldiers, to an installation near the border between Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas. Black Hawk helicopters and Chinooks for support aviation were also deployed.

Typically deployed to warzones, the 20-ton eight-wheeled Stryker combat vehicles can be armed with a machine gun or grenade launcher and carry up to 11 troops. They can also reach speeds of up to 60 mph and have a range of 300 miles.

"That's really what we're doing with the Stryker out here," Lt. Col. Travis Stellfox told Scripps News. "It provides us great mobility to get soldiers where they need to be to observe on the border."

There is always the possibility more military assets could be deployed. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said previously that "whatever is needed at the border will be provided."

US Army and Lithuanian armed forces, as well as authorities, located the missing armored recovery vehicle the next day submerged in a bog under nearly 20 feet of water and thick layers of mud, clay, and sediment. These bogs sometimes run deep, but the depth can be easy to misjudge.

Hundreds of rescue personnel took part in the "highly complex" recovery operation, including a specialized US Navy dive crew able to navigate the murky waters.

More than 30 tons of gravel and a large-capacity pump were used to help drain the swamp-like terrain, which could not support the weight of heavy equipment like excavators and cranes needed to tow the 70-ton vehicle to the surface.

"Not only are we dealing with the terrain, a lot of mud that is over top of the vehicle, but also the fact that it's 70 tons that we're trying to recover out of a swamp or bog," Brig. Gen. John Lloyd, commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers North Atlantic Division, explained in a statement.

So what is the M88 that sank? The M88 recovery vehicle has been a vital asset to the US military since the Vietnam War.

The recovery vehicle's primary role is to tow, extricate, and repair damaged or immobilized tanks and fighting vehicles while under fire. It can also lift and repair damaged turrets and other heavy artillery and clear obstacles during operations on complex terrain, like the peat bog where the American soldiers were found.

After the first M88 was introduced in the early 1960s, the vehicle underwent several upgrades, including a new diesel engine, improved armor, and stronger lifting capabilities.

Introduced in 1997, the third variant, the M88A2 Hercules, is one of the largest armored recovery vehicles used by the US military.

The Hercules was designed with a stronger hoist and increased winching power, allowing it to recover heavier combat vehicles up to 70 tons, like the powerful US-made M1 Abrams tank, which was too heavy for previous M88 models to tow effectively.

Designated as a "heavy recovery vehicle," the new Hercules weighs a whopping 70 tons — about 14 tons heavier than the M88 and M88A1, which were considered "medium recovery vehicles."

The Hercules' steel hull was designed to protect personnel from mines, artillery fragments, and small arms fire. The armored recovery vehicle is also equipped with mounted 12.7 mm heavy machine guns with 1,300 rounds.

Powered by a twin-turbo diesel engine with 1,050 horsepower, the M88A2 can reach speeds of up to 30 mph on varied terrain and on uneven surfaces. Like a tank, it has a tracked chassis.

Global defense company BAE Systems manufactures the M88A2 Hercules, which stands for Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift and Evacuation System.

BAE Systems is also developing the fourth M88 variant, the M88A3 Hercules, intended to eliminate the need for two M88A2 vehicles when recovering heavier modern Abrams tanks.

With upgraded powertrain and suspension units, the modernized heavy recovery vehicle features improved cross-country mobility and maneuverability, as well as an increased towing capacity of up to 80 tons. Last year, the Army began testing the new M88A3's capabilities at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

Amid rising tensions with a belligerent Russia, the US delivered M88s to NATO allies in Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states and Poland, to support real-world operations and joint exercises.

The US soldiers who died during the recent training exercise were stationed in Lithuania as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which is a US contingency operation that's aimed at deterring Russian aggression by strengthening NATO forces in the region.

The training area where the four soldiers went missing is located roughly six miles west of the border with Belarus, a close Russian ally.

While Abrams tanks, Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and Stryker armored vehicles significantly bolster Ukraine's ground forces, one US Army workhorse ensures these armored vehicles and heavy assets stay combat-ready: the M88 armored recovery vehicle.

In October 2022, the US sent eight M88s to Ukraine as part of its military aid package, and in February 2023, the Biden administration sent an additional six unspecified tactical recovery vehicles.

The recovery vehicles play a key role in maintaining Ukraine's mechanized force. They allowed Ukrainian troops to quickly retrieve and repair damaged assets and equipment from the battlefield, making ARVs "high-value targets" for Russian forces, according to UK defense officials.

The M88s were also involved in US-led operations in the Middle East, including Operation Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, and Enduring Freedom.

The ARVs recovered Abrams and Bradleys, often navigating harsh desert conditions and rugged, mountainous terrain in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

One M88A2, now on display at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia, was notably used to topple the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad in 2003.

The US government invests billions in building Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities, or SCIFs (pronounced "skiff")— highly secure rooms designed to safeguard sensitive discussions and operations from hacking and foreign surveillance.

US military and intelligence officials use these SCIFs to have classified conversations about military strategy, intelligence gathering, and diplomatic negotiations.

These facilities can be used to discuss any level of classified material, but they are specifically for Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI).

SCIFs can vary in size from a small room to an entire building, and the average cost per square foot for one of these rooms ranges between $350 and $1,000.

Federal agencies like the CIA and NSA, as well as some US embassies and government offices, have SCIFs within their buildings.

The US Capitol has a SCIF where congressional committees can host closed meetings or hearings. The SCIF in the White House — commonly referred to as the Situation Room — is one of the most well-known examples of a secure room. It's where the president and senior staff are often photographed monitoring significant international crises or coordinating US military operations overseas.

SCIFs are also constructed at some US military bases, either in permanent installations or within temporary facilities like shipping containers or tents.

Hotel rooms and temporary accommodations for the president and other high-ranking government officials can often become SCIFs so they can participate in classified conversations at a moment's notice. In 2017, President Donald Trump and his security team set up a makeshift situation room at his Mar-a-Lago resort to monitor the US strikes on Syria.

Some Cabinet-level members even have rooms in their homes converted into SCIFs equipped with essential government-approved teleconference equipment.

US intelligence agencies have strict requirements for maintaining the airtight security expected from SCIFs, including restricting the construction of the secure rooms to American companies.

Some SCIFs only allow personnel with proper security clearances to enter, restricting unauthorized access with security measures such as armed guards, biometric access, and 24/7 surveillance. Documents and other information remain confined inside the secure walls of the facility.

Inside a SCIF, phones, laptops, smartwatches, and other communication devices are prohibited. People new to a SCIF often mistakenly bring their personal devices in and have to be instructed to step back out and put them in a locker or other storage option.

The reinforced walls of a SCIF are typically soundproofed to prevent outside physical eavesdropping and covered in signal-shielding materials designed to control and block electronic eavesdropping.

Military officials are required to use government-approved compartmentalized environments like SCIFs for the highly sensitive information they handle.

SCIFs enforce strict "need-to-know" protocols, reducing the risk of unauthorized access, unlike chat apps where users can accidentally be added or hackers can force their way inside.

While Signal features the same kind of end-to-end encryption used by the US government, it can still be compromised. The app's popularity among troops and government officials makes it a prime target for hacking groups, prompting the Pentagon to issue an advisory on the vulnerabilities of the digital platform just days before The Atlantic published its initial bombshell report.

"It was a chilling thing to realize that I've inadvertently discovered a massive security breach in the national security system of the United States," Goldberg told NPR in the aftermath.

President Donald Trump downplayed the serious national security breach as a "glitch" and said that no classified information was discussed in the chat, which was called "Houthi PC small group," PC standing for "principals committee."

Hegseth doubled down on that particular point, arguing that "nobody was texting war plans" in the Signal chat. Michael Waltz, Trump's national security advisor who added Goldberg to the group, took "full responsibility" for the "embarrassing" security breach.

"There's a difference between inadvertent release versus careless and sloppy, malicious leaks of classified information," Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified during a congressional hearing.

In response to these characterizations of the chat, The Atlantic later released the messages almost completely unredacted to allow people "to reach their own conclusions" about the significance of the content.

The group chat included details like types of weapons to be used and expected times of impact, as well as strategic discussions over the duration of the operation.

"There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisors included in nonsecure communications channels," The Atlantic wrote in the follow-up report, "especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared."

Trump first expressed interest in buying Greenland, the world's largest island and an autonomous Danish territory, during his first presidency. In addition to being rich in natural resources, Greenland's Arctic location is well-placed to further US interests by countering China and Russia.

Since his reelection, Trump has repeatedly conveyed his desire to acquire Greenland and said he would not rule out the use of military force to take it.

"We need Greenland for national security. One way or the other we're going to get it," he said in his joint address to Congress in March.

Both Denmark and Greenland's leaders have maintained that the island is not for sale.

Second lady Usha Vance was originally scheduled to visit Greenland on a solo trip from Thursday through Saturday to "visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage, and attend the Avannaata Qimussersua, Greenland's national dogsled race," the White House said.

Instead, the trip has been scaled back. The vice president and second lady are scheduled to visit Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, the US military's northernmost installation, on Friday.

Usha Vance's solo trip could have violated diplomatic protocol by sending a delegation to another country without an invitation. The amended plan — visiting a US base — avoids that potential violation. While Trump said on Monday that "people from Greenland are asking us to go there," the government of Greenland said they had not invited any foreign delegations to visit.

"Just for the record, Naalakkersuisut, the government of Greenland, has not extended any invitations for any visits, neither private nor official," the government's official Facebook page wrote in a post on Monday.

Greenland Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede also called Usha Vance's planned trip "very aggressive" in an interview with Sermitsiaq, a Greenlandic newspaper.

"Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance are proud to visit the Pituffik Space Base in Greenland this Friday," Taylor Van Kirk, JD Vance's press secretary, told Business Insider on Thursday. "As the vice president has said, previous US leaders have neglected Arctic security, while Greenland's Danish rulers have neglected their security obligations to the island. The security of Greenland is critical in ensuring the security of the rest of the world, and the Vice President looks forward to learning more about the island."

While the US doesn't own Greenland, it has had a military presence there since World War II.

Pituffik Space Base, originally named Thule Air Base, was formally established in 1951 as part of a Cold War-era defense treaty between the US and Denmark. It is located in Pituffik, Greenland, 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle and halfway between New York and Moscow.

As a Danish territory, Greenland does not have a military of its own.

As the Pentagon's northernmost military base, Pituffik Space Base acts as a key Arctic defense outpost. Because of its location on the "top of the world," it is an optimal vantage point for monitoring missile launches by US adversaries like Russia and establishing space superiority.

The base is the site of a phased-array radar, which can detect sea-launched and intercontinental ballistic missiles, and a surface-to-air missile system, which intercepts hostile threats.

The base has a Satellite Command and Control system to maintain real-time communications and data relay with military and intelligence satellites. Its high-altitude location also allows it to more frequently track polar-orbit satellites, which can monitor the entire Earth's surface over time as the planet rotates below them.

Because Pituffik's primary mission is space surveillance and missile warning, the space base doesn't house a permanently stationed fighter wing or naval fleet.

Instead, it acts as a strategic logistics and defense hub for Arctic missions and under-ice operations. From the site, which is the world's northernmost deep-water seaport, surface vessels and submarines operated by the US Navy and allied forces conduct Arctic patrols and cold-weather training exercises.

Aircraft regularly fly in and out of the former air base, such as military cargo and refueling planes and maritime patrol aircraft. Occasionally, fighter jets and long-range bombers will fly to the base for Arctic deterrence deployments and training flights.

While it doesn't have a permanent combat force, the Air Force does have one tugboat at Pituffik to support port operations, icebreaking, and maneuvering ships.

A small but significant asset, the Rising Star helps keep supply routes open by breaking up and pushing floating ice. The tugboat guides supply ships through the port, making it a critical component in bringing fuel, food, and equipment to personnel year-round.

However, since the base is locked in by ice for nine months of the year, the Rising Star gets limited use because it can only be operated when the port is completely ice-free.

Pituffik Space Base is surrounded by ice for nine months out of every year. The closest town, the Inuit village of Qaanaaq, is located 65 miles away.

Temperatures can range from 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, when there are 24 hours of daylight, to -50 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter, when there is no sunlight for weeks.

Winter storms are categorized into five levels from least to most severe: Normal, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta. At the Bravo level, the buddy system is implemented so that no one walks outside alone. Non-essential facilities close at the Charlie level, and personnel must shelter in place during Delta storms.

About 150 personnel are stationed at Pituffik.

The Dundas Buffet Dining Hall on base serves three meals a day with payments accepted through a meal card.

The Base Exchange, also known as "BX," sells groceries, toiletries, souvenirs, and other assorted goods. It also houses a barber shop.

There are no ATMs at Pituffik Space Base, but the Base Exchange accepts debit and credit cards as well as US dollars.

Pituffik Space Base features a bowling alley, a chapel, and a community center with a theater and craft room.

There's also a gymnasium and workout room stocked with weights and treadmills.

Pituffik Space Base's official Facebook page shows personnel participating in recreational events such as a Hawaiian-themed Arctic luau party, Greenlandic Heritage Week, and cross-country skiing.

The US built airbases and weather stations across the ice sheet during World War II as refueling stops on transatlantic flights and supply routes.

Two decommissioned airbases are now being used as civilian airports, and a third was abandoned after the war ended.

During the Cold War, the US Air Force also built four stations on Greenland's coasts as part of a larger communication network of more than 60 radar installations to detect Soviet bombers. Most of the stations have since been deactivated, left to deteriorate atop Greenland's ice sheet.

Late last year, NASA scientists detected an underground base for a top-secret Cold War-era missile operation known as Camp Century. Now buried 100 feet under the ice, the abandoned network of subterranean tunnels once operated under the guise of an Arctic research facility before the US government declassified it in 1995.

But the abandoned military sites represent more than just relics of past global conflicts. Thousands of gallons of biological, chemical, and radioactive waste left behind on the bases pose a significant environmental threat, especially as the planet warms.

The US military failed to clean up decommissioned facilities like Camp Century, assuming the ice sheet would entomb the waste and infrastructure over the years.

However, at the current melting rate of the Arctic, researchers estimate that the waste could resurface around 2100. The question remains as to who is responsible for cleaning up the waste from abandoned US military facilities scattered throughout Greenland.

The US has long pursued access to or control over Greenland due to its strategic and economic significance, dating back as early as the late 19th century.

Since his return to the White House, Trump has continued to double down on his ambitions to secure the self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, saying he won't rule out military force or economic coercion to do so.

Though the Danish government has remained steadfast in refusing the sale, Trump's so-called "real estate deal" has spotlighted Greenland's growing desire for independence from Denmark and disinterest in being owned by anybody, including the US.

"Greenland is for the Greenlandic people," Greenland Prime Minister Egede said at a January news conference. "We do not want to be Danish. We do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic."

Construction began in 1959 on the $8 million remote facility, located about 150 miles away from Thule Air Base, a key Arctic defense outpost and the US' northernmost active military base; it is now named Pituffik Space Base.

Named Camp Century because it was initially intended to be located 100 miles from the Greenland ice cap, the site was plagued by harsh winter conditions, including winds as high as 125 miles per hour and temperatures as low as -70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Members of the US Army Corps of Engineers transported 6,000 tons of supplies and materials to the site to dig nearly two dozen underground tunnels covered by steel arches and a layer of snow, completing the subterranean base in late 1960.

Camp Century's largest trench, known as "Main Street," was about 26 feet wide and stretched over 1,000 feet. The sprawling underground complex housed as many as 200 personnel underground.

Engineers drilled a well in the camp to access 10,000 gallons of fresh water daily, and insulated, heated piping ran throughout the facility for water and electricity.

The base also featured a kitchen and cafeteria, medical clinic, laundry area, communications center, and dormitories. The facility also featured a recreation hall, chapel, and barbershop.

Camp Century was powered by a 400-ton portable nuclear reactor, the first of its kind. Due to the subfreezing temperatures making the metal very brittle, transporting the PM-2 reactor had to be handled with extreme care during installation.

Soldiers maintained the medium-power reactor daily by cutting back snow and ice with chainsaws to protect it from damage. The PM-2 reactor operated for nearly three years before it was deactivated and removed from the facility.

"Think of all the energy and resources it took to do this, to build those tunnels and put soldiers down there. It's almost science fiction," Paul Bierman, a geoscientist who studied soil samples from the site, told National Geographic. "No one would dream of doing that today."

The US publicly presented Camp Century as a scientific research facility, where researchers and engineers were tasked with analyzing ice cap conditions, glacial movement, and cold-weather survival.

However, the scientific objective of the facility was a cover for a top-secret US operation, known as "Project Iceworm," to store and deploy hundreds of nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.

The initiative remained covert to circumvent Denmark's strict nuclear-free policy following WWII while taking advantage of Greenland's proximity to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Project Iceworm sought to expand the existing facility by an additional 52,000 square miles — three times the size of Denmark — to house 60 launch control centers. The facility would have stored up to 600 "Iceman" missiles, modified two-stage intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of 3,300 miles.

Aside from its strategic location less than 3,000 miles away from Moscow, Project Iceworm was also seen as a potential way to secure alliances and share nuclear weapons with other NATO countries, particularly France, which wanted to be part of the nuclear partnership between the US and the UK.

However, the military operation faced significant challenges, including overcoming bureaucratic hurdles, modifying the Iceman missile to endure extremely cold conditions, and even just continuing underground operations as the Greenland ice sheet became increasingly unstable.

The Army decided not to risk the loss of hundreds of missiles if the facility collapsed, eventually canceling Project Iceworm just three years after Camp Century was built.

The facility continued to operate at a limited capacity before it was abandoned in 1967.

While missiles were never transported to Camp Century, researchers found some success in their studies of ice cores collected at the site and deep soil analysis.

The research ultimately contributed to the development of climate models, according to Bierman, who is a professor at the University of Vermont. Ancient soil samples collected at Camp Century were composed of leaves, mosses, twigs, and insects that offered Bierman and his team into how the climate crisis could impact the Arctic over the next century.

"It takes you from 1966 to global climate change and onward to the effects of Greenland's melting," Bierman said. "That's pretty profound."

"There are things we can learn about ice sheets that we can never learn from the ice itself," he added. "It comes from the stuff below the ice."

After the camp was decommissioned in 1967, the US military failed to remove the facility's waste and infrastructure, assuming that it would eventually be entombed in Greenland's ice sheet over the subsequent decades.

Though Camp Century now resides under nearly 100 feet of snow and ice, researchers took inventory of what was left behind and found nearly 136 acres of waste — about the size of 100 football fields. A 2016 study found that more than 50,000 gallons of diesel fuel, 63,000 gallons of sewage and radioactive coolant, thousands of gallons of wastewater, and an unknown amount of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) remained buried at the abandoned facility.

At the current melting rate of the Arctic, researchers estimate that the waste could resurface around 2100, releasing pollutants that pose a major threat to surrounding ecosystems and human health.

"Two generations ago, people were interring waste in different areas of the world, and now climate change is modifying those sites," William Colgan, a climate and glacier scientist at York University and lead author of the study, said in a 2016 statement.

"Once the site transitions from net snowfall to net melt, it's only a matter of time before the wastes melt out; it becomes irreversible," he continued.

As the threat of biological, chemical, and radioactive waste looms, the question remains as to who is responsible for cleaning up the waste, from Camp Century and other abandoned US military facilities scattered throughout Greenland.

In 2018, Greenland and Denmark signed an agreement allocating 180 million Danish kroner — about $29 million — over six years to clean up some of the US military bases. In 2021, the cleanup efforts were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The US hasn't formally taken responsibility to clean up its abandoned facilities. If Trump were to carry through on acquiring Greenland, the world's largest island that is believed to be suffuse with valuable rare earth minerals, the US would contend directly with this looming environmental disaster.

Colgan told Politico there haven't been any attempts to clean up Camp Century so far amid fears of disturbing the radioactive site too much.

"There is actually a conscious effort not to drill into the debris field," he said. "We don't actually know the full nature of what's down there."

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that Boeing was selected to develop the future combat aircraft, which will be designated the F-47.

The designation is a deviation from typical naming conventions because it was previously used for the World War II-era fighter, the P-47.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin said the designation is a nod to the P-47 escort fighter of World War II, as well as the Air Force's founding year in 1947 and the "pivotal" support of the 47th US President Donald Trump in developing the aircraft.

Winning the $20 billion NGAD contract will serve as a much-needed boost not only to its waning defense unit but also to recoup losses from the KC-46 tanker and new Air Force One aircraft.

Steve Parker, interim president, and chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, said the company made "the most significant investment in the history of our defense business" after being tasked with designing, building, and delivering the sixth-generation fighter to the Air Force.

"We are ready to provide the most advanced and innovative NGAD aircraft needed to support the mission," Parker said in a statement.

The pursuit for America's next-generation platforms began over a decade ago in the early 2010s.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched a study in 2014 to explore strategies to maintain the US' edge in air superiority. It found that simply developing sixth-generation combat aircraft wouldn't be enough to ensure air superiority against US adversaries, instead urging a "family of systems" across multiple domains, including air, space, and cyberspace.

Air superiority is the condition where a nation's aircraft can fly at minimal risk from other aircraft and surface-to-air missiles. The US's longtime edge in achieving this is increasingly threatened by the proliferation of air defense missiles and China's aircraft build-up, including two types of stealth fighters.

Building upon DARPA's findings, the Air Force launched its own study, Air Superiority 2030, which laid the groundwork for its NGAD program, which envisioned creating a future hybrid fleet of crewed and uncrewed aerial systems.

As one of the Air Force's most sensitive and highly classified programs, few details were publicly known about the NGAD program.

In September 2020, Will Roper, then-Air Force acquisition chief, officially confirmed that the service had test-flown a prototype of its next-gen fighter. This was the first public acknowledgment of the top-secret program that he said he hoped would garner "greater credibility" on the program's progress.

By 2023, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman appeared to be in the running to develop the NGAD platform, floating potential designs for it in promotional materials for their future projects — a common practice among US military aircraft manufacturers.

Northrop Grumman — the lead contractor for the B-2 Spirit and B-21 Raider stealth bombers — was also in the running to build the NGAD aircraft but dropped out of consideration as the prime developer in 2023, instead intending to support other bids as a supplier.

Art renderings of the NGAD fighter show little more than the jet's sleek exterior and wings, revealing few details about the aircraft's final design.

But concept designs released by the three competing legacy combat aircraft contractors could give an idea of what the F-47 could look like when it takes to the skies.

In a promotional video released by Boeing Phantom Works in 2023, a brief rendering of a 3D model stealth plane showed assembling mid-flight to showcase the digital design capabilities to streamline the development of innovative aircraft.

The hypothetical stealth aircraft appears to feature a flat, tailless cranked wing design with two engines.

Before Boeing was selected to build the F-47, Lockheed Martin had a monopoly on the Air Force's combat aircraft production, leading some to believe that it would be the prime contractor of the NGAD platform.

Following the fighter jet upset, Boeing's share price jumped 3% to $5.28 a share on Friday, adding $4 billion in market value. Meanwhile, Lockheed's stock dropped about 5.4% to $27.04 a share, an estimated $6 billion loss in market value.

"While disappointed with this outcome, we are confident we delivered a competitive solution," Lockheed Martin said in a statement.

Boeing has long been a major player in the military aerospace sector, including developing the F-15 and F/A-18 fighter jets and the KC-46 aerial tanker.

However, unlike competitors like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which secured domestic contracts for the F-22 Raptor and B-2 Spirit stealth aircraft respectively, Boeing's long-term defense production largely relies on foreign acquisition and international defense sales.

Boeing and Lockheed previously faced off to develop the fifth-generation multirole fighter as part of the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter program. Lockheed's X-35 beat out Boeing's X-32, entering production as the F-35 Lightning II.

Lockheed's hint at its potential NGAD concept proposal was a lot more subtle. In 2023, Lockheed's Skunk Works division posted a black-and-white aircraft outline on its Instagram to celebrate its 80th anniversary.

Despite the lack of details in the cryptic post, the planform appears to resemble a tactical aircraft design, likely related to the Air Force's NGAD program.

Lockheed further pointed to its potential future participation in the NGAD by releasing another promotional video later that year, seemingly referring to the Air Force's pursuit of a hybrid fleet. The video features crewed and uncrewed systems flying in formation, with Lockheed's F-35 surrounded by futuristic UAVs.

Northrop Grumman was also competing to be the prime contractor behind the Air Force's NGAD aircraft. The company hinted at its interest in participating in the NGAD program in a 2021 promotional video that appeared to include a tailless stealth fighter in a hangar with historic and futuristic aircraft.

But Northrop Grumman's bid to build the NGAD fighter was cut short after it pulled out of consideration in 2023, CEO Kathy Warden announced.

Warden added that the company was "responding to other bidders' request for proposal as the supplier, that's particularly in our mission system portfolio."

Northrop Grumman was selected to build the B-21 Raider, the Air Force's first sixth-generation stealth bomber, as part of the service's Long Range Strike Bomber program.

The company unveiled the stealth bomber in late 2022, and the aircraft took its maiden flight in November 2023.

Northrop Grumman is still in the running against Boeing to develop the Navy's next-generation fighter, the F/A-XX, which aims to replace the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

The NGAD's steep ambitions to revolutionize the US air superiority mission come with an equally steep price tag. In 2018, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the NGAD airframe alone could cost up to $300 million each.

Then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in 2023 that he anticipated the unit cost to be "too expensive to be purchased in large numbers," revealing the service's plan to team each NGAD with two CCAs.

From 2022 to 2024, Congress allocated $5.1 billion to develop NGAD-related technologies, which included a "strategic pause" in the program due to high project costs. In 2025, the Biden administration requested $2.75 billion to build an NGAD platform, which could skyrocket to an estimated $5.72 billion by 2029.

Kendall emphasized the pressing need for the NGAD "family of systems" amid evolving threats by US adversaries, especially after the Pentagon truncated the procurement of F-22 jets from 750 to 187 in 2009.

"NGAD will include attributes such as enhanced lethality and the ability to survive, persist, interoperate, and adapt in the air domain, all within highly contested operational environments," Kendall said in May 2023. "No one does this better than the US Air Force, but we will lose that edge if we don't move forward now."

The urgency is also spurred in part by China's increasingly sophisticated long-range air defense and electronic warfare systems as China-Taiwan tensions contribute to growing militarization in the Indo-Pacific.

The F-47 is expected to operate closely with two new uncrewed fighters, so-called "loyal wingmen" that are capable of flying missions too dangerous for a pilot in the cockpit.

In a potential war scenario with China, defense analysts argued the F-22's limited range and payload capacity would be ill-suited for the terrain, consisting of islands spread hundreds of miles apart, leaving the fleet vulnerable to attack during refueling efforts.

"China is not a future threat; China is a threat today," Kendall said during a 2024 keynote address.

"I am not saying war in the Pacific is imminent or inevitable. It is not," he added. "But I am saying that the likelihood is increasing and will continue to do so."

In late February, Hegseth ordered a "digital content refresh across all DoD public platforms," targeting material related to "critical race theory, gender ideology, and preferential treatment or quotas based upon sex, race or ethnicity, or other DEI-related matters," per a memorandum of the mandate.

In the weeks since the mandate was issued, error messages began to appear on webpages depicting diversity events at military bases and stories advocating for women, racial minorities, and LGBTQ+ troops.

Though the March 5 deadline for the onerous online purge has long passed, content continues to be removed from military-run websites, including profiles of biographies highlighting historic military leaders and units that existed long before diversity was a recognized organizational initiative.

Among the deletions was an article spotlighting Black soldiers throughout US history, from Revolutionary War spy James Armistead Lafayette to the legendary segregated World War I combat unit known as the Harlem Hellfighters, one of numerous alterations spotted by the news site Axios.

Published during Black History Month in 2017, the article recognized the "brave soldiers who broke barriers, saved lives, and paved the way for today's force."

The DEI labeling and deletions affected many other trailblazers and warfighters. An article about a Puerto Rican unit that served in World War II and Vietnam had one article's address changed to read, "deiinfantryman." The original DoD publicity arose from the regiment's recognition decades later, in 2016, with the Congressional Gold Medal.

Similarly, an article about retired Brig. Gen. Allison Hickey, an Air Force pilot who graduated in the first US Air Force Academy class with women, was labeled "dei" and its photos and text removed.

Alongside the now-restored story about Robinson's service in the US Army during World War II, a profile about Army Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers, the highest-ranking Black servicemember to receive the Medal of Honor, was temporarily taken down.

The story, part of a series honoring Medal of Honor recipients, largely focused on Rogers' decorated military career in the Army. The article briefly mentioned how he championed sex and race equality during his time in the Army and his status as the highest-ranking Black Medal of Honor recipient to this day.

The story returned to the Pentagon's website following criticism of the removal last week. The Defense Department said in a statement that the story was taken down during an "auto removal process" but failed to detail why the article was targeted in the first place.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot said in a statement that the department will correct the "rare cases that content is removed — either deliberately or by mistake — that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive."

"Now you're hurting recruiting, and you're also branding the greatest military in the world, the US military, a haven for white supremacists," said Brandon Friedman, a former US Army combat veteran who spotted that Rogers' Medal of Honor tribute had been labeled DEI. "Pulling Jackie Robinson off the website, have these people lost their minds?"

Other historical content remained noticeably absent from the Defense Department's website.

The DoD removed a story about the service of Marine Corps Pfc. Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who "achieved immortal fame" as one of the six Marines in the iconic WWII photo raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, The Washington Post reported.

The tribute was written in 2021 in honor of National Native American Heritage Month, which the article described as a time to "reflect on the contributions and sacrifices Native Americans have made to the United States, not just in the military but in all walks of life."

Articles about the Navajo Code Talkers, the famed US Marine unit who were instrumental in decoding secret messages during World War II, were also labeled under the "DEI" umbrella and have since disappeared from some military websites, Axios reported.

An article about prominent Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers, a US Navy veteran, was also removed from the US Naval History and Heritage Command. However, another webpage about the active-duty US Navy dry cargo ship named after him remains online.

When asked why Evers' biography was taken down, an NHHC representative told Business Insider that the command was assessing and revising each page on its website per Hegseth's DEI directive.

A spokesperson for the Navy Office of Information was unable to provide answers to BI's questions by Thursday morning about the criteria that resulted in the page's removal.

Despite the swift backlash for the online takedowns, the Defense Department defended the decision to remove the content due to its "DEI" framing.

"Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marine at Iwo Jima, and so many others — we salute them for their strong and, in many cases, heroic service to our education, full stop," Ullyot said.

He added: "We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex."

Nonetheless, wholly deleting the content from the Pentagon's site appears to undermine the department's stated goal of "recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like every other American who has worn the uniform," as Ullyot said in the statement.

Some have speculated that DoD could have used an algorithm to review thousands of old articles, images, and public records for DEI-related keywords. The DoD did not say how it chose to delete these articles and alter their web addresses; the full number of altered addresses remains unknown.

The DEI label was also applied to the combat veteran President Donald Trump recently fired: Gen. CQ Brown, who had been the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A web article about his trailblazing career was deleted, and the URL was altered to read "deiblack-history-month."

Despite Hegseth's vision to create "the most transparent Department of Defense in history," it remains unclear what guidelines DoD officials are following when flagging online content as DEI-related — both internally and externally.

"I guess I'll just stop taking photos of and sharing the stories of women and Black soldiers," an Army public affairs official told Military.com in late February. "Not sure how else to interpret this."

Staff writer Kelsey Baker contributed to this report.

Located over 300 miles from Okinawa's main island, Yonaguni Island is considered the most remote of all the Okinawan islands. The island has an area of about 11 square miles — roughly the same size as Disney World's Magic Kingdom theme park.

Only a third of the island is inhabited by three villages — Sonai, Kubura, and Higawa — with the remaining area being covered by farmland and vegetation.

Fishing, agriculture, and tourism are the main sources of livelihood for the island's tiny population of about 1,500 people.

The island was once home to 12,000 people in the late 1940s, but has shrunk to less than 2,000 people in recent years.

Yonaguni is known for its picturesque landscapes and rare animal species, including three-foot-tall ponies that can only be found on the island. The Atlas moth, considered the world's largest moth with a wingspan of nearly 10 inches, is also native to the island.

As Japan's westernmost inhabited island, it is the last place in Japan to see the setting sun.

In 2021, the island also inspired Bad Bunny's chart-topping reggaeton song, Yonaguni, in which the Puerto Rican rapper sings in both Spanish and Japanese.

The island is also known for mysterious underwater ruins stretching over 300 feet near its southern coast, known as the Yonaguni Monument. Whether the monument was manmade or naturally formed is still under debate, with scientists estimating that the megalith could have been created long before humans had the means to create such a structure.

Divers have spotted hammerhead sharks and, on rare occasions, a whale shark, the largest fish in the world.

Yonaguni lies less than 70 miles from the east coast of Taiwan between the East China Sea and the Philippine Sea.

As China's military presence continues to grow in the region, Japan has strengthened its military presence, particularly on its southwestern islands, such as Ishigaki, Miyako, and Yonaguni.

A cattle ranch on Yonaguni has been transformed into a military base, and Japanese forces plan to expand an airport and port on the island's south coast to accommodate large ships.

The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force has deployed US-made PAC-3 interceptor missile units and Japanese surface-to-air missile systems to the southwestern islands.

Tom Shugart, former US Navy submariner and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, said the missile systems could be useful in a conflict scenario over Taiwan.

"If Japan is involved in helping to defend Taiwan, which it has said it might, then that system might be useful," Shugart told Newsweek. "Not so much for protecting any large-scale infrastructure on Yonaguni — because I don't think there is any — but it might be useful for protecting offensive systems that could be used against China."

Despite residents voting to bring Japanese military forces and assets to the island, some locals remain apprehensive about the rapid militarization of the island.

"Even those who voted in favour of the base are scared about missiles being based here," Toshio Sakimoto, a local councillor, told The Guardian. "I worry whenever something is happening in Taiwan, such as an election or Chinese military drills."

To quell islanders' fears about what would happen in an actual emergency, officials released a plan last detailing the evacuation of 120,000 residents on remote islands in just under a week.

Yonaguni Mayor Kenichi Itokazu proposed building a basement shelter and expanding its port to support evacuation efforts by sea, though skepticism still surrounds the contingency efforts.

"It's absurd," Kano, the Yonaguni innkeeper, told AP of the evacuation plan. "I just hope the money will be spent on policies that will help the people in Yonaguni live peacefully."

Not only has the landscape of Yonaguni changed in recent years, but the population is also experiencing a shift.

Following a 2015 referendum, hundreds of Japanese troops have been deployed to Yonaguni, including a coast watch unit and an electronic warfare unit.

The local economy has improved and, in turn, grown largely dependent on Japanese military personnel and their families which now make up a fifth of the island's population, sparking concerns for local civilians.

"Everything is pushed through in the name of the Taiwan emergency," Kyoko Yamaguchi, a local potter, told the AP, "and many feel this is too much."

Public data forecasts that the troop population and their dependents could make up over 31% of the island's tiny 1,500-member population, The Guardian reported, with the potential to rise to almost 40% the following year.

Tetsu Inomata, a café owner who lived in Yonaguni for 20 years, told The Guardian that he believes the Japanese armed forces could overtake the island's civilian population in the next few years.

Residents of the island have seen firsthand China's increasing military presence in the region.

In 2022, China fired several ballistic missiles into Japan's southwestern waters, one of which landed just 50 miles from Yonaguni island near 20 fishing boats, though no injuries or damage was reported in the incident.

"It was an extremely dangerous exercise that really made us feel China's potential threat right next to us," Shigenori Takenishi, chief of Yonaguni's fisheries association, told the AP.

In August, the US Marine Corps deployed radar to Camp Yonaguni after Chinese Y-9 electronic intelligence aircraft and two drones presumed to belong to China passed near the island during surveillance missions of Taiwan.

The next month, Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning transited through waters between Yonaguni and Iriomote Islands, which drew concern from the West. The percentage of Chinese warships passing through the Yonaguni Channel has increased since 2020 from 0 to over 26% as of 2024, according to Japan's defense ministry.

The US and Japan have also conducted military drills in the region, in part to project power against China. Stressed by ongoing military activity, locals criticized the drills as disrupting the island's serenity.

The militarization of the once-tranquil island has left residents divided on whether the buildup has been beneficial or detrimental.

Supporters say Japanese military personnel have been crucial for the island's safety and a much-needed boost to its struggling local economy. Prior to hosting Japanese troops, Yonaguni officials had planned to form economic relations through commercial exchanges with Taiwan via direct ferries between the islands.

Critics have accused the US and Japan of exploiting the island simply for the sake of military posturing against China, with little to no regard for its impact on its residents and the environment.

"I think the plan has been to have long-range missiles here that are capable of reaching the coast of China," Inomata, the café owner, told The Guardian. "We're being used by the Americans, and Japanese leaders like Fumio Kishida and Shinzō Abe have been willing participants. For them, everything is about defense."

Shoko Komine, a local restaurant owner, told The Guardian that there's a chance Yonaguni could get "dragged into" a conflict over Taiwan, which would drive people away from visiting the island.

"I don't think there is going to be a conflict any time soon, but even the risk of something happening will stop tourists from coming," Komine said. "The town government should put more effort into promoting tourism, but at the moment it is obsessed with defense."

Yonaguni residents fear the military build-up could tarnish the island's reputation as a peaceful island known for its untamed wildlife and beauty.

"Being at the center of this issue is very stressful for residents," local shopkeeper Takako Ueno told the AP. "I don't want people to imagine this beautiful island turning into a battlefield."