{"id":41144,"date":"2021-05-27T19:05:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-27T19:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/05\/27\/defense-chief-us-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-slightly-ahead\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:10:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:10:46","slug":"defense-chief-us-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-slightly-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/05\/27\/defense-chief-us-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-slightly-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense chief: US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan \u2018slightly\u2019 ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WASHINGTON \u2014 Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told Congress on Thursday that America\u2019s troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is \u201cslightly\u201d ahead of schedule, but he provided no details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Joe Biden has ordered a full U.S. troop withdrawal by Sept. 11. Austin did not say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2021\/05\/11\/centcom-is-releasing-drawdown-updates-but-they-dont-include-troop-numbers\/\" target=\"_blank\">when it may be complete<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Austin said at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing that the Defense Department\u2019s proposed $715 billion budget will include money to help the military develop the capabilities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/05\/19\/top-us-general-in-the-mideast-to-recommend-post-withdrawal-plan-for-afghanistan\/\" target=\"_blank\">to prevent attacks against the United States<\/a> by terrorist groups in Afghanistan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the budget set to be released Friday, Austin provided few spending specifics to committee members asking about various priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2021\/05\/26\/navy-to-send-ronald-reagan-to-5th-fleet-amid-afghanistan-troop-withdrawal-report\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Reagan.jpg_fe9b98.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Navy to send Ronald Reagan to 5th Fleet amid Afghanistan troop withdrawal: report<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The Reagan will move from the Asia-Pacific region to the Middle East, and is expected to remain in U.S. Central Command\u2019s region for up to four months, The Wall Street Journal reports.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">U.S. military commanders have said they will monitor and counter threats from al-Qaida and the Islamic State group from outside the country once U.S. forces leave Afghanistan later this summer. Militants are expected to try to regroup after U.S. and coalition forces depart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So far, officials have acknowledged that the U.S. does not yet have any <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/flashpoints\/2021\/05\/26\/taliban-warns-departing-us-military-against-new-bases-in-region\/\" target=\"_blank\">agreements for basing or overflights<\/a> from any of Afghanistan\u2019s countries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Joe Biden has ordered a full U.S. troop withdrawal by Sept. 11. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did not say when it may be complete.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":74768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":65,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,13,24,89,16,26,65],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1322],"class_list":["post-41144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"SYG6ATTTG5B27KVIMEFGDDOGVA","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/05\/27\/defense-chief-us-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-slightly-ahead\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Defense chief: US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan \u2018slightly\u2019 ahead - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Joe Biden has ordered a full U.S. troop withdrawal by Sept. 11. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did not say when it may be complete.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2021\/05\/27\/defense-chief-us-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-slightly-ahead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Defense chief: US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan \u2018slightly\u2019 ahead\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Joe Biden has ordered a full U.S. troop withdrawal by Sept. 11. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did not say when it may be complete.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2021\/05\/27\/defense-chief-us-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan-slightly-ahead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Air Force TImes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-27T19:05:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-08T07:10:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lolita C. Baldor, The Associated Press\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lolita C. 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