The training event, dubbed Noble Exercise 2024, was scheduled to run from July 25 to Aug. 6, and normally takes place at Vaziani and Camp Norio Training Areas outside the capital city of Tbilisi. The Pentagon said the Georgian government has spread misinformation that the United States and other allies had pressured the country to open a second front on its border with Russia.

Officials in Georgia also accused U.S. officials of attempting two coups against the country’s ruling party.

“The United States government has determined that this is an inappropriate time to hold a large-scale military exercise in Georgia,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

In 2022 during a military exercise in Georgia, some 2,400 service members from the United States and 19 other nations participated. This year, a combination of approximately 3,000 U.S. and allied troops were scheduled to participate in the drills, U.S. Army Europe and Africa spokesman Terry Welch told Military Times in an email.

On May 30, the U.S. government announced a “comprehensive” review of its relationship with the small country in the South Caucasus.

The change of plans came as Georgia faced accusations that the country is trending toward authoritarianism and growing its relationship with Russia.

The country’s parliament passed a controversial “foreign agents” bill into law, overriding the president’s veto of the legislation. The legislation, which critics say mimics a similar law in Russia, requires media and other non-governmental organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from outside the country to register as a foreign agent, according to the Associated Press.

Critics said the legislation would impact Tbilisi’s efforts to join NATO and integrate with the European Union.

In April 2008, then-President George Bush tried to rally members of NATO to allow both Georgia and Ukraine to join the alliance at NATO’s yearly summit. Other members of the alliance, however, rejected the proposition.

While Noble Exercise 2024 has been postponed, the Pentagon said in the statement it looks forward to working with allies in the Agile Spirit 2025 military exercise, which traditionally takes place in both Turkey and Georgia.

Units from V Corps, as well as the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, the 4th Security Forces Assistance Brigade, Georgia Army National Guard, and the Navy’s Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 11, were all slated to participate.

The Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General will coordinate with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s watchdog on two independent investigations, according to a statement from the Office of the Inspector General.

“The agreements between the [Pentagon] and USAID establish roles and responsibilities that help enable U.S. humanitarian assistance to reach Gaza through the maritime corridor,” Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch said in the statement. “Given this, the [Pentagon Inspector General] and USAID [Inspector General] are working together to address the challenges associated with this mission.”

The Gaza pier mission uses a lesser-known military capability called Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, that generally involves sailors and soldiers.

First anchored off the coast on May 16, the pier has delivered 15 million pounds of humanitarian aid to Gaza as of June 25, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Tuesday.

But the humanitarian mission has not been without problems.

On May 25, the pier broke apart after heavy winds and high seas pummeled it only a week after it became operational. It took until June 8 for the pier to be operational again.

Three U.S. service members have also sustained non-combat related injuries during the mission, with one in critical condition requiring a medical evacuation to an Israeli hospital.

The soldier was later sent to an Army hospital in Texas.

Derek Chollet, who currently serves as the counselor at the State Department, was tapped by Biden after Kahl announced he would go back to teaching at Stanford University at the start of this school year.

“It has been the greatest honor to serve the American people with [Secretary Antony Blinken] and the dedicated [State Department] team,” Chollet wrote in a tweet. “I am humbled by the opportunity to return to [the Department of Defense] and work with [Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin] on our nation’s security. I look forward to working with the Senate on my confirmation.”

Chollet’s nomination, however, comes as Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., has placed holds on all uniformed and civilian Pentagon nominees over the department’s abortion policy for service members who reside in states where the procedure is restricted. Tuberville has been steadfast in his opposition, blocking more than 250 military nominations.

Kahl announced his departure in May and leaves the Pentagon policy shop after crafting the administration’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and dealing with a rising China. His own confirmation process hit some road bumps along the way, including during his confirmation hearing, when he apologized for remarks he made about Republican lawmakers on social media during his time in the private sector. He was also criticized for his work on the Iran nuclear agreement.

Before his time at the State Department, Chollet served at the Pentagon as the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. He also worked as the executive vice president of the German Marshall Fund.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., announced a funding boost for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, tasked with researching and analyzing UAPs, in the Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act. House lawmakers have not made their funding request for the office public. The final spending bills will be debated later this summer.

“With aggression from adversaries on the rise and with incidents like the Chinese spy balloon, it’s critical to our national security that we have strong air domain awareness over our homeland and around U.S. forces operating overseas,” Gillibrand said in a statement. The Senate bill covers more than just the office’s basic operating expenses, as the 2022 defense budget did last year. It also includes measures to reveal more of what they are finding, which will “reduce the stigma around this issue of high public interest,” she added.

The funding push comes after the Chinese spy balloon served as a reminder that U.S. adversaries are increasingly operating in Earth’s upper atmosphere — and as the public’s fascination with unidentified phenomena grow. In a 2021 Gallup poll, more than 40% of respondents blamed alien spacecraft for at least some of the unidentified incidents in recent years.

Gillibrand’s office would not say what how much more funding the anomaly office would receive, if the measure is passed, as it falls under a classified part of the budget.

If the Senate’s text is passed, current or former government contractors would have 60 days to turn over any unidentified-object data they’ve come across to the Pentagon office. Contractors would also be required to provide a “comprehensive list of all non-earth origin or exotic unidentified anomalous phenomena material,” according to the Senate’s intelligence authorization bill text.

The Intelligence Authorization Act also gave Pentagon UAP office director Sean Kirkpatrick a greater role in coordinating the government’s response to unidentified anomalous phenomena.

Defense Scoop first reported on the changes in the intelligence bill regarding the anomaly office.

Lawmakers have been campaigning to fully fund the office for months. In a March hearing, Gilibrand grilled Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin over the administration’s budget request for 2024 that left the unidentified anomaly office underfunded for the second year in a row.

Austin pledged to fully support the office in the future — and told lawmakers the administration initially requested $11 million for the office. The Pentagon would not confirm the figure that Austin mentioned.

“They just put a placeholder number on it,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., told Military Times the week after the hearing. “Luckily, we’re not going to pay attention to [the Biden administration’s] budget numbers.”

On Feb. 16, Rubio, Gillibrand and 12 other senators sent a letter to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks and Deputy Director of National Intelligence Stacey Dixon calling for full funding for the anomaly office. The Biden administration’s previous funding request for 2023 failed to fund anything beyond the office’s basic operating expenses, the lawmakers argued.

The lawmakers wrote that the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office “provides the opportunity to integrate and resolve threats and hazards to the U.S., while also offering increased transparency to the American people and reducing the stigma,” of such sightings. The creation and work of the office has linked its work to popular culture on “Area 51″ conspiracy theories and more recent encounters released by the Pentagon that show U.S. military pilots observing unidentified objects flying in the sky.

The New York Democrat has focused on anomaly research funding and coordination since the office’s inception. In 2021, she introduced an amendment to the 2022 defense authorization act that replaced the Office of Naval Intelligence’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and created the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office. Gillibrand said the goal of the restructuring was to increase intelligence sharing between the Pentagon and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

African Lion 2023 was hosted by four African countries and included more than 8,000 personnel. Seventeen countries and numerous NATO partners participated in the month-long exercise, which was carried out between May 13 and June 16 in Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia and Ghana.

“Our collective ability to bring like-minded nations together for an exercise like this is truly impressive,” Maj. Gen. Joel Tyler, U.S. Africa Command chief of staff, said in a statement. “African Lion is the centerpiece of the AFRICOM exercise strategy, and one of the greatest U.S. exercises across the globe.”

Among a number of firsts during the annual drill, the Marine Corps fired High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, for the first time on African soil.

HIMARS munitions have gained notoriety in the wake of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Since January, the U.S. has sent at least 20 such systems to Ukraine. The weapons shipments have come amid continued concerns over operations by Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group, which is currently operating across Africa, specifically in the Central African Republic, Libya and Sudan.

This year’s exercise concluded as the U.S. is also working to counter China’s growing influence in the region. While the Chinese military already operates in Djibouti, there is concern that another base on the continent could soon be in development.

During a House Armed Service Committee hearing last year, then-AFRICOM commander Army Gen. Stephen Townsend expressed concern that the Chinese government might make a play to build a base in western Africa. Beijing had already made significant progress in Equatorial Guinea, Townsend said during the hearing.

In another first, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox visited the African Lion exercise for the first time, according to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force. Morocco and the Utah National Guard celebrated 20 years participating in the State Department’s State Partnership Program, which is meant to strengthen military relationships between the U.S. and other countries.

“Over the years, what I’ve seen is that relationship [with Morocco] has continued to grow,” Maj. Jared Sorensen of the Utah National Guard told Military Times. “So, when we fire artillery out here, it takes a lot of trust, and so that friendship grows really quickly. … And just in the last two weeks that we’ve been out here, I’ve seen guys make really good friendships and strong connections with our Moroccan counterparts.”

African Lion was also joined by its first multi-domain task-force element, personnel spread across cyberspace, intelligence, electronic warfare and space domains. The 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force provides those services to U.S. Army Europe and Africa, according to the 2nd MDTFs website.

Beyond the Utah Guard’s relationship with Morocco and the shipment of HIMARS munitions, the U.S. has continued efforts to strengthen ties with militaries on the continent. Numerous African countries have hosted the U.S. 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade — a smaller unit meant to train foreign militaries — to train alongside partner forces.

The 2nd SFAB has trained militaries in Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Somalia, Djibouti, Botswana and Zambia. In Ghana, U.S. forces assisted with establishing a school that prepared soldiers for U.N. peacekeeping missions.

U.S. forces continue to have some 700 boots on the ground in advisory and training roles in Somalia, where the federal government is continuing its fight against the extremist group al-Shabab.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington on March 2, also names Saudi Arabian and UAE officials for their alleged direct involvement, while including Pentagon officials, U.S. agency heads and industry CEOs for indirect participation.

The companies and their chief executives are named “because they are aiding and abetting the war crimes committed by the Saudi and UAE officials,” Terry Collingsworth, the lead lawyer for the seven plaintiffs and executive director of the International Rights Advocates policy group, told Military Times.

“We just have to really show that they knew or should have known — or recklessly disregarded — that the weapons that they were providing were causing civilian deaths,” he said.

Officials with Raytheon and the Defense Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The State Department press office and spokespersons for General Dynamics and Lockheed said they do not comment on ongoing legal cases.

The Yemeni civil war has served as a proxy war for competing interests in the Middle East since 2014, when Iranian-backed Houthi rebels took control of the government. Then, in March 2015, a coalition of Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia began a military campaign of airstrikes against the rebels with U.S. logistical and weapons support.

Nearly 15,000 civilians have been killed in direct military actions since the conflict began, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade. Sixty percent of the deaths, the group said, have been the result of airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition.

The Government Accountability Office published a report in June 2022 that found the Pentagon administered at least $54.6 billion in military support to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi from 2015 to 2021. The State Department approved foreign military sales of equipment, including F-35 joint strike fighters, Patriot missiles and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems to Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the course of the same period, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Defense Department officials told the GAO investigators that they “lacked guidance” for reporting any alleged incidents in which U.S. defense articles were used on civilian populations, the report said.

“[D]espite several reports that airstrikes and other attacks by Saudi Arabia and UAE have caused extensive civilian harm in Yemen, [DoD] has not reported and [the] State [Department] could not provide evidence that it investigated any incidents of potential unauthorized use of equipment transferred to Saudi Arabia or UAE,” the report stated.

A wedding and a funeral

The plaintiffs’ case revolve around two specific incidents in the Yemeni civil war.

On Oct. 7, 2015, a wedding was taking place in the village of Sanaban, a little more than 85 miles south of the capital city of Sana’a. At around 10 p.m., coalition aircraft reportedly launched two missiles toward the party, hitting a house and the tent where guests were gathered. The strike killed 49 people, including 13 women and 22 children, according to a report from the Legal Center for Right and Development.

The other attack in question occurred one year later — on Oct. 8, 2016 — in Yemen’s capital. Hundreds were gathered at the Great Hall of Sana’a City for the funeral of a tribal leader, when a Raytheon and Lockheed-made GBU-12 Paveway II 500-pound laser-guided bomb leveled the area, killing 140, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

Subsequent weapon identification was based on a “review of photos and footage of an intact guidance fin assembly with legible manufacturer’s markings,” the report stated.

“There’s no bringing back my family or the thousands of other lives lost to these horrors,” Ayman Mhamad Saleh Al-Sanabani, a plaintiff in the case who witnessed the wedding bombing, said in a statement. “But ensuring there are consequences for those committing and abetting war crimes is a necessary precedent.

“What we seek from this case is not just the necessary relief we need as a result of this devastating war, but also a line in the sand for international warmongers going forward that there is a price to pay if you kill innocent people.”

The incidents outlined in the complaint offer examples of the human cost of years of conflict that culminated in what the UN World Food Program called one of the “worst humanitarian crises” on the globe.

Torture Victim Protection Act

The Yemeni civilians’ lawsuit is being filed under the parameters of two U.S. laws, the Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victim Protection Act. The former allows plaintiffs to sue foreign individuals in U.S. courts who are directly responsible for war crimes and extrajudicial killings. The only issue, when using this framework, is convincing the courts that the case carries enough weight to be tried stateside.

The Torture Victim Protection Act allows anyone to be sued for extrajudicial killings or torture. However, the Supreme Court has stipulated that only individual persons can be sued under this framework, not companies. To work within those boundaries, the Yemeni lawsuit specifically named Riyadh and Abu Dhabi officials as well as the heads of the defense companies.

Collingsworth said the litigation is seeking to make a distinction in the goals of suing under each of the three statutes. Under the Administrative Procedure Act, the Yemeni civilians are seeking to obtain an order requiring the Pentagon and State Department to prevent the future use of U.S. weapons in the commission of war crimes.

Through the Alien Tort Statute and Torture Victim Protection Act, the civilians are seeking monetary damages to be paid by Saudi and Emirati officials, as well as the U.S. defense contractors.

“This is a challenging case, mainly because we are directly confronting, for lack of a better term, the military industrial complex,” Collingsworth said.

“I think most judges are going to be very afraid of issuing decisions that would somehow step into the dynamics of the … weapons supply relationships between the U.S., Saudi Arabia and UAE. But … we have to at least try.”

During the exercise, U.S. pilots from the Alaska-based 525th Fighter Squadron joined aviators from the Philippine Air Force’s 5th Fighter Wing for low-altitude flyovers, air combat maneuvering, formation training, and, with help from a KC-135 Stratotanker, air-to-air refueling over the heavily contested South China Sea.

“This was the first time that F-22s, or any fifth-generation aircraft, have landed on and operated out of the Philippines,” Capt. Karl Schroeder, one of the Raptor pilots, said in a release. “This milestone with a regional ally aids in providing stability and security to the Indo-Pacific.”

Regional stability has become an increasingly glaring focus of the two militaries as threats continue to emerge out of Beijing. While the Philippine Constitution prohibits permanent basing of foreign troops, the two nations’ Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement does allow for an increased footprint of American forces by way of rotations to a handful of predetermined locations.

“The EDCA is a key pillar of the U.S.-Philippines alliance, which supports combined training, exercises, and interoperability between our forces,” DoD officials said in February. “Expansion of the EDCA will make our alliance stronger and more resilient, and will accelerate modernization of our combined military capabilities.”

The EDCA includes granting U.S. forces access to a number of military camps, one of which, Basa Air Base in Pampanga on the island of Luzon, just launched a $25 million renovation of its runway in preparation to be used as a hub for joint task force exercises and humanitarian assistance, USNI news first reported.

Four other identified sites currently slated to host U.S. rotations are Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base (Cebu), Antonio Bautista Air Base (Palawan), Fort Magsaysay (Nueva Ecija), and Lumbia Air Base (Cagayan de Oro). Additional locations that have not yet been identified are expected to be unveiled in the near future.

In a separate step toward countering Chinese aggression and propaganda, the Philippine Coast Guard announced on March 8 that it would begin publicly disclosing aggressive actions taken by China in the South China Sea.

Recently released footage depicted one such incident on Feb. 6, during which a ship belonging to the China Coast Guard aimed a military laser at a Philippine vessel, briefly blinding some crew members.

The string of announcements in recent months follows a period of tension between the U.S. and the Philippines, when former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to sever military relations with Washington and cozy up to China and Russia. Duterte’s successor, Ferdinand Marcos, has worked to thaw relations, even hosting Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

Northrop Grumman, which makes the airborne early warning and control aircraft, will serve as the prime contractor for the nearly $1.4 billion deal. Along with logistics and technical support services, the possible sale includes APY-9 radars and AN/AYK-27 integrated navigation control and display systems already installed in the aircraft.

Now that the agency has notified Congress, the value and quantity of materiel could change while negotiations are underway.

“The proposed sale will improve Japan’s ability to effectively provide homeland defense utilizing an AEW&C capability. Japan will use the E-2D AHE aircraft to provide AEW&C situational awareness of air and naval activity in the Pacific region and to augment its existing E-2C Hawkeye AEW&C fleet,” the statement read.

The announcement comes as Japan seeks to increase its military spending. In December, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida asked his Cabinet to secure funds to double military spending to 2% of gross domestic product. Later that month, Tokyo released three major national security documents, with the National Security Strategy calling for counterstrike capabilities in response to missile threats from China and North Korea.

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. agency approved the possible sale of 250 Javelin FGM-148F missiles jointly made by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies. Canberra would purchase the missiles and related equipment for about $60.2 million. The value and quantity could still change during negotiations.

Canberra plans to use the missiles to increases its anti-armore capabilities.

“Australia is one of our most important allies in the Western Pacific,” the agency said in its statement. “The strategic location of this political and economic power contributes significantly to ensuring peace and economic stability in the region.”

Canberra joins other security partners recently approved for Javelin sales from the United States. Last month, the State Department approved a possible sale of 600 missiles to the United Kingdom, a fellow member of the AUKUS trilateral security pact. Under the pact, the two countries will help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

In October, Australia drew the ire of China when reports said the country would host six nuclear-capable B-52 bombers at Royal Australian Air Force Base Tindal, where the United States is building dedicated facilities for the aircraft.

WASHINGTON — Top civilian and uniformed Army leaders said 2023 will be a pivotal year to train new capabilities and equip U.S. forces to deter China from attacking Taiwan.

During a panel discussion at the American Enterprise Institute, Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth and U.S. Army Pacific Commander Gen. Charles Flynn spoke about the “linchpin” role the service plays in joint force operations, despite perceptions that the Indo-Pacific is a Navy and Air Force dominated theatre.

“We’re really building out our integrated air and missile defense capabilities, for example, to be able to protect those kinds of staging bases that are going to be key,” Wormuth said at the Feb. 27 event. “We offer the opportunity to provide security indications to the broader course to again to provide intra-theatre sustainment, setting up initial stockpiles, setting up forward air refueling points, protecting them.”

The Army will also play a pivotal role in sustaining the joint force through battle, such as through theatre distribution centers, Wormuth added.

Part of those missile defense capabilities include long-range hypersonic weapons. Wormuth announced during the panel that the Army’s first battery of long-range hypersonic weapons will be a part of the service’s first multi-domain task force in the fall, following current training at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.

Despite efforts by Washington and its allies to dissuade China against invading the self-governing island, Flynn said the People’s Liberation Army’s preparations do not reflect a country building up its defenses, rather a country preparing for a military conflict outside of its borders.

“They are rehearsing, they are practicing, they are experimenting, and they are preparing those forces for something,” he said. “But you don’t build up that kind of arsenal just to defend and protect. You probably are building up for other purposes.”

In January, Gen. Mike Minihan, who leads Air Mobility Command, urged his troops to prepare for war in memo leaked on social media. He predicted Chinese President Xi Jinping, now in his third term, would take advantage of possibly fraught elections in Taiwan and the United States in 2024.

Wormuth, although not directly mentioning the memo, said she did not agree with Minihan’s perspective on China’s timeline. Flynn highlighted how much manpower and resources it would take to build an invasion force to even get off of mainland China — and the complexities of crossing more than 80 miles of water and holding gains once forces have landed.

“The complexity of a joint Island random campaign is not a small matter,” Flynn said. “You have to be an incredibly professional, well trained, well led force, and they’re working on it. But I will tell you that, in my part, from my perspective, they’re not 10 feet tall. They have work to do, and I think that now’s the time for us to get into position to be able to deter that event from happening.”

Under the deal, the Netherlands would purchase 20 Lockheed Martin-made M142 HIMARS launchers, along with 17 Humvees. The package also included support and communications equipment, as well as 29 M30A2 Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System alternative warhead missile pods with the insensitive munitions propulsion system.

The potential sale is worth about $670 million. Now that the agency has notified Congress, the value and quantity of materiel could change while negotiations are underway.

The possible deal “will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO ally that is an important force for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” according to the DSCA.

The sale comes as the HIMARS receives increased attention due to their use on the battlefield in Ukraine. The Netherlands is seeking the weapon to build up its own defense capabilities. In July 2022, the State Department approved a possible foreign military sale to the Netherlands for $1.2 billion involving Raytheon Technologies-made Patriot missiles.

The Netherlands has supported Ukraine through the nearly yearlong war against a Russian invasion. During a visit to the White House on Jan. 17, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his country planned to join German and American efforts to train Ukraine on the Patriot system.

The Netherlands announced the month before that it earmarked €2.5 billion (U.S. $2.7 billion) to aid Ukraine.

Last week, the DSCA announced a possible sale of HIMARS launchers at a cost of $10 billion, and Lithuania was approved for a $495 million sale on Nov. 9.

Since Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the DSCA has announced at least five separate HIMARS sales to customers in the Indo-Pacific region and Europe.

As of Jan. 25, 2023, the U.S. has included 38 HIMARS and related ammunition in its aid to Ukraine.