The weapons heading into Ukraine include 155mm munitions and precision-guided rockets known as GMLRS, two officials told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not been announced publicly. It’s unclear exactly when the weapons started moving.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the pause on some shipments last week to allow the Pentagon to assess its weapons stockpiles, in a move that caught the White House by surprise.

Affected were Patriot missiles, the precision-guided GMLRS, Hellfire missiles, Howitzer rounds and more, taking not only Ukrainian officials and other allies by surprise but also U.S. lawmakers and other parts of the Trump administration, including the State Department.

It was not clear if a pause on Patriot missiles would hold. The $4 million munition is in high demand and was key to defending a major U.S. air base in Qatar last month as Iran launched a ballistic missile attack in response to the U.S. targeting its nuclear facilities.

President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. would continue to deliver defensive weapons to Ukraine. He has sidestepped questions about who ordered the pause in exchanges with reporters this week.

“I would know if a decision is made. I will know,” Trump said Wednesday. “I will be the first to know. In fact, most likely I’d give the order, but I haven’t done that yet.”

Asked a day earlier who ordered the pause, he said, “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

Trump has privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing the pause — a move that he felt wasn’t properly coordinated with the White House, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The Pentagon has denied that Hegseth acted without consulting the president, saying, “Secretary Hegseth provided a framework for the President to evaluate military aid shipments and assess existing stockpiles. This effort was coordinated across government.”

It comes as Russia has fired escalating air attacks on Ukraine, with a barrage that the largest number of drones fired in a single night in the three-year-old war, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.

Trump has become increasingly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he wasn’t happy with him.

“Putin is not, he’s not treating human beings right,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday, explaining the pause’s reversal. “It’s killing too many people. So we’re sending some defensive weapons to Ukraine, and I’ve approved that.”

The 155mm artillery rounds have become some of the most-used munitions of the war. Each round is about 2 feet long, weighs about 100 pounds and is 155mm, or 6.1 inches, in diameter. They are used in Howitzer systems, which are towed large guns identified by the range of the angle of fire that their barrels can be set to.

Howitzer fires can strike targets up to 15 to 20 miles away, depending on what type of round and firing system is used, which makes them highly valued by ground forces to take out enemy targets from a protected distance.

The U.S. has provided more than 3 million 155mm rounds to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022. It has sent more than $67 billion in overall weapons and military assistance to Ukraine in that period.

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

The Pentagon, which announced last week that it would hold back some air defense missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons pledged to Ukraine because of what U.S. officials said were concerns that American stockpiles were in short supply. Trump said Monday that the U.S. will have to send more weapons to Ukraine, effectively reversing the move.

Two of the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive internal discussions, said there was some internal opposition among Pentagon brass to the pause — coordinated by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby — before it was announced.

One of the people described Trump as being caught “flat footed” by the announcement. The White House did not respond to queries about whether Trump was surprised by the Pentagon pause.

The pause in critical weapons deliveries had come at a difficult moment for Ukraine, which has faced increasing — and more complex — air barrages from Russia during the more than three-year-old war. Trump acknowledged that in announcing the reversal on Monday night, saying, “They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now.”

Asked by a reporter Tuesday who approved the pause, Trump bristled at the question while he was gathered with his Cabinet. “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

Trump’s change in tone on Putin

The president also laid into Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggesting he was unnecessarily prolonging the war that Trump has said he’s determined to quickly conclude. Trump has struggled to find a resolution, with talks between the sides stalled.

The Republican leader has sounded increasingly exasperated with Putin in recent days. The two spoke by phone last week.

“We get a lot of bull—- thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

He has threatened, but held off on, imposing new sanctions against Russia’s oil industry to try to prod Putin into peace talks.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said last week that Trump has given him the go-ahead to push forward with a bill he’s co-sponsoring that calls, in part, for a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries that continue to buy Russian oil. The move would have huge ramifications for China and India, two economic behemoths that buy Russian oil.

Trump said Tuesday that he’s “looking at it very strongly.”

Pentagon says it’s going to resume shipments to Ukraine

The weapons pause announced last week impacted shipments of Patriot missiles, precision-guided GMLRS, Hellfire missiles and Howitzer rounds and more, taking not only Ukrainian officials and other allies by surprise but also U.S. lawmakers and other parts of the Trump administration, including the State Department.

The Pentagon said late Monday that at Trump’s direction, it would resume weapons shipments to Ukraine “to ensure the Ukrainians can defend themselves while we work to secure a lasting peace and ensure the killing stops.” Still, spokesman Sean Parnell added that its review for Trump to evaluate military shipments worldwide continues as part of “America First” defense priorities.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth consulted with the White House prior to pausing weapons shipments and whether or not those shipments have now resumed.

It’s also unclear which weaponry would now be sent, though Trump said that the U.S. will primarily be assisting Ukraine with defensive weapons.

Counting the weapons

On Tuesday, each of the services and the combatant commands — the multiservice organizations that spearhead U.S. military operations around the world — were still sending up information on their stockpiles of specific munitions to Pentagon leadership, a U.S. official said.

“They are literally still doing the math,” the official said.

The information was being presented on a stoplight chart — where munitions were either in a red, yellow or green status, similar to slides that had been created the week before, the official said. That earlier study had concluded that some munitions were OK to keep sending to Ukraine — but others were reaching concerning levels.

Getting a full visibility on the numbers of actual munitions on hand takes time, the official said, because while Patriot missiles, for example, initially belong to the Army, once they are requested and sent to a combatant command, such as U.S. Central Command, the service loses visibility on those numbers in inventory.

The vast majority of the munitions and weapons the U.S. has shipped to Ukraine have been pulled from the Army, which has monitored levels closely in recent years, particularly for high-demand items like 155mm artillery shells and Patriot missiles for air defenses.

It’s been harder for the Army to ramp up production on those items than had been planned: It was trying to hit a goal of producing 100,000 155mm shells a month by the end of 2025 but won’t meet that goal now until 2026, Army spokesman Steve Warren said.

Ramping up Patriot missile production also has been challenging, Warren said.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a statement Tuesday that he was glad Trump was resuming deliveries to Ukraine.

“This time, the President will need to reject calls from the isolationists and restrainers within his Administration to limit these deliveries to defensive weapons,” McConnell said. “And he should disregard those at DoD who invoke munitions shortages to block aid while refusing to invest seriously in expanding munitions production.”

Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

And more than 6,000 troops are poised to march near the National Mall to honor the Army’s 250th anniversary on Saturday, which happens to be President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday.

With preparations well in hand, one big unknown is the weather. Rain is in the forecast, so there is a chance the parade could be interrupted by thunderstorms.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said Thursday that rain or shine the parade will go on. But it could be delayed if there is lightning.

“No matter what, a historic celebration of our military service members will take place!” Kelly said in a statement.

Daylong festivities celebrating the Army are planned on the National Mall — featuring NFL players, fitness competitions and displays — culminating in the parade, which is estimated to cost $25 million to $45 million. The Army expects as many as 200,000 people to attend.

A special reviewing area is being set up for the president, where he will be watching as each formation passes the White House.

Here’s what to expect at the parade Saturday:

The troops

A total of 6,169 soldiers as well as 128 Army tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery will parade before the president and viewers, while 62 aircraft will pass overhead.

The parade will tell the Army’s story, starting with the Battle of Lexington — the first battle of the Revolutionary War — and move all the way to present day.

Each conflict will have 150 troops in period costume, followed by a section of hundreds of troops in modern-day dress. For the past several weeks, Army planners have been working out how to get it timed to exactly 90 minutes, Army spokesman Steve Warren said.

Planners first tried marching troops five across and 12 deep — but the parade ran long. To get it down to the exact time, each section will have soldiers marching seven across and 10 deep, Warren said. That means, for example, the Civil War gets exactly three minutes and 39 seconds and World War II gets six minutes and 22 seconds.

The tanks and aircraft

Then there are the tanks. For fans, eight minutes and 23 seconds into the procession, the first World War I Renault tank will make its appearance.

Compared with today’s tanks, the Renaults are tiny and almost look like a robotic weapon out of “The Terminator.” But they were groundbreaking for their time, lightweight and enabling movement in that conflict’s deadly trench warfare.

The first aircraft will fly over starting 13 minutes and 37 seconds into the parade, including two B-25 Mitchell bombers, four P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft and one C-47 Skytrain. The latter was made famous by the three stripes painted on the wings and body to mark it friendly over U.S. battleships on June 6, 1944, as thousands of Skytrain aircraft dropped more than 13,000 paratroopers into France on D-Day.

The procession will move along into the Gulf War, the war on terror and the modern day, showcasing the Army’s M1A2 Abrams tanks and other troop carriers, like the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and Stryker combat vehicle.

There will even be six High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS — the mobile rocket launchers that have been highly valued by Ukraine as it has defended itself against Russia’s invasion.

A massive show of Army airpower will begin 48 minutes in, when a long air parade of UH-60 Black Hawk, AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopters fly overhead as the Army’s story swings toward its future warfare.

The parade finale

The final sections of marching troops represent the Army’s future. The band at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point will lead hundreds of future troops, including members of the Texas A&M Army Corps of Cadets, new enlistees just going through Army initial entry training and cadets from the Virginia Military Institute and The Citadel in South Carolina.

The last section includes 250 new recruits or soldiers who are reenlisting. As they reach the president, they will turn toward him and raise their right hand, and Trump will swear them into service.

The parade will end with a celebratory jump by the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team, which will present Trump with an American flag.

After the parade, a 19-minute fireworks show and concert will round out the celebration.

The Navy has directed the destroyer Thomas Hudner, which is capable of defending against ballistic missiles, to begin sailing from the western Mediterranean Sea toward the eastern Mediterranean and has directed a second destroyer to begin moving forward so it can be available if requested by the White House.

President Donald Trump is meeting with his National Security Council principals Friday to discuss the situation. The U.S. officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.

The forces in the region have been taking precautionary measures for days, including having military dependents voluntarily depart regional bases, in anticipation of the strikes and to protect those personnel in case of a large-scale response from Tehran.

Typically, around 30,000 troops are based in the Middle East, and about 40,000 troops are in the region now, according to a third U.S. official. That number surged as high as 43,000 last October amid the ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran as well as continuous attacks on commercial and military ships in the Red Sea by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen.

The Navy has additional assets that it could surge to the Middle East if needed, particularly its aircraft carriers and the warships that sail with them. The aircraft carrier Carl Vinson is in the Arabian Sea — the only aircraft carrier in the region.

The carrier Nimitz is in the Indo-Pacific and could be directed toward the Middle East if needed, and the carrier George Washington just left its port in Japan and could be directed to the region if so ordered, one of the officials said.

Then-President Joe Biden initially surged ships to protect Israel following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas that launched the war in Gaza. It was seen as a deterrent against Hezbollah and Iran at the time.

On Oct. 1, 2024, U.S. Navy destroyers fired about a dozen interceptors in defense of Israel as the country came under attack by more than 200 missiles fired by Iran.

The Marines are assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division, based out of Twentynine Palms, California, U.S. Northern Command said in a release. The Marines will integrate with the National Guard troops “who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area,” U.S. Northern Command said. The deployment was first reported by CNN.

The California attorney general said the president’s actions had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.

“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops,” state Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters. He planned to seek a court order declaring that Trump’s use of the Guard was unlawful and ask for a restraining order to halt the deployment.

The streets of the sprawling city of 4 million people were quiet Monday morning, but the smell of smoke hung in the air downtown, one day after crowds blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. The law enforcement presence was heavy, with police cars blocking the street in front of the federal detention facility that was a focus of the protests.

Bonta accused Trump of fanning protesters’ anger with his announcement of the deployment, saying he set off Sunday’s clashes with law enforcement in downtown Los Angeles. “This was not inevitable,” he said.

While much of the city was spared from any violence, clashes swept through several downtown blocks and a handful of other places. It could take days to clear the debris from burned cars and to clean off or paint over graffiti sprayed on City Hall and other buildings near the detention facility. Sunday was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of the first 300 Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents.

Trump said Monday that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.

Later, at a White House event, he added that state leaders “were afraid to do anything.”

U.S. officials said about 1,000 National Guard members were in the city under federal orders by midday Monday. The full 2,000 members authorized by the president were expected to be on the ground by the end of the day. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of military operations.

The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.

Multiple protests were taking shape Monday afternoon in L.A., and it was unclear if any would devolve into violence. More protests were scheduled for cities across the country.

Thousands of people gathered in a park across from City Hall to protest the arrest of labor leader David Huerta. He was arrested Friday, accused of conspiring to impede an officer during a demonstration. Protesters held signs lambasting Trump and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

Huerta, whose initial court appearance was expected to be held Monday afternoon, is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of janitors, security officers and other workers in the state.

Elsewhere, outside a clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference that their loved ones be released.

The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him.

“Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,” Vasquez’s brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities.

On Sunday, many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and arresting those who refuse to leave. Some of those who stayed threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier. Others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 Freeway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover at one point.

The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were “overwhelmed” by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble.

Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend. One was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers.

Trump responded to McDonnell on Truth Social, telling him to arrest protesters in face masks.

“Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” he wrote.

Governor says Guard not needed

Newsom called on Trump to rescind the Guard deployment in a letter Sunday, calling it a “serious breach of state sovereignty.”

The governor, who was was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials, also told protesters that they were playing into Trump’s plans and would face arrest for violence or property destruction.

“Trump wants chaos and he’s instigated violence,” he said. “Stay peaceful. Stay focused. Don’t give him the excuse he’s looking for.”

The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.

Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control. He mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles.

Clashes escalate as National Guard troops arrive

National Guard troops stood shoulder to shoulder Sunday morning in LA, carrying long guns and riot shields as protesters shouted “shame” and “go home.” After some demonstrators closely approached the Guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street.

Minutes later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully. Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them.

Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently. By evening, police had shut down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles.

Flash-bang grenades echoed out every few seconds into the evening.

Deployment follows days of protest

On Friday, federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.

The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement.

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is ”a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

In San Francisco, officers arrested and later released about 155 people for refusing orders to disperse, said officer Paulina Henderson with the city’s police department.

Officers monitoring one protest declared an unlawful assembly when people in the group became violent, the San Francisco Police Department said. Many protesters left the scene, but some remained while others moved to another area where they vandalized buildings and a police vehicle.

Sullivan reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writers Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles, Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, and Jake Offenhartz in New York contributed to this report.

Military Times editor Beth Sullivan contributed to this report.

The inspector general’s request focuses on how information about the March 15 airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen was shared on the messaging app.

This comes as Hegseth is scheduled to testify before Congress next week for the first time since his confirmation hearing. He is likely to face questions under oath not only about his handling of sensitive information but also the wider turmoil at the Pentagon following the departures of several senior aides and an internal investigation over information leaks.

Hegseth already has faced questions over the installation of an unsecured internet line in his office that bypassed the Pentagon’s security protocols and revelations that he shared details about the military strikes in multiple Signal chats.

One of the chats included his wife and brother, while the other included President Donald Trump’s top national security officials and inadvertently included The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.

Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson had no comment on Friday, citing the pending investigation. The inspector general’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Besides finding out whether anyone was asked to delete Signal messages, the inspector general also is asking some past and current staffers who were with Hegseth on the day of the strikes who posted the information and who had access to his phone, according to the two people familiar with the investigation and the documents reviewed by the AP. The people were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans have said that the information Hegseth posted to the Signal chats before the military jets had reached their targets could have put those pilots’ lives at risk and that for any lower-ranking members of the military it would have led to their firing.

Hegseth has said none of the information was classified. Multiple current and former military officials have said there is no way details with that specificity, especially before a strike took place, would have been OK to share on an unsecured device.

“I said repeatedly, nobody is texting war plans,” Hegseth told Fox News Channel in April after reporting emerged about the chat that included his family members. “I look at war plans every day. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things. That’s what I’ve said from the beginning.”

Trump has made clear that Hegseth continues to have his support, saying during a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia that the defense secretary “went through a lot” but “he’s doing really well.”

Hegseth has limited his public engagements with the press since the Signal controversy. He has yet to hold a Pentagon press briefing, and his spokesman has briefed reporters there only once.

The inspector general is investigating Hegseth at the request of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications, but it can be hacked and is not approved for carrying classified information. On March 14, one day before the strikes against the Houthis, the Defense Department cautioned personnel about the vulnerability of the app.

Trump has said his administration targeted the Houthis over their “unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism.” He has noted the disruption Houthi attacks caused through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, key waterways for energy and cargo shipments between Asia and Europe through Egypt’s Suez Canal.

The Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, between November 2023 until January this year. Their leadership described the attacks as aimed at ending the Israeli war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The aborted landings on May 1 added to general unease about continued close calls between government helicopters and commercial airplanes near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport following a deadly midair collision in January between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people.

In March, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that helicopters would be permanently restricted from flying on the same route where the collision occurred. After the May 1 incident, the Army paused all flights into and out of the Pentagon as it works with the FAA to address safety issues.

Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, the head of Army aviation, told the AP in an exclusive interview that the controllers lost contact with the Black Hawk because a temporary control tower antenna was not set up in a location where it would be able to maintain contact with the helicopter as it flew low and rounded the Pentagon to land. He said the antenna was set up during construction of a new control tower and has now been moved to the roof of the Pentagon.

Braman said federal air traffic controllers inside the Washington airport also didn’t have a good fix on the location of the helicopter. The Black Hawk was transmitting data that should have given controllers its precise location, but Braman said FAA officials told him in meetings last week that the data the controllers were getting from multiple feeds and sensors was inconclusive, with some of it deviating by as much as three-quarters of a mile.

“It certainly led to confusion of air traffic control of where they were,” Braman said.

The FAA declined to comment on whether its controllers could not get a good fix on the Black Hawk’s location due to their own equipment issues, citing the ongoing crash investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is pushing to have the agency modernize its air traffic control systems and equipment, which has failed controllers responsible for Newark Liberty International Airport’s airspace at critical moments in recent weeks.

In the initial reporting on the aborted landings, an FAA official suggested the Army helicopter was on a “scenic route.”

But the ADSB-Out data, which the Army shared with the AP on Friday, shows the crew hewed closely to its approved flight path — directly up the I-395 highway corridor, which is called Route 5, then rounding the Pentagon.

FAA air traffic controllers at the airport aborted the landing of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 during the Black Hawk’s initial flight toward the Pentagon because they realized both aircraft would be nearing the Pentagon around the same time, Braman said.

Because of the 20-second loss of contact, the Pentagon’s tower did not clear the Black Hawk to land, so the helicopter circled the Pentagon a second time. That’s when air traffic controllers at the airport decided to abort the landing of a second jet, a Republic Airways Embraer E170, because they did not have a confident fix on the Black Hawk’s location, Braman said.

The event has grown extensively in scope and size since Army planners started working on a festival two years ago to mark the day and have now added a military parade — which President Donald Trump had unsuccessfully tried to do during his first term.

The Army’s anniversary celebration is set for June 14, which also happens to be Trump’s birthday.

It will include concerts, fireworks, NFL players, fitness competitions and displays all over the National Mall for daylong festivities. The Army expects as many as 200,000 people could attend and that putting on the celebration will cost an estimated $25 million to $45 million.

Here’s what to expect during the all-day festival and 6 p.m. parade:

The tanks and armored vehicles

The Army was putting 28 M1 Abrams main battle tanks onto rail cars at Fort Cavazos in Texas on Wednesday. The tanks weigh more than 60 tons apiece and will take about nine or 10 days to travel by rail to Maryland, where they will be loaded onto trucks to be driven into Washington, D.C., and offloaded at a staging area near the Lincoln Memorial.

On the day of the parade, those tanks as well as 28 tracked Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 28 wheeled Stryker combat vehicles, four tracked M-109 Paladin self-propelled howitzers and other towed artillery will maneuver to the start of the parade route just off the National Mall. They will travel toward the White House, driving over thick metal plating to protect the streets at some parade points where the vehicles make a sharp turn.

The Army said it’s also planning some additional asphalt work and putting new rubber padding on the tanks’ metal tracks to try to minimize street damage.

The influx of soldiers

More than 6,700 soldiers will travel from bases around the country to participate in the parade and festival and spend June 11-15 housed in two nearby federal buildings, sleeping on cots and having packaged military meals ready-to-eat, or MREs, for breakfast and lunch.

They will get a hot meal for dinner and a $69 per diem to buy additional food as they want, Army spokesman Steve Warren said.

They will be forming units that represent each of the nation’s major conflicts, starting with the Revolutionary War. For each conflict, 60 soldiers will wear period uniforms supplied by an event company representing that war and be followed by 400 soldiers from their same base in present-day uniforms.

Not all of the soldiers participating will be in the parade — or even on the ground. For instance, Col. Anne McClain, an Army astronaut currently serving on the International Space Station, will participate.

At the end of the parade, the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team will jump over the White House, landing near Trump to present him with a folded flag, and 250 new recruits or reenlisting service members will be sworn in to the Army by Trump.

The aircraft and helicopters buzzing overhead

More than 50 helicopters and aircraft representing different wars will fly over the city — pairing up with the units on the ground as they pass the president.

For example, as units marching in World War II uniforms pass Trump, a P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft and a B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft are expected to fly overhead.

As units representing more recent conflicts pass, Army H-1 Huey, AH-1 Cobra, AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopters will appear in the sky.

The helicopters are flying at a time when sharing D.C.’s airspace is still a sensitive issue after a January collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet killed 67.

Warren said the Army has worked closely with the Federal Aviation Administration on routes, and the helicopters will take off from Andrews Air Force Base to fly toward the Capitol.

It’s likely D.C.’s airspace may be temporarily closed to airline traffic as the sky parade occurs, the Army said.

The CH-53 Super Stallion crashed Feb. 6, 2024, during a late night flight when it hit a mountain near Pine Valley, California, on its way back to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

Investigators found that multiple factors likely led to the crash. But as with several previous military aviation accidents, investigators had to make some assumptions because the CH-53 was not equipped with a flight data recorder capable of surviving a crash.

The limits of night vision goggles also have been identified as a potential factor in the fatal collision of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet near Reagan Washington National Airport in January that killed 67 people. The goggles can reduce a pilot’s ability to determine distance and can be degraded by weather or light pollution.

The Marine helicopter was flying in icing conditions with low cloud cover that obscured the mountainous terrain along the flight path. The crew was using night vision goggles, which likely did not give them the clear picture needed to avoid a crash into terrain, investigators found.

The precipitation and clouds probably degraded the goggles’ performance and possibly gave the crew a false sense that they were maintaining the safe distances needed in the flight, investigators found.

The pilot and crew chief “most likely believed they were operating legally and within their comfort level,” investigators found.

Ultimately, though, investigators found that the pilot’s failure to avoid the terrain was the primary cause of the crash. They also found that the commanding officer, who was relieved of duty due to a loss of confidence in an ability to lead, should not have given the crew approval to fly.

The Super Stallion vanished during the overnight flight on its way back to Miramar from Creech Air Force Base. The helicopter was discovered in the morning near the mountain community of Pine Valley.

All five Marines aboard were killed in the crash: Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Donovan Davis, 21, of Olathe, Kansas; Sgt. Alec Langen, 23, of Chandler, Arizona; Capt. Miguel Nava, 28, of Traverse City, Michigan; Capt. Jack Casey, 26, of Dover, New Hampshire; and Capt. Benjamin Moulton, 27, of Emmett, Idaho.

In interviews contained in the report, multiple members of the squadron said that the crews had been stretched thin because their unit had to fly additional missions to compensate for last year’s monthslong grounding of the V-22 Osprey fleet.

Hegseth also told the National Guard to shed 20% of its top positions.

In a memo dated Monday, Hegseth said the cuts will remove “redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership.”

On top of the cuts to the top-tier four-star generals, Hegseth has also directed the military to shed an additional 10% of its general and flag officers across the force, which could include any one-star or above or officer of equivalent Navy rank.

There are about 800 general officers in the military, but only 44 of those are four-star generals or flag officers. Hegseth has already directed the firings of more than a half-dozen three- and four-star generals since taking office, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ Brown, saying those eliminations were “a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take.”

Hegseth said the cuts aimed to free the military from “unnecessary bureaucratic layers.”

The Pentagon is under pressure to slash spending and personnel as part of the broader federal government cuts pushed by President Donald Trump’s administration and ally Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Hegseth last week ordered a sweeping transformation to the Army to “build a leaner, more lethal force,” including merging or closing headquarters, dumping outdated vehicles and aircraft, slashing as many as 1,000 headquarters staff in the Pentagon and shifting personnel to units in the field.

Also last week the Army confirmed that there will be a military parade on Trump’s birthday in June, as part of the celebration around the service’s 250th birthday. Officials say it will cost tens of millions of dollars.

The cuts were first reported by CNN.