Task & Purpose

Nearly two decades after the first littoral combat ship entered naval service, the final one was commissioned this weekend. The crew, shipbuilders, officials and family gathered Saturday near the banks of Lake Erie in the city of Cleveland for the commissioning of the USS Cleveland, the Navy’s newest ship . The Cleveland is a 378-foot long ship, with a crew of roughly 90 sailors. It’s the 16th and final Freedom-class ship to enter service.  The speakers at the ceremony were upbeat, w

Thousands of sailors from the Ford Carrier Strike Group were awarded the Presidential Unit Citation today for their active role in the war with Iran, where they dealt with constant threat of enemy attack while carrying out or coordinating hundreds of strikes on Iranian targets. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presented the Presidential Unit Citation to the crews in Norfolk, Virginia. According to the citation, signed by Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao, the award is for “outstanding

American and Nigerian forces killed the Islamic State’s director of global operations in a Friday evening operation, U.S. African Command said. The joint operation killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, according to President Donald Trump, who announced the mission and al-Minuki’s death in a social media post Friday night. Trump described al-Minuki as ISIS’s “second in command” globally. The strike was the largest U.S. operation in Nigeria since Christmas, when U.S. forces fired multiple missiles at mil

A long-planned deployment of an Army long-range fire battalion to Germany has been canceled, a defense official confirmed to Task & Purpose.  The 3rd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment had been scheduled to deploy to Germany later this year as part of episodic deployments of long-range fire capabilities that both countries announced in July 2024, Task & Purpose has confirmed. Now, several hundred soldiers from the Fort Drum, New York, unit are in limbo.  CNN first r

The Army is buying rifle-mounted smart scopes that soldiers can use to shoot down small drones, similar to the advanced fire control systems being used by Marines. Smart Shooter recently announced that it had received a $10.7 million contract from the Army for its SMASH 2000LE fire control systems and related support services, a company news release says. The smart scopes are scheduled to be delivered between July and September. Neither the company nor the Army specified how many systems t

A Navy sailor will be paid $60,000 by a Florida property management company that obtained an “unlawful” eviction notice against him, according to federal prosecutors.  The legal effects of the eviction, according to court documents, turned the sailor “functionally homeless” while his wife was forced to live with her parents in a different state, according to court documents. Rental Marketing Solutions, LLC, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based property management company, will have to pay $60,0

Those looking to take on the Army’s infamously difficult Ranger School will have to start by fixing bayonets, then run through smoke, razor wire, and machine gun bursts, hop in a trench, and stab the enemy with cold steel. In April, Ranger Class 06-26 became the first to, well, take a stab at the school’s new bayonet course, a quarter-mile event in which students crawl through tunnels, sprint over open fields, and negotiate barbed wire fence lines. Along the way, students must drive their bay

When a veteran passed away in 2023 from heart disease, their family asked the Department of Veterans Affairs for service-connected benefits they believed their death triggered.  An automated system at the VA reviewed the request and two days later approved payments totaling $22,692. But the system was wrong, an Inspector General report found in April, and not for the first time.  In all, the VA system approved “at least” $2.7 million in incorrect payments between September 202

The Army recovered the body of the second of two soldiers who went missing this month after falling into the ocean while training in Morocco.  U.S. Army Europe and Africa said that Air Force pararescuemen with the 406th Air Expeditionary Wing as well as Moroccan search and rescue teams located the remains of Spc. Mariyah Symone Collington, 19, on Tuesday, May 12, 10 days after she and another soldier were declared missing near the Cap Draa Training Area in southwestern Morocco during Afr

The Army canceled a major deployment of a cavalry unit to Europe, just as soldiers began rolling out. A U.S. official confirmed to Task & Purpose that the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division’s deployment to Poland was canceled by a Defense Department memo that was released on May 1. A portion of the unit that is already in Poland has been directed to return to the United States, the official said. The exact reason for the cancellation is unclear.  Military Times

An airman who set himself on fire two years ago in Washington, D.C. to protest Israeli military actions in Gaza did so with a clear head, and not because of a mental health crisis, his wing commander said in newly obtained documents. With that determination, the senior leader overturned an Air Force investigating officer’s conclusion that Aaron Bushnell’s final act was brought on by psychiatric problems. Instead, the commander wrote, Bushnell’s death was due to his own “misconduct” a

Just as all Marines are riflemen, they must now also be proficient in a new battlefield technology: Artificial intelligence, or AI. All Marines have until Dec. 31 to complete a roughly 45-minute online course about the basics of AI, according to a recent Marine Administrative Message, or MARADMIN. Civilians working for the Marine Corps are also “highly encouraged” to take the course, the message says. “Designed for Marines of all ranks and occupational specialties, the course emphasizes AI

In a combat experiment that oddly resembles the claw game at an arcade, the Army will strap a test dummy under an oversized drone at an exercise in Poland this week, the first step toward eventually evacuating injured soldiers from active combat. As part of ongoing NATO exercises in Poland, the Army will test whether an oversized quadcopter, known as a Flowcopter, can safely fly a casualty out of combat and to a nearby field hospital, officials confirmed to Task & Purpose.  The Poland

All eyes may be on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, but the ongoing mission at the U.S.-Mexico border continues as soldiers from the 101st Airborne and 1st Armored divisions will soon deploy to the region as part of the latest rotation of troops. The move comes after the 101st’s headquarters and artillery elements were deployed to the border in the fall. On Tuesday, the Army announced that four units would be part of this summer’s deployments to the southern border. About 8,700 U.S. troops o

Two Air Force rescue squadrons have been awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for their roles in the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, including the desperate evacuation of American citizens and Afghans from Kabul in August 2021. The Presidential Unit Citation is the highest award that U.S. military troops can be awarded for collective action as a unit, rather than individual valor. Past recipients include the 2nd Ranger Battalion in World War II for the daring capture of Pointe

The inaugural Best Jumpmaster competition at Fort Benning, Georgia, began in a similar style as many of the Army’s “Best” competitions: with competitors taking a PT test and starting off on a long ruck march. But as the 28 competitors made their way over the 13-mile course, they stopped along the way to be graded on a variety of jumpmaster skills. Then over the course of the three-day event, the paratroopers were put through skill tests that ranged from aircraft inspections

The Coast Guard plans to grow its specialized interdiction teams who hop onto fast-moving cocaine submarines and fast-rope down to oil tankers to make mid-ocean seizures, according to service officials and a fiscal 2027 budget proposal. In all, the Coast Guard wants to spend about $80 million to add more than 650 personnel to its Deployable Specialized Forces units and set up a new Special Missions Command overseeing them. The teams, which train in both traditional law enforcement and tactics

A non-profit group’s offer of $150 towards the rising cost of gas for Air Force and Space Force enlisted troops proved to be so popular that it ran out of money today, just hours after opening for applications, according to the group. The Air & Space Forces Aid Society, or AFAS, announced the program last week and opened an online application portal Monday for a one-time grant to eligible airmen and guardians between the ranks of E-1 and E-6. According to a description on an AFAS flye

Searchers recovered the body of a U.S. soldier who disappeared a week ago in ocean waters along a Moroccan shoreline, Army officials said Sunday. 1st. Lt. Kendrick Lamont Key Jr., 27, of Richmond, Virginia, was one of two soldiers who went missing May 2 at an international training exercise in Morocco, according to local reports. More than 1,000 U.S. and Moroccan military and civil personnel have been involved in the search operations, the Army said. Key was found a week after he was one o

Six F-16 fighter pilots were presented with the Distinguished Flying Cross last week for their role in Operation Midnight Hammer, last year’s strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities Gen.Adrian Spain, head of Air Combat Command, presented the honors — the highest award for valor during flight — on May 5, although the Air Force did not announce the awards until Friday, May 8. The pilots were part of a massive force of 125 planes that took part in the June 21-22 strikes on three Iranian faci