An Israeli military strike can at the most delay Iranian nuclear programme by a couple of years, a top Pentagon official has said, noting that such a move would not be "prudent".
The United States has asked China to "immediately" return its unmanned naval probe in international waters in the South China Sea which it alleged has been "unlawfully" seized by them.
The United States is lagging behind India, China and Brazil in rate of growth in research and development (R&D) indicators, a Pentagon report has said. The global investment in R&D rose to nearly USD 1.1 trillion in 2007 in the three major regions where R&D is funded, the report said.
'Pakistan has worsted India in the Afghan proxy war and the defeat becomes a template of regional politics,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The US is in desperate need to conjure up an ideology-driven relationship with India, to enable it to boost its arms exports to the Indian market, says M K Bhadrakumar.
"Our expectations are straight forward: Taliban and Haqqani leadership and attack planners should no longer be able to find safe haven or conduct operations from Pakistani soil," Pentagon Press Secretary Army Col Rob Manning told reporters during an off-camera news conference.
United States President Barack Obama paid his last respect to the soldiers killed in Afghanistan when the helicopter that were carrying them exploded mid-air after being reportedly hit by a rocket propelled grenade.
The offer of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to India is an example that US holds India's military modernisation in high regard, a top Pentagon official has said.
United States Defence Secretary Leon Panetta, who places much importance to America's relationship with India, is looking forward to his maiden visit to India in his capacity as head of the Pentagon, a senior US official has said.
United States President-elect Donald Trump has formally nominated James Mattis, a retired 4-star Marine Corps general who has long voiced concerns about the threat posed by Iran, as the Defence Secretary to replace Ashton Carter.
There is seething anger among the senior administration officials -- at State, Commerce and the Pentagon -- and representatives of business and industry that New Delhi's decision was wholly political and much of the finger-pointing was at Defence Minister A K Antony and the Defence Research and Development Organisation.
The current impasse in ties between India and Pakistan is unlikely to end soon given the fragile government in Islamabad, which is overshadowed by powerful military which heavily influences policies on Kashmir and Afghanistan, a top Pentagon official has said.
"India's historic leadership of the non-alignment movement and desire to maintain strategic autonomy somewhat constrain cooperation at a level USPACOM (US Pacific Command) desires," the US Pacific Command Commander Admiral Robert Willard said in his testimony before House Armed Services Committee.
'Biden's promise of returning to 'normalcy' after Trump appears to mean that the same old politicians, who are responsible for the 'endless wars' in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, are being brought out of the woodwork after four years,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Pakistan and its leaders consider India as an existential threat to them not terrorism or Afghanistan, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has said, noting that Islamabad needs to do more in the war against terrorism.
While the announcement of the deal came on Friday, at a time of increased tension with Iran, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said in a statement that the deal was inked on December 25 when the US and UAE signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) for a Foreign Military Sales-configured Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System, valued at approximately $3.48 billion.
Despite increased political and economic relationship between India and China, tensions remains along their border with rising instances of border violation and aggressive border patrolling by Chinese soldiers, the Pentagon has informed the United States Congress.
Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, under pressure from his colleagues to "reduce" ties with the United States following the unilateral American raid that killed Osama bin Laden, is said to be "fighting to survive".
The alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will be tried in a military commission at the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center along with four suspected co-conspirators, the Pentagon said.
Nearly 200 fighters at an Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent terror training camp in the Af-Pak border region were killed in a recent attack by the US and Afghan commandos.
Even months after India decided to forego the United States bid for the fighter aircraft deal worth $11 billion, the Pentagon apparently is still smarting over this rejection, arguing that it was an enormous disappointment and that New Delhi by its action had lost out on some of the state-of-the art technology.
The strongest quake to strike eastern America in more than a century rattled offices in the United States' capital. Authorities evacuated buildings as far as New York and shut down two nuclear power plants.
A major earthquake measuring about 6.0 rattled offices on Tuesday in the US capital Washington and led to panicked evacuations at the Indian embassy and in as far away as New York.
As the clamour in the United States Congress to cut off aid to Pakistan -- or at the very least suspend the massive American economic and military largesse to Islamabad --continued to grow to a crescendo, the top civilian and military leadership at the Pentagon warned against such punitive action, saying it would be counterproductive and inimical to US's security interests.
The US seeks to expand its military co-operation with India on a range of issues including non-proliferation and counter-terrorism, to expand the scope and participation of multilateral exercises in Asia, a Pentagon report said.
The United States and Pakistan are engaged in a billing dispute, with Washington rejecting over 40 per cent of the claims submitted by Islamabad as expenses to fight Al Qaeda and other terrorists along the Afghanistan border, according to a report.
The project nicknamed Falcon HTV-2 being developed by the Pentagon and the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency has the capability to reach anywhere in the world in less than 60 minutes.
Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta will move to Pentagon to become new US Defence Secretary to replace Robert Gates while his top military commander in Afghanistan Gen David Petraeus is to takeover as the new CIA Director.
The US-Pak military ties are going through a 'very difficult time,' a top Pentagon official has conceded, but Washington is nowhere close to severing its ties with its longstanding ally.
'The US and India continue to use their deepening relationship to build new partnerships within and beyond the Indo-Pacific.'
With BRIC nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, calling for ceasefire in Libya, a top Pentagon official on Wednesday said that the onus for this lies with the Gaddafi forces, which needs to pull back its troops from cities and stop attacking civilians.
The US president said that there is a lot of "dislike" (between India and Pakistan).
United States President Barack Obama on Friday telephoned Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan to discuss the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and killed over 360 people, as the Pentagon geared up for a possible relief and rescue operation in affected areas.
Julian Assange, the founder of the whistleblower website WikiLeaks that released thousands of United States state department's secret documents on Sunday, is under the scanner of investigators who are trying to figure out whether or not he had violated criminal laws, and could even be charged under the Espionage Act.
While Wikileaks did not say in its message what the third instalment of their release would cover. However, a Reuters despatch from Washington DC said that classified US diplomatic cables reporting corruption allegations against foreign governments and leaders are expected to feature in the official documents that Wikileaks plans to release.
Two United States troopers were killed in a shooting incident near Frankfurt International Airport on Wednesday, according to media reports.Some reports claimed that two others were seriously injured in the incident which reportedly took place on board a US military shuttle bus.The two troopers were members of US Air Force stationed at Lakenheath base in the United Kingdom, said the reports.
The US said that there has been no "significant impact" on its military to military relationship with Pakistan after Islamabad refused to release an American diplomat detained on possible murder charges.
The United States is open to Indian participation in its Joint Strike Fighter programme that would finally lead to its purchase of fifth generation F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter, a top Pentagon official has said.
The United States air force nuclear command has been rocked by the worst cheating scandal in proficiency exam involving 34 officers at the inter-continental missile launch of the global strike command, the Pentagon has said.
Aziz Haniffa reports from Washington, DC on how the American Enterprise Institute, a leading neo-conservative DC think-tank, wants the US to boost its military relationship with India.
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