US Paratroopers Headed to Middle East

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The 82nd Airborne Division was ordered Tuesday to begin deploying to the Middle East, where about 2,000 paratroopers are headed to potentially join operations against Iran. The soldiers are being drawn from the 82nd Airborne’s quick-reaction brigade of 3,000 soldiers known as the Immediate Response Force, which is designed to mobilize anywhere in the world in 18 hours, reports Stars and Stripes.

The White House is telling Iran Trump prefers a peaceful path, but is prepared to “hit harder than they have ever been hit before” if necessary, according to Aljazeera live running coverage of the Iran war. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says US messages through different mediators, “does not mean negotiations.”  And Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, says Tehran warned Washington against sacrificing US soldiers for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Netanyahu’s delusions.”

Military Times reports an American-operated Patriot air defense battery likely fired the interceptor missile involved in a pre-dawn explosion that injured dozens of civilians and tore through homes in US-ally Bahrain 10 days into the war on Iran, according to an analysis by academic researchers examined by Reuters.

The Amazon Web Services region in Bahrain has been “disrupted” amid the current conflict ‌in the Middle East, marking the second time in a month that its operations have been affected by the war, reports Reuters. The disruption is due to drone activity in the area, an Amazon spokesperson said.

Democrats in the House and Senate are seeking answers about the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school struck the first day of the US-Israel bombing strikes on Iran, specifically asking if the Maven Smart System, built by data analytics company Palantir Technologies was used to identify the Shajareh Tayyebeh school as a target, reports Military Times. Maven compresses an array of intelligence, classifies targets, recommends weapons, and provides the fastest ever kill-chain reasoning and decision making on the battlefield. And it uses Anthropic’s Claude AI model to semi-autonomously rank targets by strategic importance, drafting automated legal justifications for each strike along the way.

Ukraine has deployed specialist teams to five Middle Eastern countries to help intercept drones and advise on air-defense measures, with officials saying they expect to conclude several significant agreements, reports Military Times. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said teams had been sent to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan, states that have come under fire during the Iran war.

Google’s threat intelligence arm officially launched its anticipated disruptive cyber unit on Monday, as the Trump administration seeks a more offensive, proactive US approach in cyberspace against foreign hacker groups and cybercriminals. NextGov/FCW reports, the unit will use legal authorizations and technical capabilities to impede cyber threat groups, though company execs say it will not go so far as to hack into adversaries’ systems.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said on Sunday that American allies are beginning to “come around” on providing support to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which President Trump has urged them to do, reports The Hill.

An armed, operational unmanned surface vessel manufactured by US defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp. washed ashore on Turkey’s Black Sea coast on March 20, 2026, prompting a security response that culminated in the vessel’s destruction in a controlled offshore detonation, reports Defense News.

The USS Gerald R. Ford arrived at Naval Support Activity Souda Bay in Greece for maintenance after surviving an onboard fire nearly two weeks earlier, reports Military Times. The Navy has not yet revealed the cause of the fire that took more than 30 hours to douse and left more than 600 service members without a bed.

The pilot of the F-35A hit by ground fire in Iran and forced into an emergency landing suffered shrapnel wounds. The military has not provided details, but Air & Space Forces Magazine reports, the aircraft was most likely damaged by a surface-to-air missile rather than by small-arms fire or another projectile, given the altitude at which the F-35 typically flies. The incident is under investigation, according to US military officials.

Also pending investigation is the March 12 deadly mishap involving two KC-135s over friendly airspace. The Air Force must upgrade its KC-135 tankers to give aircrews more battlespace awareness, say former air-mobility leaders who warn that more tragedies might follow the recent deadly crash, reports Defense One.

The Army increased its maximum enlistment age to 42 this month, reports Stars and Stripes. The Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard all accept recruits up to 42. The Navy accepts recruits up to 41, and the Marine Corps only accepts enlisted recruits up to 28 years old.

DefSec Pete Hegseth, standing in the Pentagon, issued a call to the American people to pray for victory in battle and the safety of their troops. “Every day, on bended knee, with your family, in your schools, in your churches,” he said, “in the name of Jesus Christ.” Hegseth’s imbuing US military actions with a Christian moral underpinning stands out as the US and Israeli bomb a majority-Shiite Muslim nation., says The New York Times.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State, founded in 1947 to advocate for the disassociation of religion from government, has sued the Departments of Defense and Labor for not responding to Freedom of Information Act requests pertaining to what they claim is “how the federal government is advancing Christian nationalism,” reports Military.com. “The federal government’s role is to serve the public, not to proselytize,” Americans United President and CEO Rachel Laser said.

The Army officially received its first version of a new Black Hawk helicopter that can be controlled by an Army aviator inside the aircraft, remotely via tablet, or fly autonomously, reports Task & Purpose.

NATO has pulled several hundred personnel out of Iraq following attacks from Iran on British, French, and Italian bases in Iraq, reports CBS News. The last of the personnel from the group, known as NATO Mission Iraq, left Iraq on Friday, the alliance said. The personnel come from NATO allies as well as from partner countries Austria and Australia.

The United States is currently in talks with Denmark and Greenland over a wider American military presence on the island, Air Force GEN Gregory Guillot told senators earlier this week, reports Task & Purpose. The US operates the Pituffik Space Base on Greenland and wants to add special operations forces and potentially operate in three new areas on the island.

Emil Michael, the Trump administration’s Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer, a central figure in DoD’s blacklisting the AI company Anthropic, holds stock in an Anthropic competitor and investments in other AI, cryptocurrency, and robotics companies with business before the Pentagon, reports The Lever.

A federal district court judge issued a temporary order requiring Veterans Affairs to reinstate a collective bargaining agreement with the National Veterans Affairs Council, a labor union representing many VA workers at medical centers and cemeteries. The ruling restores access to union safeguards, including negotiations for fair wages and grievance procedures, for more than 300,000 VA employees, reports Stars and Stripes.

The Hawaii National Guard has mobilized for search and rescue operations amid Hawaii floods, reports Task & Purpose. Troops have helped rescue more than 200 people as large parts of Oahu remain drenched from flash floods in recent days.

Contracts awarded in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., March 23-25, 2026:

C and C JV LLC,* Chesapeake, Virginia, was awarded a firm-fixed-price contract for dredging, stockpiling of sand materials, and construction of dikes. The amount of this action is $53,382,757, with a total cumulative face value of $122,185,770. Bids were solicited via the internet with five received. Work will be performed in Fishing Creek, Maryland, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 14, 2027. Fiscal 2025 civil construction funds in the amount of $53,382,757 were obligated at the time of the award. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, is the contracting activity (W912DR-26-CA-008).

Dynamic-HHS JV,* Winnebago, Nebraska (W91278-26-D-A063); Pegasus International Mentor Protege LLC,* Plantation, Florida (W91278-26-D-A064); Facility Services Management Inc., Clarksville, Tennessee (W91278-26-D-A065); J&J Maintenance doing business as CBRE Government & Defense Services, McLean, Virginia (W91278-26-D-A066); and Hospital Housekeeping Systems, Dripping Springs, Texas (W91278-26-D-A067), will compete for each order of the $249,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract for operation and maintenance with incidental repair and minor construction. Bids were solicited via the internet with seven received. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of March 23, 2031. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems, Manassas, Virginia, is awarded a $478,359,847 cost only, cost-plus-incentive-fee, firm-fixed-price, and fixed-price incentive, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract for engineering and technical support and production of the Integrated Submarine Imaging System for new-construction and in-service submarines. This contract includes options which, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to $1,187,724,017. Work will be performed in Manassas, Virginia, and is expected to be completed by March 2036. Fiscal 2025 other procurement (Navy) funds in the amount of $600,000 will be obligated to satisfy the minimum guarantee and begin engineering efforts under delivery order N00024-26-F-6241, and the funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The requirement was competitively procured through full and open competition with one offeror received in response to this solicitation. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-26-D-6203).

Deloitte Consulting LLP, Arlington, Virginia, has been awarded a $12,411,430 firm-fixed-priced contract for Headquarters Air Combat Command (HQ ACC) transformation implementation. This contract provides for knowledge-based services to support HQ ACC in transforming its organization and processes to meet global security challenges. Work will be performed at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia; Eglin Air Force Base, Florida; and the Air Force Pentagon, Washington, D.C, and is expected to be complete by February 28, 2030. This contract was a competitive acquisition and one offer was received. Fiscal year 2026 operations and maintenance funds in the amount of $6,900,000 are being obligated at the time of award. The Air Combat Command Acquisition Management and Integration Center, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia is the contracting activity (FA489026F0045).

UPDATE: Spartan Medical Inc.,** Gaithersburg, Maryland (SPE2DF-26-D-0008, $15,000,000), has been added as an awardee to the multiple award contract for consumable dental supplies for the Defense Logistics Agency Electronic Catalog, issued against solicitation SPE2DE-25-R-0002 and awarded Feb. 12, 2026. The contracting activity is Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.