This summer, mechanical problems with a water treatment plant in Hawaii left thousands of soldiers at multiple Army installations on Oahu without central air conditioning. Soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, experienced five to six weeks of unbearably hot temperatures in their rooms last year before AC was restored.

And just last month, soldiers assigned to Fort Carson, Colorado, reported sleeping in their cars to escape hot barracks rooms, Stars and Stripes reported.

Now, Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle is attempting to do something about it. Telle announced Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting the creation of an enterprise-level Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Task Force focused on soldiers’ quality of life.

The task force includes leaders from facility operations, contracting and military engineering who can “cut through bureaucratic silos,” the Army said in a Monday statement.

The announcement follows a directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year to create another military-wide task force to improve barracks.

“Secretary of War Hegseth has said every service member deserves clean, comfortable, and safe housing,” Telle said at the annual meeting in Washington, D.C. “This has never been done before — we’re taking this for the first time to the national level, to deliver results across the country to soldiers.”

Jordan Gillis, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, said in a statement that HVAC is the top quality-of-life complaint that leadership hears from soldiers.

The Government Accountability Office reported in August that the Defense Department does not request enough funding to fully meet its installation maintenance and major improvement needs, leading to a backlog of deferred maintenance at barracks. Hundreds of thousands of service members live in military barracks, with concerns about poor living conditions and management going back decades, according to the government watchdog.

Before the end of the fiscal year in September, the Army directed $15 million toward 44 high-priority HVAC projects across multiple installations, the service said in a statement.

“While that effort brought immediate relief to specific facilities, the [task force] leaders recognized that one-time emergency funding cannot replace a comprehensive, proactive strategy,” the Army said.

Members of the task force will work directly with garrison commanders to find HVAC projects for 2027 and 2028, the Army said. So far, it has identified more than $100 million in projects to be awarded in early 2027.

“This ensures ready-to-award projects are pre-engineered and priced as soon as funds become available,” the service said. “Additionally, the [task force] will utilize regional contracting approaches, utility energy service contracts, and commercial best practices.”

The test, or Neurocognitive Assessment Tool, is computer-based and records neurological activity, such as attention, concentration, reaction time, memory, processing speed and decision-making. Testing started in 2024 in response to reports about the effects that routine weapons training can have on the brain, including traumatic brain injury.

Active-duty, National Guard and Reserve soldiers in high-risk military occupational specialties, including combat engineers and explosive ordnance technicians, as well as troops operating heavy weapons systems, must take the assessment every year, starting soon after they enlist. All other soldiers are required to test every three years.

Medical professionals use the data to monitor service members’ cognitive health throughout their military careers, allowing them to spot significant changes, including potential brain injuries.

“[The NCAT] is an important part of taking care of soldiers, but what this does is, it sets a baseline for reaction times and for memory,” Jordan Gillis, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, said in a release. “By establishing a baseline for all soldiers, we’re able to monitor brain health, as well as … let medical providers help with treatment, if required.”

According to the Sept. 30 release, the Army is expected to publish a directive about the Neurocognitive Assessment Tool and a broader overpressure program, which includes hazard assessment, exposure tracking, risk mitigation, cognitive monitoring, information management, illness and injury reporting and training and education.

“The takeaway is we are trying to take care of soldiers and monitor their health,” Gillis said. “And if there is an impact, we’ll be able to treat them.”

Reaching the milestone of 97% of soldiers being tested on the NCAT “demonstrates our commitment to cognitive safety, medical readiness and warfighting capability,” Gillis added.

The announcement of the milestone came just one month after the Government Accountability Office released the findings of its investigation into the ability of military services to provide the baseline cognitive assessments. Across the services, the Defense Department is hampered by staff shortages and a lack of technology needed to conduct the assessments, the GAO found.

The Pentagon announced in April that it will begin a one-year pilot program to test a new cognitive assessment tool, an app that service members can use to complete assessments. DoD officials said the app will be less resource-intensive than current assessments and will help improve the services’ ability to track exposures.

The 4th Multi-Domain Task Force will focus on synchronizing long-range precision fires in the Indo-Pacific region “to deny, disrupt and disaggregate adversary capabilities” and create advantages for other units in the joint force, the Army said in a release.

The task force includes four battalions and is planned to grow to 2,100 soldiers.

Col. Hugh W.A. Jones assumed command of the task force during Thursday’s ceremony. He previously commanded the 2nd Stryker Brigade, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, leading the brigade when it deployed to the U.S.-Mexico border last year.

“While we build this formation to deter aggression and preserve peace, if war comes, we must be prepared to fight and win,” Jones said during the ceremony. “We owe those in harm’s way every advantage we can give them, while leaving our enemy nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.”

The task force reports to the 7th Infantry Division at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington.

In June, the Army combined the 7th Infantry Division and the 1st Multi-Domain Task Force at Lewis-McChord into the 7th Infantry Division (Multi-Domain Command-Pacific), which serves as the multi-domain operational headquarters. Its mission is to integrate “maneuver, fires, air defense, cyber, space, electronic warfare, intelligence, unmanned systems, sustainment and command-and -control in support of the joint force across the Pacific,” the Army said in a release.

Maj. Gen. Bernard Harrington, commander of the 7th Infantry Division, attended the activation ceremony at Fort Carson.

“You are driving the change our nation demands today, to meet the changing character of war, to prevent conflict, and to maintain a free and open Pacific alongside our allies and partners,” Harrington told soldiers assigned to the new multi-domain task force.

The establishment of the 7th Infantry Division (Multi-Domain Command-Pacific) and the 4th Multi-Domain Task Force are part of a broader transformation initiative “to counter near-peer adversaries in an increasingly complex global landscape,” the Army said.

The initiative includes the service establishing five multi-domain task forces by 2028, according to a Congressional Research Service report. The Army activated the 2nd Multi-Domain Task Force in 2021 at the Clay Kaserne installation in Germany, and stood up the third in Hawaii in 2022. A fifth is planned for Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The units are designed to operate across all domains — land, air, sea, space, cyberspace and information — and “provide combatant commanders with a versatile and potent array of options,” according to the Army.

“As we build this formation, we must never forget that technology earns its value in the hands of well-trained and disciplined soldiers,” Jones said Thursday. “A soldier who solves a difficult problem here may make the difference for an American fighting far beyond the horizon.”

Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, was killed in action during the detonation of unexploded ordnance at Erbil Air Base, Iraq, a release states.

Lt. Gen. John L. Rafferty, commanding general of Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said in a statement that Swinton died “during an operation to safeguard fellow soldiers.”

The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation. A second service member was wounded in the detonation and received treatment for a minor injury, U.S. Central Command said.

Swinton enlisted in the Army in 2017 as an Air Defense Early Warning System Operator. He was stationed in Fayetteville and assigned to D Battery, 2nd Battalion, 55th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 108th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command.

Following his death, Swinton will receive the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Combat Action Badge, the Pentagon said. He will be posthumously promoted to staff sergeant.

“His service will not be forgotten, and his sacrifice is not in vain. We will support Sgt. Swinton’s family and his unit during this difficult period,” Rafferty said. “His loss will inspire his fellow soldiers to continue the mission.”

Swinton’s prior awards and decorations include the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Army Service Ribbon and Combat Action Badge.

Brig. Gen. John L. Dawber, commanding general of the 32nd Army Air and Missile Defense Command, said Swinton “took great pride in his work and the people around him.”

“He answered the call to duty with courage, honor, and selfless dedication,” Dawber said.

Separately, the Pentagon released the identities Monday of two other U.S. soldiers killed in action in recent days in an Iranian ballistic missile and drone attack at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base, Jordan.

U.S. Army Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, of Carrollton, Texas, and 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, died July 17 and July 18, respectively, according to a Department of Defense release.

The deaths bring the toll of American troops killed in the war with Iran to 17.

Currently, the 32 countries that make up the alliance share commercial data through exceptions and workarounds, said Lynch, NATO deputy assistant secretary general for intelligence.

NATO needs new data-use policies, security classification guides, contract frameworks and releasability rules — “unglamorous work” that would have a big impact on military decision-making, he said.

“This past year has made one thing crystal clear: The security environment remains contested, and the advantage belong to those who combine unity of purpose with the speed of action,” Lynch said Monday at the annual GEOINT Symposium, hosted by the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation.

The symposium attracted companies, many of the U.S. military vendors, that among other things track Russian military activity in the Bering Strait, monitor China’s military exercises and last year provided the technology to determine the extent of the damage to Iranian nuclear facilities following Operation Midnight Hammer.

Lynch urged the intelligence professionals present Monday to help NATO update its framework for data-sharing.

Governing commercial intelligence becomes “significantly more complex” when it comes to data processed by artificial intelligence, he said.

“Then, it’s not simply asking who can share what, it’s asking whose model to use on what training data with what documented assumptions with what confidence threshold in what context,” Lynch said, adding that there needs to be one common AI model and interface to be used by commercial and national partners across NATO.

NATO has previously established hundreds of standardization agreements creating common standards for things like air defense, maritime awareness and data formats.

“NATO is quite good at governance,” Lynch said. “The question is whether we apply that same rigor to AI before the technology outpaces the frameworks or after, and the answer will be decided in the next few years.”

Last year, under pressure from President Donald Trump, European NATO members and Canada hit their goal of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense. It marked a 20% increase in overall defense spending, Lynch said, and was the first time the members had met the goal since it was established in 2014.

At the NATO summit in The Hague last year, allies pledged to spend 5% of GDP on defense by 2035.

“Three years ago, that would’ve been considered science fiction,” Lynch said of the spending goal. “The alliance is now actively investing in its own security at a pace and scale we have not seen in a generation.”

However, investing in defense without also putting more money toward intelligence is “capability without awareness,” he said. “More is useless unless information generated gets to the right person in the right form at the right time.”

The company announced April 15 it would establish the Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities for mixing, grinding, casting and assembling. The expansion will more than double manufacturing space at the Virginia site, which currently spans 256,000 square feet.

The announcement follows a January deal between L3Harris and the Pentagon, in which the DoD is investing $1 billion in the company’s Missile Solutions spinoff business to expand capacity on critical missile programs. The investment provided up-front cash that L3Harris needed to increase its solid rocket motor production, modernize its facilities and improve industrial resilience, the Pentagon said at the time.

Last year, L3Harris began construction of a new solid rocket motor production facility at the company’s Aerojet Rocketdyne campus in Camden, Arkansas. It also opened a new and expansive rocket motor parts plant in Huntsville, Alabama.

“The company’s ongoing investments in new facilities, equipment and processes will enable it to double, triple and quadruple solid rocket motor production rates for a range of key programs,” L3Harris said in a release.

News about the Virginia expansion was made alongside Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, who applauded the investment, along with other state and county leaders. The addition of the Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities is expected to create 350 jobs over the next five years.

A United States F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet has been shot down by enemy fire over Iran, U.S. officials confirmed.

One of the aircraft’s two crew members has been rescued, Israeli media first reported. U.S. officials confirmed the reports in statements to CBS News and Axios.

A search for the second crew member is ongoing.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Military Times “the president has been briefed” on the downed fighter jet.

The Pentagon and U.S. Central Command did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Officials in Iran, meanwhile, called for the search and capture of any surviving crew members of the jet, according to reports by the semi-official ISNA news agency and the Young Journalists Club.

The governor of one of the Islamic Republic’s provinces stated that anyone who captures or kills the crew would receive a special commendation.

Video circulating on social media appeared to show a low-flying U.S. Air Force HC-130 refueling a pair of HH-60G Pave Hawks over Iran while conducting a search for the downed crew.

Iranian state media on Friday shared images of aircraft debris alongside claims that Iran had downed a U.S. F-35 fighter jet.

However, images of the aircraft’s tailfin, specifically the red stripe on its vertical stabilizer, are consistent with markings used by the 494th Fighter Squadron, 48th Fighter Wing, based at RAF Lakenheath.

Iran also shared an image of an Advanced Concept Ejection Seat allegedly from the shot down F-15E.

The search-and-rescue effort inside Iran during an ongoing conflict greatly raises the stakes for the United States.

U.S. Central Command on Tuesday issued a statement denying claims that “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps downed an ‘enemy’ fighter jet over Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.”

“All U.S. fighter aircraft are accounted for,” the CENTCOM statement read. “Iran’s IRGC has made the same false claim at least half a dozen times.”

The location of the downed jet has not yet been confirmed.

The shoot-down marks the first time during Operation Epic Fury that a manned U.S. aircraft has been brought down by enemy fire.

A U.S. F-35 fighter jet was reportedly hit by enemy fire during a combat mission over Iran on March 19, but was able to make an emergency landing at a U.S. air base in the region.

Six U.S. airmen were killed on March 12 when their KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq during combat operations.

On March 1, three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were shot down by a Kuwaiti F/A-18 in a friendly fire incident. All six F-15 crew members ejected and were safely recovered.

A total of 13 U.S. service members have been killed during combat actions against Iran.

As of March 31, 348 U.S. personnel have been wounded, Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, U.S. Central Command spokesperson, told DefenseScoop. Of those injured, the majority have since returned to duty. Six remain seriously wounded.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Aureus Greenway Holdings Inc., a golf course holding company backed by the two eldest Trump sons, is merging with drone producer Powerus Corporation, the companies announced Monday in a release that names Eric and Donald Jr. as “notable investors.”

“We’re huge fans of our backers,” said Brett Velicovich, a co-founder of Powerus. “Eric and Don Jr. have been just fantastic supporters behind the scenes. They see the need for us to build drone technology at scale.”

Their investment will enable Powerus to create a manufacturing strategy and acquire other drone technology companies, Velicovich said.

Matthew Saker, the interim chief executive officer of Aureus Greenway Holdings, said in a statement that the merger was a “compelling opportunity” made “even more relevant by current geopolitical uncertainties.”

“The need for and uses of autonomous technologies, such as those produced by Powerus, are front page news given developments in the Middle East and elsewhere,” he said.

News of the merger came nine days after the U.S. and Israel launched military strikes against Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian leaders.

In the days since, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched thousands of one-way drones toward U.S. military bases and diplomatic sites across the region. Trump administration officials conceded that Iran’s Shahed-136 drone, which costs only $20,000 to $50,000 to produce, is proving more disruptive on the battlefield than the Pentagon had anticipated.

The U.S. has turned to Ukraine for assistance in countering the drones, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said March 5. Engineers in Kyiv have developed a range of anti-drone laser systems, some of which cost as little as $1,000.

“We’re learning we have a lot of gaps in our air defenses, and right now there is a race at high levels to fix it, to pour money into it,” said Velicovich, an Army special operations veteran and Fox News commentator. “I worry that soldiers have a false sense of security, tactically, to what is out there, and that makes me very nervous. We need to get the right tools in their hands.”

Velicovich spent more than a year in Ukraine after Russia invaded the country, taking with him U.S. defense technology on behalf of various defense firms.

“In many cases, it failed miserably,” he said of the technology, adding that U.S. counter-drone systems, in particular, “are a real false sense of security wrapped around a very expensive price tag.”

Powerus intends to bring lessons learned in Ukraine to the U.S. military, Velicovich said.

“There are a number of engagements at senior levels of the Pentagon where they’re trying to find ways to formally bring in Ukranian technology and get it in the hands of soldiers,” he said. “We want to be part of that. We want to provide the Department of War an outlet as a company to connect those dots and add an American face to it.”

The Wall Street Journal was the first to report about the investment made by Trump’s sons. Eric Trump shared the article Monday on X with the comment, “I happen to believe drones will be a much better investment than companies that still print newspapers.”

Eric Trump invested in another defense technology company Feb. 17, according to PitchBook, which tracks private capital markets.

The company, Xtend, developed an AI-driven operating system that enables drones “to execute complex, dynamic missions with immediate operational readiness,” it said in a release, which goes on to say Eric Trump made a strategic investment in the company.

“The demand for systems that keep operators out of harm’s way is surging as the global security environment grows more volatile, and this represents one of the largest market opportunities in defense technology today,” Xtend CEO and co-founder Aviv Shapira said in a statement.

Cavoli’s comments come amid concerns from Congress that the Pentagon is considering reducing the number of U.S. troops on the continent.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said last week that “mid-level” Pentagon leaders were working on what he described as a misguided plan to “reduce drastically our military footprint in Europe.” The Defense Department, however, has not made public any proposal to cut force levels there.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday, panel chairman Rep. Michael Rogers, R-Mich., asked Cavoli for his recommendation.

The number of U.S. troops in Europe increased by about 20,000 under former President Joe Biden in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. There have been roughly 100,000 troops there since then.

“It’s my advice to maintain that force posture as it is now,” Cavoli said. “Since we originally surged forces forward in 2022, we have periodically reviewed for structure both the military and policy level, and I have consistently recommended throughout that period to maintain the forces we surged forward, and I would continue to do so now if asked.”

The same day Cavoli suggested keeping forces in Europe, his command announced it was shuffling U.S. forces within Poland, away from a Ukraine support hub.

Military equipment and personnel were moving out of Jasionka, Poland, to other sites in the country, said U.S. Army Europe and Africa, which noted that the decision came after months of planning with NATO allies.

Military aid will continue to flow to Ukraine via Jasionka under the supervision of Polish and NATO leaders, with a smaller U.S. military force at the site, the Army said.

“After three years at Jasionka this is an opportunity to right-size our footprint and save American taxpayers tens of millions of dollars per year,” Gen. Christopher Donahue, commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said in a statement.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

The soldiers, all part of 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, have been missing since early Tuesday, when they were conducting a maintenance mission to recover another Army vehicle during a training exercise, according to U.S. Army Europe and Africa. The training site is the General Silvestras Žukauskas Training Area near Pabrade, north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania.

Search and recovery efforts have continued without pause since the soldiers were reported missing, the Army said in a statement Thursday. The initial search included military helicopters, Lithuanian diving teams and hundreds of U.S. and Lithuanian soldiers and law enforcement officers looking through thick forests and swampy terrain.

Now, personnel are focusing on the area where the armored vehicle was found.

“We are leveraging every available U.S. and Lithuanian asset to coordinate for and provide the required resources for this effort,” U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, the commanding general of 1st Armored Division, said in a statement.

As of Thursday, thick mud and soft ground were keeping emergency personnel from accessing the vehicle and complicating and slowing the recovery efforts, the Army said. Engineers were creating berms to establish a contained area, from which water and mud could be dredged away to better stabilize the ground.

“Due to the terrain, this is an incredibly complex engineering effort. The team on the ground is working to remove enough water and mud for rescue teams to safely reach, stabilize, and access the vehicle,” Maj. Robin Bruce, 1st Armored Division Engineer, said in a statement. “The team is exploring every available option to speed up this process.”

Families of the soldiers are being updated about the recovery efforts, the Army said. The service has not yet released the names of the four troops.

NATO on Wednesday clarified comments Secretary-General Mark Rutte made earlier that day, when he suggested the soldiers had died, even though the U.S. Army said their fate was not yet confirmed.

“The search is ongoing,” NATO said in a statement posted on X. “We regret any confusion about remarks @SecGenNATO delivered on this today. He was referring to emerging news reports & was not confirming the fate of the missing, which is still unknown.”

During a trip to Warsaw, Rutte told reporters that he had received word of the deaths of the four soldiers while he was delivering a lecture, and that his thoughts were with their families and with the United States.

“This is still early news so we do not know the details. This is really terrible news and our thoughts are with the families and loved ones,” Rutte said in Warsaw.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.