In 2013, Prince Harry shocked reporters with a candid assessment of the five months he had spent supporting ground troops as an Apache helicopter pilot during his second combat tour in Afghanistan.

In an interview conducted with reporters prior to departing Afghanistan, Harry, then 28 years old, admitted to killing insurgents. “If there’s people trying to do bad stuff to our guys, then we’ll take them out of the game,” he said. “Take a life to save a life.”

That was more than three years ago. Now, Harry, who left the British Army in 2015, admits that he’s still struggling to cope with some of the things he experienced overseas.

“I described it to someone ages ago as one of those slide shows that go through your mind,” Harry recently told Sky News. “If you’ve got a good imagination as well, everything that you see, especially if it’s something that is quite powerful, then that slide is in there.”

Harry was speaking to promote the Invictus Games, a Paralympic sporting event for wounded service members from militaries around the world, which he launched in 2014.

This year’s games begin on May 8 in Orlando. More than 500 men and women from 15 nations will compete in 10 different sporting events, including wheelchair basketball, archery, cycling and powerlifting.

It’s the largest competition of its kind in the world, and former President George W. Bush is an honorary chairman.  

It’s clear that Harry’s time in Afghanistan continues to shape the way he perceives himself. Royalty or not, he’s still a combat veteran, albeit an extraordinarily influential one. Of the wounded soldiers competing in the Invictus Games this year, he said:

“You know there are images I’ve been lucky enough not to see, but there have been images that I’ve been unfortunate to see, nothing like some of these guys, but, yes, there is a percentage of me being able to relate to exactly what they go through.”

SEE ALSO: US military uses controversial 'roof knock' tactic in Iraq to try to warn civilians before bombing raids

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NOW WATCH: The US is showing its strength against Russia by sending its most advanced warplanes to the Black Sea

The Philippine president said Wednesday that Abu Sayyaf militants may have plotted to kill him and kidnap boxing star Manny Pacquiao, disclosing previously unknown details about an extremist group blamed for the beheading of a Canadian hostage.

President Benigno Aquino III said the Muslim militants also wanted to explode bombs in metropolitan Manila to try to get funding from the Islamic State group but the plans were uncovered and troops have reduced the Abu Sayyaf's ability to inflict harm.

Aquino, whose six-year term ends in June, vowed "to devote all my energies" to ensure that the extremists would be "at the very least ... a very seriously degraded problem" for his successor.

While he has forged a peace pact with a larger Muslim rebel group, Aquino said there is no possibility of engaging in talks with the brutal Abu Sayyaf, which is accused of beheading Canadian John Ridsdel on Monday in southern Sulu province.

"We have always believed in the power of dialogue, development and positive engagement over arms," Aquino said. But he said of the Abu Sayyaf, "You have chosen only the language of force and we will speak to you only in that language."

Ridsdel, 68, was beheaded after the Abu Sayyaf did not receive a large ransom it had demanded by a Monday deadline. A fellow Canadian, a Norwegian and a Filipino woman who were kidnapped with Ridsdel from a southern marina in September are still being held by the militants, along with about 20 other foreign hostages.

Police have recovered Ridsdel's head, which was dumped by the militants in Sulu's Jolo town. A headless body of a Caucasian man was also found by villagers in a mountain clearing in Sulu and police forensic experts were checking Wednesday if it was that of the former mining executive.

Aquino said he sent a letter expressing condolences to Ridsdel's family, describing his death as appalling.

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he spoke with Aquino about possible actions against the kidnappers.

"The discussions I had with President Aquino and are continuing to have with our allies in the Philippines is the need to bring these criminals to justice and to do whatever we can to express that we are very concerned about security of Canadians," Trudeau said.

The Canadian leader stressed that "we will not pay a ransom."

A sizeable Abu Sayyaf force, led by militant commander Radulan Sahiron, is surrounding the remaining captives, Aquino said. While that is a delicate situation, "it is also an opportunity because smashing these forces is within our grasp," he said.

"Casualties are to be expected," he said, but he added that troops were adequately trained and well-armed.

Aquino said the Abu Sayyaf militants have posed as Islamic freedom fighters, but "have behaved as criminals focused on enriching themselves by taking hostages for ransom."

"They allegedly even hatched plots to kidnap Manny Pacquiao or one of his children, as well as my sister Kris or one of her children, with the plan to use them in bargaining for the release of their cohorts," he said, referring to his younger sister, who is a famous actress.

"Threats against my own life have been investigated," he said, without elaborating.

The Abu Sayyaf began a series of large-scale abductions after it emerged in the early 1990s as an offshoot of a separatist rebellion by minority Muslims in the southern Philippines.

It has been weakened by more than a decade of government offensives, but has endured largely as a result of ransom and extortion earnings.

SEE ALSO: Explosion in Turkey's 4th-largest city reportedly caused by female suicide bomber

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NOW WATCH: Here’s why airlines ask you to raise the window shades for takeoffs and landings

Earlier this month, Mexican authorities captured Brenda Delgado, the ninth woman to ever be featured on the FBI's most wanted list.

The following individuals on the FBI's list have alternate identities and are considered armed and dangerous.

All photos and captions are provided by the FBI.

Please do not attempt to apprehend any of these fugitives. Report any tips to the FBI by clicking here.

SEE ALSO: The hunt is on: The US Marshals' 9 most wanted fugitives still on the run

Victor Manuel Gerena is being sought in connection with the armed robbery of approximately $7 million from a security company in Connecticut in 1983. He allegedly took two security employees hostage at gunpoint and then handcuffed, bound, and injected them with an unknown substance in order to further disable them.

Source: FBI

Glen Stewart Godwin is being sought for his 1987 escape from Folsom State Prison in California, where he was serving a lengthy sentence for murder. Later in 1987, Godwin was arrested on a charge of drug trafficking in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. After being convicted, he was sent to a prison in Guadalajara. In April 1991, Godwin allegedly murdered a fellow inmate and then escaped five months later.

Source: FBI

Jason Derek Brown is wanted on charges of murder and armed robbery in Phoenix, Arizona. During November 2004, Brown allegedly shot and killed an armored-car guard outside a movie theater and then fled with the money.

Source: FBI

On Apr. 21, a Russian Air Force MiG-31 jet intercepted a US P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flying in international airspace near Kamchatka Peninsula, in Russia’s Far East, where a firing range used also to test intercontinental ballistic missiles launched from Borei-class strategic nuclear submarines is located.

The Russian Soviet-design supersonic interceptor flew within 15 meters of the US Navy reconnaissance plane but unlike some of the previous “close encounters,” the interception was conducted in a “safe and professional” manner according to Cmdr. Dave Benham, a spokesman for the Pacific Command, who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon.

Indeed, the incident occurred one week after a US Air Force RC-135 electronic intelligence gathering aircraft flying a routine mission (in international airspace) over the Baltic Sea was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 that barrel rolled over the American spy plane.

Few days earlier, Russian Su-24s performed several low passes over a US destroyer in the Baltic Sea, whereas on Jan. 25, 2016, a US RC-135 intelligence gathering jet was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter jet over Black Sea that made an aggressive turn that disturbed the controllability of the Rivet Joint.

On Apr. 7, 2015, another Su-27 flew within 20 feet of an RC-135U, over the Baltic Sea.

On Apr. 23, 2015 a US Air Force RC-135U performing a routine surveillance mission over the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan, some 60 miles off eastern Russia was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker that crossed the route of the US aircraft putting itself within 100 feet of the Combat Sent.

What’s newsworthy this time is the fact that the interception was conducted by one of the world’s fastest interceptor on one of the newest US reconnaissance planes.

The Poseidon is a derivative of the Boeing 737, incorporating a 737-800 series fuselage mated to 737-900 wings and featuring raked winglets to improve low-altitude fuel burn. The aircraft can carry the Mk-54 airborne ASW torpedo and the Harpoon anti-ship missile. The aircraft is also an intelligence gathering asset offering greatly improved communications and connectivity in comparison with the P-3C Orion.

On the other side, the MiG-31 Foxhound is a two-seat MiG-25 Foxbat derivative in service since 1983.

Whilst the MiG-25 was built as a high-speed, high-altitude interceptor, capable of reaching the speed of Mach 3.2 to intercept American B-58 and B-70 bombers, the MiG-31 was designed to intercept the B-1B bomber, which was designed to operate at low-level, below the radar coverage.

Hence the MiG-31 has quite good low-level capabilities (which MiG-25 does not) and is equipped with an advanced radar with look-down-shoot-down capability (needed to detect low-flying bombers), and data bus, allowing for coordinated attack with other fighters.

Although the MiG-31 is quite obsolete, it is still one of the most amazing interceptors ever built, with top speed of Mach 2.83 and a range of 1,450 km. The production of the MiG-31 ended in the early 1990s, but the interceptor is being upgraded to extend its operative life up to 2028 to 2030. Until a replacement is available the MiG-31 will remain one the world’s fastest tactical fighter in active service to defend the Russian airspace.

SEE ALSO: Step inside the cockpit of the US's most iconic war planes

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NOW WATCH: The US is showing its strength against Russia by sending its most advanced warplanes to the Black Sea

A United States Air Force cyber officer recently told me that United States Cyber Command was shifting its focus to Islamic State (IS, also referred to as ISIS and ISIL).

I was a little surprised to learn this, since it seems that China is the larger cyber threat. But after reading the recent New York Times article by David Sanger on the cyberwar against IS, the switch in focus becomes more clear.

While the National Security Agency and its military counterpart, Cyber Command, both focus on traditional threats such as China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, the ability to use cyber attacks is less available and less publicly admitted due to concern over foreign sovereignty.

But with IS, it appears that the Obama Administration has an opportunity to use Cyber Command to attack an adversary and brag about it. Deputy secretary of defense Robert Work is quoted as saying, “We are dropping cyberbombs. We have never done that before.”

If “cyberbombs” seems like a bit of a strained metaphor to you, you are not alone. From Sanger’s article:

“It should not be taken out of proportion — it is not the only tool,” [National Security Advisor Susan Rice] said when asked about Mr. Work’s “cyberbombs” comment. In fact, some of Mr. Work’s colleagues acknowledged that they had winced when he used the term, because government lawyers have gone to extraordinary lengths to narrowly limit cyberattacks to highly precise operations with as little collateral damage as possible.

But Work is not the only one using strained metaphors. The mission statement of the Air Force cyber school includes creating the “world’s most lethal cyber operators”.

Silly language aside, Sanger’s piece says Cyber Command has the ability to assist in the killing of IS militants by altering the messages of IS commanders “with the aim of redirecting militants to areas more vulnerable to attack by American drones or local ground forces.”

Cyber command can also disrupt IS operations by stopping or misdirecting electronic fund transfers and President Obama claims that “our cyberoperations are disrupting their command-and-control and communications.”

But the cyberwar against IS may not be one-sided. A group of pro-IS hackers called the United Cyber Caliphate has responded to the announcement to use cyberoperations against them, threatening to attack the US.

In the past, pro-IS hacker groups have released target lists of US government officials and police.

In 1998, two Chinese army colonels published a manual called Unrestricted Warfare in which they outlined warfare in the age of globalization. In it, they argued that warfare must now include “using all means, including armed force or non-armed force, military and non-military, and lethal and non-lethal means to compel the enemy to accept one’s interests.”

When it was written, the internet was a mere shadow of what it is today, but they argued that attacking networks would become an integral tool of tomorrow’s war.

Seventeen years later, Unrestricted Warfare’s tomorrow is now today. From Russia’s “hybrid war” in Ukraine to US cyberoperations against IS, the Chinese prediction of warfare beyond bounds has proved prescient.

SEE ALSO: A Russian Mig-31 intercepted US P-8 patrol aircraft near Russia’s Far East

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NOW WATCH: The US Navy is catapulting trucks off aircraft carriers

China has denied a US request for a US carrier strike group led by the USS John C. Stennis to make a port visit to Hong Kong, the US State Department said on Friday.

A spokeswoman for the State Department, Anna Richey-Allen, said another US warship, the USS Blue Ridge, was currently in Hong Kong on a port visit and the United States expected that to continue.

SEE ALSO: Testimony on the F-35 was all over the place

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NOW WATCH: The US Navy's last line of defense is this ultimate gun

As America's commander-in-chief, President Obama is the supreme commander of the US's armed forces. 

In this role, Obama has the final say on all matters of the country's military. But, additionally, as the head of the military, Obama must also cater to the morale of the US military and ensure that the nation's nearly 1.3 million active soldiers and veterans feel cared for.

Below are some of our favorite photos of Obama interacting with US military service members and veterans.

SEE ALSO: 44 iconic images of Barack Obama's tenure as president

A soldier hugs the President as he greeted U.S. troops at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan.

Obama claps as he passes by 'The President's Own' US Marine Band on the White House grounds.

Obama greets US troops as he holds a Veterans Day event at the US Army Garrison at Yongsan military base in Seoul November 11, 2010.

"Geronimo ... Geronimo. E.K.I.A. Enemy Killed in Action."

The time in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was approximately 1 a.m. local time (3:51 p.m. EST) when Navy Adm. William McRaven, then the commander of SEAL Team 6, relayed word that Osama bin Laden had been killed.

At 4:06 p.m. on May 1, 2011 (12:36 a.m., May 2, in Pakistan), the White House's official photographer, Pete Souza, took the following iconic photograph of President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, and the national-security team monitoring Operation Neptune Spear in real time.

"I need to watch this," Obama is said to have remarked, hunkering down in a spare chair in one of the White House's smaller conference rooms.

Obama entered the room as one of the two SEAL helicopters crash-landed at the bin Laden compound. "I was thinking that this is not an ideal start," Obama would later tell CNN's Peter Bergen. He described the call to strike the compound as "emblematic of presidential decision-making."

"You're always working with probabilities," he said, "and you make a decision, not based on 100% certainty, but with the best information that you've got."

All 23 SEALs were unharmed, and the terrorist leader behind the September 11 attacks on the US, Osama bin Laden, was killed.

[Seated in this picture from left to right: Vice President Biden, the President, Brig. Gen. Webb, Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Standing, from left, are: Admiral Mike Mullen, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of Staff Bill Daley; Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor to the Vice President; Audrey Tomason Director for Counterterrorism; John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.]

SEE ALSO: Here's the real reason why photos of Bin Laden's body won't ever be shown

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NOW WATCH: The US is showing its strength against Russia by sending its most advanced warplanes to the Black Sea

ISIS spends a lot of time celebrating their attacks on foreign soil, making them seem like overwhelming victories in their global campaign of fear. Meanwhile US special operations forces in Iraq and Syria have killed 40 ISIS fighters responsible for those attacks.

Officials from the Department of Defense told Kim Dozier of The Daily Beast that US special forces have killed those “external operations leaders, planners, and facilitators” who were part of those attacks outside the CENTCOM area of responsibility.

The use of special forces in kill or capture raids (though the capture part tends to happen much less frequently) is a major part of the US counterterrorism plan against ISIS. Those 40 are less than half of the high-value targets that coalition forces have taken out.

The US mission also includes curtailing the terror group’s ability to recruit abroad and inhibit their ability to carry out Paris-style attacks. President Obama has ordered 250 more special operators to Iraq to support these operations.

According to Dozier’s report, the effort is seeing results. Those same defense officials estimated that ISIS’ overall fighting force is down to 19,000 – 25,000 fighters, from 33,000 in 2015. Moreover, the influx of new recruits coming into the region is down 90 percent from last year.

Dozier also reports that the Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper warned this week that ISIS cells are already in place throughout Europe. ISIS’ external operations have killed 1,000 people across 21 countries since 2015.

But the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) is using a mixture of special operators from many, varied disciplines. Their units include Navy SEALs, Delta Force, and Green Berets integrated in all aspects of the JSOC mission. This ensures the highest performers are on kill-capture raids, and have experience in hostage rescue and working with local opposition forces.

This may be a product of battlefield lessons learned. These days, the CENTCOM AOR is run by Gen. Joseph Votel, who once commanded both US Special Operations Command and JSOC. Lt. Gen. Austin S. Miller, the current JSOC commander, ran special operations in Afghanistan, where he used the mixed special forces tactics with great success.

SEE ALSO: Swiss intelligence is monitoring the online activity of 400 possible jihadists

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NOW WATCH: The US Army is sending Apache attack helicopters to fight ISIS in Iraq

GE has plans to completely revolutionize travel with its latest GE9X engine. 

The largest engine ever built, the 20,000-pound turbojet engine will power the future Boeing 777X planes. Built from a mix of composite and 3-D printed materials, the engine is 10% more efficient than GE's past engines while also being substantially quieter. 

To give an impression of how powerful and efficient this engine is, Wired estimates that the GE9X would be able to suck all the air out of a space the size of Yankee Stadium in 13 minutes. 

Take a look at the engine being fired up below: 

SEE ALSO: Here's a rare look inside of an empty 787 Boeing Dreamliner

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NOW WATCH: A guy created a tiny working rotary engine out of paper

Few things have the power to transport people as the cinema.

Who can forget Robert Williams' "Good morning, Vietnam" to Marine Corps DI Hartman's memorable quotes.

The following list is of our favorite military movies.

The Longest Day (1962)

The Longest Day tells the story of heroism and loss that marked the Allies' successful completion of the Normandy Landings on D-Day during World War II.

The film stands out due to its attention to detail, as it employed many Axis and Allied D-Day participants as advisors for how to depict the D-Day landings in the movie.

Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)

Based on the exploits of British Army Lieutenant T. E. Lawrence during World War I, Lawrence of Arabia tells the story of Lawrence's incredible activities in the Middle East. The film captures both Lawrence's daring, his struggles with the horrific violence of World War I, and the incredible British role in the foundation of the modern Middle East and Saudi Arabia.

The Great Escape (1963)

The Great Escape is based on a novel of the same name, which was a non-fiction account of a mass escape from a German prison camp in Poland during World War II. The film follows several British German prisoners of war as they try to escape from the Nazis and make their way back to Allied-controlled territory. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has just carried out a major reshuffling of the country's law enforcement in attempts to take an even stronger grasp of the country, the Financial Times reports.

In a sudden reshuffle, Putin has dismissed eight senior law enforcement officials while promoting 12 others who are viewed as Putin loyalists.

The reshuffle was first announced on the presidential website on Saturday as an official decree. 

Among those promoted in the reshuffle, the FT notes, are Alexei Kudrin, who has been a longtime Putin confidant, as well as Igor Krasnov, an investigator into the death of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov. 

The sudden law enforcement reshuffle comes less than a month after Putin similarly made a surprise announcement of the creation of a National Guard. That decision effectively created a new military force within Russia that would report directly to the government. The National Guard will function, according to NYU Global Affairs professor Mark Galeotti, as a sort of maximally loyalist Praetorian guard. 

The new National Guard will act as both a force to provide security for Putin and his loyalists, as well as serving as a new power lever that would allow Putin to intimidate and keep other Russian elites in line. 

And the sudden moves to both create a new National Guard as well as reshuffling Russian law enforcement could demonstrate a move by Putin to secure his own power in Russia as much as possible as Moscow continues to grapple with such systemic issues facing the country as a crashing economy, low oil prices, and military entanglements as far afield as Ukraine and Syria. 

Still, Putin's attempts to take ever greater control of the country may end up being too little too late. According to Nikolay Petrov, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Russia is likely to go through periods of extreme turmoil within the following year. 

And, there is a good chance that Putin's regime may not truly be able to make its way through such upheavals without actual concrete reforms — not just reforms that benefit Putin and his inner circle. 

SEE ALSO: Putin's downfall: Here are 3 possible outcomes for the Russian regime

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NOW WATCH: The US is showing its strength against Russia by sending its most advanced warplanes to the Black Sea

The NATO alliance is considering establishing a rotational ground force in the Baltic states and possibly Poland, reflecting deepening worry about Russian military assertiveness, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Monday.

"That is one of the ideas that's under discussion," Carter told reporters flying with him from Washington to Stuttgart, Germany, where he is to preside Tuesday at a ceremony installing a new commander of US European Command.

Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti is to replace Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who has frequently and publicly cautioned that Russia poses a potential threat to European stability.

Carter said the allies are considering a rotational ground force of four battalions, which would mean about 4,000 troops. That would be in addition to, and separate from, a recently announced unilateral US decision to send a US armored brigade of about 4,200 troops to Eastern Europe next February.

Carter said the idea of a separate NATO rotational ground force is likely to be further discussed at a NATO meeting in June.

Russia has accused the US and NATO of returning to a Cold War mindset of mutual suspicion and military competition, even as it continues to buzz US ships and planes in the Baltics.

Speaking more broadly of US and NATO relations with Russia, Carter said Moscow has chosen to move away from integration with the West. "Therefore, we have no alternative but to do what we're doing, which is stand strong," by improving the US military posture in Europe and collaborating closely with NATO allies, he said.

At the same time, Carter said, the US is willing to "hold the door open if Russian behavior should change" and to work with Russia in areas where the two countries still have mutual interests, such with the Iran nuclear deal.

In his remarks en route to Stuttgart, Carter also called the buzzing of US Navy ships and aircraft in the Baltics "unprofessional," adding that it seems to be happening more frequently.

"This kind of unprofessional behavior by its nature creates a dangerous circumstance," he said.

At the Pentagon on Monday, the Navy's top officer said the Russian actions in the Baltics are escalating tension between the two nations.

"My hope is that we can stop this sort of activity," Adm. John M. Richardson, the chief of naval operations, told reporters.

"I don't think the Russians are trying to provoke an incident. I think they're trying to send a signal," he said. "I think it's pretty clear that they are wanting to let us know that they see that we are up there in the Baltic."

The Defense Department said a Russian SU-27 conducted a barrel roll Friday over a US Air Force RC-135 that was flying a reconnaissance mission above the Baltic Sea. The RC-135 is an intelligence-gathering aircraft.

In mid-April, a Russian jet flew about 50 feet from the wing tip of a US aircraft. Also in April, two Russian jets flew close to the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea.

Richardson said the actions increase the chance of a "tactical miscalculation," but that if an incident were to occur, the US would tamp down any rise in tensions between the two countries.

"We look for sort of a normalization there," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week said the pilots decided to take a look at the US Navy destroyer "from a safe distance." The planes were less than 100 feet away from the deck of the ship, traveling at hundreds of miles per hour.

Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the Russian actions and said the Navy ship could have opened fire.

SEE ALSO: The Assad regime reportedly struck an ominous deal with ISIS to take back a strategic city

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NOW WATCH: These striking images show just how overcrowded China's population really is

The U.S. serviceman killed by Islamic State fighters on Tuesday when they overran Kurdish defenses in northern Iraq was a Navy SEAL, a U.S. defense official said.

The man was the third American to be killed in direct combat since a U.S.-led coalition launched a campaign against the jihadist group in 2014.

"It is a combat death, of course, and a very sad loss. I don't know all the circumstances of it," U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter told reporters during a trip to Germany, 

U.S. military official said the U.S.-led coalition helped the Peshmerga repel an attack by providing air support from F-15 jets and drones. 

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the man was killed "by direct fire" from Islamic State. 

Carter's spokesman, Peter Cook, said the incident took place during an Islamic State attack on a Peshmerga position some 3-5 km behind the Iraqi Kurdish fighters' forward line.

In mid-April the United States announced plans to send an additional 200 troops to Iraq, and put them closer to the front lines of battle to advise Iraqi forces in the war against Islamic State.

Last month, an Islamic State attack on a U.S. base killed Marine Staff Sergeant Louis Cardin and wounded eight other Americans providing force protection fire to Iraqi army troops.

The Islamist militants have been broadly retreating since December, when the Iraqi army recaptured Ramadi, the largest city in the western region. Last month, the Iraqi army took the nearby region of Hit, pushing them further north along the Euphrates valley.

But U.S. officials acknowledge that military gains against Islamic state are not enough.

Iraq is beset by political infighting, corruption, a growing fiscal crisis and the Shi'ite Muslim-led government's fitful efforts to reconcile with aggrieved minority Sunnis, the bedrock of Islamic State support.

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It's no surprise the United States pours more money into its military than any other country in the world.

In 2015, the US had a defense budget of about $597 billion, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies' most recentWorld Military Balance report, released earlier this year.

In short, that's more than the next 11 countries combined.

The following graphic from the institute helps put things in perspective:

Even China's reported budget of $146 billion — good for second-highest in the world — looks modest next to that of the US.

It's safe to say the incredible funding the Pentagon receives is the driving force behind America's military strength.

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NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL reveals what ‘American Sniper’ got wrong

Global warming has increasingly led to the melting of Arctic ice.

And, as the ice melts, the world's last true backwater will become a hotbed of global geopolitical competition. 

The following map from Parag Khanna's book "Connectography: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization" demonstrates exactly why the Arctic will become the world's next major frontier.

Largely, the competition in the Arctic will be based off of overlapping territorial claims and the region's high likelihood of having major oil and gas fields: 

SEE ALSO: Here is the map Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand

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NOW WATCH: Watch Russian warplanes fly dangerously close by a US Navy ship

There's no need to release the classified 9/11 report, and having that information in the public would be unhelpful, CIA director said on Sunday's "Meet the Press" on NBC. 

CIA Director John Brennan warned that the 28 pages of the report that critics are pushing to have declassified could unfairly implicate the Saudis as the report contains "unvetted information." 

"I think some people may seize upon that uncorroborated, unvetted information that was in there that was basically just a collation of this information that came out of FBI files, and to point to Saudi involvement, which I think would be very, very inaccurate," Brennan told NBC. 

Brennan went on to say that he was puzzled by the push from critics to have the 29 pages released. In Brennan's view, the issue of Saudi involvement in the 9/11 attacks was further investigated in the independent 9/11 commission, which then proceeded to find no links between the Saudi government and al-Qaeda. 

According to Brennan, the 28 pages are unreliable compared to the formal conclusions of the 9/11 commission as the pages contain a "combination of things that are accurate and inaccurate."

The push for the release of the 28 pages have been spearheaded by former Democratic senator Bob Graham, who had previously chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee. Graham has repeatedly insisted that the pages show high-level support and financial assistance from select Saudis to the 9/11 hijackers. 

“The most important unanswered question of 9/11 is, did these 19 people conduct this very sophisticated plot alone, or were they supported?” Graham said on "Meet the Press" in April. “So who was the most likely entity to have provided them that support? And I think all the evidence points to Saudi Arabia.”

So far, the Obama administration has not publicly stated whether or not it will release the papers. However, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper  reporters on April 25 that it is a realistic goal to have the papers declassified and released by June.

SEE ALSO: Why the US and Saudi Arabia still need each other

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NOW WATCH: CIA DIRECTOR: I would refuse to enact Trump and Cruz’s proposal to bring back waterboarding

America's first laser gun went to war in 2014, to protect a ship against robots. On board the USS Ponce, the Navy's Laser Weapon System is a modest sign of the lasers to come: at 30 kilowatts, it is powerful enough to slowly burn through a drone, given time.

But the Pentagon's plans for lasers go far beyond its modest first showcase: It wants lasers to disable everything from small drones to mortar shells, rockets, and missiles.

For nations that might someday fight against American military machines, the answer to lasers could be a far more ancient technology: smoke, judiciously applied.

According to an article published on China.com, a site that appears to be ultimately owned by the Chinese government, the People's Liberation Army is looking at using smokescreens to protect against lasers.

Smoke on battlefields is usually a tool of concealment, not armor. When it comes to lasers, however, the simple physics of light means smoke has serious potential as armor.

Last summer, Subrata Ghoshroy of MIT's Science, Technology and Global Security Working Group wrote in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists:

Any weapon that relies upon light traveling through the atmosphere runs into the problems of dust, humidity, and fog — features which absorb and scatter the laser energy. In addition, atmospheric distortions such as turbulence can deflect a beam of light.

And at the same time that the photons in a laser's beam must overcome all of these obstacles, they must also stay focused in a tight column and keep advancing forward without diminishing in power. Meanwhile, the user of the laser weapon must account for the movement of the target, the movement of the firing platform, and any decoys, dummies, or multiple war warheads that the enemy throws up.

Lasers as we know them work only in certain weather. This is a problem that can be overcome; before bullet casings became standard, rain could ruin gunpowder and leave riflemen holding strange, ineffective sticks.

The bullet-casing solution took centuries, and while it's likely that lasers will outwit smoke in less time than that, putting up a smokescreen is a cheap, effective answer to weapons right now. So China's army is looking into quick ways to put smoke up where it needs it. From Popular Mechanics:

The PLA is experimenting with creating smoke in two ways: creating sulfur trioxide smoke through burning materials (spraying oil on a hot diesel engine is one way to do it) or creating an oily fog.

The PLA Chemical Corps plans to use a new multiple canister launcher (pictured) to rapidly lay down protective smoke screens for nearby friendly forces.

If smoke beats lasers, and for a few years it certainly might, there's an even older force that can undermine smoke: wind. As futuristic as modern war is, weather still gets a say.

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The deputy commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said Iranian forces will close the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the United States and its allies if they "threaten" the Islamic Republic, Iranian state media reported on Wednesday.

The comments by Gen. Hossein Salami, carried on state television, follow a long history of both rhetoric and confrontation between Iran and the US over the narrow strait, through which nearly a third of all oil traded by sea passes.

The remarks by the acting commander of the Guard also follow those of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who on Monday criticized US activities in the Persian Gulf. It's unclear whether that signals any new Iranian concern over the strait or possible confrontation with the US following its nuclear deal with world powers.

In his remarks, Salami said that "Americans should learn from recent historical truths," likely referring to the January capture of 10 US sailors who entered Iranian waters. The sailors were released less than a day later, though state TV aired footage of the sailors on their knees with their hands on their heads.

"If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry," Salami said, without elaborating on what he and other leaders would consider a threat.

He added: "Americans cannot make safe any part of the world."

Lt. Rick Chernitzer, a spokesman for the US Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said American sailors "continue to operate in accordance with professional maritime standards and international law" in the Persian Gulf region.

"We remain thoughtful, vigilant and responsible mariners as we conduct our operations here," Chernitzer said in a statement to The Associated Press. "We do, however, reserve the inherent right to self-defense."

The US and Iran have a long history of confrontations in the Persian Gulf. They even fought a one-day naval battle on April 18, 1988, after the near-sinking of the missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts by an Iranian mine. That day, US forces attacked two Iranian oil rigs and sank or damaged six Iranian vessels.

A few months later, in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the strait mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 people aboard.

US Navy officials say they face near-daily encounters with Iranian naval vessels. In January, an unarmed Iranian drone flew over a US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, the first since 2014, according to Navy records obtained by the AP.

The US has also criticized what it called a "highly provocative" Iranian rocket test in December near its warships and commercial traffic. Iran said it has the right to conduct tests in the strait and elsewhere in Gulf.

Iran also sank a replica of a US aircraft carrier near the strait in February 2015 and has said it is testing "suicide drones" that could attack ships.

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China's military will carry out more military exercises in the South China Sea this month involving advanced warships and submarines, state news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday, terming the drills routine.

China claims almost all of the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of maritime trade passes each year. The Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims.

Xinhua said the ships, including a new guided missile destroyed, would take part in anti-submarine, anti-missile and other exercises.

It did not say exactly where the drills would take place, but noted they were routine and had been planned for this year.

China periodically announces such exercises in the South China Sea as it tries to demonstrate it is being transparent about its military deployments.

China has been at odds with the United States of late over the strategic waterway.

Washington has criticized Beijing's building of artificial islands in the South China Sea's disputed Spratly archipelago, and has conducted sea and air patrols near them.

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