The Department of the Army Criminal Investigation Division is investigating mysterious freezer and refrigerator malfunctions that spoiled food at military bases across the U.S. amid concerns the outages may have been caused by a cyberattack.
Army CID’s Cyber Field Office is working with the Defense Commissary Agency and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service to determine what caused the refrigeration failures at military commissaries in August, an Army CID spokesperson confirmed to Fox News.
Investigators are also working with French law enforcement to understand a series of refrigeration outages in Europe as authorities examine whether the incidents could be connected.
Other affected facilities include F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Naval Station Newport in Rhode Island, Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, Travis Air Force Base Commissary in California and Fort Irwin in California.
In at least one case, refrigeration units were set to higher temperatures overnight rather than simply turning off, Reuters reported.
Several weeks ago, a cyberattack targeted hundreds of French supermarkets, with hackers manipulating refrigerators to reach temperatures of 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature spike spoiled large quantities of food and sparked fires across Europe.
The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed the cyberattack, describing it as a "large-scale" assault that affected several major food retailers across the country.
Fox News Digital's Robert McGreevy contributed to this report.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth fired one of the Pentagon’s senior strategic planners amid an investigation into allegations he leaked classified information to journalists about the Iran war, Russia’s war in Ukraine and other sensitive matters, a Department of War official told Fox News.
The official said Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia failed three polygraph examinations related to alleged disclosures of classified information. The investigation has been referred to the Justice Department.
Sylvia is also accused of meeting journalists outside the Pentagon with the alleged intention of leaking classified material after Hegseth imposed new media restrictions requiring reporters to be escorted inside the building.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ and Sylvia for comment but did not hear back at time of publication.
Sylvia served as director of the Joint Staff’s Directorate for Strategy, Plans and Policy, known as the J5, a senior role responsible for developing military strategy and advising the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The J5 has been sidelined from that role since the spring, according to well-placed sources who spoke to Fox News.
The official stressed that Sylvia was not a central planner of the Iran war, which falls under U.S. Central Command and its commander, Adm. Brad Cooper.
The Atlantic first reported Sylvia’s ouster Wednesday night, citing sources who said Hegseth had lost confidence in the three-star general amid tensions with Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby.
Sylvia is the second officer leading the J5 to be removed under Hegseth, following Lt. Gen. John McGee. Hegseth also removed Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, then director of the Joint Staff, earlier this year.
U.S. officials have reportedly warned allies in the Middle East to prepare for possible renewed strikes after next week’s midterm elections and potential Iranian retaliation, while additional U.S. forces are moving into the region.
A 1994 West Point graduate, Sylvia has served more than three decades in the Army, including multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and was wounded in combat. Before taking over the J5 in December, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell and had previously served as the J5’s vice director.
Sylvia’s removal is the latest in a broader turnover of senior military leadership under Hegseth, with nearly two dozen generals, admirals and other senior leaders fired, pushed out or otherwise departing during his tenure.
The opening moves of the next major war could unfold hundreds of miles above Earth.
U.S. adversaries are looking at ways to blind American forces in future conflict by jamming communications, disabling GPS, using lasers to attack satellites or destroying them completely.
A sweeping new Defense Intelligence Agency assessment details how China and Russia are developing sophisticated ways to disrupt or destroy U.S. satellites. This includes a Russian satellite designed to carry a nuclear weapon into Earth's orbit.
American forces rely on satellites to communicate across battlefields, navigate ships and aircraft, track enemy forces, detect missile launches and guide precision weapons to their targets. Knocking those systems offline could leave forces below struggling to see, communicate and strike.
"We can't do military operations the way that we do them today without satellites, without systems in space," Clayton Swope, deputy director of the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, previously told Fox News Digital.
"Whoever has space and can deny that to their adversary has a huge asymmetric advantage in a conflict," Swope said.
Beyond the battlefield, satellites underpin everything from GPS navigation and communications to banking, transportation and the electric grid, meaning a large-scale attack in space could disrupt services millions of people rely on every day.
Chinese military thinkers have identified reconnaissance, communications, navigation and early-warning satellites as potential targets for attacks designed to "blind and deafen the enemy," according to the report. DIA assesses Beijing could begin threatening or gradually degrading an adversary’s space architecture during a crisis as a "prelude to war."
Russia, meanwhile, views U.S. reliance on satellites for precision strikes and projecting military power as a "critical vulnerability" to exploit during a conflict. Its doctrine envisions attacks ranging from temporary jamming and blinding satellite sensors to the outright destruction of spacecraft and the infrastructure supporting them.
DIA describes the threat as a continuum, beginning with attacks that can temporarily disrupt a satellite without destroying it and escalating through cyber and orbital attacks to kinetic weapons and, ultimately, a nuclear detonation in space.
Some of those tactics have already made their way into active conflict. During Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. and Iran "took offensive actions against each other's space capabilities to degrade and disrupt military actions on both sides," according to DIA. The report does not detail those operations, but says jamming near the Strait of Hormuz in June disrupted U.S. aircraft and shipping vessels.
The Chinese military already practices jamming satellite communications and GPS during military exercises. Beijing also has ground-based lasers capable of disrupting or damaging satellites in low-Earth orbit, and DIA assesses it could field space-based directed-energy systems by the late 2020s.
Other Chinese systems can get much closer. The Shijian-17 satellite has a robotic arm capable of grappling another satellite, while Shijian-21 used similar technology in 2022 to move a defunct Chinese navigation satellite into a higher orbit. DIA noted that the same technology used to service or remove satellites can also have military applications.
Russia has repeatedly put its own spacecraft near U.S. satellites. Cosmos 2543 began following a U.S. national security satellite after it was released into orbit in 2019, approaching it several times before later firing a projectile in what DIA described as an anti-satellite weapons test.
Russia sent Cosmos 2558 near another U.S. government satellite in 2022, and two years later launched Cosmos 2576 into the same orbit as a U.S. national security satellite before it began moving toward the American spacecraft. By 2025, Cosmos 2588 was maneuvering within roughly 93 kilometers of another U.S. government satellite.
Russia is also developing Burevestnik, an air-launched weapon intended to "kill" satellites in low-Earth orbit, according to DIA. The weapon would be launched from a modified MiG-31 aircraft and could be placed into orbit with little or no warning.
The threat escalates dramatically with Russia’s nuclear ambitions.
"Russia is developing a satellite designed to carry a nuclear weapon," the assessment states. Such a weapon could cause the "rapid and sudden loss or degradation of thousands of satellites" operated by governments and companies around the world, disrupting communications, navigation, weather forecasting and national security systems.
The damage could continue long after the initial blast. DIA warns that a nuclear detonation in space would leave behind radiation belts that "could persist for years" and damage satellites that initially survived or were only temporarily disrupted.
The threat has been on Washington’s radar for years. Then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner set off alarm bells in February 2024 when he called on the Biden administration to declassify intelligence about a "serious national security threat," later revealed to involve a Russian nuclear anti-satellite capability.
U.S. officials have generally been more guarded about the underlying intelligence. As recently as April, U.S. Space Command chief Gen. Stephen Whiting said officials were "very concerned" by reports that Russia was potentially considering placing a nuclear anti-satellite weapon in orbit, but declined to confirm whether Moscow was actually developing one.
British prosecutors charged two men Tuesday under the U.K.’s National Security Act following an incident at RAF Fairford, a key base used by the U.S. military’s heavy bombers.
Mohmed Abdulkarim, 24, of London, was charged with assisting a foreign intelligence service. Nouman Essghir, 24, was charged with entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the United Kingdom, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
British counterterrorism police said they believe the foreign country Abdulkarim was assisting was Iran, Reuters reported.
The charges follow a September incident near RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England. British police arrested five men outside the base in the early hours of Sept. 27, according to Reuters.
The base had been used by U.S. bombers to carry out strikes against Iran. About a dozen B-1 bombers were among the aircraft later withdrawn from RAF Fairford and returned to their home stations in the United States on security grounds, according to previous Fox News reporting.
RAF Fairford serves as a key European operating location for U.S. heavy bombers and has supported American military missions.
Frank Ferguson, chief crown prosecutor for the CPS Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division, said the agency decided to prosecute the two men following a "complex" counterterrorism investigation.
"We will continue to work closely with our partners as this complex investigation continues," Ferguson said.
Both men were expected to appear Tuesday at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
The Israeli military launched large-scale domestic military exercises on Sunday to counter surprise border infiltrations and ground raids across northern and central Israel, mobilizing multiple divisions and air assets amid rising regional tensions.
The drills, set to continue over 48 hours, came as an Israeli security expert invoked the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Egypt and Syria used exercises to disguise preparations for a surprise attack, warning that escalating tensions in the region could in fact trigger what he described as a "dangerous miscalculation."
The large-scale maneuvers, the IDF said, involve the Northern Command’s 210th Division, the West Bank Division, and the Central Command’s 98th and 96th divisions, alongside the Israeli Air Force.
The exercise, scheduled just ahead of Israel's elections Oct. 27, aims to "maintain the forces’ alertness and readiness, strengthen the ability to defend communities, and make full use of aerial capabilities for defense in the area," according to the IDF.
On Friday, the IDF said troops would practice "a variety of scenarios, including a surprise attack and infiltration into Israeli territory by air and land," incorporating lessons learned from the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel.
"This exercise is mostly about non-state actors with or without Iranian support," Israeli national security analyst Dr. Ehud Eilam told Fox News Digital.
"It's aimed at those in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan who might try to infiltrate into Israel or send ground raids. Some are supported by Iran; others are not. It could be planned by Iran or be a local initiative."
"This is a massive exercise, the biggest one in recent years, aimed at protecting the borders," the former Israeli Ministry of Defense researcher added.
"It's all about making sure that the election day on October 27 will run smoothly. It's also a message to Iran and others: don't try to provoke us during election day, so nothing will be disrupted."
The Israeli drills followed a show of force by Tehran days earlier, during which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired roughly 30 ballistic missiles across two distinct weapon classes, according to reports.
That live-fire display highlighted Iranian strike capabilities and sparked renewed alerts about commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and prompted the Israeli military to heighten its alert level while maintaining maximum readiness for a targeted strike against Iran.
During a visit to the IDF's Central Command on Wednesday, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned that the risk of escalation was growing.
"Given the numerous warnings across all fronts and the sensitivity of the current period, the potential for escalation has increased," Zamir said.
"To ensure better operational control on the ground, we have reinforced our troop deployments across all sectors, including moving the 98th Division into the area to strengthen security and stability."
"Part of mutual deterrence: a few days ago, Iran had their own pretty big exercise, and that was actually more intimidating as far as Israel is concerned because they launched missiles and prepared for a war with Israel," Eilam said.
"This exercise on Sunday and Monday is against Iran's proxies and allies at the border of Israel."
Sunday’s Israeli drill also followed an Oct. 19 mission in which Israeli fighter jets and aerial refueling tankers flew 800 miles across Syrian and Iraqi airspace to Iran’s border.
Washington was notified in advance and viewed the maneuver as a non-kinetic show of force following the postponement of a broader strike package earlier in the month.
Despite the deterrence signals, Eilam warned that large-scale military exercises carry the "risk of miscalculation" and particularly when troop movements could be mistaken for preparations for an attack.
"During the Cold War, every time the Soviet Union or NATO carried out a major drill, having so many troops in the field meant they might attack if that was the intention," Eilam said.
He pointed to the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Egypt and Syria used military exercises to help conceal troop buildups along Israel's borders.
Israeli intelligence largely dismissed the movements as routine drills, allowing the two countries to achieve strategic surprise when they launched a coordinated, two-front attack on Yom Kippur.
"The classic example in Israel is 1973, when Egypt and Syria conducted a major exercise just before the war that turned into the actual attack," the analyst said.
"Israel and Iran are now watching each other very closely and both sides suspect the other might strike first," Eilam added before stating that there is the chance of what they call "miscalculation — that each side suspects the other and strikes first by mistake."
"It's all about sending messages to each other."
"It remains uncertain whether there will eventually be an Israeli attack on Iran because it depends on U.S. authorization," Eilam concluded.
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