South China Sea

Just a few months after announcing that his country was ending the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States, Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte has reversed that decision, as territorial disputes with China pressured him to act. As Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. posted on social media, the decision’s reversal came “in light […]

Last September, two Chinese diplomats were expelled from the U.S. after they barged into a U.S. Navy base in Virginia. The base in which they illegally entered houses the shooting ranges for all the East Coast SEAL Teams. The Chinese diplomats, one of who is reported to be an intelligence officer operating under a diplomatic […]

China’s People’s Liberation Army–Navy just reached a significant milestone in its efforts to develop a globally-capable “blue water” navy, as the nation’s second aircraft carrier entered service on Tuesday. China’s new carrier, dubbed the Shandong, is not only China’s first home-built vessel of its type, it also earns the nation a place in the elite […]

The Chinese Navy is currently amid a new effort to assess and train experienced naval aviators to serve in warship command roles in the nation’s still-developing blue-water navy. China’s second aircraft carrier, its first home-built vessel of this kind, is currently undergoing sea trials. Another is currently under production and more are planned for the […]

America’s venerable B-2 Spirit may be thirty years old, but it still offers the United States a unique combat capability not found in any other nation. The stealthy platform can penetrate deep into contested airspace, delivering massive amounts of ordnance on unsuspecting targets while avoiding detection and — just as importantly — weapons lock from […]

The public hearing for the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump is underway, and while a lot of the nation’s attention is focused on domestic politics, it’s important to remember that the world continues to turn even when our attention wanes. As Republicans and Democrats in Washington D.C. and all around the nation fortify their […]

While the United States has no shortage of opponents on the military or diplomatic stage, few present such a looming threat as the nations of China and Russia. America‘s historical Cold War opponent may not have the same military might behind its bluster that it had during its Soviet hay-day, but Russia has demonstrated a […]

High resolution private satellite images gathered and analyzed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) seems to suggest that China is rapidly expanding its aircraft carrier construction infrastructure in the area around the shipyard where they currently have one carrier in production. Based on the level of construction shown in pictures taken in […]

Despite its maritime roots, the Marine Corps has spent the vast majority of the past two decades conducting combat operations in the arid deserts of the Middle East. As a result, Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger wants to remind the world that, while Marines may be able to fight in any clime or place, the […]

Over the past few weeks, images of China’s new supersonic-capable, unarmed reconnaissance drone have begun making their way online, and SOFREP was among the first to notice that the design bears a striking resemblance to a similar platform employed over China by the United States in the 1960s. However, China’s propensity for stealing aircraft designs […]

The U.S. Navy’s new carrier-based refueling drone, the Boeing produced MQ-25 Stingray, took its first test flight on Thursday, potentially ushering in a new era of naval combat operations for the United States. Although not intended to serve as an armed aircraft, the carrier-launched autonomous refueler could help the U.S. Navy offset the tactical advantage […]

The national security media sphere is just as prone to buzz words as any other realm of journalism, and one that has popped up with increasing frequency in the past few years is “hypersonic.” The term usually precedes a noun like “missile” or “drone” and evokes an almost childish sense of speed — hearkening back […]