US allies in the Pacific face off as Japanese patrol planes buzz South Korean warships

US allies in the Pacific face off as Japanese patrol planes buzz South Korean warships

Japan and South Korea have long-established themselves as fervent allies of the United States, but recent altercations between the two Pacific nations have shown that the friend of a friend can still be your enemy. On Wednesday, South Korean officials accused a Japanese military patrol aircraft of executing a “threatening” low-altitude pass over one of […]

US allies in the Pacific face off as Japanese patrol planes buzz South Korean warships

US allies in the Pacific face off as Japanese patrol planes buzz South Korean warships

Japan and South Korea have long-established themselves as fervent allies of the United States, but recent altercations between the two Pacific nations have shown that the friend of a friend can still be your enemy. On Wednesday, South Korean officials accused a Japanese military patrol aircraft of executing a “threatening” low-altitude pass over one of […]

New winds blowing: Pompeo and US leadership comment on World Economic Forum

New winds blowing: Pompeo and US leadership comment on World Economic Forum

As the 2019 World Economic Forum gets underway in Davos, Switzerland, notably absent is the U.S. delegation, last year headed up by President Donald Trump. Today, in a live video conference, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo addressed the forum from Washington D.C. as the government shutdown–now at 31 days–precluded him from travel. Early in his […]

China likes the F-35 so much they’re probably going to put copies of it on their carriers

China likes the F-35 so much they’re probably going to put copies of it on their carriers

China’s Navy has undergone a period of rapid expansion in recent years. With more than twenty new vessels launched in the past 24 months, the People’s Liberation Army-Navy (PLA-N) seems intent on first dominating the South China Sea and eventually, making the transition toward a globally capable blue water navy. Nowhere is that push more […]

Navy SEALs Are Placing More Emphasis on Big Wars With China, Russia

Navy SEALs Are Placing More Emphasis on Big Wars With China, Russia

“The Times they are a-changin” wrote Bob Dylan in 1964 but for the U.S. Navy SEAL teams, it may not mean that they are changing per se, but returning to their original roots. After two decades of war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, the Navy’s Special Warfare specialists are preparing more for a conflict with […]

Finding needles in haystacks: The future of military intelligence?

Finding needles in haystacks: The future of military intelligence?

In the national security decision-making process and military operations, more often than not, intelligence drives action. Actionable intelligence, that is, timely and accurate information about a target of interest, is the most precious commodity. There are numerous ways to gather actionable intelligence: Human Intelligence (HUMINT) is highly valued but very difficult to acquire as it […]

How Navy SEALs are preparing for war with China

How Navy SEALs are preparing for war with China

After decades of counterinsurgency operations, the United States military has begun shifting its gaze back to nation-level adversaries. According to the Department of Defense (DoD), Russia and China pose the greatest nation-level threat to the U.S. As a result, hereafter, military spending will place more importance on projects and capabilities that would be useful in […]

Navy patrol unit breaks world transit record with eye toward a China conflict

Navy patrol unit breaks world transit record with eye toward a China conflict

Two U.S. Navy Mark VI patrol boats assigned to the Coastal Riverine Group (CRG) 1 Detachment (Det.) Guam, completed the longest-ever small patrol boat transit. The two boats completed the 500-nautical-mile transit in just two days. The objective of the mission was to test and evaluate the operational reach of the patrol craft. Special attention […]

Opinion: China’s recent tit-for-tat move a petulant response

Opinion: China’s recent tit-for-tat move a petulant response

China is on my crap list. Well, heck, they have been on our national crap list for a long time now. The country’s preposterous preponderance of people notwithstanding, it possesses a noticeable deficiency when it comes to thinking for itself, that China does. I have to wonder if they aren’t suffering from the scourge of […]

The world has returned to Great Power politics

The world has returned to Great Power politics

Threats to American civil life come from domestic sources: natural disasters, car crashes, the opiate crisis, and economic downturns, just to name a few. Bee stings kill (exponentially) more people than foreign-born terrorists do every year in the United States. Vast oceans and friendly neighbors have much to do with the lack of conflict, war, […]