WEDNESDAY PDB – The Department of the Air Force optimizes for great power competition. Secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall, along with the Chiefs of the Air Force and Space Force unveiled their designs for transforming the Department of the Air Force.
Rarely has one of the nation's military departments instituted reforms of this magnitude and importance.
Department of the Air Force needs more resources for successful reorg. The top Air and Space Force leaders are on target with their reorganization. “We are out of time,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall explained Feb. 12.
“[F]or at least two decades, China has been building a military that is designed, purpose-built, to deter and defeat the United States if we intervene in the Western Pacific. … I don't have to explain to you why time is my biggest concern. … [T]he potential for conflict at any time is real.”
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here's a roundup of today's other top defense stories from conservative national security expert PAUL CRESPO.
Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – the PDB:
NATIONAL SECURITY
World facing ‘dangerous decade' amid increased instability, military spending. Researchers also found that defense spending was up last year by 9 percent across the globe to $2.2 trillion.
Defense Secretary Austin discharged from second hospital stay. Lloyd Austin was released from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Tuesday.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Canadian admits to laundering money in scheme to ship US tech to Russia for war. A Canadian woman who talked of getting rich from a scheme to funnel millions of dollars of electronics to Russia for its war in Ukraine is instead facing up to 20 years in prison.
Meth, gang, night club: Fort Liberty leader faces multiple charges. The charges include bringing meth into the U.S. and engaging in online activities in support of a criminal gang in Mexico.
POLITICS
Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas impeached by House over border policies. The Republican majority is determined to punish the Biden administration over its treasonous mishandling of the U.S-Mexico border.
Trump advisers rush to spin ‘off the cuff' NATO remarks. The former president's allies insist his remarks are being blown out of proportion.
Senate passes Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan aid amid Trump-fueled opposition. It passed the president's $95 billion foreign aid spending request for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan following an all-night session.
Senate Democrat accuses Israel of ‘textbook war crime' in Gaza. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) made the remarks on the Senate floor Monday.
US POWER OVERSEAS
Marines fly supplies to part of Philippines reeling from floods. The island of Mindanao has been reeling from the effects of heavy rain, displacing an estimated 795,000 people.
IRAN THREAT
Most casualties from recent attacks in Middle East are brain injuries. Roughly 186 troops have been injured or killed in attacks on U.S. personnel in the Middle East since mid-October. Of those, 130 have been traumatic brain injuries.
Why the Navy says its Red Sea and Gulf of Aden battles are historic. The Navy's ongoing battles with Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden have resulted in destroyers shooting down 14 anti-ship ballistic missiles “for the first time in history.”
CHINA THREAT
NATO-trained troops from ‘multiple' countries successfully recruited by China, says General. But the US and its NATO allies have brought some of those service members back.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
Russia puts the leader of NATO member Estonia on a ‘wanted list' over the removal of Russian Soviet-era WW II monuments in Estonia. This, as tensions between Russia and the West soar amid the war in Ukraine.
Russia forced to ‘sacrifice quality for quantity' in war with Ukraine. Russia has so far replenished its destroyed inventory by regenerating thousands of stored vehicles in 2023 — an attrition rate Moscow could handle for several more years.
It takes Europe at least a year to fill a Ukrainian order for artillery shells. And it's hard to buy 155mm ammunition from non-Western nations that make it, the Estonian defense ministry said.
Ukrainian military says it sank a Russian landing ship in the Black Sea using naval drones. The report has not been confirmed by Russian authorities.
Putin's suggestion of Ukraine ceasefire rejected by US. Vladimir Putin's offer to freeze the war was rejected after contacts between intermediaries, according to three Russian sources.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
South Korea says North Korea has fired cruise missiles, adding to provocative run of weapons tests. This is its fifth test of such weapons since January.
SPACE THREAT
Space Force forms Futures Command to validate mission needs. The command will be organized into centers, including a Concepts and Technology Center, a Wargaming Center and a Space Warfighting Analysis Center.
Space Force's Japan component expected to activate in 2024. Top military space officials from Japan and the U.S. said they will stand up its new component in Japan this year.
The Pentagon's next satellite launch is a test for missile defense's future. The author discusses the launch of a forthcoming missile-tracking satellite constellation and what can be learned from it.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
THANKS TO TRUMP – BUT WHAT ABOUT THE REST? – NATO chief says 18 countries meet 2% of GDP military spending target. Eighteen out of 31 NATO countries will hit the target in 2024, NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
Will Germany deliver on its grand military ambitions? Berlin is taking a more muscular approach to national security, but concern is growing over how it will maintain the necessary spending.
US MILITARY
EXCELLENT – Lighten the load: The Army's plan to save time by shedding excess gear. To save time and ditch unneeded gear, the Army recently began a pilot program to expedite removing excess equipment from unit inventories.
Marines' underwater missile-delivery drone faces key test. The Marine Corps will put a new type of missile-delivery drone to the test in an operational scenario this month.
CNO Franchetti confident prototypes will usher in manned-unmanned fleet. The chief of naval operations is bullish on the Navy's ability to operate a manned-unmanned fleet within the next decade.
US Navy updating tactics for sensors, weapons based on Houthi attacks. It is incorporating lessons learned from its Red Sea engagements with missiles and drones to improve tactics for seeing and eliminating threats.
CSO: Why the Space Force won't be introducing warrant officers. The service has no plans to follow the Air Force lead, the Chief of Space Operations says.
END of PDB
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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