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Get Your Best Daily Defense and Foreign Affairs Intelligence Here in One Brief. Read the summaries or dive deeper via the linked articles.
POLITICS
AVOIDS BORDER BUT WILL GO TO MEXICO – Biden is heading south of the border. President Biden is planning to head to Mexico City next month for his first scheduled foreign trip of 2023.
Fearing scandal, Air Force blocked generals' foreign consulting deals. Two generals who oversaw U.S. supply routes through corruption-plagued Azerbaijan sought to profit from their connections once they retired. An Air Force lawyer objected.
DEFENSE BUDGET
This week in Congress: Final NDAA compromise expected to be unveiled. House leaders are expected to bring a compromise version of the annual defense authorization bill to the floor this week, but details of what the massive military policy legislation will include still haven't been released.
OF COURSE, IT DOES – White House opposes repealing military vaccine mandate through NDAA. The White House opposes using the annual defense spending bill to repeal a vaccine mandate for military service members, national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Fighting and winning in the electromagnetic spectrum. Starlink has proved critical for combat operations in Ukraine, and the system appears nimble enough to withstand sophisticated Russian electromagnetic attack. The U.S. military once dominated this domain, but U.S. skills have atrophied. Starlink's agility has impressed senior leaders. Gen. Mark Kelly, commander of Air Combat Command, said: “If we lose the war in the electromagnetic spectrum, we lose the war in the air, and we lose it quickly.”
Can the new oil price cap starve Russia's war effort? Sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and its allies failed to starve President Vladimir Putin of funding for his war in Ukraine because there were still plenty of ready buyers of Russian oil. So, Putin's adversaries spent months devising a Plan B: force Moscow to sell the oil so cheaply that its profits collapse.
PENTAGON WOKE WATCH
VERY SMALL NUMBER – AND HOW MANY ARE TOTAL BS? – The military fielded over 200 domestic extremism reports last year. The services took in 211 reports of domestic extremism between October 2021 and September 2022, 183 of which launched investigations, according to data by the Defense Department inspector general.
OVERREACTION TO FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS? – The Army killed its ‘Call of Duty' marketing blitz after the publisher was hit with sexual assault lawsuits. The U.S. Army backed out of deal with game publisher Activision Blizzard after the company was hit with sexual assault and discrimination lawsuits. The move came two weeks before an esports tournament the Army was set to sponsor and was part of a planned multi-million dollar advertising effort in the video game world by the Army.
HOMELAND SECURITY
How Army commands are responding to ‘targeted' NC power outage. Tens of thousands of people braced for days without electricity in a North Carolina county, which includes an area where residents assigned to one of the Army's largest and busiest bases live. Authorities say two power substations were shot up by one or more people with apparent criminal intent.
Real ID deadline for air travel extended another two years. The Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it is extending the deadline to require Real ID-compliant identification for air travelers, pushing the start date from May 3, 2023, to May 7, 2025.
Coast Guard returns 79 Haitian migrants to Bahamas after ‘suspected smuggling ventures.' The Coast Guard transported 79 Haitian migrants to Bahamian authorities Saturday after intercepting two separate vessels east of Lake Worth Inlet in Palm Beach County last week.
CHINA THREAT
The failure of integrated deterrence, and what to do about China. A year before the U.S. entered World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur warned: “The history of failure in war, or in any other human endeavor, can almost be summed up in two words: ‘too late.' Too late in comprehending the deadly purpose of a potential enemy. Too late in realizing the mortal danger. Too late in preparedness. Too late in uniting all possible forces for resistance.”
FACING CHINA – Army moving equipment across the Pacific for training. The Army is moving equipment across the Pacific in support of its Operation Pathways exercise to be held in Australia in 2023 as it continues to define its changing role in the region.
MIDDLE EAST BEACHHEAD – China's Xi to visit Saudi Arabia, amid frayed ties with the US. Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to arrive in Saudi Arabia on Thursday for a two-day state visit amid high tensions between the United States and the two countries, according to sources. Xi's trip to Riyadh will include a China-Arab summit and a China-GCC conference. At least 14 Arab heads of state are expected to attend the China-Arab summit, according to a source who described the trip as a “milestone” for Arab-Chinese relations.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
THREATENING JAPAN – Russia deploys defense missile system on Kuril island near Japan. Russia's defense ministry has said it has deployed mobile coastal defense missile systems on a northern Kuril island, part of a strategically located chain of islands that stretch between Japan and the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula.
PODCAST – Today's Episode: Russia is burning through its munitions. A top U.S. intelligence official said that Russia is burning through its munition stockpiles at an “extraordinary” rate.
SO ARE WE – US Army plans ‘dramatic' ammo production boost as Ukraine drains stocks. As donations to Ukraine strain allied munitions stockpiles, the U.S. Army is seeking a “dramatic” ramp up in monthly production of 155mm artillery shells over the next three years, said its chief weapons buyer.
Ukrainians face emergency blackouts after Russian missile attacks. Outages will be most severe in the Kyiv region, as teams work to repair damaged infrastructure in freezing conditions.
Satellite images show a new Russian military facility in Mariupol. Newly released satellite imagery shows a new Russian military compound in Mariupol, Ukraine, complete with a Russian Army slogan atop the roof.
Russia fires more missiles, claims Kyiv hit its air bases. Moscow unleashed another massive missile barrage in Ukraine on Monday, striking homes and buildings and killing civilians, hours after the Kremlin claimed Ukrainian drones struck two air bases deep inside Russian territory.
Russia says oil price cap won't stop it from financing Ukraine war effort. Russia said on Monday that a Western price cap on its oil would destabilize global energy markets but would not affect its ability to sustain what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
IRAN THREAT
US base in Kuwait adapts to Iran's aerial threat. A sign warning troops about the aerial drones now used by U.S. rivals in the Middle East greets arrivals to this key American military transit hub in the Middle East.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
N Korea orders new artillery fire over US-S Korea drills. Order comes a day after North Korea said it fired more than 130 shells into the sea off its east and west coasts.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA
South Sudan to send 750 troops to join the regional force in DRC. The troops are off to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo to join a new regional force in trying to calm the latest round of fighting there.
Somali forces, clan militias capture strategic town from al Shabaab. Somali forces and allied militias have pushed al Shabaab fighters out of a strategic town in central Somalia that the Islamist group has controlled for six years, the African Union (AU) said.
US MILITARY
US Army makes largest helicopter award in 40 years. Textron's Bell has won the U.S. Army's competition to build the Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft, the service's largest helicopter procurement decision in 40 years.
Fake parts: A Pentagon supply chain problem hiding in plain sight. The high-profile incident spotlighted a quandary for Pentagon leaders, one the department has struggled to address and was warned about for more than a decade: how to keep counterfeit parts and other unauthorized material from sneaking into the department's sprawling supply chain.
Fog machines, short lenses, no iPhones: Managing the B-21 rollout. When it came time to roll out the Air Force's new stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, the line between public transparency and revealing too much information was barely visible to the naked eye.
Army creates new legal office for murder, rape and other serious crime. The Army has appointed a top military lawyer to oversee how the service prosecutes serious criminal offenses such as murder, rape and sexual assaults.
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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