FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – American Liberty News (ALN) – in collaboration with respected national security expert Paul Crespo and the Center for American Defense Studies (CADS) – provides our readers the PDB:
Not the President’s Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL’S DAILY BRIEFING.
Get Your Best Daily Defense and Foreign Affairs Intelligence Here in One Brief. Read the summaries or dive deeper via the linked articles.
POLITICS
Debt ceiling fight could have ramifications for military spending. The congressional battle brewing over the national debt ceiling has the potential to undermine defense spending and stop payments of military salaries and benefits, according to some military and budgets experts.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Former Army reservist spied for Chinese government. A federal judge sentenced a former Army reservist to eight years in prison Wednesday for spying for the Chinese government by gathering information on scientists and engineers in the United States who specialized in aerospace and satellite technology.
SO, THESE ARE VIOLENT BLACK PROTESTS ABOUT BLACK COPS KILLING A BLACK MAN? JUST CHECKING – Georgia governor declares state of emergency, activates 1,000 National Guard troops amid Atlanta protests. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency Thursday and activated 1,000 National Guard troops in response to ongoing violent protests in downtown Atlanta.
SURE, THERE IS – US Coast Guard commander: There’s a plan in place for mass migration from Cuba, Haiti. As hundreds of Cuban migrants washed ashore on New Year’s Day in the Florida Keys, local officials complained to the state that their law enforcement resources were being stretched and overwhelmed.
NATIONAL SECURITY
COME ON, GUYS – PLEASE CHECK YOUR CLOSETS, AND POCKETS – National Archives asks former presidents and vice presidents to check for classified documents. Classified records were found at the homes of President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence, as well as an office Biden previously used.
Overmatch secrecy needed as China, Russia surveil US Navy, experts say. The thick fog of secrecy encircling the U.S. Navy’s multibillion-dollar Project Overmatch is still needed to keep rival nations including China and Russia off-balance, unable to discern from afar how the service is readying for future large-scale conflicts, according to a pair of experts.
How Area 51 became a hotbed for conspiracy theories. Towards the 1970s and 80s, rumors found their way into the collective American consciousness and took hold as definitive proof of extraterrestrials, launching government conspiracies known as “The Roswell Incident” and “Area 51.”
CHINA THREAT
China could shut down our military in a minute if we don’t fix the looming rare earths supply crisis. If we examine most major weapons systems, they cannot function without using rare earth minerals. That’s why the current supply crisis is a five-alarm fire.
US sanctions Chinese firm helping Russia’s Wagner Group. The US has sanctioned a Chinese company for allegedly providing satellite imagery of Ukraine to support the mercenary Wagner Group’s combat operations for Russia. Changsha Tianyi Space Science and Technology Research Institute is among 16 entities slapped with curbs by the Treasury Department.
GOP-led House creates a new bipartisan committee to tackle threats from China. Both Republicans and Democrats in the House voted overwhelmingly to establish a new select committee to address the multifaceted threats posed by China. Newly minted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy promised the panel would be serious and would be truly bipartisan, saying it was “not for somebody to go in and be viral to make some point.”
RUSSIA THREAT
Russian arctic threat growing more potent, report says. Russia’s Northern Fleet’s ballistic missile submarines and strategic bomber force’s capabilities remain intact despite the heavy toll the country’s invasion into Ukraine has had on its naval infantry, army and special forces assigned to the Kola Peninsula, a new report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies found.
UKRAINE WAR
Russia launches missile strikes at targets across Ukraine. At least 11 people were killed in the attacks, Ukraine officials said. The strikes came a day after Western allies pledged to send tanks to aid Ukraine.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 338. Ukraine’s military said it shot down 47 of 59 Russian missiles, some of which were fired from Tu-95 strategic bombers in the Russian Arctic. It also said Russia launched 37 air strikes, 17 of them using Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones – all of which were downed.
Whispers about cluster munitions for Ukraine are aimed at Berlin. Following a protracted debate over battle tank donations for Ukraine that tested the unity of Kyiv’s allies, cluster munitions appear in position to fire up the next controversy.
GIVE US THE NEW ONES, GIVE OUR OLD ONES TO UKRAINE! – US to buy new Abrams tanks for Ukraine because military has no spares, Pentagon says. WASHINGTON — New Abrams tanks will be purchased by the U.S. to supply to Ukraine because the Defense Department doesn’t have any spares, delaying the shipment as Ukrainian forces prepare for an expected Russian offensive, a Pentagon spokeswoman said Thursday.
Ukraine faces logistics hurdles ahead of tank deliveries. Ukraine has called the pledged tank deliveries a game-changer — but operating multiple types of tanks on the battlefield could create bigger logistical snags.
IRAN THREAT
The US and Israel remind us that the Iran threat still looms. With little public fanfare, the United States and Israel this week staged a massive military exercise in the Mediterranean clearly meant to simulate a strike against Iran. It was a reminder that no matter what else is happening in the world, the poisonous kettle of the Iranian nuclear program keeps bubbling.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA ASIA, LATIN AMERICA
Key Islamic State leader killed in US military operation in Somalia. No U.S. troops or civilians were harmed in the operation.
UMMMM – India rolls out mortar-toting camo camels for military parade. Mortar camels, anyone?
New Zealand defense priorities could slow after resignation of PM Jacinda Ardern. Political realities may push defense reform to the backburner, as another delay is revealed.
Japan launches intel satellite to watch North Korea, disasters. Japan successfully launched a rocket Thursday carrying a government intelligence-gathering satellite on a mission to watch movements at military sites in North Korea and improve natural disaster response.
TWO NUCLEAR ARMED POWERS CLASHING ‘NO BUENO’ – India expects more clashes with Chinese troops in Himalayas – document. A security assessment by Indian police in the Himalayan region of Ladakh says there could be more clashes between Indian and Chinese troops along their contested frontier there as Beijing ramps up military infrastructure in the region.
SPACE
US Space Command’s Shaw sees need for rapid, responsive launch. A senior U.S. Space Command official sees an increasing need for a rapid launch capability as threats from adversaries like China and Russia put on-orbit assets at risk.
Supporting military operations on Earth to remain US Space Force’s top priority. Top acquisition executive Frank Calvelli said the Space Force must focus on advancing satellite systems for military operations on Earth.
Worst thing in the world: Space acquisition leaders target satellite ground system gaps. Frank Calvelli, head of space acquisition for the Department of the Air Force, has made crystal clear over recent days his intent to resolve the long-standing problem of Pentagon satellites becoming operational years before ground equipment needed to use them is ready.
US MILITARY
USS America takes out drone with ‘fire-and-forget’ missile near Okinawa. The USS America “detected, tracked and engaged a target” with an RIM-116 rolling airframe missile this week in the Philippine Sea, an exercise the Navy says was aimed at keeping the amphibious assault ship’s crew ready for warfighting.
The Army is readying a new directed energy weapon to swat drone swarms out of the sky. The Army is moving forward with a new microwave weapon to help provide air defense against incoming enemy drone swarms.
ASKING LIBERAL CIVILIANS FOR HELP IS WORST IDEA – Marines consulting outside experts for fixes to recruiting challenge. Fifty years after the United States turned to the all-volunteer force, a group of Marines gathered to hear outside experts discuss how to man the force between now and 2040.
MILITARY ROBOTS AND AI
FACT OR FICTION? – Russian robot maker working on bot to target Abrams, Leopard tanks. But is it all just a PR stunt?
Pentagon’s AI chief says data ‘labeling’ is key to win race with China. To best China in the increasingly competitive artificial intelligence game, the U.S. must dramatically boost its efforts to collect, label and sort mountains of data that will ultimately be used in machine-training regimens, the Pentagon’s AI czar said.
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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Pearl Harbor caught us flatfooted, but we muscled through because of the strength of our manufacturing sector. Every German weapon was better than its corresponding American weapon, except the M1 Garand. But a German tank commander said “my panther tanks could defeat ten Sherman tanks, but there was always an eleventh one.” As Stalin said, “quantity has a quality of its own.”
We don’t make steel, or aluminum, or copper, or nickel, or cobalt, or concrete, or ….
If we were to become involved in a war of attrition with, say, Belgium, we would lose.