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.
PENTAGON WOKE WATCH
HALLELUJAH – Navy officially stops booting and disciplining COVID vaccine refusers. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin rescinded the vaccine mandate earlier this month.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Tightening foreign investment screening undermines national security. A century ago, in the wake of World War I, the U.S. Navy identified the most likely country to be our next adversary — a country that dominated global shipping, communications, and aviation industries. In response, Congress adopted foreign investment limitations in those sectors to protect U.S. national security.
HOMELAND SECURITY
CHINESE AMERICAN SPYING FOR CHINA – Administrator funneled Army aviation tech data to Beijing University. A 35-year-old of Chinese background and former program administrator for a nonprofit space research company pleaded guilty to a charge that he illegally funneled payments for Army aviation technology that he then exported to a China-based university.
CHINA THREAT
China’s population is shrinking. The impact will be felt around the world. China may be one step closer to losing its place as the world’s most populous country to India after its population shrank for the first time since the 1960s. The country’s population fell in 2022 to 1.411 billion, down some 850,000 people from the previous year, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced during a Tuesday briefing on annual data. The last time China’s population decreased was in 1961, during a famine that killed tens of millions of people across the country. This will have a huge impact on China’s global ambitions and ability to push its weight around.
PODCAST: U.S. aircraft carrier operates in South China Sea. The aircraft carrier Nimitz and its strike group are operating in the South China Sea amid Chinese exercises.
RUSSIA THREAT
US Coast Guard monitoring possible Russian intelligence gathering ship off Hawaii. For the past few weeks, the U.S. Coast Guard says it’s been monitoring a Russian vessel off the Hawaiian Islands.
New Russian Invasion Threat. It’s like déjà vu: Ukraine and its partners in the West grow increasingly nervous as they watch Russian troop buildups, for instance in Belarus, and wonder where and when President Vladimir Putin might strike next. Almost a year after invading his neighbor, the ploy remains part of Putin’s tactics of attrition.
UKRAINE WAR
The West doubles down on aiding Ukraine with heavy weapons. Weeks before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Western officials agreed to send a flurry of offensive armored vehicles to Ukraine’s battlefields that they previously refused to deliver for fear of provoking Russia — heralding a new phase of international support for Kyiv.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 330. Berlin said it would send German-made tanks to Ukraine so long as the United States agreed to do likewise, a government source told Reuters news agency. The Pentagon is still not prepared to meet Kyiv’s request for M1 Abrams tanks, said Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser, after returning from a Ukraine trip.
Thousands answered Ukraine’s call for volunteers. Here’s what motivated them. An estimated 1,000 to 3,000 such foreign fighters are believed to be active. Some went to defend democracy after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Others went to escape their own demons.
Russia is planning a major offensive. Here’s what that might look like. After facing a string of setbacks nearly a year into its war on Ukraine, Russia is planning another major offensive to make up for its losses on the ground and justify its heavy human cost at home.
Pentagon asks US Forces Korea to provide equipment for Ukraine. The U.S. Department of Defense has asked its forces stationed in South Korea to provide equipment to help Ukraine in the war against Russia, the U.S. military said on Thursday, adding the move has “zero impact” on its operations in the Asian country.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
US troops intercept drone flying near THAAD base in South Korea. U.S. forces were involved in stopping an unauthorized drone flying Tuesday near a military outpost that hosts a missile-defense system, an Eighth Army spokesman said.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA ASIA, LATIN AMERICA
Jacinda Ardern resigns as prime minister of New Zealand. Labor leader to stand down no later than 7 February, saying she ‘no longer had enough in the tank’ to do the job.
Charles de Gaulle Carrier Strike Group operating in Indian Ocean, deploys fighters to Singapore. The Charles de Gaulle Carrier Strike Group is now in the Indian Ocean exercising with the Indian Navy. At the same time, three Rafale fighter aircraft embarked on FS Charles de Gaulle (R 91) deployed to Singapore as part of the Rastaban joint power projection exercise with the French Air Force.
Spangdahlem F-16s deploy to Kadena; permanent replacement for F-15s will be ‘superior.’ The Air Force has deployed F-16CMs from Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, to Kadena Air Base, Japan, to substitute for F-15C/Ds headed stateside for eventual retirement, the service said Jan. 16.
Fleet Forces team tackles ‘decoupling’ destroyers from carriers. The U.S. Navy is pursuing several efforts meant to make it easier for the East Coast fleet to deploy ships in new ways — and potentially in greater numbers — to the European theater.
UAE joins South Korea’s military transport aircraft program. South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have signed two memorandums of understanding to improve bilateral defense ties, during a visit by the South Korean president to the Gulf kingdom.
SPACE
SpaceX launches GPS satellite on reused NASA rocket. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that successfully carried astronauts to the International Space Station in October found a second life Wednesday morning, launching a GPS III satellite in support of the U.S. Space Force’s positioning, navigation and timing mission.
SATELLITE DOWN! – Space acquisition office weighs mission priorities in case satellites go down. Frank Calvelli, head of space acquisition for the Department of the Air Force, said today that his shop is working to create a new strategy for rapidly replacing space systems lost in battle, starting with a decision about which missions to prioritize.
US MILITARY
SOUNDS MORE LIKE LATEST BMW – New name selected for Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapon. The Army has announced a name change for its forthcoming individual service rifle. Formerly designated the XM5 to replace the M4 carbine, the Army now plans to call the 6.8mm rifle the XM7.
It’s back: Two congressmen want Americans to thank troops for their freedom. Two congressmen are once again urging Americans to express support for troops and veterans by saying “thank you for our freedom” instead of “thank you for your service.”
Ping, Ping: Bringing autonomy to hydrography to map the undersea world for the Navy. Understanding the environment is the baseline for successful naval operations. To develop more and better undersea charts, the Navy is combining hydrography with autonomy for the first time.
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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