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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
Defense lawmaker races to watch on election night. Military issues and foreign affairs aren't expected to be a major focus for voters in this year's midterm elections, but a number of key national defense policy figures in Congress could lose their seats or step into new rules depending on the outcome of the polls.
BECAUSE QUESTIONING ELECTIONS IS AMERICAN AS IT GETS – Largest defense firms donate millions to election-denying lawmakers. In the days after a mob ransacked Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021, some of the world's largest defense firms announced they would pause and reevaluate their political donations.
NATIONAL SECURITY
US Navy wants to avoid shortfall of nuke-armed subs in 2030s. U.S. Navy officials are worried the service in the 2030s may have just enough nuclear-armed submarines to meet operational requirements — but no extras in case one becomes unavailable.
The reality behind Russia's talk about nuclear weapons. U.S. officials say they do not believe that Russia has decided to detonate a tactical device, but concerns are rising.
Save the AUKUS partnership — share the B-21 bomber. AUKUS, the defense technology partnership that Australia, the UK and the US formed in September 2021, is already in trouble. Its focus is to provide Australia's navy with state-of-the-art nuclear-powered attack submarines, to replace its nearly obsolete boats. The upgrade would give Australia the ability to patrol the Taiwan Strait and western Pacific, countering China's navy, along with U.S. and Japanese forces.
Congress must act to boost combat-credible airpower in Indo-Pacific. Withdrawing F-15 fighter squadrons from Kadena Air Base in Japan without a replacement plan does not enhance combat-credible posture, these authors argue.
Military leaders praise Musk as Treasury officials eye Twitter deal. Elon Musk is not the only defense-industry exec who showed up for the Space Force's first change-of-command ceremony. But the SpaceX founder and controversial new owner of Twitter was the only one who got a by-name call out from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
CHINA THREAT
China's mystery spaceplane releases object into orbit. China's secretive reusable spaceplane has released an object into orbit, according to tracking data from the U.S. Space Force.
Satellite images show air base in southern China receiving makeover. China is expanding an air base close to a key southern naval base with the addition of a second runway, widened taxiways and two vastly expanded aircraft parking areas, satellite photos show.
US-China report recommends backchannel diplomacy with Chinese military. The congressionally mandated U.S.-China commission suggests Congress fund backchannel military diplomacy with Beijing, citing growing gaps in Washington's knowledge of personnel matters and reform efforts in relation to the People's Liberation Army.
Navy expanding attack submarine presence on Guam as a hedge against growing Chinese fleet. Amid strategic competition with China, the United States plans to augment its ability to operate submarines out of Guam, the commander of U.S. submarine forces in the Pacific said today.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
North Korea covertly sending artillery to Russia, White House says. The U.S. has information that indicates North Korea is covertly supplying Russia with a “significant” number of artillery shells for its war against Ukraine, the White House's National Security Council spokesman said Wednesday.
Hardened Ukrainian brigade sees Russian vulnerability in Kherson City. The soldiers of the 59th Motorized Brigade are bullish on their prospects of beating the Russians back at Kherson City.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 253. Russian attacks were reported across large areas of Ukraine with heavy shelling in numerous regions damaging infrastructure. Europe's largest nuclear power plant has again been disconnected from the power grid after Russian shelling damaged the remaining high voltage lines, leaving it with just diesel generators, Ukraine nuclear firm Energoatom said.
Ukrainian official: Musk to keep funding key satellite links. Elon Musk has given assurances to Ukraine that he will keep funding its access to a crucial satellite network providing Kyiv with battlefield and humanitarian communications in its war with Russia, a senior Ukrainian official said Wednesday.
Russia changes course, rejoins key Ukraine grain export deal. Russia said Wednesday it was rejoining the agreement that guarantees safe passage for ships carrying vital grain exports from Ukraine, a move that may help ease concerns about global food supplies that were raised when Moscow suspended its participation in the pact last week.
US to provide Ukraine with two NASAMS in the ‘very near future,' six more later: official. National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems were included in the latest $275 million security assistance package to Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials say nuclear plant disconnected from grid as shelling damaged power lines. Russian attacks were reported across large areas of Ukraine on Thursday, with heavy shelling in numerous regions damaging infrastructure, including electricity supplies to Europe's largest nuclear plant, Ukrainian officials said.
Poland lays razor wire on border with Russia's Kaliningrad. Polish soldiers began laying razor wire Wednesday along Poland's border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad after the government ordered the construction of a barrier to prevent what it fears could become another migration crisis.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
North Korea keeps up missile barrage with suspected ICBM. North Korea continued its barrage of weapons tests on Thursday, firing at least three missiles including a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile.
North Korea's ballistic missile barrage signals a potentially dangerous escalation. North Korea fired a ballistic missile into South Korean waters for the first time since World War II.
IRAN THREAT
Alaska-based F-22s deploy to CENTCOM amid Iran threat. As concerns have risen in Washington about a potential Iranian attack against U.S. partners in the region, F-22 Raptors have deployed to the Middle East and performed operations alongside F-15E Strike Eagles on Nov. 2, according to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
The US has funneled more than $1 billion into Afghanistan since the fall of Kabul with zero accountability. Multiple U.S. agencies refused to cooperate with the government's top Afghanistan reconstruction watchdog.
A secretive US Special-Operations base in Syria is taking fire from a shadowy Middle East war. Al-Tanf garrison, a US base typically housing between 100 and 200 US troops alongside coalition forces, has for years been a hub for operations against ISIS as well as Iran and its proxies.
‘More vulnerable': ministers to update UK's national security plan. Ministers have announced plans to redraw the UK's national security and foreign policy plan for the 2020s just 18 months after it was published, with plans to include a new taskforce to protect parliament against the “growing threat from hostile states”.
‘TRUMPIAN' MOVE? – Refusing to accept defeat, Bolsonaro backers call on military to intervene. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in cities across Brazil, many of them demanding that the military stop the transfer of power to President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: Truce agreed. A deal has been reached in the Ethiopian civil war with both sides agreeing to halt their two-year conflict which led to thousands of deaths and warnings of a famine.
SPACE THREAT
Saltzman assumes command of US Space Force. The Space Force welcomed a new leader on Wednesday as the Department of Defense formally transitioned command of the service to Gen. Chance Saltzman.
Space Force to establish components for INDOPACOM, CENTCOM, Korea by end of 2022. The Space Force has a new Chief of Space Operations, and by the end of 2022, it will have established components within two more combatant commands and one sub-unified combatant command.
US MILITARY
New torpedo tube-launched drones will turn US attack sub fleet into ‘UUV motherships,' says Navy. In the near future, the U.S. nuclear attack submarine fleet will be able to launch and recover an underwater robot from a torpedo tube designed to quietly extend the awareness of a submarine, Navy officials said this week.
The US military is still struggling to figure out social media. “You will not be able to win the wars of the future … if you can't even figure out how to operate in the information space.”
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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I’m sure it’s a military secret that’s not talked about, but it’s highly unlikely that our country doesn’t have military satellites up there that are both armed,and keeping tabs on all the other countries satellites. In today’s world it seems like that would be a necessity. If they don’t already have them you can bet it won’t be long before China has them.