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
PLEASE DON'T BLAME BIDEN – HE'S JUST THE PRESIDENT – These reasons for faulting President Biden are faulty. Marc A. Thiessen, in his Dec. 30 op-ed, “The 10 worst things Joe Biden did in 2022,” wrote that several thousand troops were “needlessly” forced out of the military for refusing the coronavirus vaccine. I disagree. BUT OF COURSE, YOU DO.
New ranking member could shake up a key Senate oversight committee. A new Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee wants the body to “reassert itself.”
Breaking down the number of veterans in the 118th Congress. When lawmakers formally convene the 118th Congress today, they'll do so with 97 veterans representing 36 states, the most members with military experience since 2015.
Bipartisan military veterans: Congress needs to be serious on national security. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is one of the most consequential pieces of legislation that Congress passes each year. It authorizes new funding and policy initiatives for the Department of Defense (DOD) and defense-related activities, charting the course for our national security policy. This year's NDAA, which the president signed last month, includes a host of important provisions like increasing pay for our service members, enhancing U.S. deterrence initiatives in the Pacific, and supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Putin has no red lines. “What are Putin's red lines?”
The time is now to question how NATO should look post Ukraine. “Now is the moment to consider what changes may be needed to ensure the alliance is strong, healthy and focused on its core task of keeping alliance members out of Russia's grasp,” writes Joshua Huminski of the Center for the Study of the Presidency & Congress. Read More
Pentagon should better study risks of swapping older fighter jets for new ones, watchdog finds. The Pentagon needs to do a better job managing the risks of replacing aging fighter jets and should share information with Congress so it can make better spending decisions and avoid gaps in air superiority, a top federal watchdog concluded in a recent report.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Feds order review of electrical-grid security after substation shootings. The organization that sets the grid's reliability standards must report within three months on its rules for physical security.
Former US Marine held in Australia received more than $100,000 to train Chinese pilots, indictment alleges. Daniel Duggan, a naturalized Australian accused of providing military training to Chinese, is fighting extradition and maintains his innocence.
FAIR VERDICT – TOURIST NOT TRAITOR – West Virginia National Guard sergeant receives probation for entering US Capitol on Jan. 6. A West Virginia National Guard member accused of surging into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has been sentenced to two years probation.
CHINA THREAT
Chinese surveillance drones, naval task force operate around Okinawa. Japanese fighters have scrambled for the first time to intercept Chinese WZ-7 Soaring Eagle surveillance drones operating earlier this week near Okinawa, according to Japan's military.
STRATEGIC SHIFT – INDIA GROWS AS CHINA SHRINKS – This baby could push India past China to become the world's most populous country. The United Nations says that sometime in 2023, India will officially overtake China as the most populous country in the world. It may actually have happened already: India hasn't had a census since 2011.
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER – US moves to reopen Solomon Islands embassy to counter China. The Biden administration is plowing ahead with plans to reopen the U.S. embassy in the Solomon Islands in a bid to counter China's increasing assertiveness in the Pacific. The State Department has informed Congress that it will soon establish an interim embassy in the Solomons' capital of Honiara on the site of a former U.S. consular property.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
An unexpected glimpse of disillusionment in Russia's trenches. Few jobs are less enviable these days than that of a Russian mobilized soldier deployed to Ukraine.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 315. Russia's defense ministry said 89 servicemen were killed in the Ukrainian attack on Makiivka in the Moscow-controlled parts of the Donetsk region, adding that the reason for the attack was the unauthorized use of mobile phones by the troops.
Russia, shaken by Ukrainian strike, could step up drone use. Emergency crews on Tuesday sifted through the rubble of a building struck by Ukrainian rockets, killing at least 63 Russian soldiers barracked there, in the latest blow to the Kremlin's war strategy as Ukraine says Moscow's tactics could be shifting.
Russian soldier gave away his position with geotagged social media posts. Cell phones and combat zones don't mix.
Russia's basic errors jeopardize its Ukraine forces, military analysts say. Cellphone use, storage of ammunition near troops are called indicative of poor discipline.
Europe prepares to take in more Ukrainians, with less support, in 2023. In Europe, aid groups and volunteers are grappling with how to sustain aid to Ukrainian refugees in the year ahead, with new hardships as winter sets in.
Ukraine has digitized its fighting forces on a shoestring. Ukraine has achieved a cut-price version of what the Pentagon has spent decades and billions of dollars striving to accomplish: digitally networked fighters, intelligence and weapons.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, ASIA, AFRICA
AS TRUMP RAILED FOR THEM TO DO – Push underway in NATO to raise defense spending by members. Some NATO countries want to increase defense spending requirements for members, which would turn a long-standing benchmark into a bare minimum, the alliance's top official said this week.
WHY NOW? – Air Force deploys latest E-11A BACN to Saudi Arabia. The Air Force deployed a brand new version of one of its prized communications aircraft to Saudi Arabia, the service said in a Jan. 2 news release.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
South Korea, US in talks on management of nukes. South Korea has confirmed that Seoul and Washington are discussing its involvement in U.S. nuclear asset management.
IRAN THREAT
Iran president vows vengeance 3 years after general's death. Iran's president on Tuesday vowed to avenge the killing of the country's top general on the third anniversary of his death, as the government rallied its supporters in mourning amid months of anti-government protests.
SPACE
Congress shows needed oversight, skepticism over US military's space bureaucracy. Congress finished work last month on the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act and sent it to President Biden for signature. But during the final frenzy to complete this annual defense policy and priorities legislation, lawmakers did something particularly important that will likely go unnoticed by most Americans: while adding to the U.S. Space Force budget, Congress decided to keep a tight rein on space policy and organization decisions.
Space Force launches experimental weather satellite. The U.S. Space Force on Tuesday morning launched an experimental weather satellite, part of a push to improve its on-orbit weather forecasting capabilities.
New rockets, more spacecraft to take flight in 2023 from space coast. It's slated to be a busy year of rocket launches from the Space Coast with a pace that could introduce some new names and set new records.
AFRL wants on-orbit servicing tech to enhance space monitoring, logistics. The lab sees “rendezvous, proximity operations and docking,” or RPOD, as critical to future space situational awareness needs, AFRL's Tristan Griffith told Breaking Defense.
New in 2023: Saltzman leads Space Force into its 4th year. Space Force guardians continue to solidify their place among the U.S. armed forces as the newest branch turned three years old in December.
US MILITARY
New in 2023: Air Force overhauls how it prepares for the next fight. Airmen are gradually shifting how they prepare for deployment as part of the Air Force's new “force generation” plan, the adoption of which may hit a key milestone in 2023.
New in 2023: Here comes the first-ever surface drone fleet. Send in the sea drones!
Navy buys 2 ‘Loyal Wingman' XQ-58A Valkyrie drones for $15.5M. The Navy is buying two stealth unmanned aerial systems – originally developed for the Air Force – that could operate with a manned fighter, as the service pursues the manned-unmanned teaming concept officials say is central to the future of naval aviation.
Longer ranges like for Army's looming precision missile. The Army is deciding how much farther to extend the range requirement for its Precision Strike Missile as the service plans to field the system in 2023.
First unit fielding Army hypersonic missile in 2023. The Army is planning two additional tests of its hypersonic missile before fielding it to the first unit at by late 2023.
How big will the 2024 military pay raise be? Congress this year approved the biggest military pay raise in two decades, but the 2024 pay raise could be even higher.
HEALING REQUIRES TOLERANCE – STOP DESTROYING OUR SHARED HISTORY – What to do with Arlington Cemetery's confederate memorial. Moses Ezekiel's Confederate Memorial will be removed from Arlington Cemetery. But what comes next is a matter of debate.
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.
READ NEXT: Brazilian Authorities to Reopen Criminal Case Into Rep.-Elect George Santos >>
