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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
Austin ends the military's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The Defense Department will no longer require service members to get vaccinated for COVID-19, according to a memo signed Tuesday by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
POLITICS
Republicans name chairmen for Armed Services, Vet Affairs committees. House Republicans on Tuesday named Alabama Rep. Mike Rogers as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Illinois Rep. Mike Bost as chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee as part of their leadership plans for the 118th Congress.
TRUE – BOTH WERE RECKLESS AND WRONG – The GOP can't slam Biden on classified documents without condemning Trump. It doesn't take much to grasp the difference between the classified documents that were discovered in President Biden's post-vice-presidential office and those found at former president Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club. BUT STOP THE PRO-BIDEN SPINNING TO MINIMIZE HIS MISTAKE.
DEFENSE BUDGET
Pentagon funding in question after House fight over speakership. The protracted battle over electing a new House speaker — and the concessions Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., made to hard-liners in his party to finally win the job — is raising concerns that the defense budget could see billions of dollars in cuts after years of booming increases.
NATIONAL SECURITY
SURPRISE, SURPRISE! – Biden says he was “surprised” classified documents were found in closet at Penn Biden Center office. President Biden on Tuesday responded for the first time to CBS News' reporting that documents classified Top Secret/SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) were found at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, D.C., saying he was “surprised” to learn there were any government documents at the office, which was opened after he served as vice president.
NO KIDDING – Get used to wielding ‘hard power,' US Army general at head of NATO command tells allies. Drastic changes are coming for NATO, and the U.S.-led alliance's top American officer in Europe says members must face this fact: “Hard power is a reality.”
2023 – VIDEO – The biggest stories of 2023 | Defense News Weekly full episode. A breakdown of the top stories to be watching in 2023, from the impact of the Republican takeover of the house to ongoing recruitment woes.
2023 – What stories will dominate the new year? A 2023 look ahead, pt. 1. Military and defense correspondents look at the most consequential stories poised to make headlines in 2023, including the pace of Ukraine war aid.
Lawyer for Marine veteran who trained Chinese pilots says US extradition attempt is ‘political.' The Marine veteran has been unfairly singled out because of the current geopolitical struggle between the U.S. and China, his lawyer says.
HOMELAND SECURITY
Air Force wants to add facial recognition to automated base entrance. Scott Air Force Base is looking for verification and identification algorithms for a facial recognition pilot.
CHINA THREAT
WIN AGAINST CHINA – GOP pick to lead House China committee vows to win ‘new Cold War.' The House on Tuesday voted 365-65 to establish a special committee on China, and the lawmaker Republicans tapped to lead the bipartisan panel has vowed that Congress will use it to “win the new Cold War.”
US, Japan set to announce shake-up of Marine Corps units to deter China. In a deepening of the two countries' strategic alliance, a Marine regiment on Okinawa will be able to fire missiles at Chinese ships in the event of a Taiwan conflict.
US to increase number of anti-ship missiles in Japan -sources. The United States will significantly increase its anti-ship missile capabilities in Japan as part of a broader effort to deter China, three U.S. officials said.
Indian Air Force jets deploy to Japan for long-delayed Veer Guardian exercise. Indian Air Force fighter jets have made their first deployment to Japan to take part in the long-delayed exercise Veer Guardian.
Taiwan is finally beefing up its defenses. Will it be too little, too late? It is both thrilling and sobering to visit Taiwan nearly a year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
RUSSIA THREAT
Putin's war against Ukraine will ruin Russia. Putin's legacy will be an impoverished third world Russia.
Russia's upgraded Tu-160 bomber to undergo government testing. Russia's new prototype Tu-160M bomber has completed its second test flight and will now undergo trials with the Defense Ministry.
JUST MOVE ASSETS FORWARD AS TRUMP STARTED DOING – After Ukraine invasion, NATO aligning strategy with ‘regional plans': Former SACEUR. NATO likely will maintain a “semi-permanent” presence in Eastern Europe for many years to come, said retired Gen. Tod Wolters, former Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
UKRAINE WAR
Poland in talks with allies over Leopard 2 transfers to Ukraine. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has announced his country is considering supplying an undisclosed number of Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine to support its neighbor's combat against the Russian invasion.
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 322. The head of Russia's mercenary group, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says his fighters have taken control of the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine after intense fighting this week, but some “urban battles” continued.
Russian missiles used against Ukraine ‘absolutely filled' with US tech. In a Jan. 10 briefing, analysts from the Royal Institute of Strategic Studies, detailed how many of Russia's missiles have American and other Western components, despite export controls in place.
Putin secretly pardoned convicts recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine. The Russian president secretly absolved inmates, including violent offenders, to legally release them to fight and to shield their identities from public view.
Ukrainian troops heading to Oklahoma for Patriot missile training. A hundred Ukrainian soldiers are set to begin training on the Patriot missile system at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, “as soon as next week,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, ASIA, AFRICA
Navy considers non-LCS option for mine countermeasures in 5th Fleet. The U.S. Navy is considering alternatives to deploying littoral combat ships to the Middle East for a mandatory mine countermeasures mission, hoping to instead maintain LCS deployments to the Western Pacific.
Air Force unit exploring uses for small drones in Mideast. After struggling to fend off weaponized quadcopters in the Middle East for years, a band of volunteer airmen is trying to flip the script.
Ukraine's consequences are finally spreading to Syria. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is reverberating more than 1,000 miles away in Syria. Squeezed by its strategic blunder, Moscow's shrinking strategic bandwidth and its diminished capacities in Syria have disrupted the conflict's complex power dynamics, potentially imperiling the relative calm that has prevailed since March 2020 and undermining U.S. interests.
Armenia cancels military drills, widening rift with Moscow. The prime minister of Armenia said Tuesday that his country has refused to host military drills planned by a Russia-dominated security pact, an announcement that reflected the Armenian government's growing tensions with Moscow.
Tigray forces begin handing over heavy weapons to Ethiopian army. Tigray forces, who fought a two-year war against Ethiopia's federal government, began handing over heavy weaponry to the national army as part of an African Union-led peace process on Tuesday.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
TIME TO RAMP UP NUKE DETERRENCE AGAINST THE NORTH – South Korea, US plan February nuclear tabletop drills to deter North. South Korea and the United States will hold tabletop exercises next month as the allies move to better counter the North's nuclear threats, South Korea's defense minister said.
Army Strykers test their firepower for first time near border with North Korea. A Stryker brigade flexed its firepower for the first-time during drills Tuesday in the snowy hills of Rodriguez Live Fire Complex, roughly 16 miles from the border with North Korea.
IRAN THREAT
US Navy seizes thousands of assault rifles shipped from Iran. Naval forces intercepted a boat in the Gulf of Oman smuggling thousands of assault rifles last week, according to a release from Naval Forces Central Command.
SPACE
MEANING? – PRIVATE SPACE ASSETS NEED TO DEFEND AGAINST FOREIGN STATE INTERFERENCE – Space launches should withstand Chinese challenge, Pentagon mandate says. SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and others prepare for the next multibillion-dollar contract round—and its new requirements.
US MILITARY
Navy aims for 75 ‘mission-capable' surface ships amid readiness drive. The U.S. Navy wants to keep nearly half its surface fleet in a deployable state, as it aims to raise the overall readiness of the force in case it's called upon to fight.
New rifles and aircraft for US forces in 2023. The Army and Marines plan to start fielding next-generation rifles and light machine guns, and the Air Force rolls out new fighters in this week's military headlines.
To recruit Gen Z, the top Marine makes an appeal to older generations. The top Marine thinks young people need to hear more about the value of serving. And not from him.
THE TAPE TEST IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE TAPE TEST – Air Force to start tracking height-to-waist ratios in April. The Air Force said it will officially use height-to-waist ratios to measure troops' fitness starting this spring, solidifying its move away from the dreaded abdominal “tape test.”
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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