Thursday, March 28, 2024

US Needs More Bang for Its Defense Buck and Americans Too Fat to Fight

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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 :

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

GOOD FOR ARMY – HOPEFULLY EVERYONE WON'T BE ON ‘MOMMY AND ME' TIME WHEN WAR BREAKS OUT – Army unveils new parental leave policy after long debate on denials. The Army on Tuesday rolled out its long-anticipated parental leave policy a month after a congressionally mandated deadline, making it the last branch to comply with the law after a debate about who should be able to deny leave. But the largest military service believes that extra time allowed it to craft a policy much stronger than those drafted by the other branches that almost guarantees the leave will be allowed.

POLITICS

Feds drop lobbying probe of retired Marine general, lawyer says. The dropped its probe of retired four-star Gen. John Allen for his role in an alleged illegal foreign lobbying campaign.

NATIONAL SECURITY

IF YOU DON'T AGREE YOU ARE CLUELESS AND/OR SOFT AND SHOULD LEAVE THE MILITARY CAUSE ‘WAR'S ACOMIN' – This Air Force general is rallying his troops for war with China. Some airmen believe in the four-star's vision. Others say it goes too far.

WE NEED MORE BANG FOR OUR BUCK, NOT JUST MORE BUCKS – Getting serious about responsible defense spending. Congress needs to take a Moneyball approach to our national defense.

The doomsday clock is ticking on biosecurity. Countries around the world must cooperate and deepen their investments in global and biosecurity strategies.

YES! – Over-classification undermines democracy, US intelligence director says. The investigations into handling of sensitive documents by former presidents and vice presidents have brought problems with the classification system back into the spotlight.

Why has the West given Ukraine billions in military aid, but virtually ignored Myanmar? The US alone committed about US$50 billion in total help to Ukraine in 2022, about half of which was military aid.

CHINA THREAT

Air Force says proposed Chinese-owned mill in North Dakota is ‘significant threat.' A proposal for a corn mill, which had been welcomed as an economic development success, reflects just how much things have changed with Chinese investment proposals in the U.S.

The Great People Shortage hits China. China will lose half its population by the end of the century. The country's massively shrinking population is a grim omen for the rest of the world and a warning for the US and Europe.

RUSSIA THREAT

US says Russia violated nuclear-arms treaty by barring inspections. Tensions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine risk endangering cooperation on arms control and negotiating a successor to the New START treaty.

UKRAINE WAR

BLOWING SMOKE? – Russia says it will fast-track testing of tank-killing robot in Ukraine. Russia warns that western tanks should be “prepared for their destruction.”

HRW urges Ukraine to probe its military's use of banned mines. HRW says Ukrainian forces ‘extensively' scattered anti-personnel mines in Izyum, causing civilian casualties.

Ukraine has won support from Baltic nations and Poland for its weekslong quest to obtain Western fighter jets. Ukraine has won support from Baltic nations and Poland for its weekslong quest to obtain Western fighter jets.

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 343. Russia says it has captured the village of Blahodatne on the northern outskirts of Bakhmut as it intensifies efforts to surround the front-line city in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

US readies $2 billion-plus Ukraine aid package with longer-range weapons. The is readying more than $2 billion worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two U.S. officials briefed on the matter said Tuesday.

France, Australia to jointly send new ammunition to Ukraine. and have committed to jointly provide 155-millimeter ammunition to Ukraine, the nations' defense ministries announced Tuesday.

Biden's ‘no' on F-16s for Ukraine met with skepticism in Pentagon. The administration has exhibited a pattern of rejecting similar pleas from the in Kyiv only to relent later.

US Army goes virtual to help Ukraine maintain weapons. The first M777 howitzers arrived in Ukraine less than two months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

NORTH KOREA THREAT

US to increase weapons deployment to counter North Korea. U.S. Defense Secretary on Tuesday said the United States will increase its deployment of advanced weapons such as fighter jets and bombers to the Korean Peninsula as it strengthens joint training and operational planning with South Korea in response to a growing North Korean nuclear threat.

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY – NATO, MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA, ASIA,

PODCAST: Turkey tough on Sweden and Finland NATO membership. Turkey continues to be a roadblock to Finland and Sweden's NATO ascension.

F-35s deploy to Greenland for first time, operate from Thule. Four Air Force F-35s deployed to Thule Air Base in Greenland in January, operating from the U.S.'s northernmost base for the first time.

US and India launch high-level defense and tech initiative. Geopolitical concerns about China and Russia form the backdrop of a new partnership.

AI-powered surveillance sought for US Central Command. The U.S. Air Force is interested in installing always-on surveillance systems fueled by artificial intelligence and other advanced computing technology at sites overseen by the U.S. Central Command.

US Coast Guard bust in Middle East nets $33 million in drugs. A U.S. Coast Guard cutter seized millions of dollars in illegal drugs this week in the Gulf of Oman, the latest in a string of maritime drug busts in the Middle East that have netted more than $1 billion worth of narcotics since 2021, officials said.

The US appears to have used its missile full of swords in an airstrike in Yemen. Here comes the R9X Hellfire.

What's behind the Pakistani Taliban's insurgency? When a suicide bomber struck a mosque inside a police compound in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Monday, suspicion immediately fell on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

BIDEN'S AFGHAN DISASTER

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING – US arms left in Afghanistan are turning up in a different conflict. Since falling into the hands of the Taliban, some of the weapons have been seized from militants in Indian-controlled Kashmir in what experts say could be just the start of their global journey.

SPACE

To protect satellites, secure your networks, chief of space ops says. Cyber attacks can undermine space-based capabilities, Gen. Chance Saltzman said.

Space Force chief calls for tighter link between operators and buyers. As the Space Force invests in simulators and ranges to improve its testing and training enterprise, the service's top officer wants to ensure that operators have a hand in shaping those capabilities.

US MILITARY

TOO FAT TO FIGHT – Addressing America's obesity crisis can improve military readiness. Defense Department data indicates ineligibility stems from three key issues: education, not meeting weight standards or a record of or drug abuse.

Navy nears operational capability on LCS counter-mine mission package. The U.S. Navy is close to declaring initial operational capability on its second and final Littoral Combat Ship mission package, the mine countermeasures package, as it awaits a final report from the service's test and evaluation office.

New Marine information command aims to sync up data operations. The Marine Corps recently activated a two-star command that it hopes will better coordinate its information operations.

US hypersonic missile passes test, puts ‘exclamation point' on development program. The U.S. has successfully tested another hypersonic missile, bringing the military a step closer to having an operational version of the weapon in its arsenal, developers 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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Paul Crespo
Paul Crespohttps://paulcrespo.com/
Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Liberty Defense News. As a Marine Corps officer, he led Marines, served aboard ships in the Pacific and jumped from helicopters and airplanes. He was also a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at U.S. embassies worldwide. He later ran for office, taught political science, wrote for a major newspaper and had his own radio show. A graduate of Georgetown, London and Cambridge universities, he brings decades of experience and insight to the issues that most threaten our American liberty – at home and from abroad.

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