MONDAY PDB – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – China's neighbors seek expanded partnerships with US to deter, defend. The Pentagon's efforts to improve U.S. force posture in the Pacific have yielded a flurry of major agreements in recent months, with allies motivated by China's aggressive behavior to embrace the U.S.
US forces, allies, trained in the jungle and assaulted beaches in Thailand in a massive exercise. The recent multiple US exercises with partner nations in the Pacific have served two purposes: practical training and to send a message to nations such as China and North Korea. The latest one, Cobra Gold 23, just wrapped up with thousands of troops taking part in jungle warfare and survival classes and massive combined forces live fire exercises.
TO FIGHT CHINA – Dispersed but resilient: Air Force gets to work on new basing construct under ACE. Last month, the Air Force's evolving Agile Combat Employment (ACE) doctrine received its most rigorous test yet in the annual Cope North exercise, as Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps fighter and bomber aircraft, backed by aerial refuelers and airborne early warning and control aircraft and supported by Japanese fighters and French and Australian transports, fanned out across 1,200 miles of ocean and far-flung Pacific islands.
PURE BIDEN SPIN – THIS IS A FAILURE AND US LOSS OF REGIONAL INFLUENCE AFTER CLEAR GAINS UNDER TRUMP – Not about China: White House says it ‘welcomes' Beijing-brokered Iran-Saudi rapprochement. A joint statement announcing the historic resumption of diplomatic relations between Riyadh and Tehran credited “the noble initiative” of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY – Here's a roundup of other developing stories.
Not the President's Daily Brief, but almost as good – PAUL'S DAILY BRIEFING – the PDB:
PENTAGON WOKE WATCH
ABORTIONS ARE NOT ‘REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH CARE' – AND THREE WEEKS PAID LEAVE IS TAXPAYER FUNDED ABORTION – Navy unveils new leave policy for abortions, IVF treatments. The Navy is authorizing up to 21 days of administrative leave for sailors seeking abortions and other ‘reproductive health care' that Department of Defense health care providers typically do not — or cannot — provide. EQUATING KILLING BABIES WITH TRYING TO HAVE THEM (IVF) IS PERVERSE.
POLITICS & DEFENSE BUDGET
PURE POLITICS – Biden drops Trump design for new Air Force One. The paint scheme for the next Air Force One will remain largely the same as the current version of the presidential aircraft, but with a slightly deeper shade of light blue instead of the current robin's egg blue.
GOP blasts ‘inadequate' Biden defense budget as it vows other spending cuts. Republicans in Congress are blasting the president's proposed $886 billion defense budget for fiscal 2024 — a 3.3% increase over last year — as insufficient.
White House asks for $11 billion more for Navy, Marine Corps spending. The Navy and Marine Corps' budget would increase from the $244.7 billion Congress enacted for fiscal 2023 to nearly $256 billion in the next fiscal year.
NATIONAL SECURITY
RETURN TO A DRAFT? – Addressing the US military recruiting crisis. The all-volunteer force may finally have reached its breaking point.
CHINA THREAT
China knocks AUKUS deal as destabilizing, while Prime Minister Albanese pledges defense boost for subs. China, eager to undermine the AUKUS plan for Australia to build a fleet of nuclear-powered attack submarines, claimed the arrangement poses “serious nuclear proliferation risks, undermines the international non-proliferation system, exacerbates [the] arms race and hurts peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.”
UK approves increased submarine-related exports to Taiwan, risking angering China. Britain approved a sharp increase in exports of submarine parts and technology last year to Taiwan as it upgrades its naval forces, a move that could impact British ties with China.
China's Xi plans Russia visit as soon as next week. Chinese leader Xi Jinping is planning to travel to Russia to meet with his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as soon as next week, which would be sooner than previously expected.
RUSSIA THREAT – UKRAINE WAR
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 383. Fierce fighting is raging for control of the center of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
Defending Ukraine's ‘highway of life' — the last road out of Bakhmut. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the war's fiercest battle depend on the one viable road running west out of the besieged city. And Russian fighters are drawing closer.
The Wagner Group is losing so many fighters in Bakhmut that it's launching a recruitment drive. Things are going great for the mercenary firm, why do you ask?
Russian Navy to upgrade vessels with Kalibr cruise missiles. Russia plans to equip several Navy vessels using Kalibr missiles, a weapon experts predicts the country will more widely arm its fleet.
NORTH KOREA THREAT
N Korea conducts new weapons tests; US, S Korea start drills. North Korea has fired two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine in a show of force just hours before the U.S. and South Korea began their largest joint military exercises in five years.
INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
US military launches annual Flintlock exercise in Africa. Soldiers from several African countries are being trained in counter-insurgency tactics as part of the annual U.S.-led exercise known as Flintlock.
SPACE THREAT
Sanctions further delay Russian missile early warning program in space. Russia launched its sixth Tundra early warning satellite in November and has four more to go before reaching its goal of 10 total by 2024. But sources say production problems and sanctions are delaying the space program.
US MILITARY
Retired Navy leaders pan proposal for early decommissioning of 6th Fleet flagship. The Navy's proposal to dump an amphibious command ship that it needs for keeping Russia in check is risky and ignores lessons from the war in Ukraine, according to analysts and a retired admiral.
Fewer than 1/3 of Navy's amphibious ships are ready to deploy. The readiness of the Navy's amphibious fleet is low—really low, the Marine commandant said.
B-21 will be ‘backbone' of bomber fleet, AFGSC boss says as new images are released. The B-21 Raider will be the “future backbone of the bomber fleet,” says the head of Air Force Global Strike Command.
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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