Japan and South Korea are getting new generations of sub-hunting and intelligence-gathering aircraft as China, North Korea, and Russia continue to push more assets into the waters of the Pacific.

WASHINGTON: Within the next several weeks, both Russia and NATO will kick off some of the largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War. Hundreds of thousands of troops, tens of thousands of vehicles, hundreds of aircraft, and dozens of warships will charge into action in a series of mock engagements stretching from… Keep reading →

Loaded with jet fuel, the drones will vastly extend the ranges of carrier-based aircraft operating in the expanses of the western Pacific. That lets the Navy strike deeper into China’s layered defenses while keeping the big decks out of range of most of China’s anti-ship missiles.

Australia looking to protect its home waters, while sending a signal to Washington that it is one of the allies that is trying to pull its weight in defending itself.

President Trump announced that the United States would stop flying bombers over South Korea and suspend exercises there to facilitate diplomatic negotiations with North Korea. This echoes President Johnson’s March 1968 decision to halt the bombing of most of North Vietnam, also done to encourage negotiations. In 1968 the effort succeeded, at least in the short… Keep reading →

“I’ve never agreed with 100% of what this president says off the cuff like that,” Perdue said. The pledge to end exercises — deemed critical to allied military readiness — was not mentioned in the official joint statement, he noted, and therefore isn’t a binding commitment, only an expression of presidential intent predicated on continued cooperation from Pyongyang.

If war is politics by other means, then politics is war by other means, Chinese and Russian leaders believe. And political warfare must be conducted with the same ruthless ingenuity as open war because the stakes are equally high: the survival or destruction of the regime.

Navy finds new problems with berthing fees and services, and this time Fat Leonard had nothing to do with it.

The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) John Richardson made a major organizational announcement with major strategic implications when he announced the Navy would re-establish the Second Fleet, which covers the Atlantic. But that would, so far, only mean adding 250 people to the command. Without making larger strategic changes, that is not enough. To respond appropriately to Russian naval… Keep reading →

HONOLULU: As Seoul residents awaken to the whoomp, whoomp of the first North Korean shells and air raid sirens wail, millions pour from their apartments to the street, desperate for the shelter of the city’s 1,500 miles of deep tunnels. Some stream to the city’s rivers, hoping to head south. North Korean special operations troops,… Keep reading →