The opening of the base signifies Egypt’s determination to assert itself as a regional naval power with vast capacities and challenge efforts by its competitors like Turkey to expand their area of influence and control oil and gas rich zones of the Mediterranean.
By Chyrine MezherAs Russian fighters fly in Libya and Turkey steps up operations in the region, the US just put its new sea base capable to surging Marines and commandos ashore into Crete
By Paul McLeary‘Lead from behind’ has failed in Libya. The US must lead from the front to prevent a destabilizing deal between rival factions dominated by Russia and Turkey.
By Jonathan RuheTurkey’s recent intervention in Libya is intensifying a proxy war and regional energy competition that threaten vital U.S. interests, while Washington mostly observes from the sidelines. As fighting grows in the Mediterranean country, the United States urgently needs to assume an overdue leadership role to end or mitigate this spiraling conflict. The time…
By Eric Edelman and Charles WaldWASHINGTON: Over the past month, US Air Forces in Europe took delivery of their largest shipment of ordnance in two decades. It’s another sign of the rearming of the continent as the United States pushes troops and equipment back into the region after years of drawing down, even as its NATO allies — and increasingly,…
By Paul McLearyIsrael faces increasingly tight restrictions on its Foreign Military Financing from the U.S., as Breaking D readers know. In the past, when the US provided Israeli with grants under the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, Israel could convert 25 percent of the aid from dollars into shekels to buy Israeli products and support local R&D. The…
By Yoram EttingerFive shipbuilders are fighting it out to build 20 of the U.S. Navy’s new frigates, and one competitor is sailing though a whirlwind East Coast tour.
By Paul McLearyLast month, Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned that if Congress doesn’t “remove the defense caps,” he said, “then we’re questioning whether or not America has the ability to survive.” This claim that insufficient increases in Pentagon spending threatens American security is flatly wrong. The real and present danger to our national security is the…
By Daniel L. DavisWASHINGTON: When former Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work heard the head of Google’s parent company, Eric Schmidt, say this morning that America needs a national strategy for developing Artificial Intelligence, one image sprang to his mind’s eye. “The image that popped into my mind was of Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe in the UN and…
By Colin ClarkCORRECTS: Name and title of operations group commander CREECH AIR FORCE BASE: Over two days of briefings here by everyone from pilots to maintainers to the operations group commander of the 432nd Wing, one message rang out loud and clear: the Reaper has grown into a key Close Air Support (CAS) tool for the US military and…
By Colin ClarkSen. John McCain said in early February that, it “is time for the international community to abandon the absurd fiction of a political solution that leaves Assad in power (in Syria).” McCain, who was reacting to Amnesty International’s report about mass executions by Bashar al Assad’s regime, argued: “Bashar Assad does not belong in a…
By Charles V. PeñaOn January 19, the Air Force struck Libya to halt terrorist activity using B-2 stealth bombers. This was not the first strike against Libya. A mix of U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy fighters conducted strikes 30 years ago against Libya in response to terrorist acts in Europe. A comparison of the two raids illustrates the…
By David DeptulaWASHINGTON: If you want a glimpse of future war, look back a hundred years to the bloody stalemate of the Somme, the cataclysmic battle of World War I. Instead of machineguns and artillery slaughtering soldiers in no man’s land, imagine smart weapons ravaging the air, land and sea. Instead of biplanes overhead, imagine swarming drones. Instead…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
A growing arms race in the Eastern Mediterranean pits several U.S. allies against each other, raising the risks of confrontation between two NATO allies. The Turkish Ministry of Defense has tweeted pictures of the Turkish Navy escorting the research ship Oruç Reis to waters that it disputes with Greece. After a phone call with Greek…
By Ari Cicurel