WASHINGTON: “To counter our near-peer adversaries” — read Russia and China — US Pacific Command wants $530 million of unfunded priorities that didn’t fit in the 2018 budget request, from better bases to more torpedoes. The top item: $49 million more for “multi-domain battle exercises,” wargames testing a new Army-led concept for future warfare against…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Modernizing our supply chain is a national security imperative
Closing supply chain gaps in innovating technology will reposition the industrial base to be a strategic source of value.
WASHINGTON: That the Navy should get more money to build up its surface and submarine fleets may be the message Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson sends in an upcoming article which he promises would be a “strong Navy voice” on budget issues. Richardson told an audience at the Brookings Institution Thursday that he would be…
By Colin Clark
While North Korea threatens to shoot and sink American aircraft carriers and launch nuclear weapons, Pacific Command is running short of precision-guided munitions. And Pacific Command does not have enough surface ships, submarines and antimissile radars to keep up with current and emerging threats, its commander Adm. Harry Harris told the House Armed Services Committee…
By Sandra Erwin
WASHINGTON: If the Navy would buy one squadron of new F-18s (known as the XT, Block 3 or Advanced Super Hornet) instead of the carrier version of the F-35 it “actually improves overall mission capability, while substantially reducing cost.” But the Navy could go even one better and buy two squadrons of the new F-18, which…
By Colin Clark
American THAAD missile defense vehicles landed at Osan, South Korea today after almost eight months of waiting. Now the question is how the North and China react. Increasingly threatened by North Korean missiles — most recently test-launched just yesterday — the South agreed last July to host the US Army’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
SAN DIEGO: The Army and Navy must link their missile defense systems into a single network so Navy weapons can hit targets spotted by Army radars and vice versa, the chief of Pacific Command said today. That’s a daunting technical task but, if surmounted, it could dramatically improve defense against North Korean, Chinese, or Russian…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Modernizing military simulation with open systems architecture
Best-of-breed common models and architecture enable virtual training and testing with the same data in a cyber-resilient posture.
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership just two days ago, but this morning, multiple experts and one four-star general agreed that America’s Pacific alliances — except perhaps the Philippines — would survive and even thrive. A few hours later, aptly enough, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary James Mattis, the new administration’s most outspoken…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
SYDNEY: While it will be a short deployment, Australia and the United States have agreed to deploy America’s most advanced fighter next year as part of the Enhanced Air Cooperation (EAC) Initiative that has seen B-2 bombers and other advanced American aircraft deployed to the lucky country. Adm. Harry Harris, head of Pacific Command, disclosed…
By Colin Clark WASHINGTON: Neither President Trump’s transition in DC nor President Duterte’s eruptions in Manila will derail America’s 70-year military commitment to the Pacific, Adm. Harry Harris said today. US-Philippine cooperation continues unabated despite Duterte’s denunciation of the alliance, the head of Pacific Command said. (The senior State Department official for the Pacific, Daniel Russel, recently dismissed…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
ARLINGTON: Harry Harris has to be the Army’s favorite admiral. The chief of Pacific Command has called for Army-owned anti-ship missiles. He has enthused over the Army’s new warfare concept, and now he is planning a major inter-service exercise to work out what that Multi-Domain Battle concept means in practice. “We are starting to put…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
In its eagerness to avoid offending the Chinese, is the administration giving them a green light in the disputed South China Sea? This afternoon, on the eve of his departure for the Philippines and India, Defense Secretary Ash Carter carefully tiptoed around ongoing Chinese national security provocations. Several experts I spoke to were not reassured. Carter…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. WASHINGTON: The gloves came off during today’s Senate Armed Services committee hearing on China and North Korea with Pacific Command’s Adm. Harry Harris saying that China seeks “hegemony in East Asia” and is unequivocally militarizing the South China Sea. “In my opinion, China is clearly militarizing its position in the South China Sea. You’d have to believe…
By Colin Clark
UPDATE: USS Wilbur sails through Paracel Islands Friday WASHINGTON: The United States will keep challenging Chinese claims in the South China Sea, the head of Pacific Command said this afternoon. Such Freedom of Navigation operations will grow in frequency, complexity, and scope, said Adm. Harry Harris. And Harris defended the first such FON operation” since 2012, last October’s cruise of the…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is paying his first visit to Asia this week. Just before he left, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton told reporters the Trump Administration “will have its own formulation” of the Pacific pivot, or the rebalance to Asia declared by the Obama Administration. “Pivot, rebalance, etcetera — that was a word that was…
By Maj. Paul Smith