The small city of Bode in northern Norway is vulnerable to Russian cyberattacks and intelligence threats, the county’s police chief told local businesspeople in late September 2023. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF The police chief of a northern county of Norway recently warned local businesses, governments and cultural institutions to step up security in the face of increased threats from Russia. Nordland Police Chief Heidi Klokstad was blunt in her October 2023 comments to the High North News. “Russia is the most central threat right now,” Klokstad told the newspaper. Norway is a key Arctic ally of the U.S., which…
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The Royal Canadian Air Force is transitioning its fleet from CF-18s (pictured) to F-35s, but the service faces other challenges, experts agree. U.S. AIR FORCE THE WATCH STAFF A panel of military experts discussed the challenges confronting a key U.S. ally’s air force in a recent online discussion. The hourlong webinar, presented by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), featured three academics who outlined the future of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and its roles in the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and NATO. Although the RCAF is transitioning its war plane inventory from aging CF-18s to F-35s,…
China-based security surveillance company Hikvision has a significant presence in Mexico. AFP/GETTY IMAGES R. EVAN ELLIS/U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE Third of three parts. Despite being in competition for lower-wage factory work for decades, Mexico and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have deep economic and social links. Trade is growing, especially in sectors like telecommunications and mining of rare earth minerals, and the PRC has cultivated deeper ties through Chinese language schools and other cultural initiatives. Although some exchanges between the PRC and Mexican militaries have occurred, the PRC hasn’t pursued major weapons purchases or sales in Mexico, nor has…
Mexico must balance economic and political risks to the People’s Republic of China. AFP/GETTY IMAGES R. EVAN ELLIS/U.S. ARMY WAR COLLEGE Second of three parts The People’s Republic of China (PRC) has poured resources into influence-building campaigns in Mexico. Perhaps the largest overt effort by the PRC is in education, with five state-sponsored Confucius Institutes spreading the Chinese language and culture and extending the PRC’s cultural and diplomatic reach. The PRC also has a hand in the rampant crime and violence besetting Mexico through its links to Mexican-based triads and other transcontinental criminal organizations (TCO), which act as liaisons between…
U.S. Marines with Charlie Company, 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, and Mexican Marines launch a combat rubber raiding craft from the well deck of the Armada de México tank landing ship ARM Usumacinta during rehearsals as part of Aztec Alligator 2023 off the coast of Santa Margarita Island, Mexico, July 9, 2023. CPL. WILLOW MARSHALL/U.S. MARINES THE WATCH STAFF U.S. Marine Corps reconnaissance teams recently participated in a two-week military operation with their Mexican counterparts on an island in the Pacific Ocean off the Baja peninsula. The July 6-21, 2023, exercise Aztec Alligator 23 was a combined…
Sweden is beefing up its defenses in the Arctic to counter a growing Russian threat, the country’s defense minister said on October 4, 2023. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF Sweden is strengthening its Arctic defenses to counter its increasingly aggressive Russian neighbor. As it readies to join NATO, Sweden has drastically increased defense spending and grown closer militarily to Nordic allies such as Denmark, Finland and Norway. “Our natural response [to Russia’s military buildup in the Arctic] has been beefing up our military presence in the northern part of Sweden, reestablishing garrisons and regiment detachments, beefing up our Army Rangers,” said…
The Royal Bahamas Police Force assisted in the search for the missing fishing boat. ROYAL BAHAMAS POLICE FORCE The Watch Staff A multinational force conducted a successful search-and-rescue (SAR) operation recently in the Bahamas, demonstrating the interoperability of the region’s defense and security forces despite facing adverse weather and a wide search area. A fishing boat from Dundas Town in Abaco went missing in mid-October 2023, prompting the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF), the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Operation Bahamas Turks and Caicos and the U.S Coast Guard (USCG) to conduct a SAR operation in the surrounding sea, according to…
U.S. Coast Guard Sailors in a small craft in an eastern Pacific operation to combat illegal fishing. U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND The U.S. Coast Guard conducted an operation to help counter illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing within the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organization (SPRFMO) Convention area off the coast of Peru in October 2023. A vast expanse of ocean, nearly a fourth of the Earth’s high seas account for the SPRFMO Convention area. Seventeen members from the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania as well as three cooperating noncontracting parties make up the SPRFMO Commission. In 2015,…
Audrey Oxendine, Fort Liberty’s energy and utilities branch chief, shows the base’s floating microgrid to U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Kevin Vereen on July 28, 2023. U.S. ARMY MERLE WEIDT The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is adapting to improve critical infrastructure resilience in an increasingly challenging threat landscape that includes a rapidly changing climate and enhanced adversary cyber capabilities. Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), routinely emphasizes the capabilities of strategic competitors to attack U.S. infrastructure, particularly the People’s Republic of China’s growing cyber capabilities. Also, climate…
Fentanyl is being smuggled in great quantities across the southern border of the United States, the U.S. Border Patrol says. AFP/GETTY IMAGES THE WATCH STAFF U.S. Border Patrol agents seized 2,700 tons of fentanyl — enough to kill the entire U.S. population — in figures announced September 30, 2023, a grim outlook fashioned by the People’s Republic of China’s continued supply of materials used to make the dangerous drug. The Border Patrol said that figure represented fentanyl seized between ports of entry on the U.S. southern border. Agents seized more than 22,000 tons of the drug at ports of entry.…