The Watch

THE WATCH STAFF The United States Embassy in Nassau celebrated America’s Independence Day aboard the USS Lassen on July 1, 2022, while the warship was visiting the Bahamas. The festivities also honored the special relationship between the U.S. and the Caribbean nation. U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Usha E. Pitts and Adm. Daryl L. Caudle, commander U.S. Fleet Forces Command, hosted the event aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer that docked at Prince George Wharf in Nassau Harbor. Along with Lassen commander Christopher P. Turmel, they welcomed about 150 guests to the celebration of America’s 246th birthday, which was July 4. The Bahamian guests…

THE WATCH STAFF The groundwork for large-scale United States military exercises is often laid one community at a time. In Alaska and the Arctic region, cooperation with civilian and tribal leaders is crucial to maintaining a vigilant and mission-ready homeland defense for North America. An example of such exchanges: U.S. military personnel from Special Operations Command North (SOCNORTH) and the Alaska Air National Guard (AKANG) worked June 5-8, 2022, with tribal and city leaders on Alaska’s St. Lawrence Island to coordinate for future exercises such as Arctic Edge. (U.S. Northern Command’s Arctic Edge is a multiservice U.S. and Canadian exercise…

REUTERS NATO agreed in June 2022 to put over 300,000 troops at high readiness beginning in 2023, up from 40,000 previously, in a new military lineup designed to better counter Russia. The move replaces the NATO Response Force, which was for years the first to respond to any Russian attack or other crisis. The new model resembles the way NATO forces were organized during the Cold War. At that time, specific allied countries were assigned the defense of specific sectors of the border between Western and Eastern Germany. “Today, NATO leaders decided a fundamental shift in our defense and deterrence…

REUTERS The United States added five companies in China to a trade blacklist in June 2022 for allegedly supporting Russia’s military and defense industrial base, flexing its muscle to enforce sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine. The Commerce Department, which oversees the blacklist, said the targeted companies had supplied items to Russian “entities of concern” before the February 24 invasion, adding that they “continue to contract to supply Russian entity listed and sanctioned parties.” The agency also added another 31 entities to the blacklist from countries that include Russia, UAE, Lithuania, Pakistan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan and…

U.S. STRATEGIC COMMAND United States military forces demonstrated the might of their integrated deterrence during Valiant Shield 2022 (VS22), the joint Indo-Pacific region exercise held at sea, in the air, on land and in cyberspace. The biennial U.S. event conducted June 6-17 included 15 surface ships, more than 200 aircraft and an estimated 13,000 personnel from the Navy, Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Space Force. Valiant Shield was conducted on the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Palau and at sea around the Mariana Island Range Complex. The participating forces from U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) included B-1B Lancer…

THE WATCH STAFF In the wake of historic Hurricane Dorian in 2019, U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) provided critical support for relief efforts in the Bahamas. Dorian, a Category 5 storm that packed 185-mph winds when it made landfall, was the strongest hurricane to hit the northwestern Bahamas on modern record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Dorian was responsible for an estimated U.S. $3.4 billion worth of damages to Bahamian infrastructure according to NOAA, the Orlando Sentinel newspaper reported September 1, 2021. The recently concluded Restoration Island Cays, a disaster-response exercise conducted by USNORTHCOM and the Bahamas’…

THE WATCH STAFF A closed section of Michigan highway recently transformed into a United States military runway as aviators trained for agile combat employment (ACE). The 9,000-foot section of Michigan Highway M-28 was the landing strip for five types of warplanes from the Air National Guard (ANG), Air Force Reserve (AFR) and Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). In all, an A-10, U-28A, C-145, C-146 and MC-12W landed and took off June 28-29, 2022, from the highway in the state’s upper peninsula, according to a July 4 news release from the Michigan National Guard. (Pictured: An A-10 Thunderbolt II from…

REUTERS Canadian businesses operating in critical infrastructure sectors would be required to report cyberattacks to the federal government and would have to fortify their cyber systems under a new law introduced June 14, 2022. The legislation identifies finance, telecommunications, energy and transportation sectors as being vital to national security and public safety but stops short of naming any companies. “There was a lot of thought given into identifying which sectors are vital to national security and public safety,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino told reporters, adding that operators of critical infrastructure would be identified after consulting the sectors. The legislation…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Turkey agreed June 28, 2022, to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, ending an impasse that had clouded a leaders’ summit opening in Madrid amid Europe’s worst security crisis in decades that was triggered by the war in Ukraine. After urgent top-level talks with leaders of the three countries, alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that “we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO.” He called it a “historic decision.” Among its many shattering consequences, President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted Sweden and Finland…

U.S. STRATEGIC COMMAND The United States Navy successfully launched an unarmed life-extended Trident II D5 (D5LE) from the ballistic missile submarine USS Kentucky off the Southern California coast June 17, 2022. The missile’s test launch, pictured, was one of four conducted June 15-17 as part of a Navy Commander Evaluation Test (CET), which validates performance of the Trident II D5LE strategic weapons system. The Navy conducts CETs and other missile flight tests to evaluate and ensure the system’s reliability, readiness and accuracy. An effective nuclear deterrent is essential to U.S. national security and the security of allies and partners. The…