The Watch

THE WATCH STAFF The Pentagon has established a new office to investigate reports of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) in sensitive airspace. The Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group (AOIMSG) will succeed the U.S. Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and be overseen by the military and intelligence agencies, according to aNovember 23, 2021, news release from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). The announcement by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks comes amid public interest in what once were called UFOs, or unidentified flying objects, and a proposed amendment to the pending National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment seeks…

THE WATCH STAFF During its 2021 circumnavigation of North America, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Cutter Healy encountered a rapidly transforming Arctic. More open water. More activity. Less ice. “The climate is changing,” Capt. Ken Boda, commander of the Healy, said on October 21, 2021, when the medium icebreaker made a port call in Baltimore, Maryland, according to the defense news website Janes. “You see a lot more vessels up there. You see a lot more people up there.” The Healy made a transit of the Northwest Passage during its 133-day voyage before returning to its home of Seattle, Washington,…

THE WATCH STAFF The United States teamed with military partners Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom to enhance their air-combatcapabilities during the recent Virtual Flag exercises, which for the first time integrated cyberattacks into the simulatedscenarios. The U.S. Air Force’s 705th Combat Training Squadron, home of Air Combat Command’s Distributed MissionOperations Center (DMOC) at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, hosted the large-scale operation. Virtual Flag 2021, which was conducted October 24 to November 5, spanned eight time zones and 20 locations,according to a November 24, 2021, news release from Kirtland AFB. The exercises focused on combat against a…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The Canadian government sent its Air Force to the Pacific coast Canadian province of British Columbia (B.C.) to assist with evacuations and to support supply lines following floods and mudslides caused by heavy rainfall. Canadian Minister of Emergency Preparedness Bill Blair said military personnel will also protect residents against further flooding or landslides. “Torrential rains have led to terrible flooding that has disrupted the lives and taken lives of people across B.C. I want people to know that the federal government has been engaging with the local authorities,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in Washington. “We’re…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said November 21, 2021, that the United States and its allies need to operate with a greater sense of urgency amid rising tensions and the increasingly assertive military actions of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). U.S. Navy Adm. John C. Aquilino reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to achieving a Free and Open Indo-Pacific region during meetings with allies at the Halifax International Security Forum. “Look at what the Chinese have said. President Xi [Jinping] has tasked his forces to be at a level of military parity with the United States by…

THE WATCH STAFF The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has selected Alaska’s most populous city to be the site of its new center for regional security studies. The DOD announced November 17, 2021, that the sole candidate to be the home for the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies is Anchorage. (Pictured: The USS Anchorage departs its namesake Alaska city framed by the downtown skyline and the Chugach Mountains.) U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who secured authorization and U.S. $10 million in funding for the institution, called the decision “incredibly welcomed news.” “We are the state that makes America an…

THE WATCH STAFF Mexican drug cartels are increasingly weaponizing commercial drones, using asymmetric warfare tactics similar to those of terrorists and other nonstate actors. The Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), or Jalisco New Generation Cartel, has waged a campaign against many of the country’s other cartels, as well as government authorities and civilian self-defense groups. The CJNG and other Mexican cartels have used explosive-armed drones since at least 2017, according to The War Zone military news blog and Forbes magazine. “Mexican cartels, among other criminal groups, have already been using them to carry drugs over walls and past other…

THE WATCH STAFF The U.S. Navy recently announced the installation of a field hospital in a unique setting — a Norwegian cave. Naval Forces Europe (NAVEUR) and U.S. Navy Expeditionary Medical Support Command (NEMSCOM) set up the facility in the purpose-built caves in the Bogen Bay area of northern Norway, 100 miles north of the Arctic Circle, according to an October 29, 2021, Navy news release and the Insider website. While the location may seem out of the ordinary, it was the just the latest U.S. military deployment to Norway’s underground system, which includes Marine Corps combat equipment ranging from amphibious vehicles…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Naval forces from the United States, Israel and two Gulf Arab states are taking part in a joint security drill in the Red Sea, a vital shipping route that feeds into the Suez Canal. The U.S. 5th Fleet said November 11, 2021, that the five-day multilateral maritime exercise with Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain began the previous day and included at-sea training focused on search and seizure tactics aboard the USS Portland transport dock ship. The drill comes a little more than a year after the UAE and subsequently Bahrain normalized ties with Israel…

REUTERS A missile Russia fired into one of its own satellites in a weapons test on November 15, 2021, generated an orbital debris field that endangered the International Space Station and will pose an ongoing hazard to space activities for years to come, U.S. officials said. The seven-member space station crew — four U.S. astronauts, a German astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts — took shelter in their docked spaceship capsules for two hours after the test to allow for a quick getaway had it been necessary, NASA said. The research lab, pictured, orbiting about 402 kilometers (about 250…