THE WATCH STAFF The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory is developing robotic vehicles that will operate with manned aircraft in contested airspace. The Skyborg program combines autonomous vehicle technology, seamless connectivity and open architecture to suppress enemy defenses and execute other missions, Forbes magazine reported in August 2020. The program’s name apparently derives from the Star Trek television series and refers to a threat so menacing that “resistance is futile.” The Skyborg program represents a radical approach to air warfare. The Air Force describes the program as a low-cost, teamed aircraft that can “thwart adversaries with quick, decisive actions in…
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NORAD and USNORTHCOM commander outlines priorities, highlights capabilities THE WATCH STAFF The United States can expect to see adversaries continue to demonstrate the capability and intent to threaten national interests in this era of renewed power competition, but U.S. Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck said that North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) stand ready to meet those challenges and outpace opponents. “USNORTHCOM’s essential role in defending the nation and supporting federal and international partners will be more vital than ever as the command continues to meet its sacred obligations,” VanHerck said in prepared remarks…
Health organization faces backlash for deference to China Indo-Pacific Defense FORUM With the world watching, a global health body deferred to political pressure from the Chinese Communist Party as Chinese officials tried to obscure the genesis of a worldwide coronavirus pandemic. The controversy surrounding the actions of the World Health Organization (WHO) in the pandemic’s early stages led the United States to initially withdraw from the agency. As investigations continue into the origins of COVID-19 and the WHO’s response, more than 108 million people had been infected and 2.4 million had died worldwide by mid-February 2021. QUESTIONABLE INFLUENCE: While publicly…
U.S. military’s innovative Advanced Battle Management System takes leap forward THE WATCH STAFF A “sci-fi awesome” display of U.S. technical ingenuity and military power and precision has turbocharged development of next-generation warfighting capabilities that promise to redefine homeland defense for the hypersonic age. More than 130 teams from government, industry and every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces gathered in dozens of locations in August and September 2020 to further field test the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), which the U.S. Air Force calls the “backbone of a network-centric approach” to 21st century warfare. During the weeklong exercise, or onramp,…
THE WATCH STAFF A leaked database shows a small company has collected personal data on 2.4 million people worldwide to feed intelligence to the Chinese government, media outlets reported in September 2020. The data collected by Chinese firm Zhenhua Data includes addresses, birthdates, marital status, criminal records and political associations, Forbes magazine reported. It was largely harvested from social media profiles on Twitter, Facebook, Crunchbase, TikTok and LinkedIn. About 20%, however, comes from nonpublic sources. Only part of the database was recovered. It contains profiles of 52,000 U.S. residents, 35,000 Australians, 10,000 Indians, 9,700 Britons and 5,000 Canadians. The data…
Sweden stepped up its defense activities in the Baltic Sea region in August 2020 due to what a high-ranking official called “a deteriorating security situation” as Russia and NATO conducted military operations there. The Swedish Armed Forces said they initiated a “high-readiness action,” pictured, in the southeastern and southern Baltic Sea region due to the “current, extensive military activity.” Sweden is not a NATO member. The military said the goal “is to strengthen maritime surveillance in the Baltic Sea at sea and from the air.” The Baltic News Service reported that four Russian naval ships were detected near Latvian territorial…
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The newly formed U.S. Space Force is deploying troops to a vast new frontier: the Arabian Peninsula. Space Force has a squadron of 20 Airmen stationed at Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base in its first foreign deployment. The force represents the sixth branch of the U.S. military and the first new military service since the creation of the Air Force in 1947. Future wars may be waged in space, but the Arabian Desert already saw what military experts dub the world’s first space war — the 1991 Desert Storm operation to drive Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Today,…
The coronavirus pandemic that infected more than 108 million people worldwide by mid-February 2021 laid bare more than the grocery store shelves ravaged by panicked buyers from Texas to Tokyo. The manufacturing lockdown in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) caused by the spread of COVID-19 exposed critical weaknesses in supply chains that left U.S., European and Indo-Pacific leaders searching for products ranging from personal protective equipment to pharmaceuticals. It also prompted a call to action: Build supply chain resilience to keep history from repeating itself. The eye-opening shortages of the pandemic are spurring calls for new partnerships. The United…
Nuanced approach required for defense, safety, security Dr. Adam Lajeunesse and Dr. P. Whitney Lackenbauer Canada’s 2017 defense policy — Strong, Secure, Engaged — depicts the Arctic region as “an important international crossroads where issues of climate change, international trade, and global security meet.” Changing physical and human geographies, new economic opportunities and the heightened interest of foreign state and nonstate actors are generating new security dynamics in the North American Arctic. While popular media typically depict contested boundary lines or the status of water disputes, Russian bombers entering airspace identification zones and a Russian military buildup in the Eurasian…
Russia and People’s Republic of China demonstrate malign potential in Arctic Troy J. Bouffard and Dr. Cameron D. Carlson Russia’s top armed forces leader, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, authored an article in 2013 stating that the “role of non-military methods in achieving political and strategic goals has significantly surpassed the effectiveness of the power of weapons.” His words came after the failed use of information operations (InfoOps) during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 and the Russo-Georgian War in 2008. Russia refocused its InfoOps and executed a stunningly successful demonstration in Crimea during annexation in 2014, illustrating that strategic implementation…