The Watch

A vigorous missile defense strategy is essential to security at home and abroad THE WATCH Staff In congressional testimony in 2019, top United States military officials painted a vivid picture of the evolving threats posed by hostile countries with missile stockpiles. Now more than ever, the military leaders said, the U.S. and its allies must maintain a technological advantage by upgrading the reliability and lethality of missile defense systems.       “The threats facing our nation are not hypothetical,” Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), told the…

THE WATCH Staff As the COVID-19 pandemic infected hundreds of thousands worldwide in late 2019 and early 2020, the U.S. military aggressively responded by assisting civil health authorities in tasks that ranged from delivering food to building temporary hospitals and deploying medical ships. While agencies such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) took the lead in the pandemic response, the military support effort involved thousands of personnel and covered all states, territories and Washington, D.C. U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) leads the 14 Department of…

THE WATCH Staff COVID-19 is from the coronavirus family, which includes viruses that can cause the common cold and serious illnesses such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). 2019 – COVID-19 is a new coronavirus that is believed to have originated in Wuhan, China. By earlly May 2020, COVID-19 had spread to 212 countries and territories, infected more than 4 million people and resulted in more than 270,000 deaths. POSSIBLE ORIGIN: Scientists worldwide now say the virus likely originated in bats. Although researchers aren’t sure yet, they believe COVID-19 passed from bats through…

Working together to defend the planet from orbiting debris    THE WATCH Staff China tested its anti-satellite capabilities in 2007 by purposely destroying a nonfunctional weather satellite with a surface-launched, medium-range missile. The test created more than 3,300 pieces of debris larger than 10 centimeters in diameter. A collision with any one of these pieces would prove catastrophic to the average satellite circling Earth or even the International Space Station (ISS), according to the European Space Agency (ESA). The missile test also produced more than 200,000 debris particles as small as 1 centimeter, large enough to disable a spacecraft or…

Brian D. Laslie, Ph.D. Photos by NORAD The idea of a hardened command center is older than the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) itself. It was January 15, 1956, when Gen. Earle E. Partridge, commander in chief of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD), directed his staff to begin preliminary planning for a Combat Operations Center to be located — somewhere — underground. Partridge believed his above-ground center on Ent Air Force Base, Colorado, was too small to manage the growing air defense system and was vulnerable to sabotage or attack by any number of possible, but mainly Soviet, threats.…

Energy generation, resilience are key challenges for military logisticians THE WATCH Staff As the U.S. and its allies prepared to invade Iraq in 2003, nearly 85,000 pieces of cargo and 4,000 containers of ammunition were loaded aboard ships headed for Kuwait from November 2002 to May 2003. The military cargo — enough to fill the deck space of 58 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers — included Abrams battle tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, Humvees and helicopters. Although the logistical immensity of the six-month buildup was staggering, experts say it pales in comparison to the logistics demands of the future. In future battles, U.S. forces…

The Watch Staff Five nations and two U.S. Navy fast-attack submarines broke the Arctic ice in March 2020 to assess their operational readiness and train with other services, partners and allies. The Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut and the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Toledo, pictured, conducted multiple Arctic transits, a North Pole surfacing and other training while in the region. “The Arctic is a potential strategic corridor — between the Indo-Pacific, Europe and the U.S. homeland — for expanded competition,” said U.S. Navy Vice Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of U.S. Submarine Forces. The forces, he said, “must maintain readiness…

The Watch Staff In December 2019, Japan approved a record defense budget of U.S. $48.5 billion for 2020 with the aim of strengthening the nation’s capabilities in outer space and cyberspace, according to a Kyodo News report. The draft budget was up 1.1% from fiscal 2019 to a record high for the sixth consecutive year as Japan improves its ability to deal with North Korean missile and nuclear threats and the maritime assertiveness of the People’s Republic of China. Japan will form the country’s first space operation in 2020 as part of the Air Self-Defense Force. Money will be budgeted…

Reuters A cooperative NATO defense project that gives the alliance a state-of-the-art ground surveillance system gained steam in December 2019 with the delivery of the second of five unmanned aircraft to an air base in Italy. The U.S.-made RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft delivered to Sigonella, Italy, is part of a U.S. $1.5 billion surveillance system the alliance hopes to have operational in 2022. NATO says the surveillance system will be the world’s most advanced and will give the alliance 24-hour, near-real time surveillance of land and sea and provide greater visibility than satellites.  “We are basically creating a small…

NATO countries simulate cyber attacks to boost capabilities THE WATCH Staff In April 2007, Russian hackers incapacitated Estonia’s internet with distributed denial of service attacks aimed at government and financial institutions. In August 2008, Georgia, another former subject state of the now-defunct Soviet empire, was hit by similar attacks during an arms invasion by Russian conventional forces. This was the first time cyber attacks were used in coordination with an armed attack as Russia introduced its new “hybrid” warfare model. In March 2014, Russia used similar tactics, but magnitudes greater, when its armed forces seized control of Crimea from Ukraine.…