Category Archives: Foreign Forces

Chinese Balloon Drifts Near Taiwan, Says Ministry of Defense

Chinese Balloon Drifts Near Taiwan, Says Ministry of Defense

Taiwan Ministry of Defense Photo

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) reported on Friday that a balloon from China crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, though they later on Friday clarified it was probably a weather balloon. Meanwhile, a U.S. Navy littoral combat ship carried out drills with the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) in the South China Sea from Wednesday to Thursday. Read More

Guided-missile Destroyer USS Mason Shoots Down Drone in Red Sea

Guided-missile Destroyer USS Mason Shoots Down Drone in Red Sea

USS Mason (DDG-87) sails in the Atlantic Ocean June 27, 2023. US Navy Photo

This post will be updated as additional information becomes available.

The guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG-87) shot down a drone in the Red Sea on Wednesday, just days after USS Carney (DDG-64) downed three drones launched from Yemen, a defense official confirmed to USNI News. Read More

U.S. Airman Recovered from U.S. CV-22 Osprey Crash off Japan

U.S. Airman Recovered from U.S. CV-22 Osprey Crash off Japan

JSDF Photo

The remains of five service members from the Nov. 29 U.S. Air Force CV-22 Osprey crash off Japan’s Yakushima Island have been recovered according to an Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) release on Wednesday. The body of one of the eight crewman aboard was recovered earlier on the day of the crash, and two crew members remain unaccounted for. Read More

U.S. Urging Pacific Allies to Step Up Surveillance at Sea, Says Official

U.S. Urging Pacific Allies to Step Up Surveillance at Sea, Says Official

Medium displacement unmanned surface vessels Seahawk, front, and Sea Hunter launch for the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s Unmanned Systems Integrated Battle Problem 21 (UxS IBP 21), April 20, 2021. US Navy Photo

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As China expands its operations across the Pacific, the U.S. is urging countries in the region to expand their maritime awareness through new technology like unmanned systems, the Pentagon’s assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs said Tuesday. Read More

Marine Large-Scale Exercise Expands on Naval Integration, Live-Virtual Training

Marine Large-Scale Exercise Expands on Naval Integration, Live-Virtual Training

Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 164, Marine Aircraft Group 39, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, flies Marines with 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, to a simulated airfield seizure during a mission rehearsal exercise as part of Exercise Steel Knight 23.2 at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, Dec. 2, 2023. US Marine Corps Photo

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — The platoons of infantry Marines stepped out of the first group of MV-22B Ospreys that landed in a brushy field last week and made their way to a nearby compound. They arrived at the request of the U.S. State Department to protect the U.S. embassy amid rising local tensions in a fictional city hit by a natural disaster. Read More

U.S. in Talks to Form New Red Sea Task Force to Guard Commercial Ships in the Red Sea, Says White House

U.S. in Talks to Form New Red Sea Task Force to Guard Commercial Ships in the Red Sea, Says White House

USS Bataan (LHD-5) conducts landing craft utility operations alongside the Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD-50) in the Red Sea on Nov. 6, 2023. US Navy Photo

The U.S. is talking with other partner countries to possibly set up a maritime task force to protect ships in the Red Sea, the White House National Security Advisor said on Monday. Read More

China Masses Militia Ships in Spratlys, Transit of USS Gabrielle Giffords Irks Beijing

China Masses Militia Ships in Spratlys, Transit of USS Gabrielle Giffords Irks Beijing

Chinese Maritime Militia vessels. Philippine Coast Guard Photo

Littoral Combat Ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) sailed past Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Island chain in the South China Sea, prompting an angry response from the Chinese military. Meanwhile, the Philippines issued a release on Sunday stating that more than 135 China Maritime Militia (CMM) were massing around a Philippine claimed reef in the Spratlys. Read More

Destroyer USS Carney Downs 3 Drones in Red Sea; Commercial Ships Attacked

Destroyer USS Carney Downs 3 Drones in Red Sea; Commercial Ships Attacked

USS Carney (DDG-64) transits the Suez Canal, Oct. 18, 2023. US Navy Photo

This post has been updated with an additional statement from U.S. Central Command.

Destroyer USS Carney (DDG-64) shot down three drones in the Red Sea on Sunday while responding to distress calls from several commercial vessels that were attacked by missiles originating in Yemen, according to U.S. Central Command. Read More