Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang, North Korea on July 25, 2019. KCNA Photo
If former Vice President Joe Biden wins the presidential election, settling the long-running U.S.-South Korea burden-sharing talks would send a message to North Korea and China that the two nations are in alignment on major issues concerning the peninsula, regional security experts said Thursday. Read More
The following is the Nov. 4, 2019, Congressional Research Service report, Changes in the Arctic: Background and Issues for Congress. Read More
Defense Secretary Mark Esper tours the avenger class minesweeper USS Devastator, docked at Naval Support Activity Bahrain on Oct. 28, 2020. DoD Photo
At the beginning of the year, the Navy and Marine Corps sent a new fleet plan to Pentagon leaders that called for relying on smaller ships and unmanned vessels to meet future missions and defeat future adversaries. The Pentagon rejected the plan.
Nine-months later, Pentagon leaders reached the same conclusion: the Navy needed to be more distributed and weighted towards small combatants and unmanned craft.
What did that additional effort really get the sea services? Not much, according to some officials involved in both processes.
MH-60 helicopter landing on the deck of USS John McCain (DDG-52) on Nov. 3, 2020. US Navy Photo
The U.S., Indian, Japanese and Australian navies on Tuesday kicked off the Malabar 2020 naval exercise in the Bay of Bengal, bringing the four nations together for the annual drill for the first time in over a decade. Read More
The following is the Oct. 29, 2020 report, Renewed Great Power Competition: Implications for Defense—Issues for Congress. Read More
Sea Hunter, an entirely new class of unmanned sea surface vehicle developed in partnership between the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), completed an autonomous sail from San Diego to Hawaii and back—the first ship ever to do so autonomously. US Navy photo.
As the Pentagon prepares for a fight in the vastness of the Indo-Pacific, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a concept it hopes will allow unmanned surface vehicles to travel up to 14,000 nautical miles. Read More
HI Sutton Image used with permission
The Red Sea forms a physical and geopolitical choke point on much of the world’s trade. At its northern end the Suez Canal constricts the flow of ships, and at the southern end the Bab el-Mandeb Strait does. Millions of barrels of oil and other critically important goods transit the Red Sea every year, much of it destined for North America and Europe. Read More
The Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Princeton successfully launches a Block II Harpoon in the Naval Air Systems Command Sea Test Range off the coast of southern California. US Navy Photo
The U.S. State Department has authorized a possible $2.37 billion sale of Harpoon missiles to Taiwan. Read More
U.S. Marines with 1st Battalion, 2d Marine Regiment, currently attached to 4th Marine Regiment, 3d Marine Division, demonstrate expeditionary advanced basing capabilities Oct. 7 to 8, 2020, as part of Exercise Noble Fury, from Okinawa to Ie Shima and across surrounding waters. U.S. Marine Corps Photo
After successfully carrying out an integrated exercise in the Indo-Pacific region, the Navy and Marine Corps are ready to take their new level of naval integration to the joint force in an exercise next year. Read More
USS Benfold (DD-65) is at anchor off Koror, Republic of Palau in 2012. US Navy Photo
Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite visited Palau during a weeklong swing through the Pacific, making him the second high-ranking Defense Department official to visit to the small island nation in the last two months as the Second Island Chain is being eyed to play an even larger role in military plans and operations going forward. Read More
