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Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has asked Secretary of Defense Ash Carter for more details on last month’s U.S. freedom of navigation (FON) mission in the South China Sea, according to a Monday letter obtained by USNI News. Read More
The following is a Nov. 9, 2015 letter from Senate Armed Services Committee chair Sen. John McCain to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter asking for more information on the U.S. Oct. 27 freedom of navigation mission in the South China Sea. Read More
U.S. Capitol on July 31, 2015, NASA Photo
Rethinking the role of the regional combatant commands, cutting the Pentagon’s support structure and putting the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff back in the operational chain of command structure were ideas offered to the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday as it revisited the almost 30-year-old Goldwater-Nichols Act. Read More
Cutting the size of staffs, from the combatant commands to the services to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), and scaling back the number of combatant commands are ways to shape the Pentagon for future roles and missions, a panel of national security experts told the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday. Read More
USS Lassen (DDG-82). US Navy Photo
Last week the United States sent a guided missile destroyer past a Chinese artificial island to challenge questionable claims in the South China Sea, but confusion still reigns from Washington, D.C., to the Western Pacific as to exactly what message was supposed to be transmitted. Read More
USS Lassen (DDG-82) underway in 2013. US Navy Photo
Last week’s South China Sea freedom of navigation mission — in which a U.S. guided missile destroyer came within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese facility on an artificial island on Subi Reef — was conducted as an “innocent passage,” a defense official with knowledge of the operation confirmed to USNI News on Monday morning. Read More
USS Lassen (DDG-82) underway in the Philippine Sea in 2015. US Navy Photo
After months of deliberation, the U.S. has sent a guided missile destroyer within 12 nautical miles of a Chinese artificial island in the South China Sea in a move that practically rejects Chinese claims to the reclaimed reefs and has inflamed Beijing. Read More
Type 52 Luyang II guided missile destroyer Jinan
A trio of Chinese warships in the middle of a world tour are in route to Naval Station Mayport, Fla. for a scheduled goodwill port visit next month, U.S. Navy officials told USNI News on Thursday. Read More
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday described the Pentagon under the reorganization of the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols act as “a department designed to plan for war,” but not organized to fight protracted campaigns. Read More
Ships and submarines from the Republic of Singapore navy and U.S. Navy gather in formation during the underway phase of Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Singapore 2015 on July 21, 2015. US Navy Photo
Amidst U.S. and Australian concerns of Chinese military expansion in the South China Sea, officials with China’s foreign ministry are claiming military facilities on a series of artificial islands are “for defense purposes only” in reaction to “high-profile display[s] of military strength and frequent and large-scale military drills by certain countries and their allies in the South China Sea,” according to a Wednesday press briefing. Read More
