USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) transits the South China Sea on April 8, 2017. US Navy Photo
There was no specific reason U.S. Pacific Command elected to rearrange the schedule of the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group and send it toward the Korean peninsula, Secretary of Defense James Mattis told reporters on Tuesday. Read More
Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Bailey on Jan. 2, 2016. US Marine Corps Photo
This post has been modified to reflect that only USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-ESB-3) will be modified to support MV-22 operations, not the Navy’s two Expeditionary Transfer Dock ships.
THE PENTAGON – Marine Corps operations are set for some big changes in 2017 with the deployment of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter overseas, a move towards distributed operations as called for in the Marine Corps Operating Concept, and the potential addition of more ships to move Marines around high-threat areas, the deputy commandant for plans, policies and operations told USNI News. Read More
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a test-fire of a strategic submarine underwater ballistic missile in 2015. KCNA Photo
North Korea’s continued testing of nuclear weapons and expanded submarine-launched ballistic missiles threaten not only the South Korea, United States forces on the peninsula, and Japan but the global community, one of Seoul’s senior defense acquisition planners told a Washington forum Monday. Read More
KN-11 Launch. North Korean Central News Agency Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Operating under the assumption that North Korea can — or is close to — fielding a ballistic missile tipped with a nuclear warhead, the U.S. is working more and more closely with Japan and South Korea in the realm of ballistic missile defense (BMD). Read More
U.S. Pacific Command commander Adm. Harry Harris on Feb. 25, 2016 addressing reporters in the Pentagon. DoD News Image
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The head of U.S. forces in the Pacific has not received any official word from Manila to change its defense relationship with the Philippines – despite months of statements to the contrary from firebrand President Rodrigo Duterte. Read More
A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) practices targeting during Valiant Shield 16 on Tinian island in the Northern Marianas, Sept. 21, 2016. The combat rehearsal demonstrated the HIMARS expeditionary capability in support of Valiant Shield, a biennial, U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps exercise held in Guam, focusing on real-world proficiency in sustaining joint forces at sea, in the air, on land and in cyberspace. US Marine Corps photo.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. military needs to move from two-domain Air-Land Battle and Air-Sea Battle operating concepts into a more complex Multi-Domain Battle to be successful against not only near-peer competitors but also separatists and other lower-end threats, military officials said today. Read More
U.S. sailors man the rails aboard USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) sails the Sydney Opera House while pulling into Sydney, Australia in 2005. US Navy Photo
Australia’s 2016 Defense White Paper expresses concern over “friction” in the South China Sea (SCS) arising from U.S.-Chinese naval interactions, and it worries that territorial disputes have created “uncertainty and tension.” Those statements, which show Canberra (like the rest of the states in the Indo-Pacific region) is slowly coming around to the gathering threat posed by China to freedom of the seas. Read More
U.S. Pacific Command commander Adm. Harry Harris on Feb. 25, 2016 addressing reporters in the Pentagon. DoD News Image
A Chinese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the South China Sea would ratchet up regional tensions and be ignored by U.S. forces, said the head of the U.S. military forces in the Pacific during a press conference at the Pentagon on Thursday. Read More
Airstrip construction on the Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea is pictured in this April 2, 2015.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — China’s recent actions to militarize the South China Sea have changed the operational landscape, and the U.S. Pacific Command needs more attack submarines and long-range surface missiles to keep up with the evolving threat, PACOM commander Adm. Harry Harris told the Senate Armed Services Committee today. Read More
USS Antietam (CG-54), right, steams alongside USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76). US Navy Photo
WASHINGTON, D.C. – An independent review on the U.S. rebalance to the Pacific concluded the U.S. should study forward deploying a second carrier to the Western Pacific, one of the authors said before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday. Read More
