// Mackenzie Eaglen: What progress has the defense secretary made on his ambitious goals to reorient the Defense Department?
// Marcus Weisgerber: 500-ship Navy?; Lord's reforms; Interior's drone fleet; and more..
The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security
October 2, 2020
https://www.meforum.org/61610/israel-should-keep-syria-weak
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with Brandon Archuleta and Jim Golby
Keep an Eye on Taiwan // Michael Schuman, The Atlantic: The battle over the island may be a Cold War relic, but it will shape the future.
India Scraps Investment Rule for Foreign Weapons Suppliers
By Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Bloomberg: “India scrapped a rule that forced foreign suppliers of weapons, aircraft or military hardware to invest in the South Asian nation, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to accelerate defense purchases and reduce red tape.”
CHINA:
003 and More: An Update on China’s Aircraft Carriers
By Rick Joe, The Diplomat: “As another year passes, additional developments in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) carrier program continue to be sighted and confirmed, in spite of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
By Gary Schmitt, RealClearDefense: “A future with multiple states in the Middle East pointing nukes at one another seems more likely than ever before, but the Israel-UAE deal illuminates a solution.”
By Ian J. Lynch, Strategy Bridge: "The spectre of great power competition with a rising China has prompted a sprawling debate in the United States. For decades, American engagement with China sought to make Beijing a “responsible stakeholder” in the U.S.-led international order."
China Expands Its Economic and Political Influence in Northern Iraq
By Yasin Yildirim, The Strategist (ASPI): “Autonomous Kurdistan is a federal administrative unit of Iraq in the northern part of the country and is controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government. It hosts foreign investors from many countries and entities, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Australia and Turkey. The region is also an attraction point for the People’s Republic of China and Chinese state-owned and -controlled companies."
That's according to a new International Institute for Strategic Studies report. "Russia's nuclear weaponry and the Russian Aerospace Forces have ... benefited most from a near-decade long increase in investment," the report states.
By Bryan Smith, RealClearDefense: “Try to imagine a blue-ribbon panel of technologists, policy experts, military officers, and business executives being asked to devise, from scratch, a resilient system for delivering to DoD what it needs, when it needs it, at the best value to the taxpayer.”
Mine Warfare Needs a New Concept of Operations
By Ridge H. Alkonis, Proceedings: “Mine hunting, finding, and sweeping are not marginal operations. The assets peforming these missions must undertake careful thought and preparation, as “countering mines cannot be made easy, cheap, or convenient.” With the current mine countermeasures (MCM) force limited in personnel, material, and money, the Navy needs a new concept of operations that relies more on automated unmanned systems."
By Jacob Parakilas, The Diplomat: “Even though China is a rare point of convergence for both parties, partisan politics and COVID-19 induced cuts will affect the U.S. military’s ability to hold the fort in Asia-Pacific come January."
China Military Watch
By Malcolm Davis & Charlie Lyons Jones, The Strategist (ASPI): “Ballistic missiles on Chinese merchant vessels? . . ."
The End of U.S. Primacy in Asia
By Adam Mattison, USNI Blog: “As the Navy continues its push toward a 355-ship fleet, the perennial issue of manning that fleet is more important now than at any point since the end of the Cold War."
SOUTH CAUCUSUS:
The Key to Armenia's Tank Losses: The Sensors
By Jack Watling, RUSI: “Despite the heavy Armenian armoured losses, the key lessons from the videos Azerbaijan has published online are not about armour. Rather, they reflect how the density of sensors on the modern battlefield is changing the balance in combined arms warfare."
By Michael Schuman, The Atlantic: “What kind of superpower will China be? That’s the question of the 21st century. According to American leaders such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, China will be a rapacious authoritarian nightmare, intent on destroying democracy itself. Beijing, needless to say, doesn’t quite agree."