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THE A-10 GETS A FACELIFT: TACTICAL AIR COVER FOR URBAN COMBAT

10/26/2020

The difficult task of nuclear modernization
Mackenzie Eaglen | AEIdeas

The A-10 Warthog is preparing for its biggest upgrade in over a decade
(The Drive) A new large-area cockpit display and additional weapons are all in the grand plans to get the A-10 ready for higher-end missions.

The politicization of the State Department is almost complete
(Defense One) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his predecessor, Rex Tillerson, have weaponized the institution for the Trump administration’s domestic political objectives.

Pakistan’s case before international financial watchdog reveals more Chinese corruption
Michael Rubin | Washington Examiner

The revolution that wasn’t: Conservatives against Congress, 1981–2018
Philip Wallach | The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State

Basic Principles for a Complex Nuclear Environment
By Jane Doe, the interpreter: "Russia’s new public nuclear strategy is the first of its kind, and it suggests some ways the Navy may need to adapt."

The Chinese Nuclear Threat
By Mark B. Schneider, RealClearDefense: “In September 2020, the Pentagon issued its annual report on the People’s Republic of China’s military capabilities. A common reaction to the report is that it presents a quite sobering picture of Chinese military capabilities. This is certainly correct. However, in one important area, the report is dangerously inadequate -- its treatment of China’s nuclear capability."

Options for the U.S. to Counter China’s Disruptive Economic Activities
By Johnathan Falcone, Divergent Options: “The PRC emerged from the 2008 financial crisis with increased capability to influence markets abroad and undermine U.S. leadership. Through new institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and new development plans, including Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China is making strides towards bifurcating the international financial system."

The Three Seas Initiative: A European Answer to China’s Belt and Road?
By David Morris, the interpreter: "A quest to modernise dilapidated infrastructure in Central Europe has quickly transformed into a geopolitical contest.”

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THE FUTURE OF CHINESE NAVAL POWER & TURKEY'S INADEQUATE DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE

10/12/2020

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Is the Future of the U.S. Navy Feasible?
By Adam Taylor, RealClearDefense: "Recent budget battles on capitol hill over this year’s shipbuilding account for the 355-ship fleet goal highlights the likely struggle the service will encounter as it shifts focus to its new 500 ship target."

An Evolutionary Approach to Problem Framing and Strategy
By Mark R. Patridge, Strategy Bridge: "At the heart of Carl von Clausewitz’s masterpiece, On War, there stands a scientific metaphor—a three-way magnetic pendulum—that defines in terms as comprehensive as possible the entire phenomenon of war, an unchanging structure within which an infinite variety of behaviors can arise."

Is Esper’s New Plan for the Navy Enough for the Indo-Pacific? by Mark Montgomery

‘Maximum Pressure Brought Down the Soviet Union’ and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves by Philip H. Gordon

Elaine McCusker explains that CRs result in lost opportunities to advance US military competitiveness, block new programs designed to tackle critical threats, stall industry initiatives, and place troops at greater risk. The use of CRs prevents us from allocating the correct resources to counter the national security challenges before us. Learn more here.

National security topics in the 2020 election
Mackenzie Eaglen | "Defense 2020"

End the Pentagon’s OCO slush fund
(Defense News) After 19 years of conflict in Afghanistan, the notion that funding for war fighting cannot be planned for in the regular budget is laughable.

Last week, NATO’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, noted, “Our militaries cannot be strong if our societies are weak, so our first line of defense must be strong societies.” NATO has realized that national security threats come in many guises. The realization is to be saluted, notes Elisabeth Braw in a Defense One op-ed. In today’s security environment, non-kinetic threats pose as grave a danger as kinetic ones do. If NATO is going to be successful, its military capabilities must be backed by societal resilience in the member states. Without societal resilience, military excellence is useless. Continue here.

Ahead of the release of Phil Klay’s novel “Missionaries,” Kori Schake took to Bloomberg Opinion to discuss the key themes of the book with Klay. The two conversed over the globalization of violence, the roles performative violence plays in societies fighting insurgencies, and veteran sentiments when returning home from war. Read the interview here.

The Future of Chinese Power
// Michael Schuman: The policies and practices of the country's dynasties offer insights into how modern Chinese leaders may wield their strength.

After Almost Two Decades of America’s Longest War:
How Can Peace Finally Come to Afghanistan?
By Haroon Azar, RealClearDefense: "It is no wonder that so many Americans want to see the last of our troops come home."

Turkey's Much-Hyped Defense Industry Far from Self-Sufficient by Burak Bekdil
Defense News
October 13, 2020
https://www.meforum.org/61651/turkeys-defense-industry-far-from-independent

Competitors, Adversaries, or Enemies? Unpacking the Sino-American Relationship by Paul Poast

Firms Picked to Make Orbiting Sensors for Next-Gen US Missile-Defense System
// Brandi Vincent: The sensors and satellites will be part of the Tracking Layer component of the next-gen missile-defense system.

Joint All-Domain Command and Control
initiative to link most everything on the battlefield. "The services had each been developing proprietary systems in the hopes that their standard would prevail across the entire US military," FlightGlobal writes. Now the pressure is on the Navy and Marines, "which have been less public about their plans to develop a JADC2 network, but have outlined their thinking through ideas such as the Distributed Maritime Operations concept and the Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations concept."

The new Army-Air Force effort will be called CJADC2, prepending "Combined" to the Pentagon's own already unwieldy acronym. Read on, here.

WAR ON THE ROCKS: MILITARY PENSION REFORMS

An Alternative Conceptual Framework for the Marine Corps’ Doctrine on Learning
By Shawn McCann & Damien O’Connell, Proceedings: “We offer a three-lens conceptual framework consisting of warfighting, the teacher-scholar relationship, and critical or radical adult education and training. Radical adult training and education refers to our capacity for action (training) and a learner-centered manner of facilitating the development of autonomous critical thinkers (education).”

The Question at the Center of Army Readiness:
Ready for What?
By Jane Doe, Eurasia Daily Monitor: “As the lead Army officer for operations, I often get asked a range of questions about readiness. How should we measure readiness? Which units does the Army most need to be ready? How ready do they need to be? Or simply, what is Army readiness?"

To Fix U.S. Foreign Policy, Look to the Balance of Power
By Luke Nicastro, RealClearDefense: “During the vice-presidential debate on October 7th, the 2020 campaign saw its first (and possibly only) direct exchange on foreign policy."

Israel is becoming a strategic liability to the United States. In a National Interest op-ed, Michael Rubin explains that America can no longer ignore Israeli support for China, Russia, and now Azerbaijan and Turkey. Israel certainly remains an important US ally. However, if Jerusalem continues down the path of being a liability to the United States, it should be treated as such. Continue here.

President Trump has requested to withdraw US troops from Somalia. In an AEIdeas blog, Katherine Zimmerman and Emily Estelle argue that pulling out of Somalia now would harm America’s future security. A strengthened al Shabaab will overwhelm the remaining local security forces, possibly collapse the weak Somali government, and imperil regional security. Rather than bringing troops home from Somalia prematurely, President Trump should shift the US approach to one that can defeat al Shabaab. Learn more here.

Last week China released footage of “real combat” it conducted in September in Taiwanese airspace. A Chinese invasion would present the greatest threat to global peace in a generation, argues Paul Wolfowitz in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. However, the best way to prevent war is to threaten war. Continued ambiguity in the face of Xi Jinping’s escalating rhetoric and provocations by his armed forces presents greater risk of a confrontation as dangerous as the Cuban Missile Crisis. That leaves us with the credible threat of military force as the best hope of avoiding war.

Companies with a strong defense portfolio continue to thrive in 2020 despite the pandemic. Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which reported 3rd-quarter earnings this week, increased their projected revenue totals for the year.

Lockheed's projected sales rose to about $65.25 billion, up from its July estimate of $63.5 billion to $65 billion. Northrop now expects 2020 sales of $35.7 billion to $36 billion, up from $35.3 billion to $35.6 billion in July. If Lockheed hits its new estimate, its sales would be up 9 percent over last year. If Northrop does, sales would be up between 5.5 percent and 6.4 percent.

And more increases are expected. "The corporation expects its 2021 net sales to increase to greater than or equal to $67 billion," Lockheed said.

Northrop projects its 2021 sales will be in the "low-to-mid $37 billion range," according to CFO Dave Keffer. That's even as the company predicts COVID-19 will continue to depress its commercial programs.

Why it matters: Lockheed and Northrop have mostly defense portfolios, as opposed to fellow giants Boeing and Raytheon Technologies, which have large commercial aerospace businesses. The companies continued ability to hit revenue targets even as they modify work schedules and protect their employees from the coronavirus demonstrates how defense projects have been largely insulated from the pandemic woes that have devastated over industries.

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pentagon acquisition reform

THE A-10 GETS A FACELIFT: TACTICAL AIR COVER FOR URBAN COMBAT

THE FUTURE OF CHINESE NAVAL POWER & TURKEY'S INADEQUATE DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE

DOD ACQUISITION REFORM

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