Author: Michael

The Navy does not lack commitment, courage, or talent. It lacks time. That is especially true when it comes to material readiness.
Ships’ material condition suffer because of deferred maintenance. Scheduled maintenance windows stretch longer than planned. Critical decisions are made with incomplete or outdated data. None of this is due to a lack of effort by our dedicated Sailors or shipyard workers. It’s the result of 20th-century processes colliding with 21st-century demands.
As Command Master Chief at NAVSEA, I saw firsthand how maintenance delays ripple across the fleet.

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The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has launched a successful strike using single use attack drones to destroy an AN/FPS-117 air defence radar near Al-Qaisum airport in Saudi Arabia. The $20 million radar has a 460 kilometre detection range, with its targeting representing part of broader efforts by Iranian forces to single out the U.S. and its strategic partners’ radar networks to limit their situational awareness and their air defence capabilities. Following the U.S.

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The Polish Air Force scrambled MiG-29 fighters to intercept a Russian Il-20M reconnaissance aircraft flying over international waters in the Baltic Sea, visually identifying the target and escorting it. The aircraft was reported to have been operating without a filed flight plan and with its transponder switched off, which represented its ninth such mission of the year.

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Since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, a key question constantly asked is how Beijing might react — assuming that China’s economy relies on oil imported from Iran and shipped through the Strait of Hormuz.In reality, however, China is 85 percent energy self-sufficient. While China imports more than 10 percent of its global oil total from Iran, its energy supply has long been diversified internationally and electrified domestically to avoid critical dependence on any single source. Beijing has built a cushion against a short-term supply shock from a war in the Middle East.

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