Author: Michael

Photo by SAM YEH/AFP via Getty Images

A new report says the U.S. military is gearing up to more than quadruple the number of troops it has deployed to Taiwan in the coming months. At the same time, Taiwan is reportedly aiming to send around 500 of its own soldiers to the U.S. later this year, which would be a significant increase over its previous rotations. Both deployments would be focused on bolstering the training of Taiwan’s military and come at a time of increased friction between the U.S. and China. 
A Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article revealed that the U.S.

DONETSK OBLAST, UKRAINE – FEBRUARY 14: Ukrainian soldiers load ammunition to tanks on the frontline near the towns of Vuhledar and Marinka as Russian-Ukrainian war continues in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on February 14, 2023. (Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).

One year into the war in Ukraine, the conflict does not appear closer to ending, and Russian tanks appear no better at avoiding destruction. Armored forces attempting to take the Ukrainian town of Vuhledar are being decimated by landmines. 
It’s been this way for much of February.

WARSAW, Poland – Poland has delivered the first Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, the Polish Defense Minister declared on Friday, on the anniversary of the Russian invasion.
“Today, the Polish Leopards are already in Ukraine,” Mariusz Blaszczak said during a meeting of the National Security Council, without elaborating how many German-made tanks were delivered to Kyiv.
Poland was the first nation to propose shipping Leopards to Ukraine and harshly criticized Berlin’s initial hesitation in allowing the delivery of the formidable battle vehicles to Kyiv.

A Chinese fighter and a guided-missile destroyer in the South China Sea warned a US military reconnaissance plane away from Chinese airspace in a heart-stopping confrontation caught on camera.
The US aircraft was 30 miles from any airspace considered Chinese property, including the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, but the Chinese military appears proactive in defending territory far removed from its jurisdiction in what could be considered a threatening maneuver.

Korea Aerospace Industries has won a tendency to supply Malaysia with light attack aircraft. The company has announced, marking the latest export of its line of light attack/trainer jets.
According to the South Korean company, the contract, valued at 920 million dollars, will involve the delivery of 18 FA-50s to the Southeast Asian country, the first of which is scheduled for 2026.
The FA-50 trumped the Tejas light combat aircraft, manufactured by the Indian company Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., to meet the needs of Malaysia.

Japan is going through a phase of militarization unprecedented in its postwar history, and its government has released a new version of its National Security Strategy. For the first time throughout the post-war period, it declared its intention to ” actively respond ” to what was happening in the region.
Under these goals, Tokyo has approved a record-breaking US $51 billion (approximately RMB) military budget since 1945 and plans to increase it to 2% of GDP (approximately 1076 billion U.S. dollars, which will be the third highest in the world after the United States and China ).

Joseph Clark, WashTimes
The Navy on Thursday laid to rest the remains of a 28-year-old sailor who was killed aboard the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor, the culmination of decades of work to…

Capaccio, Bloomberg
Some of the US Navy’s leading contractors need to speed their deliveries of crucial munitions, including torpedoes and the service’s top air-defense missile, to be ready…

B.E.

Edward Parker, RAND Corporation