Pentagon: Efforts to steal U.S. tech rising

Posted by Matt in January 3rd, 2007 | no comment

Asia-Pacific countries expected to intensify bids to steal defense technology.
WASHINGTON - Foreign countries, especially nations in the Asia-Pacific region, have intensified their efforts to steal sensitive U.S. defense technology, according to a Pentagon report circulated Wednesday.
The Defense Security Service Counterintelligence Office recorded an annual jump of nearly 43 percent in the number of suspicious [...]

Shrinking U.S. sub fleet

Posted by Matt in January 3rd, 2007 | no comment

Published in Military, U.S.

The current shipbuilding plan envisions that the number of attack submarines — conventionally-armed boats not reserved for nuclear deterrence missions — will fall from 55 in 2013 to 50 in 2017, 45 in 2024, and 40 in 2028. The downdraft is inexorable because subs that have reached the maximum service lives of their nuclear reactors [...]

What would Genghis Khan Do?

Posted by Matt in January 3rd, 2007 | no comment

Published in War, general

Genghis Khan recognized that victory came by conquering people, not land or cities.
In contrast to the Americans in 2003, who sought to take the largest cities first in a campaign of shock and awe, the Mongols in 1258 took the smallest settlements first, gradually working toward the capital. Both the Mongols and the Americans used [...]

Reporting from the Russian Front

Posted by Matt in January 3rd, 2007 | no comment

Published in Russia, general

Russia is no longer Russia. It is now “Putin’s Russia,” a country ruled by Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, whose centralization of power and crackdown on the press have alarmed the West and all but stifled dissent.
Who is to blame for the former KGB spy’s election, in 2000, as president of one-sixth of the world’s landmass, and [...]

China: Shot Across Our Bow

Posted by Matt in January 3rd, 2007 | no comment

Published in China, Military

Defense: China’s president announces that the world’s most populous nation is preparing to challenge U.S. naval supremacy on the high seas by building a blue-water navy. The dragon sets sail.
In comments made last week to Communist Party delegates and published in the People’s Liberation Army Daily, Hu Jintao, Chinese president and commander in chief, urged [...]

China: New Trends in Force Modernization, Doctrine and Training

Posted by Matt in January 3rd, 2007 | no comment

Published in China, Military

The transformation of the Second Artillery Corps, which is the arm of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) responsible for most of China’s conventional and nuclear ballistic missiles, is one of the centerpieces of China’s military modernization program. The number of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs and MRBMs, respectively) in China’s inventory has increased dramatically [...]