2017-07-18 By Richard Weitz The Western media has recently highlighted the Russian military buildup in Asia, which generally receives less attention than Russian defense activities in Europe and the Middle East. Russia’s Far Eastern armed forces have benefited from the country’s overall military modernization program. During the past decade, the…
2017-07-17 The Tailsman Sabre exercise is a biennial military training exercise between the US and Australia held in Australia. According to an article published on the Commander, US Pacific Fleet website and dated June 28, 2017: FORT Shafter, Hawaii - More than 33,000 U.S. and Australian personnel will participate in the…
2017-07-09 Richard Weitz Does President Trump’s budget execute the president’s nonproliferation through firmness and strength approach?. The Trump administration’s proposed FY2018 Presidential Budget Request (PBR) would allocate approximately $19 billion for the Defense Department’s nuclear enterprise, of which some $5 billion would support recapitalization, rising to $43 billion during the…
2017-07-03 By Richard Weitz According to Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, the Syrian government aborted a planned chemical strike following the administration’s threats at the beginning of the week to preempt or punish another attack. The White House warning to the Syrian government that it would “pay a heavy price”…
2017-06-29 By Helmoed Romer Heitman Another year, another defence budget, and once again the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is left short-changed and under-funded, as it has been for almost a quarter of a century, despite periods of high operational commitments and tempo. That mismatch between funding and commitments has…
2017-06-25 By Danny Lam The F-16 deal for India – if it goes through – has the potential to become a game changer for not just the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Uninformed critics of the deal derided it as a deal for an obsolete light fighter…
2017-06-13 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake The great historian Max Hastings in his seminal book Inferno about all the fighting forces of World War II said that after some very nasty setbacks early in the war, the US and Royal Navies emerged as the most effective fighting forces in the…
2017-06-17 According to an article published on the Norwegian Ministry of Defence website, NATO will be focusing on its core mission of collective defense in the upcoming Trident Juncture exercise. "NATO needs to hold exercises on a large scale. Only this way are we able to test all the levels…