National Defense Briefs
June 9, 2014
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Eighteenth in the series, National Defense Briefs. Each week we bring to readers of MidlandsBiz.com updates aimed at informing with timely military and homeland-security news briefs, trends, definitions, and short commentaries. Defense issues are inextricably connected to business. In that, we present the “National Defense Briefs” that matter.
- The U.S. Defense Dept. releases its “Annual Report to Congress – Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China 2014.” [Read report here]
- U.S. Marine Gen. Joseph “Fighting Joe” Dunford – a career Marine infantry officer – has been nominated to become the next commandant of the Marine Corps. Dunford, who commands both United States Forces–Afghanistan and all coalition troops of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), and has since 2012, is being hailed throughout the Corps and among retired and former Marines, worldwide. “We just got a prince,” is how one Marine infantry officer described him in an email. Another said, “The Corps will live for another 500 years!”
- “A U.S. Navy plan for aircraft carrier-based drones [unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs] has launched a dogfight in Washington over the role of the robotic planes in combat,” reports the Los Angeles Times. The UAVs – wrongly but widely referred to as “drones” (which are designed to be shot down in testing) – would be used for reconnaissance purposes. But a few members of Congress are arguing the Navy UAV program is “shortsighted.” According to the LA Times, Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.), chairman of a subcommittee that oversees Navy programs “believes Navy brass is hesitant to turn over strategic bombing missions in contested areas of the world — now carried out by seasoned fighter pilots — to drones.”
- Taliban commander Noorullah Noori, one of the five enemy commanders released by the U.S. in exchange for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, has vowed to return to the battlefield and fight American forces in Afghanistan. The other enemy leaders released were Mohammad Fazl, Mohammed Nabi, Khairullah Khairkhwa, and Abdul Haq Wasiq. The Daily Caller reports, “Noori is a senior Taliban commander and an ex-governor of a northern Afghan province, where he was accused of taking part in the 1998 genocide of thousands of Shia muslims.”
- The Special Forces Association’s annual national convention has begun (and will run through June 15) in S.C. The convention, which began and will conclude in Columbia with events in both Charleston and Camden, includes static displays and demonstrations, museum and battlefield tours, shooting matches, cooking classes, and an awards banquet. U.S. Army Special Forces are best known as “Green Berets.” [for additional information email NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS at [email protected]]
- Col. Douglas Macgregor, U.S. Army (Ret.), writes, “In March 2014, when 80,000 Russian armored combat forces were poised to invade Ukraine, the U.S. Army was incapable of deploying an effective combat maneuver force to Europe or anywhere else. How did this happen? How could an Army of 550,000 with 32,000 troops in Afghanistan’s forward operating bases fail to provide more than two combat-ready brigades, roughly 8,000 men under arms, to deploy and fight? The answer is deceptively simple: It’s by design.” [Read full story here.]
– W. Thomas Smith Jr. is a military analyst and partner with NATIONAL DEFENSE CONSULTANTS, LLC. Visit him at http://uswriter.com.
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