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Morning Recon
Good Wednesday morning and welcome to MORNING RECON. On this day in 1983, Operation Urgent Fury (Grenada, West Indies) begins. The State Department sent Ambassador Francis J. McNeill to meet with representatives of the OECS, Jamaica, and Barbados in Bridgetown, Barbados, and assess their countries’ willingness to join peacekeeping operations. Admiral McDonald flew to Washington late in the evening to brief the JCS on the plan. Titled “Evacuation of US Citizens from Grenada,” it reflected the missions added to the estimate: restoration of a democratic government in concert with the OECS, Jamaica, and Barbados; logistical support for US allies; and deterrence of Cuban intervention.
RealClearDefense Exclusives: November 2024: Forty-Five Years of Tehran-Tied Terrorismby Forrest Marion Japan's Inevitable Independent Nuclear Deterrent by James Van de Velde Today's Top Stories
NATIONAL FBI Confirms Investigation Into Leak of Top-Secret Documents About Israeli Strike Plans
By Sadie Gurman & Dustin Volz, The Wall Street Journal: “The reports began circulating online last week, raising concerns the leaker came from within U.S. government.”
Weighing Benefits:
Could Anti-Obesity Meds Help Troops’ Weight Issues?
By Jonathan Lehrfeld, Military Times: “The U.S. military needs its troops in fighting shape to carry out the mission, but like many other Americans, service members have become heavier in recent years.”
Space Force Studying How to Break China’s Kill Chains
By Josh Luckenbaugh, National Defense Magazine: “China has invested heavily in its long-range strike capabilities, and the U.S. Space Force is working to identify the vulnerabilities in China’s kill chains ...”
World’s Costliest Weapons Program Failed to Hit Readiness Marks for Six Years
By Anthony Capaccio, Bloomberg: “All versions of the F-35, the world’s costliest weapons program, have failed to meet minimum combat readiness rates for six straight years, according to the watchdog agency for Congress.” Proliferated LEO, Hybrid Cloud Enables Disconnected Warfighters
By Mark Pomerleau, DefenseScoop: “With connectivity expected to be limited in future conflicts, U.S. troops must learn to operate without persistent communications and data.” U.S. Navy’s Oldest Amphibious Assault Ship To Undergo Repairs Until 2026
By Richard Thomas, Naval Technology: “The Wasp-class amphibious assault ships are still considered to be key enablers of U.S. littoral and maritime force projection.” Trilateral Pact Aims to Bolster Icebreaker Production
By Laura Heckmann, National Defense Magazine: “The recent announcement of a collaborative agreement between Finland, Canada and the United States to build polar icebreakers comes as China has declared itself a “near-Arctic state” and Russia is operating the largest fleet of icebreakers in the world ...”
Marines Deploy ‘Loyal Wingman’ Drone in Joint Force Test
By Aaron-Matthew Lariosa, USNI News: “A test Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie unmanned combat aerial vehicle deployed last week in a first-ever joint force data link integration test during Emerald Flag 2024 last week.” Read more at RealClearDefense INTERNATIONAL U.S., AUSTRALIA:
Australia Announces $4.7 Billion Purchase of U.S. Air Defense Missiles
By Noah Robertson, Defense News: “Australia announced this week it was buying $4.7 billion in American-made SM-2 and SM-6 missiles — two of the world’s most advanced air defense interceptors — in a colossal foreign military sale.” RUSSO-UKRAINIAN WAR:
3,000 North Korean Troops Are in Russia Preparing To Fight in Ukraine
By Hyung-Jin Kim, AP: “About 3,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia and they are now receiving training on drones and other equipment before being deployed to battlefields in Ukraine, South Korea’s spy chief told lawmakers Monday.” ISRAEL, IRAN:
The Existence Of Israel’s Secret Stealth Drone Should Come As No Surprise
By Joseph Trevithick, The WarZone: “The apparent existence of such an aircraft points to a highly logical capability requirement, especially in regard to Israel's long stand-off with Iran.”
Read more at RealClearDefense COMMENTARY & ANALYSIS
Giving Our “Paper Tiger” Real Teeth:
Fixing the U.S. Military’s Plans for Contested Logistics Against China
By Zachary S. Hughes, Joint Force Quarterly: “... evidence is emerging suggesting that each Service’s individual concept is probably logistically unsustainable.”
U.S. Domestic Polarization and Allied Assurance
By Michaela Dodge, National Institute for Public Policy: “U.S. domestic polarization affects U.S. foreign policy by negatively shaping allies’ perceptions of Washington’s credibility, hence undermining the U.S. goal of assuring them and managing the alliance structure.”
Harris Embrace of Cheney Goes Back to World War I
By Brandan P. Buck, Responsible Statecraft: “"What's happened to the Democrats? They used to be antiwar!" Such is one of the many questions being bandied about by an online commentariat seeking to make sense of a litany of Republican endorsements of Kamala Harris, many of them made by party elites known for their hawkish foreign policy ...”
November 2024:
Forty-Five Years of Tehran-Tied Terrorism
By Forrest Marion, RealCearDefense: “Tom Clancy really loved to brag about America’s military forces, and the Army’s Special Forces were no exception.”
All Together Now:
Southeast Asia Must Act Collectively in the South China Sea
By Euan Graham, The Strategist (ASPI): “The core of a coalition to oppose China in the South China Sea must be the Southeast Asian claimants themselves.”
Japan's Inevitable Independent Nuclear Deterrent
By James Van de Velde, RealClearDefense: “In response to the current unprecedented Chinese nuclear weapons moderation program and North Korea’s likely attempt to acquire the miniaturization technology to mate its nuclear weapons onto its ballistic missiles and specifically to help deter China from invading Taiwan, Japan ought to seek -- not more military closeness with the United States -- but more independence.”
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