The “separate but equal” sixth service (don’t forget the Coast Guard) will be created in stages, because, as Pence finally admitted publicly, it “requires Congressional action.” And, as the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Paul Selva, admitted today, if Congress passed the relevant laws in a year that would “unprecedented.”
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: Yesterday was what we’ll call Space Day for the Trump Administration, with perhaps the most national attention ever paid to military and intelligence space in public by the senior officials of a White House and the military. Here’s a summary of the news from the meeting of the reborn Space Council and a later…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: After almost two decades in Hong Kong riding the Chinese economic buffalo, a man little known in Washington is apparently the frontrunner for Navy Secretary in the Trump administration. One source with deep knowledge of the Navy and GOP politics called the pick of Philip Bilden “f**ing ludicrous.” Another, with similar credentials, called it “crazy.”…
By Colin ClarkUPDATED: US Flies B-52 Bombers Through Chinese Zone; Japanese & South Koreans Follow; VP Biden To Ask Beijing For “Clarity” On Their Intentions China escalated tensions with Japan literally sky-high last weekend. After years of shadowboxing at sea around the Senkaku Islands, China’s Ministry of Defense announced a new “Air Defense Identification Zone” with authority…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Born as what most thought was a joke in March 2018, President Trump’s Space Force had by June become a White House directive to the Pentagon. Since then the Trump Administration has been considering possible variants in the Force’s subordination, authorities, size, and budget, while Acting SecDef Shanahan has already created a working group to…
By Bob Butterworth