UK publishes new maritime strategy amid ‘increased global tensions’

UK publishes new maritime strategy amid ‘increased global tensions’
UK publishes new maritime strategy amid ‘increased global tensions’

The document also highlights issues with illegal fishing and seabed mapping, and calls environmental damage a “maritime security concern.”

‘Hurricane Bo-Jo’: EU Readies To Cope With Brexit

‘Hurricane Bo-Jo’: EU Readies To Cope With Brexit
‘Hurricane Bo-Jo’: EU Readies To Cope With Brexit

The one thing Boris Johnson and his DUDE — Deliver, Unite, Defeat, Energize — partisans have in common with their opponents is that they all want to see a quick end to a process that has paralyzed the debate about Europe’s future and created a climate of instability which only NATO’s foes can find suitable.

UK’s Big Defense Spending Push — and Brexit — Under Fire

UK’s Big Defense Spending Push — and Brexit — Under Fire
UK’s Big Defense Spending Push — and Brexit — Under Fire

A British defense official talked up the good news about British defense spending in DC this week — including on many US-built weapons — but some dark clouds hang over the ambitious plan.

Australia Broadens Its Military Relationships With Shipbuilding Deals

Australia Broadens Its Military Relationships With Shipbuilding Deals
Australia Broadens Its Military Relationships With Shipbuilding Deals

  CANBERRA: As the Chinese challenge grows, Australia is clearly concerned about expanded Chinese influence within Australia and with regard to Chinese efforts to reshape the external environment to expand the influence and power of the Chinese authoritarian state. Clearly the United States remains Australia’s core ally in dealing with the Chinese challenge, but as…

Trump’s Wrecking Ball Ideology

Trump’s Wrecking Ball Ideology
Trump’s Wrecking Ball Ideology

A year ago, it would have been tempting to write off President Trump’s “bull in a china shop” diplomacy as the product of inexperience and impulsiveness. However, after eighteen months in the White House tenure, Trump is looking like a man with a method, a leader acting according to a consistent ideology — if not…

Europe’s Combat Aircraft Conundrum: Will UK Partner With France, Germany?

Europe’s Combat Aircraft Conundrum: Will UK Partner With France, Germany?
Europe’s Combat Aircraft Conundrum: Will UK Partner With France, Germany?

Barring the collapse of the British government, London plans to unveil its Combat Air Strategy during the Farnborough Air Show. Unlike its Brexit strategy to leave the European Union, there is general consensus here around the broad thrust of the document: position the UK to remain a key player in the design, development and manufacture…

Trump Taps HASC Staffers For Intel & Europe Jobs

Trump Taps HASC Staffers For Intel & Europe Jobs
Trump Taps HASC Staffers For Intel & Europe Jobs

WASHINGTON: While reports that he may have violated the law swirl around disgraced former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn today, the White House moved to fill a few more of the very large number of empty offices of senior Pentagon officials. For our readers, the key appointment is of Kari Bingen, who apparently was nominated to…

Dollar Hedges Help UK MoD Keep Calm In Age Of Trump & Brexit

Dollar Hedges Help UK MoD Keep Calm In Age Of Trump & Brexit
Dollar Hedges Help UK MoD Keep Calm In Age Of Trump & Brexit

WASHINGTON: Despite a turbulent Trump administration and a plummeting pound, the Anglo-American defense relationship remains strong, said the senior civil servant in the Ministry of Defence. “Under any circumstances, we’re going to continue to work very, very closely with the States,” Stephen Lovegrove, Permanent Secretary of the UK Ministry of Defence, told reporters this morning.…

Doomsday Clock Sweeps Forward At End of Trump’s First Week

Doomsday Clock Sweeps Forward At End of Trump’s First Week
Doomsday Clock Sweeps Forward At End of Trump’s First Week

WASHINGTON: A disruptive leader disrupts. Large and fast disruptions of the global order rarely portend happier times and that would seem to be the case as the first week of the Trump Administration comes to an end. “For the first time in the 70-year history of the Doomsday Clock, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Science…

Is Trump, Information Warrior, Key To Defeating Daesh (ISIL)?

Is Trump, Information Warrior, Key To Defeating Daesh (ISIL)?
Is Trump, Information Warrior, Key To Defeating Daesh (ISIL)?

President-elect Trump has promised to destroy Daesh. If Trump wants to avoid being the third Administration in succession to sink into the morass of the Middle East, it is essential to first ask what declaring victory would look like. Part of the West’s challenge is rooted in that Daesh is a brand inside a religion and…

We’ll Watch Trump’s Actions: UK Gen. Bradshaw, Top NATO Leader

We’ll Watch Trump’s Actions: UK Gen. Bradshaw, Top NATO Leader
We’ll Watch Trump’s Actions: UK Gen. Bradshaw, Top NATO Leader

WASHINGTON: With just 10 days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, our European allies appear to have gotten over the initial shock of his election and moved to a wait-and-see mode. They’ll judge him by his actions in office, not by his mixed messages on the campaign trail. “What I detect from my colleagues within NATO is…

UK Defense Minister Survives New PM’s Clean Sweep; UK Sole Source Deals Criticized

UK Defense Minister Survives New PM’s Clean Sweep; UK Sole Source Deals Criticized
UK Defense Minister Survives New PM’s Clean Sweep; UK Sole Source Deals Criticized

LONDON: Sen. John McCain would be howling if 49 percent of Pentagon contracts were not competed — especially if that had been true for more than nine years. How would McCain and his colleagues react if a company awarded a sole source deal charged the government $34,000 for a charitable donation or for “staff welfare?” One can only…

F-35 Could Be Deployed To Mideast Soon; Brexit Dominates NATO Summit

F-35 Could Be Deployed To Mideast Soon; Brexit Dominates NATO Summit
F-35 Could Be Deployed To Mideast Soon; Brexit Dominates NATO Summit

LONDON: Gen. Hawk Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command, pulled no punches when I asked him at the Royal International Air Tattoo if the F-35’s flying displays in Britain should be read as a signal to Russia. “Yes. You bet.” Several generals at the Royal International Air Tattoo agreed with Carlisle’s view that the plane’s appearance at RIAT and…

Brexit, Russian Threat Shape Farnborough; F-35 Dominates Show

Brexit, Russian Threat Shape Farnborough; F-35 Dominates Show
Brexit, Russian Threat Shape Farnborough; F-35 Dominates Show

The Lockheed Martin F-35B advanced short take-off and vertical landing aircraft will make its debut at this year’s Farnborough International Air Show. The last combat aircraft in this class to premiere at Farnborough was the Yakovlev Yak-41 (Yak-141) Freestyle more than 20 years ago. How times have changed. The Freestyle was unarguably a star of what…