Threat from Within — U.S. military braced for surge in Taliban ‘insider’ attacks after recent statement

Taliban insurgents recently vowed to carry out new “infiltration” attacks aimed at killing and demoralizing U.S., allied, and Afghan military forces as part of the spring military offensive, according to U.S. officials.

The expected increase in what the Pentagon calls “insider” attacks by Taliban sympathizers or infiltrators followed an April 27 statement by the Islamist terror group.

Two-Faced — Russia building up missile defenses while seeking to limit U.S. defenses

Another Gertz article with the same subject as a previous post:

Russia is engaged in a major buildup of both nuclear and conventional missile defense systems at the same time Moscow is seeking legal limits on U.S. missile defenses, according to U.S. officials.

The Russian military is developing and deploying an array of new and modernized anti-missile interceptors that are part of a strategic doctrine that calls for defending against what Moscow believes to be an increasing threat posed by offensive ballistic missiles, said U.S. officials with access to intelligence reports.

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Additionally, the Russians are upgrading the SH-08 nuclear-tipped anti-missile interceptors that have been deployed around Moscow for more than two decades.

Japanese Defense — Going Nuclear?

Recent reports about the imminence of the opening of a massive reprocessing facility in Rokkasho, northern Honshu, have analysts wondering about the Japanese government’s intent for its use. The real concern is that the plant could produce weapons-grade plutonium for manufacturing nuclear weapons.

US Forces on Alert in Response to Libya

This could be quite an intelligence trove for the Chinese should the U.S. be called to action in Libya, given the US Military is now reliant upon their communication satellites.

WASHINGTON – Marines and other U.S. forces in Europe are on a heightened state of alert in response to a deteriorating security situation in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, two U.S. officials said Friday.

The alert order applies to a U.S. special operations team based in Stuttgart, Germany, as well as a Marine group of air and ground forces based in Moron, Spain, according to the officials, who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Beijing Says Okinawa May Belong to China

China’s main newspaper said on Wednesday that Beijing is unsure of Japan’s sovereignty over the island of Okinawa—the home of key U.S. military bases.

A long-winded article in the People’s Daily—the mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party—said that Beijing may rightfully own the Ryukyu island chain, which includes Okinawa. The island is home to 1.3 million people, who are much more closely related to Japan than to China in terms of both ethnicity and linguistics. The Ryukyus chain was a sort of vassal state of China before Japan annexed it in 1879, and now the Chinese say it should return to them based on post-World War II measures requiring Japan to return territories that it took from Beijing.

Taking Cybersecurity Seriously — Former government officials warn against complacency on the cyber front

Chinese hackers “bombard” the Pentagon’s computer systems “by the millions each and every day” searching for a point of entry into the sensitive U.S. computing systems, according to officials speaking at an event on cybersecurity on Tuesday.

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey and other high-level former U.S. officials warned during a discussion at The American Center for Democracy (ACD) that the U.S. government is woefully underprepared to combat and repel even the most benign type of cyber attack.

Lawmaker drops bombshell: North Korea may have nuclear missiles

The results of a classified Defense Intelligence Agency report indicate that “North Korea now has nuclear weapons capable of delivery by ballistic missiles.”

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It came when Rep. Doug Lamborn (R) of Colorado began quoting from what he said was an unclassified version of the DIA report, which has not yet been made public.

Inside the Ring: New Bear bomber flights

Two Russian strategic nuclear bombers carried out a fourth high-profile training flight last week, flying near South Korea, where large-scale war games are under way, and near Japan and the U.S. military bases on Okinawa.

It was the fourth time since June 2012 that Russian bombers have run up against U.S. and allied air defense zones in the Pacific.

China’s Drone Swarms Rise to Challenge US Power

Being that China produces and controls more than 95% of the world’s rare earth materials, it’s not unthinkable that they would be able to crank out thousands of drones.

China is building one of the world’s largest drone fleets aimed at expanding its military reach in the Pacific and swarming U.S. Navy carriers in the unlikely event of a war, according to a new report.

The Chinese military — known as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) — envisions its drone swarms scouting out battlefields, guiding missile strikes and overwhelming opponents through sheer numbers. China’s military-industrial complex has created a wide array of homegrown drones to accomplish those goals over the past decade, according to the report released by the Project 2049 Institute on March 11.

“The PLA now fields one of the world’s most expansive UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] fleets,” said Ian Easton and L.C. Russell Hsiao, researchers at the Project 2049 Institute and authors of the new report.

Securing Command — Strategic commander worried about cyber attacks on nuclear command and control

At times, news like this makes one wonder if it’s a strong case of déjà vu that was probably never fully admitted.

U.S. strategic nuclear weapons and the command systems that control them are vulnerable to cyber attacks although most are hardened against many types of electronic attacks, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command said on Tuesday.

Air Force Gen. C. Robert Kehler said during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that nuclear weapons and the communications used to control them are older and thus less vulnerable to disruption by computer network attacks.

“However, we are very concerned with the potential of a cyber related attack on our nuclear command and control and on the weapons systems themselves,” Kehler said. “We do evaluate that.”

Unpredictable, ‘belligerent’ and nuclear armed, North Korea poses serious threat to U.S.: officials

While the chief of the US Pacific Forces (Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III) believes global warming is the top threat, the threat from Pyongyang continues to grow more dangerous as their nuclear weapons technology, capability improve and more ICBMs are deployed. The rest of the world (Russia, China, Iran, etc…) steadily gains leverage over the United States in almost every way possible while it’s sidetracked chasing butterflies. This is the world we live in now. Things do not look good for the ‘free world’s’ future.

WASHINGTON — An unpredictable North Korea, with its nuclear weapons and missile programs, stands as a serious threat to the United States and East Asia nations, the director of National Intelligence warned Tuesday in a sober assessment of worldwide threats.

Testifying before a Senate panel, James R. Clapper delivered the U.S. intelligence community’s overview of global threats posed by terrorism, cyber attacks, weapons of mass destruction, the months-long civil war in Syria and the unsettled situation in post-Arab Spring nations.

The outlook on North Korea comes as the communist regime announced that it was “completely scrapping” the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War and has maintained peace on the peninsula for more than half a century. The Obama administration on Monday slapped new sanctions against North Korea’s primary exchange bank and several senior government officials as it expressed concern about the North’s “bellicose rhetoric

Obama’s dangerous defense experiment

The United States military is blatantly being used as a divisive political wedge and being dismantled under the guise of a “sequester”, which is only the latest political means to an end. The US economic crisis is in general being used for a variety the Obama administration’s objectives. If this were happening in China the public and media would call this a coup and a national takeover. However, with the American public, the lights are on but nobody’s home.

The United States has cut down the military so rapidly and so blindly, we’re in danger of breaking the back of the force.

Mindful of the repeated rounds of cuts the military has already endured, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, recently delivered a grim warning: “If you want [the military] to be doing what it’s doing today, then we can’t give you another dollar.”

His worries reflect reductions that started in 2009 and have reached crippling levels, even in President Obama’s proposals to avert sequestration. I take the general at his word, but I am concerned that the president does not.