Pentagon Concerned by Chinese Anti-Ship Missile Firing

Cruise missile test firing spotted on South China Sea’s Woody Island

China has deployed anti-ship cruise missiles on a disputed South China Sea island and the missiles are raising new concerns in the Pentagon over Beijing’s growing militarization of the vital strategic waterway.

Defense officials confirmed that China’s military recently test-fired a YJ-62 anti-ship cruise missile from Woody Island, in the Paracels located in the northern part of the South China Sea.

Pentagon: Russian Warplanes Continue Bombing in Syria

Another day, another Russian deception: Fake withdrawal.

 

Russian warplanes continued bombing in Syria and “fewer than 10” departed the region following President Vladimir Putin’s stunning announcement that his forces had accomplished their mission and a partial withdrawal had begun, Pentagon officials said.

“We have seen some Russian aircraft depart Syria and return to Russia but we have not seen a large contingent of Russian forces” pulling out, said Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook. “So we’ll have to wait and see like everybody else what the Russians do in regard to President Putin’s reference to a partial withdrawal.”

U.S. Told Russia Location of Special Forces in Syria

Russia knows where U.S. special forces are operating in Syria because the United States informed the Russians of their general location.

The Washington Post reported that Air Force Lt. Gen. Charles Brown, commander of the Air Force Central Command, told journalists Thursday that the U.S. outlined the “not specific areas, but firmly broad areas” where special forces are operating in Syria to the Russians. The top general said that Russia was informed of the U.S. special forces in Syria about the time when the Obama administration announced that they were operating there, which occurred in mid-December.

Pentagon Confirms Unsafe Chinese Aerial Encounter

Congress criticizes Beijing’s aerial harassment of RC-135

After initially refusing to provide details, the Pentagon on Tuesday confirmed that a Chinese jet made an unsafe pass near a U.S. RC-135 surveillance jet last week.

“I can confirm for you that the department’s reviewing a report that came in from [U.S. Pacific Command] regarding a Sept. 15 intercept of a U.S. RC-135 by an aircraft from the People’s Republic of China,” Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters.

US Military Admits It “Misplaced” Black Plague Samples

Back in May, the US military was forced to admit that it had done something really stupid and what’s great about the story is that it requires very little in the way of explanation and/or added color to explain why what happened can be fairly classified as an example of sheer governmental incompetence. Put differently: this story speaks for itself. Here’s a recap:

According to CNN, “four lab workers in the United States and up to 22 overseas have been put in post-exposure treatment, a defense official said, following the revelation the U.S. military inadvertently shipped live anthrax samples in the past several days.” The army apparently thought they were shipping samples rendered inactive by gamma radiation last year, but that clearly was not the case because when a Maryland lab received their sample last Friday they were able to grow live Bacillus anthracis. The lab reported their concerns to the CDC. By Saturday afternoon, labs in Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin, Delaware, New Jersey, Tennessee, New York, California and Virginia were notified that the US military had accidentally mailed them the deadly bacteria. A sample sent to a US base in South Korea was destroyed on Wednesday.

US military ordering troops in Iraq to dust off chemical weapon suits

The U.S. military has ordered its nearly 3,500 troops stationed in Iraq to reacquaint themselves with their chemical weapons suits due to evidence that the Islamic State has obtained chemical weapons and used them on multiple occasions.

“It is a precautionary measure,” a defense official told Fox News, acknowledging the order.