PLA Expanding Power Through Belt and Road Initiative

Randall Schriver / Getty Images

 

Schriver: U.S. to bolster Taiwan air defenses, submarines

China’s military is a key player in the Belt and Road economic initiative around the world that is being used to expand Beijing’s overall global power, a senior Pentagon Asian affairs official says.

Separately, the Pentagon is working with Taiwan’s government to bolster the island’s air defenses in the face of growing missile and aircraft threats from China, said Randall G. Schriver, assistant defense secretary for Asian and Pacific security affairs.

Return to the Pentagon

(Shutterstock)

 

In my 2011 book, Currency Wars, I gave a detailed description of the first-ever financial war game sponsored by the Department of Defense.

This financial war game took place in 2009 at the top-secret Applied Physics Laboratory located about twenty miles north of Washington, D.C. in the Maryland countryside.

Unlike typical war games, the “rules of engagement” for this financial exercise did not permit the use of any kinetic weapons such as bombs, missiles or drones.

The only weapons allowed were financial instrument including stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities and derivatives.

WAR GAMES: Russia ‘secretly practised full-scale invasion of Europe with bombing raids on Germany during Vladimir Putin’s military drills’

This graphic shows the areas of the drills and what military forces were used

 

The terrifying Russian war drills were carried out in September and featured ground, sea and air forces as well as artillery and missile launches.

RUSSIA has practised a full-scale mock invasion of the West that includes capturing Baltic states, bombing Germany and invading neutral countries, it has been revealed.

The terrifying war drills were carried out in September and featured troops, artillery, tanks, missile attacks and naval and air force raids.

US orders 16,000 troops and 230 jets to get ready for WAR with North Korea Today

VIGILANT ACE: US warplanes including fighters and bombers often blast over the Korean Peninsula [Getty]

NORTH Korea better be watching its back today as thousands of US troops and 230 warplanes descend on Kim Jong-un’s doorstep.

Vigilant Ace – a massive joint war games – kicks off today as the US and South Korea rehearse for battle with Pyongyang.

Hundreds of aircraft and thousands of soldiers and airmen are taking part in the drill, which is one of the biggest ever of its kind.

Russian Military bombs ‘Enemy Submarine’ in Drills Near U.S. War Games

The Russian KA-27 is specially designed to detect and destroy enemy submarines, making it a formidable aircraft for NATO forces stationed near Russia’s military in the Baltic region. (MAIQUEL TORCATT/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)

 

Russian helicopters on Wednesday staged explosive exercises, destroying maritime targets in the already tense Baltic region, where the U.S. began its own multinational war games just one day earlier.

The Russian military deployed 10 Kamov KA-27 antisubmarine warfare helicopters from the naval aviation branch of its Baltic Fleet to participate in bombing a simulated hostile submarine off the coast of Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russian territory situated between Lithuania and Poland. Both of these countries, along with the Baltic states Latvia and Estonia, are part of the U.S.-led military alliance NATO, which on Tuesday launched a regional exercise called Tobruq Legacy 2017, involving multiple European allies of the U.S. As the rivalry between Russia and NATO heats up, both displayed the readiness and might of their respective armed forces.

Russia and NATO War Games in Europe see New Player: China

A Chinese soldier waves farewell to Russian fleets as the Chinese-Russian joint naval drill concludes in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, China, September 19, 2016. Russia and China, which trail behind only the U.S. in military power, have sought greater cooperation in recent years and have begun joint naval drills in the highly contested Baltic Sea, where NATO has raised its defenses. STRINGER/REUTERS

 

Russia and China have begun naval exercises in the Baltic Sea, the most significant sign of military cooperation between the two major powers in a region seen as a flashpoint for Moscow’s rivalry with Western military alliance NATO.

Russia’s ambassador to China Andrei Denisov acknowledged Friday that the joint drills conducted by Russian and Chinese armed forces were unique, especially in the increasingly militarized Baltic region, but denied that the nations were “scaring off” rival powers. The Baltics have become a major point of contention between Russia and U.S.-led NATO, which have both devoted extensive military resources toward fortifying the region’s borders. The two factions accuse one another of instigating a European arms race, but Denisov dismissed Western concerns Friday.

Iran Stages Massive War Drills In Show of ‘Supremacy’

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei / AP

 

Unveils new drone technology

Iran has been conducting a series of massive war-drills meant to demonstrate the Islamic Republic’s “supremacy” and show Western forces that the country is prepared to attack forces stationed in the Persian Gulf region, according to Iranian military leaders and reports in the country’s state-run media.

The war drills, which began on Sunday in southeastern Iran and continued into Monday, include ground and air forces as well as unmanned drones.

Countering ‘A Range of Enemy Actions’: Cuba Calls 5 Days of War Games

© AP Photo/ IN Cuban State-Agency

 

 

Around the same time that Donald Trump was declared the winner of the US presidential election, Havana said that they would begin military exercises, though it is unclear whether the announcements are related.

The communist island will spend five days conducting its Bastion Strategic Exercise drills to prepare troops for “a range of enemy actions.” Historically, these exercises have been conducted during times of high tension with the United States.

Key US Ally to Proceed with South China Sea War Games with Beijing

Australia on Thursday said it will go ahead with live-fire naval exercises with China, even after close ally the United States sent a warship into the disputed South China Sea this week.

Washington infuriated Beijing on Tuesday when it sent its USS Lassen destroyer within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands in a challenge to China’s claims in the South China Sea.

The United States said the incident was a routine freedom-of-navigation operation, and vowed to send more ships.

War games: Britain defies Putin with deployment of 900 troops along RUSSIAN border

The significant military build up along Poland’s frontier with the former Soviet nation is part of a planned Nato training exercise.

Around 900 UK personnel and 350 vehicles – part of the British Army’s Lead Armoured Battle Group – crossed Europe to take part in Exercise Dragon 15 on the plains of north east Poland, just 60 miles from the border with the Russian state of Kaliningrad Oblast.

Exclusive: The Pentagon Is Preparing New War Plans for a Baltic Battle Against Russia

But the really troubling thing is that in the war games being played, the United States keeps losing.

For the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Department of Defense is reviewing and updating its contingency plans for armed conflict with Russia.

Russia, China kick off active phase of Sea of Japan naval drills

 

Twenty-two vessels, 20 aircraft, 40 armored vehicles and 500 marines from Russia and China have begun the active phase of the ‘Joint Sea 2015 II’ drills in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok.

“During the active phase of the maritime maneuvers to last till August 27, the sailors work out the issues of join anti-sabotage, anti-submarine, anti-vessel and anti-aircraft defense. Besides that there’ll be gunnery drills with different types of surface, underwater and aerial targets,” Roman Martov, Russia’s Eastern Military District spokesman, said as cited by TASS.

Russian Warships Dock In Iran for War Training

Iranian military leader: ‘Only the dead body of the American troops realizes the power of’ Iran

Two Russian warships have docked in northern Iran for a series of naval training exercises with the Islamic Republic, according to Persian-language reports translated by the CIA’s Open Source Center.

…

“The [Russian] warships, Volgodonsk and Makhachkala docked in Anzali Port [near the Caspian Sea], in the fourth naval zone, on the afternoon of 9 August,” the report says.

German Bundeswehr to Take Part in US-Led War Games in Ukraine

German soldiers will take part in two military exercises which areslated to be held in Ukraine later this summer, German media reported on Sunday.

Units of the German military, the Bundeswehr, will be involved in a ground forces drill codenamed Rapid Trident as well as and the US-led Sea Breeze naval exercise, Deutsche Welle said in a report.

Russia controls this vital strategic exclave in the heart of NATO-allied eastern Europe

 

The Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is a political and geographic anomaly. Separated from Russia and situated on the Baltic Sea, the region is surrounded by NATO-member states Poland and Lithuania. It’s closer to Berlin and Prague than it is to Moscow and St Petersburg.