The Marines call it their “Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations” concept.
Here s What You Need to Remember: Observers long have expected the Marines to cut back on heavy combat forces in order to free up money and manpower for new anti-ship units. Sure enough, the 2021 budget proposal also asks to reduce the services ranks from 186,200 active-duty personnel to 184,100.
The U.S. Marine Corps a few years ago started saying it needed to get serious about sinking enemy warships. Now the amphibious branch is putting its money where its mouth is.
The Corps is asking Congress for money to start buying two powerful new anti-ship missile types. One is a new version of the venerable Tomahawk cruise missile. The other, an adaptation of the U.S. Navy’s stealthy Naval Strike Missile.
Long-Range Russian Aircraft are Traveling the World Tracking NATO Submarines
The Russian patrol surge isn’t limited to Europe.
Here s What You Need to Remember: The Russian exercise seemed to highlight Moscow’s new approach to undersea warfare. While the war game reportedly was defensive in nature, the same submarines with their long-range cruise missiles could conduct offensive operations from the same waters.
A pair of Russian navy Tu-142 patrol planes flew one of the longest-ever flights in international air space in decades on and around March 11, 2020.
The powerful, swept-wing planes with their four turboprop engines flew from Kipelovo-Fedotovo airbase near Vologda in northern Russia, skirted the Arctic Circle as they headed west around Norway and the United Kingdom then south to the waters off Spain and then flew back.
A new landing helicopter dock has been designed.
Here s What You Need to Remember: The Japanese navy does not have a formal requirement for an LHD, but there’s an obvious gap in the fleet’s structure that an assault ship could fill. Tokyo is building up a force of 17 MV-22 tiltrotors, 52 AAV7s and six LCACs to carry marines into combat. But the landing craft, vehicles and rotorcraft require ships to transport them close to shore.
A Japanese shipbuilder is pitching a new amphibious assault ship that could transport the Japanese military’s new Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade marine force and its MV-22 tiltrotors.
Taiwan Will Come to Regret Its New F-16 Purchases
Nearly a decade after first requesting them, the Taiwanese air force finally could get 66 new F-16 fighters to begin replacing some of its older fighter aircraft.
Here s What You Need to Remember: Fighters arguably are the least important system for this new strategy, although they could play an important role firing anti-ship missiles at Chinese invasion ships, according to Thompson. It’s likely, however, that few planes will survive China’s initial bombardment of Taiwanese airfield. “PLA strikes … will devastate Taiwan’s airbases.”
Nearly a decade after first requesting them, the Taiwanese air force finally could get 66 new F-16 fighters to begin replacing some of its older fighter aircraft.
The Army during the 2000s lagged behind its major rivals in artillery development.
Here s What You Need to Remember: Targeting could pose a problem for these far-away targets. According to Breaking Defense, the Army is working on artificial intelligence and wireless networks so its howitzers and rocket-launchers can receive target coordinates from the service’s own drones as well as from drones, spy planes and satellites belonging to the other armed services.
The U.S. Army just fired two 155-millimeter-diameter howitzer shells out to a distance of 40 miles.
The test shots at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona on March 6, 2020 signal the beginning of a major overhaul of the Army’s artillery.