Joint Press Conference for NATO Chiefs of Defence meeting, 18 January 2024

Suprme Allied Commander Europe General Christopher Cavoli,US Army;Royal Netherlands Navy Admiral Rob Bauer;Bundeswehr General Christian Bida

Colin Powell's casket arrives at National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. - Vietnam veteran,Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,Secretary of State

Allied Spirit V:NATO Land Exercise Stresses Interoperablility

NATO Exercise Allied Spirit V is underway at the Hohenfels Training Area,Germany.It runs from 26 September to 15 October 2016 and involves some 2520 troops from eight countries.Besides the US,participants include Belgium;Canada;the Czech Republic;Germany;Italy;Lithuania;and the UK.*
The US Army is leading the drills,sending soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry;12th Combat Aviation Brigade;and the 40th Infantry Division California Army National Guard,Louisiana Army National Guard and Pennsylvania Army National Guard.Allied Spirit prepares forces in Europe to tactically interoperate and tests communications security among NATO Allies and partners.*
Lithuania's "Iron Wolf" Brigade is commanding Brigade HQ at Hohenfels,which is the US Army Training Command's facility.The multinational unified land operations promote both the interoperability and the integration of the participating forces as they confront the simulated aggressors.*
The drills are the follow-on to Allied Spirit IV,which took place in January 2016.

Massive Military Exercise Underway in Interior Alaska - shadows of a foreign power

While many North Americans are relaxing on vacation,the US and Canadian Armed Forces have been participating in Arctic Anvil 2016,a joint multinational exercise by troops from US Army Alaska's 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team;25th Infantry Division and UATF;196th Infantry Brigade's Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Capability;133rd Infantry Regiment,Iowa National Guard;and 1st Battalion,Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.The drills,running from June to August,are being held in Alaska for the first time,with more than 8,000 soldiers and support personnel highlighting the importance of the Arctic lands to both nations.*
At the Donnelly Training Area near Fort Greely,Alaska,soldiers from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Regiment,which is named for the daughter of a Governor General of Canada and is one of the three Regular infantry regiments in the Canadian Army,blended into the boreal forest landscape with heavily painted faces,branches and twigs disguising their helmets and Coyote light armoured vehicles,giving them an edge in reconnaissance collection.Later,PPCLI staged a sneak morning attack on the Iowa National Guard opposing force role-players.*
Live fire training added welcome authenticity to the wargames in the Yukon Training Area near Fort Wainwright.*
We get kind of the standard friction with information flow,communication,trying to get a good understanding of what's happening out in the battlefield,explained Lieutenant Colonel Bill Taylor,commander of the 1-52 Aviation Battalion.We have to see ourselves,what's going on with our aircraft,how to maintain them-we have friction with that.When you get out in the real world,things don't always work the way you would hope,Col.Taylor said.*
Members of the US Air Force's 41st Airlift Squadron,the Black Cats,out of Little Rock Air Force Base,Arkansas,delivered combat airlift for the exercise as part of their pre-deployment training.They landed a C-130J transport on a dirt landing strip at Ladd Army Airfield,getting prepared for the terrain of austere locations and navigating mountainous terrain;while at the same time appreciating the uncontested airspace of Interior Alaska and the more effective training it provides without the clutter of commercial flight patterns to deal with.*
The Iowa National Guard skillfully portrayed the enemy forces in the drills,as well as the scenario's host nation security forces and civilians.*
The size and complexity of this exercise is partly a response to the growing and unprecedented scale and sophistication of recent Russian drills in their own arctic environment.

China and Russia:Power and Partnership

Several scholars have been carefully analysing developments in the military postures of China and Russia,as well as the strategic interrelationship between the two states.
China's recent naval buildup is aimed at:
1.targeting the US fleet;
2.targeting US allies;
3.targeting US bases,
in the view of Thomas Karko,International Security Program Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.The US must invest in more standoff and penetrating weapons to meet this challenge,such as the LRSO,or long range standoff missile;and the LRS-B,or long range strategic bomber.It must invest a lot more in the fleet and missile defences against these Chinese threats as well,which are conventional threats.
As Admiral William Gortney noted,for the forseeable future,we are still going to need rockets to kill rockets.*
The Chinese are doing testing every three months.That will require a layered counter.Hardening,deception and dispersion are needed.We need to proliferate counters to these things and to alleviate the strain on our forces.US Navy and US Army stress is only going to get worse.
China-Russia ties are taking the form of arms sales,as well as exercises in the Pacific and the Mediterranean.It's a great concern to many Asian militaries.Both states appear dissatisfied with the status quo.Historically,dissatisfied states tend to clump together to work against the hegemons.Both Russian and Chinese leaders call for an end to US alliances in those areas,according to Zack Cooper,Japan Chair and Asian Security Issues-Fellow at CSIS.
Russia and China are employing hybrid warfare in Eastern Europe and the South China Sea.We are reaching an important inflexion point here if these ties continue to grow.For the first time,Chinese military equipment may be flowing toward Russia.China is trying to sell a frigate to Russia,observed Paul Schwartz,Russia Military&Security Senior Associate at CSIS.
China has produced about 80 catamaran small missile boats,complemented with air and submarine-launched missiles,to overwhelm US missile systems.In the far east,China and Russia can pretty quickly link up ship-to-ship.China and Russia joined together to limit US basing in Central Asia.They want to see US power limited and constrained.They share opposition to US ballistic missile defence.*
China opposes NATO expansion because they do not want to see US military influence get stronger,said Jeffery Mankoff,CSIS Russia&Eurasia Program Deputy Director&Fellow.*
Something else has to happen to drive China and Russia really closely together,added Paul Schwartz.China is still very closely integrated with the West.Some kind of shock in the Western Pacific;a Taiwan Strait dispute;a Senkaku Islands dispute,would have to happen.
The Japanese navy is more competent than the Chinese.It has better leadership skills and traditions.The Chinese coast guard is building a 10,000 tonne paramilitary coast guard ship.They will push and push until Japanese or US Navy ships show up.The Japanese have more than 40 highly capable destroyers and diesel electric submarines,while Vietnam is building up its navy with Russian technology.The Chinese still rely on conscripts,but are developing a mid-level cadre.
If China keeps building like they are,they are 15-20 years away from matching the US Navy.They are starting to deploy an aircraft carrier to learn from and plan to deploy three more with over-the-horizon targeting capability,the CSIS expert believes.