Inside the Ring - Bill Gertz, Pentagon News (original) (raw)

Pete Hegseth walks to an elevator for a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 15, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ** FILE **

Trump taps Hegseth as defense secretary, vows ‘no Marxism, no communism’ in military

President-elect Donald Trump is wasting no time targeting wokeness in the U.S. military, vowing in a recent video statement there will be "no Marxism, no communism" in the ranks.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, left, shakes the hand of Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, at an election night watch party, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump team to weigh national security picks

President-elect Donald Trump's victory in Tuesday's presidential contest sets in motion the selection of key officials for a forthcoming administration through a transition team headed by some of his family and key supporters, including selections for a number of key senior national security positions.

A screen shows Chinese submarines at the opening of the Western Pacific Navy Symposium in Qingdao, eastern China's Shandong province on Monday, April 22, 2024. Zhang Youxia, one of China's top military leaders took a harsh line on regional territorial disputes, telling an international naval gathering in northeastern China on Monday that the country would strike back with force if its interests came under threat. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

China deploying new land-attack missile subs

The Chinese navy has built three new cruise missile-firing nuclear submarines in what U.S. defense officials say is a significant advance in its attack submarine program.

In this May 16, 2014, file photo, Vietnamese expatriates and Filipinos protest the recent moves by China to construct an oil rig near the Vietnamese-claimed Paracels off the contested Spratlys group of islands and shoals in the South China Sea. In comments last week, Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong said it was time to take stock after three months of tensions with Beijing over Vietnamese-controlled Vanguard Reef that China also claims, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post news. (AP Photo/Bullit Marquez, File)

China, Russia target Pentagon agency with disinformation campaign

China and Russia have joined forces in an aggressive disinformation campaign involving both covert and overt operations designed to discredit a key Pentagon agency.

In this photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Monday, July 15, 2024, Chinese military sailors attend a welcome ceremony of their joint naval forces exercise in Zhanjiang in Guangdong province on Sunday July 14, 2024. China and Russia's naval forces have kicked off a joint exercise at a military port in southern China on Sunday, official news agency Xinhua reported, days after NATO allies called Beijing a "decisive enabler" of the war in Ukraine. China's military is advancing the development of high-technology arms, including sound weapons to wage cognitive warfare — the use of unconventional tools and capabilities to alter enemy thinking and decision-making, according to a new open-source intelligence report. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

China’s cognitive warfare advances include sound weapons, according to intel report

China's military is advancing the development of high-technology arms, including sound weapons to wage cognitive warfare -- the use of unconventional tools and capabilities to alter enemy thinking and decision-making, according to a new open-source intelligence report.

Cai Qi attends a session of China's National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Friday, March 10, 2023. Six men sit alongside Chinese leader Xi Jinping on the ruling Communist Party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, handling major portfolios from propaganda to corruption fighting. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

U.S. identifies Beijing’s mayor and current, past politburo members in Xi Jinping’s inner circle

Chinese President Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and chairman of its Central Military Commission, has emerged in the past two years as the country's most powerful ruler since Mao Zedong.

An HC-130J Super Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak observes two Russian Border Guard ships and two Chinese Coast Guard ships approximately 440 miles southwest of St. Lawrence Island Sept. 28, 2024.  This marked the northernmost location where Chinese Coast Guard vessels have been observed by the U.S. Coast Guard. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo)

Alaska Coast Guard tracks Chinese, Russian vessels in Bering Sea

Four Russian and Chinese security ships were tracked by the Coast Guard in a sign of increased activity by key U.S. adversaries in the Arctic, the Alaska office of the Coast Guard said on Tuesday.

China's President Xi Jinping, speaks at the opening ceremony of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (Greg Baker/Pool Photo via AP)

China holds rare ICBM test in Pacific

China's military carried out a rare flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that landed in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday.

The military command in charge of conducting cyber warfare lacks the tools to conduct successful offensive attacks and defend against digital strikes by China and other adversaries, according to a report by the Pentagon’s Defense Science Board. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Cybercom warfighting system faulted in Pentagon report

The military command in charge of conducting cyber warfare lacks the tools to conduct successful offensive attacks and defend against digital strikes by China and other adversaries, according to a report by the Pentagon's Defense Science Board.

Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd speaks at the National Press Club in Canberra, Monday, Feb. 12, 2018. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP) ** FILE **

Australia’s U.S. diplomat pushes back on criticism of his posture toward China

Kevin Rudd, the Australian ambassador to the United States, wants to know who is criticizing him over his views of China.

Avril Haines, director of National Intelligence, speaks during the open portion of a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

NSA document reveals Russians had microwave weapon suspected in attacks

Russia's government since the 1990s has had the type of microwave weapons that are suspected in the covert attacks on U.S. intelligence officials and diplomats that have caused what has come to be known as "Havana syndrome."

President Barack Obama addresses the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., Sept. 6, 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

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Obama suppressed Iran nuclear intel to get deal, U.S. counterspy says

The CIA suppressed secrets from inside Iran during the Obama administration showing efforts by Tehran to build a nuclear weapon were more advanced than suspected, according to a former National Security Agency counterintelligence official.

In this photo released on July 18, 2024, by Xinhua News Agency, members of the Politburo Standing Committee from left, Li Xi, Cai Qi, Zhao Leji, Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Wang Huning and Ding Xuexiang attend the third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee held from July 15 to 18 in Beijing. China's ruling Communist Party wrapped up a top-level meeting on Thursday by endorsing policies aimed at advancing the country's technological power and fortifying its national security.(Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP)

Chinese security services are blocking America’s diplomatic efforts

American diplomatic efforts to conduct people-to-people contacts and exchanges in China are being blocked by Chinese intelligence and security services.

A navy patrol boat anchors on the Mekong river near a hotel where the 55th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting (55th AMM) is taking place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022. Southeast Asian foreign ministers are gathering in the Cambodian capital for meetings addressing persisting violence in Myanmar and other issues, joined by top diplomats from the United States, China, Russia and other world powers amid tensions over the invasion of Ukraine and concerns over Beijing's growing ambitions in the region. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith)

Pentagon report weighs the climate change threat

Inside the Ring: Rising global temperatures pose pressing challenges for the Defense Department and a new climate planning cell is needed to better monitor climate threats, according to a major new study by the Pentagon's Defense Science Board.

Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech at an event commemorating the 110th anniversary of Xinhai Revolution at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Oct. 9, 2021. A new Pentagon report on China's military power says Beijing is on track to significantly increase its nuclear weapons arsenal by 2030 and is "almost certainly" learning from Russia's war in Ukraine. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

U.S. rejects Chinese no-first-use nuke plan

Inside the Ring: A Chinese proposal submitted to the United Nations last month calling on all nations to adopt Beijing's questionable no-first-use nuclear weapons policy is a nonstarter for the United States. A State Department official told Inside the Ring that the no-first-use policy would be unacceptable, given Beijing's massive nuclear weapons buildup and its refusal to join U.S. arms talks.

Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, flanked by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks during a news conference about Ukraine on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. After Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy virtually addressed the U.S. Congress on Wednesday morning. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Biden administration’s ‘dismal’ China policy faulted on Capitol Hill

The Biden administration has failed to win the strategic competition with China through ineffective policies toward Beijing, the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said this week.

Chinese paramilitary policemen build a fence near a concrete marker depicting the North Korean and Chinese national flags with the words "China North Korea Border" at a crossing in the Chinese border town of Tumen in eastern China's Jilin province on Dec. 8, 2012. Zhao Leji, a top Chinese leader will lead a delegation to North Korea this week, both countries announced Tuesday, April 9, 2024.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

Treasury targets China with sanctions over North Korea missile help

The Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed financial sanctions on Chinese companies and their executives for supplying missile- and space-related goods to North Korea.

Avril Haines, right, director of National Intelligence, speaks as Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, left, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, listens during the open portion of a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

China’s military forces are rapidly building up space warfare capabilities

China's military forces are rapidly building up space warfare capabilities for use in a future conflict, two top American generals said on Wednesday.

In this photo released by the Taiwan Presidential Office, American Institute in Taiwan's (AIT) director Raymond F. Greene, left speaks with Taiwan's President William Lai Ching-te, in Taipei, Taiwan on July 10, 2024. Raymond who newly assumed his office on July 9, met with Taiwan President William Lai in the morning of July 10, when both reiterated on the strong partnership Taiwan and the U.S. nurtured from the past, with ups and downs. (Taiwan Presidential Office via AP)

Lawmaker warns Pentagon about China’s maritime actions

Recent incidents of Chinese coast guard harassment toward the Philippines, Taiwan and other regional states require a stronger U.S. response, Rep. Michelle Steel said in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Matt Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser, testifies during a hearing of a special House committee dedicated to countering China, on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Contain or confront: Former U.S. officials debate right approach to China

The Biden administration's strategy of seeking to manage geopolitical competition with China is not working and should be replaced with a policy of achieving victory, according to Matthew Pottinger, former White House deputy national security adviser.