The New York Times
Ships from China and the Philippines collided the morning in June 17 near a disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, according to statements from the two nations, the latest in a series of maritime confrontations that have increased tensions in the vital waterway. Each side blamed the other for the collision, which occurred between a Chinese vessel and a Philippine supply ship near the Spratly Islands.
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Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea on June 18 and 19 for the first time in 24 years, the two countries said, underscoring Moscow's burgeoning partnership with the nuclear-armed state since the invasion of Ukraine.
Breaking Defense
The Department of Defense has been full steam ahead on its concept of networked operations, Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control, or CJADC2, for several years. But an influential member of Congress now thinks the Pentagon needs to take a breath, slow down, and reassess the way forward.
The Associated Press
A record 23 of NATO’s 32 member nations are hitting the Western military alliance’s defense spending target this year, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said June 17, as Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised the threat of expanding conflict in Europe.
Defense News
The Pentagon’s fast-track pathway for buying equipment often doesn’t move any faster than the normal process, according to a new report from the government’s watchdog agency. The Government Accountability Office unveiled its annual report on the Defense Department’s buying practices, covering many of the largest items in the military’s shopping cart, from aircraft carriers to intercontinental ballistic missiles.
NPR
For hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops and their families, when the Pentagon orders them to find health care off base there is none. An NPR analysis found that 50 percent of Active-Duty military installations stand within federally designated health professional shortage areas (HPSA). Those are places where medical services are hard to find—commonly called “health care deserts.”
Breaking Defense
Airborne lasers are back in the sights of the Missile Defense Agency—a decade after the first attempt to build a system collapsed, having swallowed 16 years and $5 billion in research and development. This time, however, MDA is taking things slow. Rather than jumping straight to shooting down missiles in space, the agency is first focusing on using low-powered lasers for tracking and working its way toward higher-powered systems for intercept.
Defense One
Problems with the launcher and launch sequence of the new Long Range Hypersonic Weapon System will keep the U.S. Army from fielding its first LRHW battery until fiscal 2025, a government watchdog said June 17. The service aims to fix the problems and test the missile and launcher together no later than the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2024, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
SpaceNews
Space Systems Command (SSC) announced it has awarded contracts to four companies to develop prototypes for laser communication terminals, kicking off the first phase of a $100 million program dubbed Enterprise Space Terminal. Blue Origin, CACI International, General Atomics, and Viasat will compete to design and prototype optical communications terminals for use in space.
Defense News
The Senate’s proposed National Defense Authorization Act would leave the military’s planned purchases of 68 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in fiscal 2025 unchanged. The chamber’s draft NDAA, which members of the Senate Armed Services Committee unveiled June 14, represents the latest of three different approaches lawmakers are taking to F-35 purchases for next year, which must be reconciled at some point.
One More Thing
The Associated Press
The World War II mystery of what happened to a Finnish passenger plane after it was shot down over the Baltic Sea by Soviet bombers appears to finally be solved more than eight decades later. The plane was carrying American and French diplomatic couriers in June 1940 when it was downed just days before Moscow annexed the Baltic states.
