Air 
Force firefighters instructed their Honduran counterparts on firefighting procedures earlier this month during the Central America Sharing Mutual Operational Knowledge and Experiences exercise at Soto Cano AB, Honduras. Centam Smoke is a quarterly event that brings USAF airmen together with firefighters across Central America for several days of sharing knowledge and team-building training. During this iteration, Air Force firefighting personnel taught their Honduran hosts procedures for putting out vehicle, aircraft, and structural fires, according to an Air Force release on May 24. This event is one of Air Forces Southern’s outreach activities to help build the capacity of partner air forces in Central and South America. (Soto Cano photo caption by SSgt. Bryan Franks)
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…