Air Forces Central provided us with complete data on the monthly airdrop totals so far this year in Afghanistan, so we have updated our air sorties chart. Also, we have revised an entry from last month on Air Force convoy operations in Iraq to correct a misquote in the Air Force’s original release.
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…