Air Forces Central announced the crash of an MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted vehicle in southern Afghanistan about 1 a.m. local time Jan. 15, saying it was not due to hostile fire. There were also no reports of civilian injuries or damage to civilian property.
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…