The US military has extended an official invitation to the Chinese military to come to Washington, D.C., early next year to discuss sharing logistical resources, including fuel, during joint counterpiracy, humanitarian-assistance, and disaster-response operations, according to a Pentagon release. So far, the Chinese appear open to the idea of discussions, which could lead to a first-ever logistics cooperation agreement between the two nations, states the Oct. 12 release. “This is the first time, at least from a logistics standpoint, that we have reached out and they have been very receptive to those ideas,” said Brig. Gen. Mark McLeod, PACOM’s logistics chief. He characterized this as a potentially “groundbreaking” development in US-China military-to-military relations, which have been slowly on the mend after strains in recent years. If adopted, the arrangement would enable the United States and China to share fuel, food, supplies, and even vessel parts, said McLeod. (AFPS report by Donna Miles)
The defense intelligence community has tried three times in the past decade to build a “common intelligence picture”—a single data stream providing the information that commanders need to make decisions about the battlefield. The first two attempts failed. But officials say things are different today.