Congressional Testimony: Missile Defense Strategy, Policies, and Programs in Review of the Defense Authorization Request
Ankit Panda | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Congress should play a leading a role in steering the United States toward a strategically prudent and responsible missile defense policy—one that maximizes U.S. national security interests while averting an unnecessary nuclear arms race at a time when conventional challenges loom large.
Navy Eyes Canceling Nuclear Missile
Bryan Bender | Politico
Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Harker has issued a memo directing the service to cancel development of a nuclear-armed cruise missile in fiscal 2023, a potential signal that the Biden administration could dial back some nuclear modernization programs, Aerospace Daily scooped on Tuesday. The June 4 memo, also obtained by POLITICO, is part of preparations to craft a five-year spending plan. The memo declares that the Navy may have to choose either a new fighter jet, destroyer or submarine and delay two of them. “The Navy cannot afford to simultaneously develop the next generation of air, surface, and subsurface platforms and must prioritize these programs balancing the cost of developing next-generation capabilities against maintaining current capabilities,” Harker wrote.
China’s Rocket Force Tests ‘Carrier Killer’ DF-26 Ballistic Missiles
Kristin Huang | South China Morning Post
China’s rocket force has conducted firing exercises involving “carrier killer” DF-26 ballistic missiles. A missile brigade under the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force recently held launch practice in an unspecified training field at night to improve its combat ability, China National Radio reported on Tuesday. In the exercise, the brigade practised the fast transfer of missiles to another location to launch a second wave of missiles, a drill to train the brigade’s fast-response capabilities, the report said. A drone was visible in the drill helping the brigade target objects.
U.S. Says Iran Nuclear Talks to Resume Over the Weekend
Humeyra Pamuk | Reuters
Negotiations between Iran and the world powers on how to revive the 2015 nuclear accord will resume this weekend, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said on Wednesday, adding that Iran’s June 18 presidential election was a complicating factor. “I know that the negotiation will start again over this coming weekend,” Sherman said during a virtual event organized by the German Marshall Fund think tank. “I think there’s been a lot of progress made, but, out of my own experience, until the last detail is nailed down, and I mean nailed down, we will not know if we have an agreement,” Sherman, one of the key U.S. negotiators for the original deal, said.
S. Korea Continues Attempts to Call N.K. Every Day Through Panmunjom Hotline to No Avail: Official
Yonhap News Agency
South Korea has been attempting to call North Korea via a cross-border communication line every morning for the past year, but there has been no response from the North, a unification ministry official said Wednesday. Last year, the North vowed to cut off all communication lines with the South and even blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in its border city of Kaesong in anger over anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets coming in from the South.
Kim Jong Un Appears to Have Lost Some Weight — and That Could Have Geopolitical Consequences
Michael E. Miller | Washington Post
The baggy suit is hanging a bit more loosely these days. After not being seen in public for almost a month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reappeared in state media on Saturday looking noticeably slimmer. Analysts and foreign intelligence agencies have long pored over what little information escapes North Korea for hints of what is going on inside the Hermit Kingdom. But with the country closing its borders completely during the covid pandemic, Kim watchers have seized upon his apparently slimmer waistline as a potential sign of — something.