Saving success at Camp David summit; Carter eyes China’s islands; North Korean calamity; Navy sea changes, And a bit more.

Ash Carter just jumped into the South China Sea. Defense Secretary Carter is considering a number of options to China’s artificial islands, including dispatching surveillance aircraft and sending Navy vessels to within a dozen nautical miles of the new islands between Vietnam and the Philippines, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Beijing’s claims new airspace too. Operations near what they call the Nansha Islands have tacitly turned what was once international airspace into what China views as sovereign territory. U.S. aircraft so far have not tested Beijing’s declared 12-nautical-mile zone, and the nearby USS Fort Worth, has been near the island chain in recent days. At sea, Carter has a fine line to walk between escalating a conflict and communicating American resolve in honoring international maritime protocol. State Secretary John Kerry visits China this weekend, where officials unsurprisingly have not taken kindly to Carter’s planning process.

It’s now 15 hours into the ceasefire in Yemen, and Saudi-led airstrikes have paused, although reports of ground fighting continue to come out of the south and eastern parts of the country, including early morning shelling in the city of Taiz, Reuters reports. Well before the ceasefire started, Tehran sent a cargo vessel to Yemen escorted by Iranian warships against the wishes of U.S. officials, who requested all aid be routed through a UN distribution hub in Djibouti.

The way the U.S. Navy promotes its sailors could undergo an incredible sea change in the coming months, according Navy Secretary Ray Mabus. Defense One has an exclusive look at the secretary’s speech this morning at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md..

North Korea executed its defense minister in late April, the deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Agency said Tuesday. Hyon Yong-Chol was reportedly executed using anti-aircraft machine guns (hardly a first for Kim Jong Un) for falling asleep at a military rally and for disrespect toward Pyongyang’s 32-year-old leader. AFP has more on the killing, which Seoul said makes now 15 senior officials Kim has executed in 2015.
And North Korea didn’t actually launch a missile from its submarine last Saturday, two U.S. officials told Bloomberg’s Tony Cappacio and Sam Kim. It was more likely a “compress-gas ejection system” pictured in Pyongyang’s images of Kim looking through his binos and pointing. A bit more on the launch below.

From Defense One

About that “ejection test,” North Korea’s “missile” traveled only about 150 meters, which means you’d have to be awfully close to your target to hit anything, writes Ploughshare Fund’s Joe Cirincione in this handy explainer that tells us all to “relax—North Korea has a very long way to go.”

At Camp David, forget Iran and the Saudi King, the Obama administration and Persian Gulf defense leaders get down to business with a number of options for enhancing Arab security. The Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Melissa Dalton lays out the better choices in the areas of surveillance, weapons acquisition, special operations and more.

And exactly one week from today, Navy Secretary Mabus joins our Executive Editor Kevin Baron for a Defense One LIVE Leadership Briefing Breakfast discussion on the future of the Navy. The event kicks off at 8 a.m. (EDT), Wednesday, May 20, at the CEB Waterview Conference Center in Rosslyn, Va. We invite you to sign up for that here.


Welcome to Wednesday's edition of The D Brief, from Ben Watson and Defense One. If you'd like to subscribe to The D Brief, click here or drop us a line at the-d-brief@defenseone.com. If you want to view it in your browser, you can do that, here.


Is the next CNO to be Adm. John Richardson? Sources tell Navy Times’ David Larter the answer is a yes, barring any last-minute changes of opinion from the White House. If nominated (and confirmed by the Senate), Richardson would be the first head of Naval Reactors to lead the service as chief of naval operations.

The price of peace with Iran? U.S. and Gulf leaders want to rush U.S. arms sales to America’s allies in the Middle East. That’s one of the higher-profile items on the agenda for today’s Camp David summit, Reuters’ Andrea Shalal and Warren Strobel report. Saudi Arabia threw their enthusiastic support behind the idea of an integrated missile defense shield across the region to deter weapons systems the largely-Shiite Iran might point at its Sunni neighbors.

In Syria, UN inspectors have found traces of sarin and ricin in at least three locations as Assad’s troops stand accused of dropping chlorine bombs on rebel held positions, The New York Times reports this morning in a follow-up of Reuters’ reporting late Friday.

And in Russia, meanwhile, Secretary Kerry’s first meeting in two years with Vladimir Putin yielded little on Syria, Ukraine or Iran, The Washington Post’s Michael Birnbaum and Carol Morello write from Moscow. Tuesday’s meeting is being viewed more as Russia attempting to pull itself out of isolation after its annexation of Crimea, an investment of Russian rubles and matériel that may have compromised Putin’s ambitious military modernization plans.
ICYMI—Kremlin officials maintain their denials of meddling in eastern Ukraine after a report by slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was released yesterday alleging to show proof of direct Russian military involvement in the conflict. NYT’s Andrew Kramer has more.

In Karachi, Pakistan, this morning gunmen on motorcycles opened fire with 9mm pistols killing more than 40 Shiites on a bus. Pakistan officials passed AFP reporters a pamphlet found at the scene attributing responsibility for the attack to the Islamic State group.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took an unusually hard line against the Afghan Taliban during a visit to Kabul yesterday, WSJ reports. The rhetorical jab continues a recent trend of the two nations growing closer as the U.S. works out the best way to draw down its thousands of forces staged in Afghanistan.
And in southern Helmand province, attackers killed three police and four civilians in Lashkar Gah during fighting that continues to rage this morning, AP reports.

A Marine helicopter may have just been spotted after having gone missing during humanitarian operations in Nepal, Military Times’ Andrew Tilghman reports. Pacific Command officials said yesterday the UH-1 Huey had 6 Marines on board and 2 Nepalese soldiers when it disappeared in a mountainous region of the country; though officials are hopeful the disappearance is a communications issue rather than the result of a crash.

The Air Force’s drone pilots are overworked, the service is having trouble improving their mental health and “the true sources of burnout don’t entirely align with the public’s perception,” US News’ Paul Shinkman reports ahead of the release of the upcoming film “Good Kill.” Defense One’s Kevin Baron also saw the Tuesday screening in Washington, calling it a nicely shot film about homefront stresses but something missed the mark. He tweeted, “Nice try but gripping drone pilot tensions couldn't make up for formulaic plot, predictable speechifying, home life scenes.”

Are veterans’ expectations for post-military employment too unrealistic? That’s just one of the findings in a recent report from the Volunteers of America and the University of Southern California's School of Social Work, as Military Times’ Leo Shane rolls up the not-entirely-optimistic findings here.

And lastly this Hump Day, Swedish activists have one particularly cheeky anti-submarine idea for the Russian Navy. It’s a neon pink sonar device that broadcasts the message, “This way if you are gay” in Morse code. More from People’s Alex Heigl.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.