Military

A Chinese blockade could cut Taiwan’s electrical generating capacity so much that the island is unable to function, according to war games conducted by a U.S. think tank.
“Energy is the weakest element in Taiwan’s resilience against coercion,” warned the report by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The overwhelming preponderance of energy must be imported and is thus vulnerable to a blockade.”
China could supplement a blockade with attacks on Taiwan’s electrical grid, as Russia has done with some success in Ukraine.
“Total electricity production might be reduced to 20 percent of pre-blockade electricity levels,” CSIS said. At that level, all manufacturing ceases – including computer chips vital to the U.S. and the global economy.
These conclusions came from a series of 26 war games run by CSIS to test a blockade of Taiwan, an attractive option for Beijing that offers the prospect of Taiwan agreeing to &l..

ROCKHAMPTON, Australia — In the dawn light of July 24, Japanese and American amphibious vehicles churned through the sparkling coastal waters of the Coral Sea, before emerging onto the sands of a central Queensland beach in Australia.
Two hours to the east, another amphibious lodgment was occurring simultaneously at Freshwater Beach. This time the main participants were Australia and South Korea.
The two events, part of a combined joint forcible entry operation, formed the culminating activity for Exercise Talisman Sabre 2025, held in Australia from July 13-27. They were the most sophisticated amphibious landings ever attempted in the eleven iterations of Talisman Sabre so far.
“We maintained a high operational tempo during Exercise Talisman Sabre 25, which was designed to provide intense training to ensure our forces are capable, interoperable, deployable on short notice and combat ready,” Rear Adm. Tom Shultz, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group Seven (ESG-7) an..

MILAN — NATO has deployed a maritime task group made up of Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, and German vessels to boost its maritime presence in the Arctic and High North.
The alliance’s maritime forces assigned to the Standing Maritime Group 1, or SNMG1, have been operating in the strategic waters since this week.
These include the flagship vessel De Ruyter from the Netherlands, the Thor Heyerdahl from Norway, the Bartolomeu Dias from Portugal, and the Rhön from Germany. Additional maritime patrol aircraft have been complementing the ships’ activities.
The NATO task group will conduct anti-submarine activities designed to protect critical sea lines of communication and ensure freedom of navigation in the region as well as routine patrols.
“[They will also carry out] integrated operations involving the coordination of various surface ships and air assets to increase the alliance’s understanding of the maritime environment, enhance information sharing and..

The Navy will continue sharing data with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from satellites that the service had planned to start phasing out on July 31.
The Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, or DMSP, satellites used by the Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center will now provide data to NOAA until fall 2026, a Navy spokesperson said Thursday.
“The Navy’s Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center will continue processing and disseminating Defense Meteorological Satellite Program data through July 31, 2025,” the spokesperson told Military Times.
“The center had planned to phase out the data as part of a Defense Department modernization effort. But after feedback from government partners, officials found a way to meet modernization goals while keeping the data flowing until the sensor fails or the program formally ends in September 2026.”
The DMSP satellites have been in use for over five decades, ..

The U.S. Navy unveiled its new Modular Attack Surface Craft program, which would likely see unmanned surface vessels carrying missiles long distances at sea.
The program calls for the development of a rugged, flexible and high-capacity unmanned surface vessel, or USV, capable of hauling a variety of “containerized payloads,” per a July 28 solicitation. Such payloads would include the maximum equivalent of more than four 40-foot containers — cargo that would roughly equal the size of the Navy’s anti-ballistic missile system, the Mark 70 Mod 1 Payload Delivery System.
“MASC seeks to leverage cutting-edge technologies and modular design principles to create adaptable and resilient solutions that can effectively counter evolving threats,” according to the solicitation.
As shipbuilding efforts have staggered over the years, the Navy has increasingly turned to containerized missile systems to add to the weapons capacity of existing warships, USNI News reported.
The new USVs a..