Report to Congress on Replicator Initiative
The Replicator initiative presents several challenges for Congress related to information adequacy, funding, system effectiveness, risk management, ethical considerations, and implications for military personnel and structure.
Read More »On an early spring day in 1959, Edward Hunter testified before a US Senate subcommittee investigating “the effect of Red China Communes on the United States.” It was the kind of opportunity he relished. A war correspondent who had spent considerable time in Asia, Hunter had achieved brief media stardom in 1951 after his book Brain-Washing in Red China introduced a new concept to the American public: a supposedly scientific system for changing people’s minds, even making them love things they once hated.
But Hunter wasn’t just a reporter, objectively chronicling conditions in China. As he told the assembled senators, he was also an anticommunist activist who served as a propagandist for the OSS, or Office of Strategic Services — something that was considered normal and patriotic at the time. His reporting blurred the line between fact and political mythology.
Related:
Read More »Bry said China sanctioned his company for selling drones to Taiwan—noting the Taiwanese National Fire Agency is its only customer in the country—but said Skydio was “proud to support critical infrastructure operators, first responders, and allied militaries.”
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The blog post sharply attacked the Chinese government, saying the sanctions show that the Chinese government “will use supply chains as a weapon to advance their interests over ours.”
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Bry also accused the Chinese government of attempting to “eliminate the leading American drone company” and increase the “world’s dependence on Chinese drone suppliers.”…
According to the Financial Times, Skydio’s list of customers includes the Ukrainian military, and the company has sent over 1,000 of its drones to Ukraine to aid with gathering intelligence in its ongoing war with Russia and record instances of war crimes by the Russian military. Skydio’s X10 drone—which is affected by the battery rationing—is reportedly hard to jam, and Ukraine has sought to acquire thousands of them.
Related:
[04-10-2024] How American Drones Failed to Turn the Tide in Ukraine
The Silicon Valley company Skydio sent hundreds of its best drones to Ukraine to help fight the Russians. Things didn’t go well.
Skydio’s drones flew off course and were lost, victims of Russia’s electronic warfare. The company has since gone back to the drawing board to build a new fleet.
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called on BRICS countries to work for high quality development of greater BRICS cooperation, in a speech addressing the 16th BRICS Summit.
Related:
“Friends for Peace” Group on the Ukraine Crisis Set up in the United Nations
Meeting with journalists from BRICS countries • President of Russia
Weekends annoy me. I don’t have a lot of time for myself. I have to sneak it in when I should be sleeping. Anyway, I was trying to do some research when I got sidetracked while listening to my podcasts. It turned out pretty well since it forced me to look up Mao’s “Oppose Stereotyped Party Writing”. I don’t have a lot of confidence in my ability to simplify my writing, though. I’ve attempted to use AI to summarize it, but it still disappoints me. It removes too much information. *sigh*
THAAD transfer to ‘Israel’ points to crisis in defense systems: Report
Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 on Friday reported that “Israel” has requested the US to deploy a second THAAD battery to bolster its defenses against a potential Iranian retaliation to its planned upcoming attack.
Related:
U.S. Missile Defense Is Under Strain
Read More »Vladimir Putin answered questions from the heads of leading BRICS media agencies. The meeting was held ahead of the BRICS summit in Kazan.
The meeting was attended by the heads of media agencies from Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the UAE. It was moderated by Head of the Rossiya Segodnya Media Group Dmitry Kiselev.
Meeting with journalists from BRICS countries • President of Russia
The THAAD system is designed to intercept and destroy short-, medium-, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles during their final phase of flight. Instead of using explosive warheads, THAAD relies on kinetic energy to neutralize incoming missiles by colliding with them at high speeds. The system’s radar and interceptors allow it to detect and destroy threats both inside and outside the Earth’s atmosphere. Each THAAD battery typically includes six truck-mounted launchers, 48 interceptors, a radar system, and a command-and-control unit. A crew of approximately 95 U.S. soldiers operates the system.
This deployment follows Iran’s missile attack on Israel on Oct. 1, 2024, during which Iran launched more than 180 ballistic missiles, including the Fattah-1 hypersonic missile. Unveiled by Iran in 2023, the Fattah-1 can reportedly travel at hypersonic speeds and change trajectory mid-flight. While the U.S. has not yet encountered the Fattah-1 in combat, the THAAD deployment offers a chance to assess whether the system can counter this new Iranian missile.
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Unlocking China’s “Media Unlocked” Propagandists
Recently, Media Unlocked unveiled its latest triumph–an interview with a former U.S. president’s brother, Neil Bush, whose George H.W. Bush Foundation For U.S.-China Relations has allegedly received millions of dollars from a group associated with CCP influence operations. Bush–apparently unconcerned that he was participating in Beijing’s propaganda campaign–helpfully sang the praise of China’s communist system, its electric vehicle industry and, incredibly, even announced that he was observing a “massive freedom movement” in today’s China.
Propagandists? Und das bist du nicht?
Now, let’s get into who’s funding the George H.W. Bush Foundation For U.S.-China Relations. Powell links to a Fox News article about its funding from the China–United States Exchange Foundation, based in Hong Kong. The Fox News article links to an Axios article (which is behind a paywall). Nowhere does Powell mention that the foundation also gets funding from the U.S. Department of State, The Rockefeller Foundation, etc.
Read More »Israel races to supply anti-missile shield
“Israel’s munitions issue is serious,” said Dana Stroul, a former senior US defence official with responsibility for the Middle East.
“If Iran responds to an Israel attack [with a massive air strike campaign], and Hizbollah joins in too, Israel air defences will be stretched,” she said, adding that US stockpiles were not limitless. “The US can’t continue supplying Ukraine and Israel at the same pace. We are reaching a tipping point.”
Boaz Levy, chief executive of Israel Aerospace Industries, a state-owned company which makes the Arrow interceptors used to shoot down ballistic missiles, said he was running triple shifts to keep production lines running.
“Some of our lines are working 24 hours, seven days a week. Our goal is to meet all our obligations,” Levy said, adding that the time required to produce interceptor missiles was “not a matter of days”. While Israel does not disclose the size of its stockpiles, he added: “It is no secret that we need to replenish stocks.”
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The Israeli military claimed in April that, with the help of the US and other allies, it achieved a 99 per cent interception rate against an Iranian salvo of 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles.
But Israel had less success fending off a second Iranian barrage of over 180 ballistic missiles fired on October 1. Almost three dozen missiles hit Israel’s Nevatim air base, according to open source intelligence analysts, while one missile exploded 700 metres away from the headquarters of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency.
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“We are not seeing Hizbollah’s full capability yet. It has only been firing at around a tenth of its estimated prewar launching capacity, a few hundred rockets a day instead of as many as 2,000,” said Assaf Orion, a former Israeli brigadier general and head of strategy at the Israel Defense Forces.
“Some of that gap is a choice by Hizbollah not to go full out, and some of it is due to degradation by the IDF. . . But Hizbollah has enough left to mount a strong operation,” Orion added. “Haifa and northern Israel are still on the receiving end of rocket and drone attacks almost every day.”
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“During the October 1 attack, there was a sense the IDF reserved some Arrow interceptors in case Iran fired its next salvo at Tel Aviv,” said Ehud Eilam, a former researcher at Israel’s Ministry of Defence. “It’s only a matter of time before Israel starts to run out of interceptors and has to prioritise how they are deployed.”
Dana Stroul wrote the article that I previously posted back on September 28th.
Previously:
Israel and Hezbollah Are Escalating Toward Catastrophe (it’s not looking good for the IOF)
U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel + More Updates
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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