China has more than 50 navy and other official vessels operating in a wide swath of sea stretching from southern Japan down to Taiwan and off the Philippines, a senior Taiwan official said, calling the threat level "obvious."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attempted to assuage Southeast Asian partners this week that the U.S. is dedicated to its allies in the Asia-Pacific region and pitched a defense framework to guide cooperation in the next few years during his trip to the Philippines.  Hegseth said the Trump administration’s “strong, quiet and clear” approach to the…

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attempted to assuage Southeast Asian partners this week that the U.S. is dedicated to its allies in the Asia-Pacific region and pitched a defense framework to guide cooperation in the next few years during his trip to the Philippines.  Hegseth said the Trump administration’s “strong, quiet and clear” approach to the…

This article first appeared on Pacific Forum and is republished with kind permission. Read the original here. With so much media focus in recent months on the war in Iran, it’s no surprise that Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby’s speech in Manila received so little coverage. That means very few know what […]

The post Deeper India-Philippines ties boost US aims in South China Sea appeared first on Asia Times.

China's military said on Tuesday it had sent forces to watch a US warship that "illegally" entered waters around a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, while further north in the waterway, Taiwan reported a standoff with a Chinese vessel.

The Russia-Ukraine War has become a real-time laboratory for the Chinese military, spurring rapid defensive modernization while exposing deep friction between its centralized command hierarchy and the decentralized demands of modern combat. This month, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) released a report detailing how China is aggressively leveraging the Russia-Ukraine war as […]

The post China fast on Ukraine lessons, slow on command reform appeared first on Asia Times.

A multibillion-dollar private initiative to overhaul US submarine manufacturing marks an urgent push to revitalize naval industrial capacity at a pivotal moment in the Indo-Pacific balance of power. This month, multiple media outlets reported that defense technology firm Anduril Industries will invest US$3.7 billion of its own capital to build a 2-million-square-foot “software-defined shipyard” at […]

The post Anduril’s plan to save US sub edge from China’s undersea surge appeared first on Asia Times.