NATO on China: "We are concerned by China’s coercive policies which stand in contrast to the fundamental values enshrined in the Washington Treaty ... We also remain concerned about China’s use of disinformation." nato.int/cps/en/natohq/…
"We will engage China with a view to defending the security interests of the Alliance. We are increasingly confronted by cyber, hybrid, and other...threats, incl disinformation campaigns, and by the malicious use of ever-more sophisticated...technologies" nato.int/cps/en/natohq/…
Interesting to see NATO echo elements of UK defence command paper. "We will emphasise persistent activities in peacetime to support deterrence, including through the presence and dynamic posture of our military forces and exercises" nato.int/cps/en/natohq/…
"NATO is taking forward a new military strategy through the implementation of two significant military concepts... The warfighting concept provides a long-term vision for maintaining and developing NATO’s decisive military edge." nato.int/cps/en/natohq/…
"decision as to when a cyber attack wd lead to invocation of Article 5 would be taken..on a case-by-case basis..the impact of significant malicious cumulative cyber activities might, in certain circumstances, be considered as amounting to an armed attack" nato.int/cps/en/natohq/…
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"Within the classified realm, a significant amount of the intelligence the US obtained [on lab-escale hypothesis] came from foreign governments, according to former officials with knowledge of the matter." washingtonpost.com/national-secur… Interesting to speculate: which agencies?
"Pottinger was frustrated when intelligence officials deferred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health experts to determine the virus’s origin, according to people who worked with him." washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
'One former senior official who worked closely with Pompeo said the secretary of state became fixated on proving a lab leak. “He wanted a smoking gun, and we couldn’t give it to him,” the former official said.' washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Fiona Hill's diagnosis of Russia's disinformation blitz against the United States: “They’ve been trying to prove that they are a major cyber force — they want to create a wartime scenario so then they can sit down and agree some kind of truce with us.” ft.com/content/51fc3b…
"US officials and researchers believe some of the recent [Russian] forays into the information space have been more subtle, relying on real sources ... One example has been the number of stories in recent weeks flagging concerns over Biden’s health." ft.com/content/51fc3b…
“When it comes to US domestic narratives, they’re almost always piggybacking on something that exists,” says Schafer. “From the official sources we very rarely see something that you would categorise as being invented”.' ft.com/content/51fc3b…
On the saturation of Iron Dome. "The cost of interception is high. The cost of the interceptor missile is about $40,000-50,000. Furthermore, in some cases, two interceptor missiles are fired at one target, which further raises the cost of interception." inss.org.il/wp-content/upl…
"The system has a “saturation point.” It is capable of engaging a certain (unpublished) number of targets at the same time, and no more. Additional rockets fired in a crowded salvo could succeed in breaching defenses and cause damage" inss.org.il/wp-content/upl…
On Iron Dome's utility: "missile defenses do create conditions for enhanced freedom of action for decision makers–defense systems ensure that they have time, and are not compelled to resort automatically to preemption and retaliation" inss.org.il/wp-content/upl…
"Over 630 rockets were fired at Israel from Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon, 200 of which were intercepted by Iron Dome missile defense batteries while 150 others fell short of their targets and landed inside the Strip, according to the army." timesofisrael.com/2-killed-by-ro…
"Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad ... reported that several high-ranking commanders were killed in Israeli raids, including three top PIJ leaders in a drone strike on a building in the upscale Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City." timesofisrael.com/2-killed-by-ro…
"Additionally, the IDF said it killed the head of Islamic Jihad’s special rocket unit, in an operation carried out in cooperation with the Shin Bet. Sameh Abed al-Mamluk was killed along with several other senior rocket officials, the army said." timesofisrael.com/2-killed-by-ro…
A big scoop. US officials suspect the GRU might be behind the suspected directed energy attacks linked to so-called Havana syndrome. But note: "officials do not have a smoking gun linking Russia’s military intelligence unit, the GRU, to the suspected directed-energy incidents"
"The intelligence community has not reached a consensus or made a formal determination. However, officials have told lawmakers that they have intensified their investigation in recent weeks ... and that it is focused on the GRU’s potential involvement" politico.com/amp/news/2021/…
"Israel and China may also have the technology, but neither country operates in all of the locations where the incidents were reported, or has shown the desire to attack Americans in this way, another former national security official said." politico.com/amp/news/2021/…
🧵 I recently spoke to a senior US defence official who set out some interesting figures on Chinese military modernisation. Nothing drastically new here, but sobering to hear it laid out in these terms:
"In the last five years, PLA has fielded about 90 modern major naval ships–cruisers, destroyers, frigates, submarines, amphibious lift, principal auxiliaries, refuelling, supply ships, intelligence ships–so they're averaging nearly 20 new ships a year over the last half decade"
"They [the PLA] have fielded more than 500 new fourth and fifth generation fighters. So more than 100 a year, on average, and a sustained rate at that. That's giving them much more capacity to conduct the major components of a unification campaign against Taiwan'