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WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - Australia is expected to buy up to five U.S. Virginia class nuclear powered submarines in the 2030's as part of a landmark defense agreement between Washington, Canberra and London, four U.S. officials said on Wednesday. U.S. President Joe Biden will host leaders of Australia and Britain in San Diego next week to chart a way forward for provision of the nuclear-powered submarines and other high-tech weaponry to Australia. In the early 2030's, Australia would buy 3 Virginia class submarines and have the option to buy two more. AUKUS will be Australia's biggest-ever defense project and offers the prospect of jobs in all three countries. Reporting by Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Steve Holland; Editing by Chris ReeseOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. Defense Chief Visits Iraq for Talks on Troop Presence
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( David S. Cloud | Ghassan Adnan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with Major General Matthew McFarlane in Baghdad. REUTERS/Idrees AliBAGHDAD—Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made an unannounced visit to Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials on continuing the U.S. troop presence. Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani has previously endorsed allowing the roughly 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq to stay. Mr. Austin stressed that they were there primarily to train and advise Iraqi troops, not to join them on combat missions to root out remaining Islamic State fighters.

☆ Pentagon chief makes unannounced trip to Iraq as 20-year anniversary of invasion nears
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Idrees Ali | Thomson Reuters | National Security Correspondent Focusing On The Pentagon In Washington D.C. Reports On U.S. Military Activity | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Austin, the most senior official in President Joe Biden’s administration to visit Iraq, was the last commanding general of U.S. forces there after the invasion. “I'm here to reaffirm the U.S.-Iraq strategic partnership as we move toward a more secure, stable, and sovereign Iraq,” Austin said. The United States is broadly interested in a strategic partnership with the government of Iraq," the senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters. The United States and Iran came close to full-blown conflict in 2020 after Iran's Revolutionary Guards' top commander Qassem Soleimani was killed in a drone strike. "I think that Iraqi leaders share our interest in Iraq not becoming a playground for conflict between the United States and Iran," the defense official added.

☆ Fall of Bakhmut would not mean Russia has turned tide of war - Pentagon chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Idrees Ali | Thomson Reuters | National Security Correspondent Focusing On The Pentagon In Washington D.C. Reports On U.S. Military Activity | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

AMMAN, March 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Monday that the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut was of more symbolic than operational importance, and its fall would not necessarily mean that Moscow had regained the initiative in the war. "I think it is more of a symbolic value than it is strategic and operational value," Austin told reporters while visiting Jordan. "The fall of Bakhmut won't necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight," he said, adding that he would not predict whether or when Bakhmut might fall. Austin said that if Ukrainian forces decided to reposition west of Bakhmut, he would not view that as a strategic setback. Austin alluded to differences between Wagner and the military, saying: "I think the fissures are there ..."I would say the Wagner forces have been a bit more effective than the Russian forces ... Having said that, we have not seen exemplary performance from Russian forces."

☆ U.S. defense secretary aims to reassure Mideast allies, deliver tough message
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Idrees Ali | Thomson Reuters | National Security Correspondent Focusing On The Pentagon In Washington D.C. Reports On U.S. Military Activity | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The United States has about 30,000 troops in the region and is seen as pivotal in helping counter Iranian influence. Austin is poised to send a clear message on the need for Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to respect human rights, underscoring Washington's concern on the issue. "I fully expect him to bring up human rights, respect for fundamental freedoms," the U.S. defense official said. The United States has withheld small amounts of military aid to Cairo, citing a failure to meet human rights conditions. The United States has committed more than $32 billion in weapons to Ukraine including sophisticated air defense systems and tanks.

REUTERS/Elizabeth FrantzWASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The United States does not expect Russia to make significant territorial gains in Ukraine in the near-term, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday, describing the front lines in the year-long war as a "grinding slog." Kahl made the remarks during a hearing focused on oversight of the billions of dollars in military aid Washington has provided to Kyiv. In October, the U.S. restarted on-site inspections in Ukraine to help keep track of the billions of dollars of weapons being provided to Kyiv. One of the weapons the U.S. has not provided -- despite public appeals by Ukrainian officials -- are F-16 fighter jets. Kahl was asked repeatedly by lawmakers about sending the jets to Ukraine.

☆ Iran can make fissile material for a bomb 'in about 12 days' - U.S. official
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Elizabeth FrantzWASHINGTON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Iran could make enough fissile for one nuclear bomb in "about 12 days," a top U.S. Defense Department official said on Tuesday, down from the estimated one year it would have taken while the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was in effect. Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to leave the JCPOA it would have taken Iran about 12 months to produce one bomb's worth of fissile material. Now it would take about 12 days," Kahl, the third ranking Defense Department official, told lawmakers. U.S. officials have repeatedly estimated Iran's breakout time - how long it would take to acquire the fissile material for one bomb if it decided to - at weeks but have not been as specific as Kahl was. While U.S. officials say Iran has grown closer to producing fissile material they do not believe it has mastered the technology to actually build a bomb.

The United States joined with G7 allies with plans to impose sanctions that will target 200 individuals and entities and a dozen Russian financial institutions. They planned to form an "Enforcement Coordination Mechanism," at first chaired by the United States, to counter Russian efforts to circumvent the sanctions. The sanctions are aimed at targets in Russia and "third-country actors" across Europe, Asia and the Middle East that are supporting Russia's war effort, the White House said in a fact sheet. "We will sanction additional actors tied to Russia's defense and technology industry, including those responsible for backfilling Russian stocks of sanctioned items or enabling Russian sanctions evasion," it said. Biden was also set to sign proclamations to raise tariffs on Russian products imported to the United States.

☆ U.S. looks to expand Taiwan military training -sources
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Reuters reported in 2021 that a small number of U.S. special operations forces have been rotating into Taiwan on a temporary basis to train their forces. Speaking to reporters in Taipei on Friday, Taiwan Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said he "didn't know" the source of the information about expanded training. He added Taiwan and the United States had a lot of military interaction, and declined further comment. Taiwan's official Central News Agency this week reported that a battalion of around 500 soldiers would go to the United States for training this year. Chu indirectly confirmed that some soldiers would head to the United States for training that would be more tactical than in the past, but did not provide details of numbers.

☆ U.S., South Korea stage table-top drill focused on possible N.Korean nuclear strike
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - U.S. and South Korean officials took part in a simulated "table-top" exercise that focused on the possibility of North Korea using a nuclear weapon, the Pentagon said on Thursday. Nuclear-armed North Korea launched an unprecedented number of missiles last year, including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. U.S. and South Korean officials have also warned the North could be preparing for its first test of a nuclear device since 2017. This was the 8th U.S. and South Korean deterrence strategy committee table-top exercise, known as DSC TTX. "The delegations discussed how best to leverage (South Korea's) non-nuclear capabilities to support nuclear deterrence against DPRK nuclear threats," the statement added.

WASHINGTON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday it had recovered critical electronics from the suspected Chinese spy balloon downed by a U.S. fighter jet off South Carolina's coast on Feb. 4, including key sensors presumably used for intelligence gathering. The Chinese balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before President Joe Biden ordered it shot down. The U.S. military has said that targeting the latest objects has been more difficult than shooting down the Chinese spy balloon, given the smaller size and the objects' lack of a traditional radar signature. Austin said the U.S. military has not yet recovered any debris from the three most recent objects shot down, one of which fell off the coast of Alaska in ice and snow. But Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that the four aerial objects shot down in recent days were somehow connected, without elaborating.

☆ US missile landed harmlessly in Lake Huron after missing 'object': U.S. general
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The first of two missiles fired from an F-16 fighter jet at an unidentified object over Lake Huron on Sunday missed the object, but landed harmlessly in the water, the top U.S. general, Mark Milley, said on Tuesday. "We certainly tracked it all the way down," Milley told reporters at a news conference in Brussels. Reuters reported on Monday that the first of the two missiles had missed the object, one of three unidentified objects shot down by U.S. fighter jets over U.S. and Canadian airspace between Friday and Sunday. Recovery efforts are underway to identify them, and Milley cautioned that those will take some time. Reporting by Andrew Gray and Sabine Siebold in Brussels, Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali in WashingtonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said on Sunday after a series of shoot-downs of unidentified objects that he would not rule out aliens or any other explanation yet, deferring to U.S. intelligence experts. It was the third unidentified flying object to be knocked out of the sky by U.S. warplanes since Friday, following the Feb. 4 downing of a suspected Chinese weather balloon that put North American air defenses on high alert. "We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason, said VanHerck, who is head of the joint U.S.-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the U.S. Air Force Northern Command. However, the government's effort to investigate anomalous, unidentified objects — whether they are in space, the skies or even underwater — has led to hundreds of reports that are being investigated, senior military leaders have said. But so far, the Pentagon has not found evidence to indicate Earthly visits from intelligent alien life, those officials have said.

The suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States earlier this month led politicians to criticize the .S. The Pentagon said there had been four previous Chinese spy balloon flights over the United States in recent years. On Friday, a U.S. F-22 fighter jet shot down an unidentified object about the size of a small car near Deadhorse, Alaska. VanHerck said the military considered shooting guns at the objects, but this was deemed too difficult given the small targets. Whether this is the start of regular shootdowns of unidentified objects over American skies is still unclear.

China widened its dispute with the United States on Monday, claiming that U.S. high-altitude balloons had flown over its airspace without permission more than 10 times since the beginning of 2022. Washington called that a surveillance balloon, while China has insisted it was a weather-monitoring craft blown badly off course. A White House spokeswoman denied it, and accused China of violating the sovereignty of the United States and more than 40 other countries across five continents with surveillance balloons linked to its military. "It has repeatedly and wrongly claimed the surveillance balloon it sent over the United States was a weather balloon and to this day has failed to offer any credible explanations for its intrusion into our airspace and the airspace of others." Reuters GraphicsThe three objects were flying at altitudes that could have posed a risk to air traffic, officials have said.

"There is no, again, no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent takedowns," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "We have not yet been able to definitively assess what these most recent objects are," White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said at a news briefing. At Friday's White House briefing, Kirby said: "There is no U.S. surveillance aircraft in Chinese airspace. I'm not aware of any other craft that we're flying over into Chinese airspace." "This is the latest example of China scrambling to do damage control," Adrienne Watson, another White House national security spokesperson, said in a statement.

The Pentagon said the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected the object over Alaska late Friday evening. U.S. fighter jets from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, monitored the object as it crossed over into Canadian airspace, where Canadian CF-18 and CP-140 aircraft joined the formation. "A U.S. F-22 shot down the object in Canadian territory using an AIM 9X missile following close coordination between U.S. and Canadian authorities," Pentagon spokesman Brig. U.S. President Joe Biden authorized the U.S. military to work with Canada to take down the high-altitude craft after a call between Biden and Trudeau, the Pentagon said. Some U.S. lawmakers criticized Biden for not shooting down the Chinese balloon sooner.

"We don't know who owns this object," said White House spokesperson John Kirby, adding that it was unclear where it began its flight. President Joe Biden ordered the shootdown, which was announced from the White House. Some lawmakers criticized the president for not shooting down the Chinese balloon sooner. The object was shot down off the coast of northeastern Alaska over frozen U.S. territorial waters near the Canadian border. UNMANNED VESSEL[1/4] White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby takes questions during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S. February 10, 2023.

REUTERS/Evelyn HocksteinWASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Democratic and Republican U.S. lawmakers sharply criticized the U.S. military and the Biden administration on Thursday for failing to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon when it first entered U.S. airspace, instead of waiting a week to do so. Pentagon officials said they were able to monitor the balloon's path and protect and conceal areas sensitive to U.S. national security. Republican Senator Susan Collins said the decision to let the balloon trek across the United States sent the wrong message to China and other U.S. adversaries. "In my judgment, U.S. deterrence was weakened when the spy balloon was permitted to transverse Alaska and several other states, included hovering over sensitive military bases and assets," Collins added. Separately, the House of Representatives on Thursday unanimously backed a resolution condemning the incursion of the balloon as "a brazen violation of United States sovereignty."

WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Four previous Chinese spy balloon flights over the United States passed over sites that would be of interest to Beijing, the Pentagon said on Wednesday, without elaborating on the paths the balloons took or whether the U.S. sites were military ones. Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said the United States was aware of the four past flights before it detected the latest Chinese balloon. "They were over sites that would be of interest to the Chinese," Ryder told reporters. [1/2] The suspected Chinese spy balloon drifts to the ocean after being shot down off the coast in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, U.S. February 4, 2023. The Pentagon said over the weekend that Chinese spy balloons had briefly flown over the United States at least three times during President Donald Trump's administration and one previously under President Joe Biden.

WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) - China declined a request for a phone call between U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe after Washington brought down a Chinese spy balloon, a Pentagon spokesperson said on Tuesday. The Pentagon submitted the request for a secure call on Saturday after the balloon came down, Brigadier General Pat Ryder said in a statement. "Unfortunately, the PRC (China) has declined our request. China has said it was a weather balloon that had blown off course into U.S. airspace and accused the United States of overreacting. Relations between China and the United States have been tense, with friction between the world's two largest economies over everything from Taiwan and China's human rights record to its military activity in the South China Sea.

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. general responsible for bringing down a Chinese spy balloon said on Monday the military had not detected previous spy balloons before the one that appeared on Jan. 28 over the United States and called it an "awareness gap." The Pentagon said over the weekend that Chinese spy balloons had briefly flown over the United States at least three times during President Donald Trump's administration and one previously under President Joe Biden. He did not provide details on previous balloons, including where over the United States they flew. Senior U.S. officials have offered to brief individuals from the previous administration on the details of previous balloons overflights when Trump was president. A U.S. Air Force fighter jet shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast on Saturday, a week after it first entered U.S. airspace and triggered a dramatic -- and public -- spying saga that worsened Sino-U.S. relations.

Beijing condemned the shooting down of the balloon as an "obvious overreaction" and urged Washington to show restraint. Some U.S. Republicans have questioned why the balloon was not shot down before it was allowed to travel across the United States. Senior U.S. officials have offered to brief former Trump administration officials on the details of what the White House said were three China balloon overflights when Donald Trump was president. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China learned its balloon had drifted over the United States after being notified by Washington. On Sunday, Colombia's military said it sighted an airborne object similar to a balloon after the Pentagon said on Friday another Chinese balloon was flying over Latin America.

WASHINGTON/BEIJING, Feb 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has postponed a visit to China that had been expected to start on Friday after a Chinese spy balloon was tracked flying across the United States, a U.S. official said. China earlier expressed regret that what it called a "civilian" airship had strayed into U.S. territory after being blown off course, an incident that sparked a political furor in the United States. Republican Senator Tom Cotton had called for Blinken to cancel his trip, while Republican former President Donald Trump, a declared presidential candidate for 2024, posted "SHOOT DOWN THE BALLOON!" It said it would continue to communicate with the United States to "properly handle" the unexpected situation. Senator Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, said the spy balloon was alarming but not surprising.

"The public certainly has the ability to look up in the sky and see where the balloon is," Ryder said. Senator Roger Marshall from Kansas said the spy balloon was over the northeastern part of his state and his staff was is in contact with law enforcement officials. President Biden must protect the sovereignty of the U.S.," Marshall posted on Twitter. Chinese spy satellites carry similar sensors to what U.S. officials believe is on the spy balloon, raising questions about why Beijing would risk such a brazen act on the eve of a major diplomatic event. Still, the Chinese spy balloon has taken a flight path that would carry it over a number of sensitive sites, officials say.

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