SOMEWHERE OVER AFGHANISTAN: Stunning photo of a B1-B bomber flying high above Afghanistan. The photo was taken from the KC-135 tanker that just refueled it. Note the rugged terrain and the snow below. The USAF plans to retire the B1-B Lancer before it retires the B-52. However, at times the B1-B has been the bomber of choice. It was during the height of the war with the Islamic State.

FORT APACHE MINNEAPOLIS, PART 2, AND ANTI-POLICE ANIMUS: Powerline continues to report on “the dramatic rise of violent crime in Minneapolis.” The post, written by Powerline’s Paul Mirengoff, reminds everyone that in October — before the election — the Trump Justice Department offered to help Minneapolis police “through a special partnership program.” Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo supported the offer. At the time –before the election– Mirengoff also reported that Minneapolis’ mayor and leftist city council were quite unenthusiastic about receiving help from the Justice Department.” Did DOJ’s October offer get major media coverage? Of course not. Mirengoff concludes that the mayor and council rejected aid out of “raw anti-police animus and sympathy for violent criminals.” I think that’s right. Will Minneapolis’ mayor and leftist city council be held responsible for their inflammatory and destructive virtue signaling that has produced the rise in violent crime? That responsibility lies with Minneapolis voters.

FROM THE HISTORY FILE: The Gato-class submarine USS Wahoo sails near Mare Island Navy Yard in California; Photo taken July 14, 1943.

B-2 BUZZING COLORADO SPRINGS: A B-2 Spirit strategic bomber flies over the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Photo taken Nov. 16, From the files, a favorite heavy bomber photo: The Bomber Trifecta.. A B-52, B-1B and B-2 Spirit fly over Guam after taking off from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.

THE LATEST ABRAMS TANK ON THE RANGE: A new M1A2 SEPV3 Abrams Main Battle Tank sends a first round down range. The tank belongs to the U.S. Army’s 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division. The caption says the Greywolf Brigade is preparing to “zero” the main guns on its new tanks. Photo take August 18, 2020 at Fort Hood, Texas. This article from 2017 provides background information on the SEP3 (System Enhancement Package) program. The article also mentions the Lima, Ohio tank manufacturing facility:

There was never any doubt that the Lima (Ohio) plant will eventually be needed because the army is planning to maintain its M1 tank fleet (some 7,000 of them) into the 2030s. The M1 has already been in service since the 1980s and may become the first MBT (main battle tank) design to stay in service for half a century. Technically, some World War II tanks achieved that dubious goal but not in the service of a major power.

Worth the read.

THE CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE TAKES A PEEK AT THE NEXT BIG WAR:

The three nations the CRS chose are major military powers that possess the technological capacities to design, develop and produce advanced weapons systems. They also have military and security organizations capable of testing them, capable of training to use them (with YouTube video to astound viewers) and just maybe perhaps capable of successfully employing the weapons in The Next Big War.

Note the “maybe perhaps.” Whether new weapons can be tactical, operational or strategic successes in any war is a Known Unknown, until the so-called after-action reports are analyzed without political interference. But YouTube videos have information-warfare utility — maybe.

Check it out.

JOLLY GREEN II: Two USAF HH-60W Jolly Green II combat search and rescue (CSAR) and Personnel Recovery (PR) helicopters fly near Jupiter, Florida, en route to Moody Air Force Base, Georgia. Yes, a different kind of PR business. Photo taken November 5, 2020. The HH-60W is the upgraded Pave Hawk, with improved defensive systems, improved avionics and improved hover performance. Here’s a HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopter outfitted with skis for operations in Alaska.

PLUG YOUR EARS: U.S. Marines fire an M252A2 81mm mortar at a live-fire mortar displacement range. Photo taken Ocober 1, 2020 at Camp Fuji, Japan.

ON THE BELATED BALLOT: Trump’s Middle East Peace Prize. Trump earned a Nobel. Obama didn’t. Leftist Nobel Peace Prize privilege? My latest Creators Syndicate column. (bumped)

BONE TRAINING: A USAF B-1B Lancer lands after completing a training mission during a Bomber Task Force deployment at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. Photo taken Nov. 3, 2020.

EXERCISE WESTPAC RUMRUNNER III: USAF F-15C Eagles and an E-3 Sentry fly in formation after participating in exercise WestPac Rumrunner, which was run from Kadena Air Base, Japan. Photo taken Oct. 16, 2020. Here’s a background article on AWACS aircraft like the E-3 Sentry. Telling quote: “The AWACS proved to be a key to victory in the 1991, 2001, and 2003 campaigns. The critical element in this was knowing where all friendly aircraft were at all times.” (Typo corrected.)

ON THE BELATED BALLOT: Trump’s Middle East Peace Prize. Trump earned a Nobel. Obama didn’t. Leftist Nobel Peace Prize privilege?

FORT LEE GETS A FACE LIFT: A mortar and cannon carriage face the Hudson River from the reconstructed barbette battery at Fort Lee Historic Park, Fort Lee, N.J.

IN COMMUNIST CHINA’S FACE: India’s Malabar 2020 naval exercise is another indication the Trump Administration’s decision to challenge China economically and diplomatically strengthened regional resistance to China. My latest Creators Syndicate column.

…the Trump administration’s American domestic economic revival and its hard-nosed trade agreements with China demonstrated that the U.S. could and would counter China’s economic hegemony. Washington used legal, financial and diplomatic instruments to penalize Chinese intellectual-property theft. It also targeted Chinese spying, which penalized lucrative Chinese companies like Huawei linked to espionage.

See another recent essay for more on countering Huawei and China’s bid for global information dominance.

VERY RELATED: An Indian Navy destroyer participating in Malabar 2020 photographed from the USS John S. McCain.

A DIPLOMATIC AND ECONOMIC EXAMPLE: The Philippines defies The Dragon in the South China Sea.

The government has decided to defy Chinese threats and proceed with oil exploration off Reed Bank, which is 148 kilometers west of the Philippines (Palawan Island) and well within the Philippines’s EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) that extends 360 kilometers from the coast. Although the EEZ is recognized by international law, and a treaty that China signed and uses to defend waters off its own coast, China says that does not apply here because all the islets in the South China Sea belong to China and there is no room for negotiation on that point. Most countries in the region, except Japan, which would rather not dwell on this, note that this was how Japan behaved before World War II.

I suggest you read it.

TIME TO WRITE HONEST HISTORY THAT EXPOSES THE DISHONEST NEWS: India’s Malabar 2020 Naval Exercise Indicates Trump Administration’s Direct Challenge To China Improved Indo-Pacific Security.

Perhaps in five years, an honest historian will publish an honest history assessing the positive diplomatic effects of President Donald Trump’s administration’s decision to challenge the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship’s pervasive spying, economic trickery and utter disregard of international law.

More:

I think the concrete U.S. response has had a powerful moral effect in Indo-Pacific nations that felt vulnerable and victimized by Beijing’s one-on-one (bilateral) economic and military bullying. Big China versus a Small Neighbor was the CCP’s preferred fight.

The Indian Navy’s Malabar 2020 exercise, which began this week in the Indian Ocean, is a telling example of a major shift in India’s public attitude toward China.

Check it out.

SOMEWHERE IN THE PACIFIC: Marines with the All-Domain Reconnaissance Detachment, 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, maneuver an 11-meter naval special warfare rigid-hull inflatable boat. The recon team is heading toward the amphibious transport dock ship USS Somerset.

EAGLES ON AN ICELANDIC RUNWAY: Four USAF F-15C/D Eagles line up on the runway Keflavik Air Base, Iceland. According to the caption the F-15s are preparing for a routine NATO air policing operation. Photo taken Oct. 26, 2020. Air policing means securing sovereign air space against intruders. It’s not a new term. The F-15 interceptors based in Iceland can cover a huge area — Britain, Norway, Svalbard, Greenland and the Arctic approaches to both North America and western Europe. You will occasionally see the term NATO enhanced Air Policing missions. It has its own acronym: eAP. NATO has been flying air policing missions over the eastern Baltic Sea since 2004. At this link you’ll find a column addressing a very serious probe of Danish air space that occurred in June 2014.

AN ARTICLE FOR OUR RUSSIAN TROLL COMMENTERS: Explosively old and cranky. A look at the numerous fires and explosions in Russian ammunition dumps and storage sites. Also some exported “explosive problems.”

ANGLING FOR FROGMEN: In the Philippine Sea, a USAF CV-22 Osprey conducts a search-and-rescue exercise with the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

FORWARD ARMING AND REFUELING: U.S. Marines refuel a Bell AH-1Z Viper attack helicopter during Integrated Training Exercise 1-21 at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, California. Photo taken Oct. 22, 2020.

AUSTRALIAN LIGHTNINGS OVER ARIZONA: Two USAF and two Royal Australian Air Force F-35A Lightning II’s break formation during a commemoration flight over Bagdad, Arizona. Photo taken October 8, 2020.

FORMATION TRAINING OVER CORPUS CHRISTI: Two U.S. Marine student aviators conduct a formation flight in T-6B Texan II aircraft near Corpus Christi, Texas. Photo taken Oct. 23, 2020.

DID THE ECONOMIST AID A CHINESE COMMUNIST INFLUENCE OPERATION?:

On Oct. 26, the Washington Free Beacon published a hard-hitting investigative article exposing a truly appalling and destructive example of communist China’s long-term war on free societies, in this case using influence and information as weapons.

More:

The Free Beacon’s bottom-line accusation: Chinese money bought advantageous (euphemized) treatment, if not favorable news coverage and a positive editorial attitude in a news and business journal long regarded as one of the world’s most influential — influential in terms of its editorial acumen, erudite reporting and savvy story selection. The Economist’s international subscriber base is well educated, wealthy and connected.

It appears the CCP managed to influence The Economist’s purveyors of influence and did so not in one or two instances but for eight critical years. The CCP wasn’t simply targeting The Economist. Huawei has tried to coopt media everywhere. But The Economist allegedly influences the influencers in capital cities around the planet, which gives it unique leverage.

An even bigger bottom line:

From the Chinese perspective, Hunter Biden’s alleged business deals in China would classify as an effort to influence an individual leader.

It’s my latest Creators Syndicate column.

ARCTIC PATROL: Two USAF F-15 Eagles conduct a routine aerial mission in support of NATO Air Police operations at Keflavik Air Base, Iceland. Photo taken October 20,2020.

DID THE ECONOMIST AID A CHINESE COMMUNIST INFLUENCE OPERATION?:

On Oct. 26, the Washington Free Beacon published a hard-hitting investigative article exposing a truly appalling and destructive example of communist China’s long-term war on free societies, in this case using influence and information as weapons.

The Free Beacon detailed The Economist magazine’s years of “sympathetic” coverage of China’s Huawei Technologies company. Then the report connected information to a kind of influence by documenting the magazine’s profitable business relationship with the notorious corporate giant. The Free Beacon noted The Economist did not acknowledge that economic relationship for nearly a decade.

I suggest you read the entire column.