Collision at Sea
A few days ago, CNN reported that a Chinese submarine had collided with the towed sonar array of a USN destroyer. The AP now reports confirmation of the incident by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The American side has yet to…
Joshua Pollack
Writing on ACW 2008–2025 · 162 posts
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Did North Korea Test a Nuke?
I’d bet on it. But a recent statement by the ODNI is raising all sorts of eyebrows: The U.S. Intelligence Community assesses that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P’unggye on May 25, 2009.…
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Surprise ≠ Intel Failure
That’s the “does not equal” sign up there. I overlooked something important earlier when discussing what the U.S. government knew about North Korea’s nuclear test preparations and when they knew it: There are two possibilities. Either A) the Obama Administration…
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What To Expect From North Korea
[Cross-posted from TotalWonkerr.com. Yep, it’s back up.] What should we expect from North Korea? A good place to start might be the Foreign Ministry statement of April 29: In case the UNSC does not make an immediate apology [for the…
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Oh, Calm Down
I’ve been taking a blog break, but this one has my dander up. The Washington Times created a tempest in a teapot with a very silly front-page “exclusive” today. It’s exclusive, all right. The article distorts a quote from Rose…
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Once Upon A Time
Some people have been wondering what happened to TotalWonkerr.com. Well. Glad you asked. ONCE UPON A TIME, there was a great island called Atlantis, west of the Pillars of Herakles. (Left at Gibraltar, then a couple blocks down — boom,…
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Russia's EW Is Worse Than You Thought
Cross-posted from totalwonkerr.com. Last week’s obsessive recapping of the Unha-2 launch provided an occasion to ask why Russian officials have such odd perceptions of North Korean missile and nuclear activity, and what that would imply for the actual use of…
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FMP Comes Alive
Following up on Geoff’s apt reference to the technology campaign trail, here’s more on Iran’s Fuel Manufacturing Plant, or FMP. We’ve got the wonkporn interior photos, including shots of equipment that happened to be next to politicians. We’ve got statements…
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Russia Eyes North Korea
Cross-posted from TotalWonkerr.com. Few things are more curious than how senior Russian officials have described the more spectacular North Korean missile and nuclear developments of recent years. Compared to Japan, South Korea, and the U.S., the Russians are outliers. First,…
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Defensive Transition
No, not the switch from an offense-dominated world to a defense-dominated one — you might remember that idea from the 1980s, kids — but the switch from a Republican administration to a Democratic one, and what that means for ballistic…