Good morning. Here’s your Daily Situational Awareness for Tuesday, 15 March 2022. You can receive this daily briefing by signing up at https://forwardobserver.com/daily-sa
TODAY’S BRIEFING:
- Global supplier halts agriculture exports
- STRATCOM laments aging force during “historic stress”
- Marines stand up first littoral regiment
- Congress pushes for update on domestic cybersecurity
- Hazards Warning
UPGRADE TO EARLY WARNING AND GET THESE BRIEFINGS:
- InFocus: Equity & Racial Justice in National Security
- Far Left Activity Rollup & Outlook
SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
GLOBAL SUPPLIER HALTS AGRICULTURE EXPORTS: Argentina’s deputy secretary for agriculture markets, Javier Patino, released a memorandum temporarily halting the export of 5 million pounds of soybeans and soymeal. A growing list of countries are halting agriculture exports amid uncertainty about the global impact of the war in Europe. Argentina’s primary customers are in Southeast Asia and will likely turn to the U.S. and Brazil for replacement shipments. Notably, Argentina is the third-largest global soybean producer behind Brazil and the U.S. (Analyst Comment: Global concern over food supplies is leading to rapid adoption of protectionist policies. Global food supply disruptions could ignite conflict in at-risk areas on nearly every continent. The U.S. has not announced food export bans, but the additional export demand is likely to raise food prices in supermarkets and restaurants at a minimum. – D.M.)
STRATCOM LAMENTS AGING FORCE DURING “HISTORIC STRESS”: Admiral Charles Richard, head of U.S. Strategic Command, called for new investments in submarines, bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles, and command and control systems when Russian President Putin elevated their nuclear force readiness. Admiral Richard stated, “I am executing my strategic deterrence mission under historic stress, crisis deterrence dynamics that we’ve only seen a couple of times in our nation’s history.” With aging nuclear triad tools built 30-60 years ago, STRATCOM needs $42 billion annually till 2030 to modernize its nuclear force. (AC: With warnings that peer-adversaries have reached “strategic breakout,” U.S. nuclear forces need significant investments to keep pace this decade. – D.F.)
MARINES STAND UP FIRST LITTORAL REGIMENT: The U.S. Marine Corps deactivated the 3rd Marine Regiment, decreased its size by one infantry battalion, reorganized the regiment into smaller units, and redesignated it the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment. The new Marine Littoral Regiment will be able to deploy on KC-130s and use various Marine Corps radar systems to detect, identify and track seaborne threats and direct long-range fires onto those targets. (AC: The most significant change is the unit’s overall mission which went from being a Marine infantry regiment to essentially a coastal artillery and shore battery group. The change in mission and designation of the regiment was a hotly debated idea in the Marine Corps, mostly due to the fact that it did not receive funding for anti-ship missile systems and must rely on attached artillery HIMARS systems or joint long-range fires of other services to complete its new mission. – M.M.)
CONGRESS PUSHES FOR UPDATE ON DOMESTIC CYBERSECURITY: A bipartisan group of Senators has requested updated information on DHS efforts securing the U.S. against Russian government cyber and disinformation threats. The information requests come after a spike in malicious cyber activity against foreign allied governments in addition to the Russia-Ukraine War. The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has just concluded its three-day cyber exercise, Cyber Storm VIII, which included more than 2,000 private sector, government, and international participants from approximately 200 organizations. (AC: The U.S. government is in a cybersecurity overall that has expedited since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Pending results from Cyber Storm VIII are likely to be included in reply to Congress. Cybersecurity strategy is focused on fusing efforts among the public, and private sector against state backed cyber-attacks. Expect legislation to quickly pass Congress requiring cyber-attack and ransomware payment reporting to CISA. – D.F.)
HAZARDS WARNING
Upgrade your Situational Awareness to Early Warning and continue the brief here: https://forwardobserver.com/subscribe