Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Tuesday, 21 May 2024.
- ANOTHER STEP TOWARD RAPID U.S. NAVAL BUILD-UP: Lockheed Martin successfully engaged a target from the Mk-70 vertical launching system using virtualized Aegis and a Patriot missile, effectively establishing Initial Operational Capability for a self-contained combat system, according to a press release yesterday.
- Janes estimates that the Defense Department had 10,000 Patriot missiles by 2008.
Why It Matters: This gives the Navy the ability to rapidly deploy a complete combat system with a high probability-of-kill onto non-combatant vessels. The components used could also help develop an upgrade to existing combatants that would give them access to thousands more missiles that can serve in anti-air, anti-satellite, and anti-ballistic missile roles, according to publicly available capability stats. – J.V.
- Global Rollup
- The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requested arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Mohammad Deif for various war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- Thousands of Taiwanese protestors assembled outside their legislature to protest the Kuomintang’s legislative reform bill. Protestors carried sunflowers, referencing the Sunflower Movement of 2014. (The Sunflower Movement was a successful widespread protest against the KMT. During the COVID-era, China added “Large-scale unrest in Taiwan” to its list of preconditions to forego peaceful reunification. – J.V.)
- Macron is headed to New Caledonia to “set up a mission” to “return calm and order,” according to the French government spokeswoman. Australia and New Zealand are running government and Defence Force flights out of the New Caledonia airport for evacuations after commercial flights were canceled. Protestors and armed self-defense groups are exchanging fire, which resulted in three dead protestors.
THAT’S A WRAP: This does it for today’s edition. Thank you for reading. If you know folks who would also like to receive this email, would you please forward it to them? We appreciate you spreading the word. – M.S.