Good morning, and welcome to the Global Situation Report for Wednesday, 20 March 2024.
- DARPA TAPS NORTHROP GRUMMAN FOR LUNAR RAILROAD STUDY: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) selected Northrop Grumman to conduct a seven-month study on lunar railroads. This is an early step in DARPA’s 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) project that aims to build a basic lunar colony to encourage commerce in space.
- China and Nicaragua’s National Council of Universities signed an agreement to assist in the international Lunar Research Station project with a five-year memorandum of understanding and the intent to build the station by early 2030.
Why It Matters: The New Space Race appears to be for lunar bases and colonies by the early 2030s. The United States does not produce enough engineering graduates and will likely say this requires increased immigration of overseas engineers via H-1B visas. Space projects are also immensely expensive and will be funded by debt spending, likely on the promise that space commerce will offset the debt. – J.V.
- Indo-Pacific Rollup
- Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Lin Jian calls U.S. nuclear arms control “megaphone diplomacy,” suggesting a U.S. facade, and demands the U.S. disarm its nuclear weapons.
- Russia-NATO Rollup
- Russia announced the creation of a “Dnieper River Flotilla,” which includes an army corps, a motor rifle division, and a brigade of river vessels. Earlier this month, Medvedev said both sides of the Dnieper were inseparable from Russia’s borders.
- NATO is expanding its base in Eastern Romania to hold 10,000 NATO troops along with support staff and their families. The Romanian village that hosts the base has 9,100 people.
- Middle East Rollup
- Houthis claim to have struck a fuel tanker with several missiles in the Red Sea on Tuesday afternoon. The attack remains unconfirmed by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operation and United States Central Command.
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.