Good morning. Here’s your Daily Situational Awareness briefing for Tuesday, 27 July 2021. You can receive this daily intel brief by signing up at https://forwardobserver.com/daily-sa
TODAY’S BRIEFING:
- Situational Awareness
- January panel threatens Trump subpoena
- Poor grazing and early beef slaughter
- Lockheed’s F-22 replacement revealed
- Communists’ maneuver in Texas
- Russian bot-net takedown in Ukraine
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SITUATIONAL AWARENESS
06 JAN COMMISSION: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) Select Committee on 06 January holds its first hearing today, and Democrats are threatening to subpoena Republican members of Congress and former president Donald Trump himself. The select panel consists of seven Democrats and two Republicans, including Sen. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), both of whom are anti-Trump Republicans. (Analyst Comment: As we’ve previously outlined, this is a highly partisan investigation intended to badly damage Trump’s ability to run again and remain influential within the GOP, as well as to bolster the federal government’s anti-extremism efforts. – M.S.)
BEEF: The US Department of Agriculture said beef production remains consistent despite ongoing droughts. There is an expected downturn in slaughters this fall as poor grazing conditions are reducing the average carcass weight. The production levels’ maintenance is due to a larger percentage of heifers being sent to slaughter early as 34% of cattle “are in regions experiencing some level of drought” and 42% of grazing lands are rated “poor or very poor”. (AC: The national meat stockpile can withstand disruptions for months but barring a catastrophic market disruption, “recoverable” events like drought and early slaughters will simply drive consumer prices higher. – D.M.)
NGAD: Hot on the heels of increased program funding from Congress, Lockheed Martin’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) remains on-track to move from development to production as Congress and the Defense community seek a replacement for the F-22 Raptor. Delivery and deployment of a 6th generation air superiority fighter would place the US at a further advantage as the latest weapons systems from Russia or China cannot reliably defeat the existing livery in a tactical environment. (AC: Last week, Russia displayed its own 5th generation fighter reportedly armed with air-launched hypersonic munitions designed to deliver a nonstrategic nuclear missile. Some analysts noted the claimed sensor and fighter capabilities were likely overstated. – D.M.)
(The only public US Air Force rendering of the NGAD. Credit: US Air Force)
HOT AIR: Texas lawmakers have blocked plans by a former Chinese general to build a wind farm between Austin and Houston. The lack of utility-scale winds in the region may have tipped-off authorities who expressed concerns over Chinese nationals having access to Texas’ electric grid. Other security incidents have occurred near the 140,000 acre property, including Customs & Border Patrol interdictions of “stealth drones” near oil interests and Lackland Air Force Base. (AC: China’s Civil-Military fusion national policy and commitment to unrestricted warfare remains a blind spot for many US businesses and politicians. Any state-backed investment from China is ultimately a tool of their military and intelligence services to the detriment of US homeland security, pure and simple.– D.M.)
CYBER RESPONSE: Ukraine’s national security services allegedly seized a bot-farm conducting digital influence operations. The network used more than 12,000 Russian and Ukrainian SIM cards to manage digital personas designed to manipulate social media algorithms and shape public opinion through “echoing” of particular messages. The bot-net’s administrator was operating on behalf of Russia and possessed specialized telecommunications equipment and thousands of additional unused SIM cards. (AC: Ukrainian authorities likely don’t possess the technical means to efficiently identify, locate and deconstruct these bot-farms without assistance from NATO. While Russia operates decentralized bot-nets around the globe, this is the first public counter-propaganda operation to occur under the Biden Administration. – D.M.)
HAZARDS WARNING
HURRICANE SEASON: Nothing significant to report.
In today’s Early Warning briefing, Mike outlines the Chinese and Russian gray zone warfare in today’s In Focus, and Max details recent and upcoming Far Left activity. Upgrade your Situational Awareness to Early Warning here: https://forwardobserver.com/subscribe