Chinese and Russian military forces kicked off their much-hyped joint military exercise Thursday, with warships, aircraft, and 10,000 troops gathering on China’s northern coastline ostensibly to thwart an unspecified terrorist threat. Various news reports already highlight possible diplomatic angles to the exercise. For example, the real reason for the joint maneuvers is to make the US believe Russia would enter the fray on China’s side in any military confrontation with the United States over Taiwan. Washington isn’t sweating it, however.
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…