The Chinese government issued a white paper Thursday that was highly critical of efforts to build a regional missile defense system in Asia and voiced opposition to US efforts to provide Taiwan such capability. The paper maintained that development and deployment of missile defense systems are “by no means an effective way to solve the problem” of ballistic missile proliferation. Such a move would, stated the paper, “produce [a] negative impact on global strategic stability” and, further, would “erode trust among big powers.” China wants more “transparency” in the missile defense programs of “relevant countries”—read that as the US and Japan.
An F-35 Joint Strike Fighter teamed up with a General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger drone in a recent test to refine the Air Force's Collaborative Combat Aircraft concept, the company said in a May 27 statement.