Taiwan Shows Off New E2Ks: Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian recently presided over the commissioning ceremony of newly arrived E2K early-warning aircraft at one of the island’s military bases. With these new aircraft, reports the China Post, Taiwan can expand its radar surveillance of the Taiwan Strait. Chen has been pushing to expand the island’s defenses, arguing that better defenses are needed to prevent mainland China from developing an intractable military advantage over the small island. Pentagon policy chief Ryan Henry told reporters in Washington earlier this year that Beijing appears to be “preparing for something other than a political solution to the Taiwan problem.”
When Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Air Force Gen. Dan Caine described the 150 aircraft used in Operation Absolute Resolve, the mission to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, he referenced many by name, including the F-35 and F-22 fighters and B-1 bomber. Not specified, however, were “remotely piloted drones,” among them a secretive aircraft spotted and photographed returning to Puerto…
