Trump's F-47 Could Become Sitting Ducks for China
F-47s at U.S. Air Force (USAF) bases in the Indo-Pacific will have to contend with China's mid- and long-range missiles, said John Hemmings, the deputy director for geopolitics at the Council on Geostrategy in the U.K.
"Combine that with what some have seen as under-investment in active base defenses, and we see that USAF-like all services and allies-will have critical issues keeping their aircraft safe," Hemmings told Newsweek.
There is a "growing cruise and ballistic missile threat" to USAF bases in the Pacific, prompting the U.S. military to take a long look at its air defenses around these facilities, the RAND think tank said in an analysis commissioned by the U.S. Pacific Air Forces and published on Tuesday.
China is able to attack "all U.S. bases in the Indo-Pacific region," and defenses around these bases have not kept up with the threats they could face, according to the think tank.
The USAF has looked at ways to make air bases in the region more protected, but "improvements to date have been limited, though the threat has advanced substantially," the analysis said. More money has been spent on "active defenses," such as missile systems, but "spending on passive defenses has significantly lagged behind," it continued. Passive defenses can include camouflage and decoys.
The U.S. under President Donald Trump has made its intention to turn away from Europe toward the Indo-Pacific clear, sparking a flurry of commitments among European allies to raise defense spending and rely less on American personnel and U.S.-supplied kit.
"The U.S. is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific," U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told European allies in Brussels in February, adding, "Together, we can establish a division of labor that maximizes our comparative advantages in Europe and Pacific respectively."
Hegseth said on Saturday that Beijing was "preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific" and was gearing up for the "real deal" of an invasion push on Taiwan.
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway part of mainland China that it intends to one day reunite under central control. But Taipei, which has established a democratic government, has long asserted its independence from Beijing and aligned itself with Western allies.
"The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent," Hegseth said during a speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue defense forum in Singapore. China's Foreign Ministry denounced the speech as "filled with provocations and intended to sow division."
"China deplores and firmly opposes them and has protested strongly to the U.S.," Beijing added.
Trump announced in March that Boeing would be the main contractor for a new Air Force sixth-generation stealth jet, currently known as the F-47. "Nothing in the world comes even close to it," Trump said at the time.
The U.S. Navy's parallel program to get a sixth-generation jet in the air is known as F/A-XX. The Pentagon hopes to prioritize the F-47 development over the F/A-XX, believing going after two programs at once could slow both down, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.
China is developing its own sixth-generation fighter, the J-36. Footage emerged late last year appearing to show a new Chinese stealth fighter flying over the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu.
The future F-47, when deployed in the Indo-Pacific, will need fixed bases that would "be under mortal threat" from China's long-range weapons, Tom Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security think tank, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.
Militaries across the world will have to rethink how they protect their air bases and expensive aircraft after Ukraine pulled off an elaborate, coordinated drone attack on several Russian air bases on Sunday, analysts say.
Ukraine said it hit 41 of Russia's aircraft, including at least one of its scarce A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft and several long-range, nuclear-capable bombers.
One Ukrainian official said 13 aircraft had been destroyed, which could not be independently verified. Satellite imagery from the Siberian air base of Belaya and Olenya, an Arctic base in Murmansk-just two of the targeted bases-showed several destroyed Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers.
Airfields and aircraft "will need to have their passive and active defenses upgraded to deal with this UAV [uncrewed aerial vehicle] threat," said Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst with the Dutch think tank TNO.
"If there ever was a clear call for action, this is it," he told Newsweek. "The genie is out of the bottle."
Hemmings added, "We are in a new era of asset vulnerability."
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Los Angeles Times
27 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Get a manicure. Sing Monty Python. Be happy. You'll drive the Trumpists crazy
As the psychiatrist Dr. Melfi says to Tony in the pilot episode of 'The Sopranos,' 'Hope comes in many forms.' I was reminded of this the other day when I found my finger glued to the hand of another woman. I had set out that morning to celebrate all the indications that the political plates of the Earth had shifted — millions of people at the No Kings marches, all the court cases that the White House keeps losing and Trump's Epstein nightmare. I wanted to immerse myself in the headway. Something's happening here. Those in charge want us to give up until the next election, but of course we are not going to, because we have children and nieces and nephews. The dark forces must be childless. They are not concerned about squeezing the life out of the Constitution, the rising oceans and the re-emergence of diseases long eradicated, because they are so bottomlessly stupid and greedy. And they are unaware of what happens when the autocracy overreaches. Every time. Think pitchforks. Tick-tock. This gives me a little hope. Hope comes in many forms: When I hear the songs of the civil rights movement at our marches, a soft gong sounds. The poet Jack Gilbert wrote, 'We must admit that there will be music despite everything.' Ever since I heard the author Caroline Myss say that when darkness and evil go nuclear, love and hope must go nuclear too, I started getting occasional manicures with glittery polish, to remind me. There was a nail salon in the first strip mall I passed. I went in. It seemed crowded, and I turned to leave. But the nearest manicurist said, 'Pick a color.' I said, 'No, no, you seem busy.' 'Pick a color!' she demanded, so I leapt to the polish station and picked a sparkly pale pink. An old woman came lumbering out from the back room toward me with a bowl of water. I dutifully fished out $25 from my purse, five of it tip, and put the fingers of one hand into the bowl of warm water. When one hand free, I scrolled through the links on my phone — the usual stuff, the government taking away health insurance from the poor and protecting American jobs by causing mass starvation around the world. The salon had grown incredibly hot. What hasn't? I smiled remembering Sen. Jim Inhofe tossing that snowball around on the Senate floor as proof that there is no global warming. God, the absurdity. Absurdity! A light bulb went on over my head in that salon. That's what we're missing. I realized that this was one solution to the cruel mess and the endless, depressing analysis. Yes, we will take to the streets at every opportunity, care for the poor and pick up litter. But we also, desperately, need to begin laughing again. And who does absurdity better than Monty Python? Monty Python says what we already know, that yes, it is all hopelessly stupid, cruel and unfair, but their making it silly delivers joy and buoyancy. We can grip our heads, fight back and laugh at it and them. And nothing agitates narcissists more than people laughing. Think of how confused our most prominent bullies get when people laugh at them. Bullies rule by fear. Humor is fearless, a bubbly form of hope. Remember the 'Upper Class Twit of the Year' award? And 'Self-Defense Against Fruit'? Aren't people in flag-draped lines voting to lose their health insurance and their basic rights reminiscent of folks queuing for crucifixion in 'Life of Brian'? The cheery, 'Line up on the left, one cross each'? Laughter and those jaunty songs break up the armor that we think protects us. When we're softened and jiggled, we're open to a shift from tight and clenched to the recognition of shared humanity, and underneath that a glimmer of shared possibility. When we don't see anything on the menu that we like, we can at least remember — as Monty Python taught us — that the Spam, egg, sausage and Spam sandwich has not got nearly as much Spam in it. I smiled, hearing the Spam song, right before my manicurist cut the skin at the base of the nail. I yelped. We both looked down at a drop of blood that was growing. She wrapped my finger in a Kleenex and pulled out a tiny tube I assumed was a styptic, and rubbed it over the cut. Then she pinched my finger between hers to stem the bleeding. After a minute, she tried to let go, which was the point at which I realized that this tube was super glue and that my finger was glued to her hand. She couldn't pry her fingers off. She started swabbing us with nail polish remover — not ideal for an open cut. I mewed like a kitten. It took a painful, burning minute to get us unglued. The bleeding was slowing down, and she stroked my hand while looking into my eyes kindly. Kindness is the antivenom. So we proceeded. I assumed that, the way things are going, I would die one day later this week of a fungal infection that went septic, but at least I would have beautiful nails, and Monty Python. I left her a second $5 tip. Hope comes in many forms: If you want to have hopeful feelings, do hopeful things. She touched her heart when she saw. Maybe I don't always remember my doctor's name, or how to spell the fuchsias that my husband grows, but I remember every word of 'The Lumberjack Song,' and of 'Every Sperm Is Sacred.' I hope we don't go crazy with the craziness around us. I can't remember a more terrifying time. I hope that we can keep centered, keep sharing what we have, help each other keep our spirits up, sing, register voters and rally, and maybe these are all we've got these days, but deep in my heart, I do believe that led with infinite dignity by the Ministry of Silly Walks, they will see us through. Anne Lamott, an author of fiction and nonfiction, lives in Marin County, Calif. Her latest book is 'Somehow: Thoughts on Love.' X: @annelamott
Buzz Feed
27 minutes ago
- Buzz Feed
Outrage Over Trump's National Guard, DC Police Decision
The American public has grown increasingly concerned about President Donald Trump's moves toward authoritarianism and autocracy as he positions himself as being above the law and frequently mentions not leaving office at the end of his Constitutionally-granted second and final term. During a press conference on Monday morning, Trump announced a sweeping plan by his administration to increase its control over law enforcement in the United States capital city of Washington, DC. He started the press conference with a comment on how crowded the room is, saying they need a ballroom instead. Attorney General Pam Bondi grinned along. Trump launches into the topic of the press conference. "And we're here for a very serious purpose. Very serious purpose. Something is out of control, but we're gonna put it in control very quickly, like we did on the southern border," he said. "I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor. And worse." "This is Liberation Day in DC, and we're gonna take our capital back," Trump said. "We're taking it back." He announced his plan: "Under the authorities vested in me as the president of the United States, I'm officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act — you know what that is — and placing the DC Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control." "In addition, I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, DC and they're gonna be allowed to do their job properly," Trump continued. He then directly addressed the journalists in the room about the supposed crime hotbed of DC, saying, "You people are victims of it, too." President Trump then said that "The murder rate in Washington today is higher than that of Bogota, Colombia, Mexico City, some of the places that you hear about as being the worst places on Earth," as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth nodded along. "The number of car thefts has doubled over the past five years, and the number of carjackings has more than tripled," Trump said. "Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate probably ever." "Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people. And we're not gonna let it happen anymore. We're not gonna take it," Trump told the crowd. He then repeated that the problem would be treated like the southern border, which he said "nobody comes to" anymore. For clarity, the Justice Department reported early this year that violent crime in Washington, DC, is down 35% from 2023. According to the DC Metropolitan Police Department, the very agency that Trump is seeking to federalize, violent crime is currently down 26% year-over-year. Richard Stengel, author and former government official under President Barack Obama, said that, "Throughout history, autocrats use a false pretext to impose government control over local law enforcement as a prelude to a more national takeover." People quickly hopped on Reddit's r/politics to discuss the CNBC article about Trump's announcement (you can watch the full press conference here). This is what some of the over 3,000 commenters had to say: "Federalizing the DC Police under fake numbers... Literally watching fascism unfold before our eyes, people. It's past time to get pissed." "I thought he said he couldn't deploy the National Guard on January 6? So now we know he could have, but didn't because it was his people." —swiftfoot_hiker "This is the big red flashing sign of fascism for anyone still wondering." "Every word out of this MF'er's mouth is a LIE. EVERY WORD. Taking over DC is to keep protestors out because this administration's next actions will be brutal." "Martial law in motion. MF didn't even bother to stage a Reichstag fire." "Here we fucking go. And sweet Jesus, it's only August of year one..." —KingMario05 "This is the death of the republic we're watching. Temporary takeovers have a very long history of becoming permanent. We're so fucked." "So, he could have done this to put down the insurrection at the Capitol?" "This is a pretext for something. His excuse is the homeless — what I really think he's preparing for are protests or maybe even riots. Maybe connected to the upcoming 'peace talks' with Russia, or the Epstein scandal." —rainghost "So that's it. No more freedom or rule of law in the US. And all the flag-waving Trump supporters don't care. Not a peep from them." "So I assume DC residents won't be able to vote ever again." "Full fucking stop. Yes, this is a distraction attempt from Epstein, among other things, but this is a pilot program for doing this in other major cities around America. This is the next step in a full fascist takeover of this country. But hey, eggs are... I mean, gas is... I mean, Kamala's laugh." "We are going to find out if the military is going to uphold their oath to defend us from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Trump is the biggest domestic terrorist I've seen in this country in my lifetime." —Ol_Turd_Fergy "That's it folks. Democracy in the US is now over. What a shameful country." "Authoritarianism it is then, I guess." "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I could have sworn that Trump had no authority to do this. I mean, that's what he said for January 6. He said that the Speaker of the House needs to make this call. Could he have been lying?" "Is this about homeless people? What is this about? Those National Guard are gonna be real sad when they realize a ton of the homeless individuals they are arresting are vets." —Resident_Standard437 And finally, "America, you are in grave danger. An authoritarian is seizing power over the police, based on a made-up emergency. This is a precursor to stealing the elections. It's the only thing left between them and ruling forever. They are stealing our democracy and do not plan to give it back. And all of you are silent. The republic is dying, rapidly and right before our eyes, and nothing is being done to stop it." So, what do you think? Let us know in the comments.
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
China may have more engineers, but it still lacks a culture of innovation
China announced last month a $100 billion push into artificial intelligence, intensifying what is already a fierce race for global tech dominance. Policymakers in Washington are watching with concern, and rightly so. China graduates more than 1.38 million engineers each year, about seven times more than does the U.S. The numbers sound alarming and suggest we're falling behind. But that's not the full story. While engineering degrees are critical, they don't guarantee technological leadership. What really drives innovation is not how many people you train, but how you train them. And here, China faces a deeper, cultural problem that raw output can't solve. The Chinese education system is highly structured and built for scale. But it's also rigid, top-down and deeply rooted in deference to authority. In most classrooms, memorization takes precedence over questioning and the teacher's word is rarely challenged. Correcting a professor's mistake could cause them to 'lose face,' a cultural breach that most students won't risk. This environment produces excellent test-takers but not risk-takers. It produces technical workers who are strong on facts but weak on critical thinking. They can follow a formula, but they struggle to break new ground. This is a key reason China, despite its massive engineering workforce, has yet to deliver the kind of world-changing breakthroughs we've seen from the U.S., from the microprocessor to the iPhone to mRNA vaccines. These innovations didn't come from rote learning. They came from interdisciplinary research, unorthodox thinking and cultures that reward questioning everything. Even when it comes to research output, China's surge in published papers masks a more complex reality. While China now leads the world in scientific publishing volume, scholars like Ming Xia have pointed out that much of this work lacks the originality, rigor and theoretical depth typical of Western scholarship. Plagiarism and fabrication remain persistent problems, even at top institutions. At Tsinghua University, one professor felt compelled to reassure students that if they wrote something publishable, he wouldn't steal it and submit it under his own name. The root issue is systemic. Many Chinese academics were trained in the same system they now uphold, one that prizes metrics and obedience over ideas and inquiry. As a result, scholarship often becomes descriptive, not theoretical. It explains what exists but rarely asks why it matters or how to build something new from it. Contrast that with American higher education. Our universities aren't perfect — they can be chaotic, expensive and uneven, but they're designed to cultivate thinkers, not just technicians. Students are encouraged to disagree with their professors, to explore across disciplines and to challenge the conventional wisdom. The freedom to question isn't a side effect of our system. It's the whole point. Yes, China has closed gaps in recent years by acquiring Western technology through joint ventures, forced transfers and even cyber espionage. But copying isn't creating. Without a culture that fosters original thought, China may scale existing tech but it won't lead the next wave of innovation. That doesn't mean the U.S. can relax. We need to double down on what works, investing in universities, supporting fundamental research and attracting the best minds from around the world. At the same time, we must protect critical technologies and intellectual property from exploitation. Still, we should remember what gives America an edge: a culture that values curiosity, dissent and the freedom to think differently. That's the foundation of every breakthrough we've ever made. In the long run, engineering dominance isn't just about how many degrees a country prints. It's about whether those engineers are trained to challenge the status quo and imagine something better. If the U.S. keeps leaning into its strengths of diversity, openness and academic freedom, we won't just keep pace with China. We will continue to lead.
