The five-domains update
Posted By
Tracy Beattie, Hal Crichton-Standish, Daria Impiombato, Alexandra Pascoe and Albert Zhang
on April 7, 2020 @ 14:12
Sea state
The commander of the coronavirus-hit aircraft carrier USS
Theodore Roosevelt, Brett Crozier, has been
relieved of his post. Crozier
wrote a letter to naval command asking for stronger measures to counter the outbreak on board his ship, details of which were leaked to the public. Crozier himself has since tested
positive for coronavirus and acting navy secretary Thomas Modly has
apologised after calling the captain
‘naïve’ and ‘stupid’.
A Venezuelan patrol boat
sank near the Caribbean island of La Tortuga after it rammed a cruise ship. The collision left the Portuguese-flagged cruise ship, which has a reinforced hull for sailing in Antarctic waters, with only
minor damage, while the Venezuelan vessel took on water and sank. See video of the incident
here. Venezuela’s navy later said a rescue mission had successfully retrieved the patrol boat’s crew.
Flight path
The Japanese Ministry of Defence is
pursuing the local development of a next-generation fighter aircraft to replace its Mitsubishi F-2 fleet after it
rejected proposals by multiple foreign manufacturers. The ministry said the proposals ‘were judged not to have met our needs’ and there is ‘enough technology to make a fighter development project possible domestically’. Japan is, however, leaving open the option of collaboration with other countries on the project.
A NATO C-17 transport jet has been used to
airlift 45 tons of medical equipment from South Korea to Romania in response to Covid-19. As part of the
Strategic Airlift Capability arrangement that was established in 2008, 10 NATO allies and partner countries Finland and Sweden jointly own and share flight hours and costs for three C-17 Globemasters. A NATO-supported Antonov AN-124 transported another 48 tons of equipment from China to Slovakia.
Rapid fire
The Australian government
has halted the deployment of the 2020 Marine Rotational Force in Darwin, the annual
rotation of US Marines in the Northern Territory. It began in 2012 and aims to strengthen collaboration between the Marines and the Australian Defence Force. Despite calling off this year’s planned rotation, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds
said Australia and the US would work to come up with options for a later deployment.
Turkey says its troops in Syria
will reduce their movements due to concerns related to the Covid-19
pandemic. The measures follow a stark increase in the number of cases of the virus in Turkey. Turkey has been
backing rebels in Syria’s civil war for years but in March it
launched a major offensive, declaring war on the Russia-backed government of Bashar al-Assad, though Ankara later
agreed to a ceasefire.
Final frontier
Russia continues to maintain the world’s
third-largest military satellite constellation. In its
Space threat assessment 2020, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reports Russia has also invested in a range of counterspace weapons including ground- and air-launched missiles capable of targeting satellites in low earth orbit. Russia has 51 communication satellites and 16 earth-observation satellites of its own and it’s thought the country spends at least
US$4 billion annually on military space capabilities.
A camera designed by Western Sydney University in partnership with the US Air Force Academy will be sent to the International Space Station. The
Falcon Neuro system uses Intel ‘neuromorphics’ chips designed to mimic biological processes and capture images more efficiently. The cameras will study Transient Luminous Events, which occur when lightning travels upwards from the clouds into the atmosphere. These events disrupt critical global communication systems and high-altitude aircraft.
Wired watchtower
Citizen Lab has found significant weaknesses in video-conferencing system Zoom’s encryption scheme that could allow for the decryption and monitoring of calls. The investigation also found that encryption and decryption keys were distributed through
servers in China. Limitations in cryptography, security issues and offshore servers may make the app a
target for hostile foreign actors. In response to these concerns, the
Defence Department has banned the use of Zoom.
Australian governments, medical experts and the media have
used mobile phone location data to track Australians’ movements during the coronavirus pandemic. Vodafone provided the location data of several million Australians to the NSW and federal governments to monitor whether people were obeying social distancing measures, Google published a report on how Australians’ movements have changed, and location data from the Citymapper app has also been accessed. While some argue that using this data poses privacy risks, others have pointed to
the value of utilising technology to combat the virus as has been done in Taiwan and Singapore.
Tracy Beattie, Hal Crichton-Standish, Daria Impiombato, Alexandra Pascoe and Albert Zhang are research interns at ASPI. Image: US Indo-Pacific Command/Flickr.
Article printed from The Strategist: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au
URL to article: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-five-domains-update-98/
[1] relieved: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-navy-confirmat-idUSKBN21K3EC?taid=5e86640501cef40001c15f27&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
[2] wrote: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-03/navy-fires-captain-who-sought-help-for-coronavirus-stricken-ship/12117534
[3] positive: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/05/us-navy-captain-brett-crozier-fired-coronavirus-ests-positive
[4] apologised: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU9pntxXgAAtWpi.jpg
[5] ‘naïve’ and ‘stupid’: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/acting-navy-secretary-stands-tough-criticism-fired-captain/story?id=70001478
[6] sank: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52151951
[7] minor: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/03/americas/venezuela-navy-cruise-liner-incident-intl/index.html
[8] here: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32893/video-emerges-of-venezuelan-navy-ship-firing-on-and-colliding-with-cruise-ship-before-sinking
[9] pursuing: https://www.janes.com/article/95289/update-japan-rejects-foreign-plans-for-next-generation-fighter
[10] rejected: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/japan-rejects-foreign-plans-for-next-generation-fighter-favours-home-grown-design
[11] airlift: https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_174513.htm
[12] Strategic Airlift Capability: https://www.nspa.nato.int/en/news/news-20190627-3.htm
[13] has halted: http://www.australiandefence.com.au/news/marine-rotation-to-darwin-cancelled
[14] rotation: https://www.defence.gov.au/Initiatives/USFPI/Marines.asp
[15] said: https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/minister/lreynolds/media-releases/marine-rotational-force-darwin-deployment-paused-due-covid-19
[16] will reduce: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/turkey-minimise-troop-movements-coronavirus-risks-200405193540152.html
[17] pandemic: https://www.aljazeera.com/topics/events/coronavirus-outbreak.html
[18] backing: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-turkey/turkey-backs-syrian-rebels-for-serious-operation-in-idlib-idUSKBN1CC07Q
[19] launched: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/world/middleeast/turkey-syria-assault.html
[20] agreed: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/russia,-turkey-agree-to-ceasefire-in-idlib,-syria/12031766
[21] third-largest military satellite constellation: https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/commentary/2020/04/02/russia-is-behind-in-military-space-capabilities-but-that-only-drives-its-appetite/
[22] Space threat assessment 2020: https://www.csis.org/analysis/space-threat-assessment-2020
[23] US$4 billion: https://spacenews.com/op-ed-global-government-space-budgets-continues-multiyear-rebound/
[24] Falcon Neuro system: http://www.australiandefence.com.au/news/wsu-and-raaf-tech-to-deploy-on-international-space-station
[25] Citizen Lab: https://citizenlab.ca/2020/04/move-fast-roll-your-own-crypto-a-quick-look-at-the-confidentiality-of-zoom-meetings/
[26] servers in China: https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/03/zoom-calls-routed-china/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9hc3BpaWNwYy5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAEHWGDv1cTu_EGFVoopu943a3SxqMvS-4YHPCLvSgHVwlTKJ0UAVXXSEQSrlAYegDyWyHeav4R2mvdQUNtyfiVp82YJHNx8TDwaJPFvzyZGGv8qEThElzeu86DtXsCRWiqwA8vL2y0uM4iA3PdHg6vtRpVcWYRtZ-B5fylwVfo6Q
[27] target: https://theintercept.com/2020/04/03/zooms-encryption-is-not-suited-for-secrets-and-has-surprising-links-to-china-researchers-discover/
[28] Defence Department has banned: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/coronavirus-sefence-axes-zoom-over-flaws/news-story/532ffd9d8190f4616b95ebceb26d201e
[29] used mobile phone location data: https://www.smh.com.au/technology/mobile-phone-location-data-used-to-track-australians-movements-during-coronavirus-crisis-20200404-p54h09.html
[30] the value of utilising technology: https://www.smh.com.au/technology/mobile-phone-tracking-should-be-used-to-stop-virus-20200405-p54h9y.html