$12,000 for a Navy Ship...'ish'

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Edited by: Sidney McAlear

FLIGHT LINE

🎯 The Bargain Bin Traitor on the Essex

Jinchao Wei traded his Navy whites for a federal jumpsuit, snagging over 16 years for selling out the USS Essex's technical manuals to China for a measly $12,000. This machinist's mate didn't just snap selfies at Naval Base San Diego; he uploaded the literal operating instructions for our amphibious assault capabilities to Beijing via encrypted apps. (More)

• Strategic Impact: Handing over 60 technical manuals gives the People’s Liberation Army a blueprint to dismantle Wasp-class defenses, effectively neutering a cornerstone of US expeditionary power in the Pacific. The terrifying truth isn't the sophistication of Chinese spycraft, but that U.S. Navy operational security can be dismantled for the price of a used 2014 Corolla.

🎯 Nellis Gets Glitched: The 562nd Electronic Warfare Squadron

If your sensors are bricked, then it doesn’t matter how great your technology is. The U.S. Air Force is standing up the 562nd Electronic Warfare Squadron at Nellis AFB to inject high-fidelity electromagnetic nightmares directly into the Air Force Warfare Center. Operating under the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, this new unit is designed to ensure the Air Force is ready to meet whatever electromagnetic buzzsaw adversaries can throw at the warfighter. (More)

• Strategic Impact: By embedding the 562nd EWS at the nexus of the Weapons School and Red Flag, the Air Force is trying to smash the silo between the nerds coding mission data files at Eglin and the operators flying into simulated hell at Nellis; this theoretically turns spectrum warfare from a static pre-flight briefing into a dynamic, "adapt-or-die" layer of daily training.

🎯 CENTCOM Hammers ISIS in "Operation Hawkeye Strike"

U.S. Central Command unleashed a massive kinetic response across Syria this weekend, utilizing a mix of F-15Es, A-10 Warthogs, and AC-130 gunships to strike 35 separate ISIS locations. The offensive, designated "Operation Hawkeye Strike," delivered over 90 precision munitions in direct retaliation for the December 13 ambush in Palmyra that killed two American soldiers and a civilian interpreter. Jordanian F-16s integrated into the formation, reinforcing a coalition resolve to dismantle terror cells attempting to reconstitute in the central Syrian desert. (More)

SNAPSHOT

🚩 The Pentagon is shattering acquisition norms by taking a $1 billion equity stake in L3Harris’s solid rocket motor business, a desperate move to unclog the production bottleneck currently choking off PAC-3 and Tomahawk missiles. (more)

🚩 China's People's Liberation Army Rocket Force was spotted moving Dongfeng ICBMs dressed up in Zoomlion drag, attempting to pass off nuclear delivery systems as harmless mobile cranes. (more)

🚩 Allegiant Air officially announced a $1.5 billion deal to acquire rival budget carrier Sun Country Airlines, merging their fleets to create a "leisure" giant while facing inevitable scrutiny from U.S. antitrust regulators. (more)

🚩 Delta Air Lines finally ended its holdout as the only major U.S. carrier without Dreamliners, signing a firm order for 30 Boeing 787-10 widebodies (plus an option for 30 more) to diversify a fleet that has recently looked like an Airbus fan club. Deliveries of the GE-powered jets are scheduled to begin in 2031. (more)

🚩 China has reportedly completed the first serial production batch of J-20A stealth fighters equipped with the long-awaited WS-15 engines, finally ditching the "interim" stopgap powerplants to unlock the true supercruise performance and range the PLAAF has been promising for years. (more)

THREAT OF THE DAY (TOD)

Dongfeng-41 (DF-41) Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

Threat Name: Dongfeng-41 (DF-41) / NATO: CH-SS-20
Country of Origin: China
Primary Role: Road-Mobile Strategic Nuclear Deterrence (ICBM)

Range: 12,000 – 15,000 km (~6,500 – 8,100 NM)
Payload: Nuclear MIRV (Multiple Independently-targetable Reentry Vehicle). Estimates range from 3 large warheads (approx. 650kT each) to 10 smaller warheads (approx. 150kT each) mixed with penetration aids. Max throw weight approx. 2,500 kg.
Propulsion: Three-stage Solid Fuel

The Insider's Lowdown:

Unlike the older, liquid-fueled dinosaurs that had to sit in a silo while you poured volatile chemicals into them, the DF-41 uses a "cold launch" system. A gas generator ejects the missile from the canister before the main engine ignites. This preserves the launcher (TEL) so it can scoot away and reload—if there's anything left to reload for.

The 30-Minute Window: This is the big stick. With a top speed of Mach 25 and a range hitting 15,000 km, this system can theoretically touch any point in the continental United States in under 30 minutes. It is the crown jewel of the PLARF (PLA Rocket Force) modernization, specifically designed to bypass U.S. missile defenses with multiple warheads and decoys.

Quiz: 224 cases…but let’s be honest, it is a bit tough to pin this number down but according to a CSIS survey of Chinese espionage alone lists 224 reported incidents from 2000–2023 and shows that publicly reported Chinese cases in the U.S. have typically been in the mid‑teens to mid‑20s per year in recent years.