China Considers Attack on US Vessels in South China Sea

Morning Coffee is a robust blend of links to news around the internet concerning the Naval Air Station Patuxent River  economic community. The opinions expressed here do not reflect opinions of the Leader’s owners or staff.

A senior Chinese military official declares China should be prepared to attack United States naval vessels, should the US violate Chinese “territorial waters” in the South China Sea, reports Taiwan News.

The US pours rocket fuel on China trade war fire, reports Vanity Fair, with the US government’s request that Canada arrest Meng Wanzhou. The ostensible reason for Meng’s arrest was her alleged role in circumventing US sanctions against Iran, of which she admits no wrongdoing. “It’s worrisome, because it’s an escalation we did not need,” says one executive. “What China will do, given all the existing tensions, is anyone’s guess.”

The shuttering of a widely used military file-sharing service last month due to security concerns has left the services without an online option for transferring sensitive unclassified files, so they’re turning to CDs, DVDs, postal mail, and even fax machines. Stars and Stripes reports both the Navy and Marine Corps issued official guidance late last month saying optical discs are the only way to securely send large files that contain private information like Social Security numbers or medical data.

The search for a Marine Corps KC-130 and its five missing crew members has been called off after days of searching a wide swath of deep waters off the coast of Japan failed to locate the aircraft, reports Military Times. The Marine Corps has pronounced the five crew members deceased. The KC-130’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders still have not been located.

The Trump administration sanctioned three senior North Korean officials for human rights abuses and censorship in the country as discussions between the US and North Korea over the regime’s nuclear weapons program have stalled. ABC News also reports that the sanctions are  part of a congressionally mandated report that details North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s violently oppressive rule.

The Navy’s third and final Zumwalt destroyer launched at Bath Iron Works, the future USS Lyndon B. Johnson, reports gCaptain.com.

Ahead of a meeting with Democratic leaders to avert a Dec. 21 government shutdown, President Donald Trump threatened to have the military build his promised wall along the US-Mexico border “if Democrats do not give us the votes to secure our country,” reports AP News.

NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft has exited the heliosphere — the plasma bubble created by the sun that encompasses most of our solar system — and entered interstellar space, making it the second human-made object to do so, reports engadget.com. Voyager 1 hit this milestone in 2012. NASA said Voyager 2 crossed over the heliopause, the boundary between the heliosphere and interstellar space, on Nov. 5 and the probe is now more than 11 billion miles from Earth.

President Trump’s top White House adviser on energy and climate embraces coal before a crowd of 200 at a climate conference in Poland, reports The Washington Post. “We strongly believe that no country should have to sacrifice economic prosperity or energy security in pursuit of environmental sustainability,” said Wells Griffith. The comments were not well received.

A new 6.8mm round will make soldiers’ rifles a lot deadlier, reports Military Times. The Next Generation Squad Weapon program aims to bring a new caliber that will reach farther, hit harder, and do so with greater accuracy.

Contracts:

Lockheed Martin, Mission Systems and Training, Baltimore, Maryland, is awarded $16,158,990 for cost-plus-award-fee order N6278619F0001, against previously awarded basic ordering agreement (N00024-15-G-2303), to provide engineering and management services for LCS-13 post shakedown availability. Lockheed Martin will provide engineering and management services in support of 65,000 man-hours level of effort, and to provide the work specification, pre-fabrication, and material. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Maryland (33 percent); New York, New York (60 percent); and Marinette, Wisconsin (7 percent), and is expected to be completed by February 2020. Fiscal 2013 and fiscal 2019 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funding in the amount of $15,087,040 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end at the end of the current fiscal year. The Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion, and Repair, Bath, Maine, is the contracting activity.