Overview of the Chinese Military, and More from CRS
“From 2005 through 2014, China’s official military budget increased at an average rate of 9.5% per year in real terms, allowing the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] to improve its capabilities in many dimensions,” says a newly updated report from the Congressional Research Service based on open sources.
“The question of how the United States should respond to China’s military modernization effort is a central issue in U.S. defense planning and foreign policy. Congress’ decisions on this issue could affect U.S. defense strategy, budgets, plans, and programs, and the U.S. defense industrial base,” the CRS report said. See The Chinese Military: Overview and Issues for Congress, March 24, 2016.
Other new and newly updated products from the Congressional Research Service that Congress has withheld from online public distribution include the following.
What’s the Difference? — Comparing U.S. and Chinese Trade Data, updated March 24, 2016
Navy Irregular Warfare and Counterterrorism Operations: Background and Issues for Congress, updated March 25, 2016:
President Obama’s Historic Visit to Cuba, CRS Insight, March 25, 2016
U.S. Trade Concepts, Performance, and Policy: Frequently Asked Questions, updated March 25, 2016
Commemorative Days, Weeks, and Months: Background and Current Practice, March 25, 2016
The Federal Budget: Overview and Issues for FY2017 and Beyond, March 24, 2016
Public Trust and Law Enforcement–A Brief Discussion for Policymakers, updated March 22, 2016
Navy Ship Names: Background for Congress, updated March 23, 2016
European Security and Islamist Terrorism, CRS Insight, March 23, 2016
Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons, updated March 23, 2016
The FAS Nuclear Notebook is one of the most widely sourced reference materials worldwide for reliable information about the status of nuclear weapons, and has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1987.. The Nuclear Notebook is researched and written by the staff of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project: Director Hans […]
On 14 April 2023, the Belarusian Ministry of Defence released a short video of a Su-25 pilot explaining his new role in delivering “special [nuclear] munitions” following his training in Russia. The features seen in the video, as well as several other open-source clues, suggest that Lida Air Base––located only 40 kilometers from the Lithuanian border and the […]
A photo in a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) student briefing from 2022 shows four people inspecting what appears to be a damaged B61 nuclear bomb.
In early-February 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) had informed Congress that China now has more launchers for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) than the United States. The report is the latest in a serious of revelations over the past four years about China’s growing nuclear weapons arsenal and the deepening […]