The Wire - December 28, 2023

this is the wire for 2200 Zulu December 28th 2023 preceden is routine information cut off is 2100 bottom line up front threats to shipping continue in the Red Sea the US rebuild an Airfield in the Pacific drawing the IR of China beginning with international events in the Red Sea Horn of Africa region as Maritime shipping begins to resume to some degree through the Babel MB straet interesting AIS transponder data has been noted by observers in the data broadcast by a ship's AIS transponder short messages are being transmitted to dissuade targeting by Yemen over the past couple of weeks it was common to see ships inserting the text armed guards on board in the data transmitted by their transponder now several ships have been noted to change this to no contact Israel as a method of conveying that their ship has no affiliation with Israel analysts comment though how successful this will be is not known it is interesting to note as this is yet another overt demonstration of the lack of confidence in the protection provided by Naval vessels as a reminder yeni forces have ordered All Ships to leave their AIS transponders on whereas some reports indicate vessels being urged by various authorities to turn off their transponders when transiting the Red Sea to avoid targeting this complicates efforts to identify the true number of vessels transiting the choke point so far many Maritime shipping companies appear to be splitting the difference and mitigating Risk by sending some ships through the Red Sea and others around the cape in the south Pacific Chinese officials have urged Defense Forces to remain on high alert over the coming months in response to United States strategic moves in the region the United States is currently refurbishing an Old World War II air base on tinian island a sparsely populated island approximately 90 nautical miles north of Guam the US Airbase on this island was abandoned in 1947 and recent efforts have been undertaken to reclaim the Airfield from the jungle so as to serve as another critical staging base for aircraft in the event of a war in the South Pacific and analy comments for this wire reclaiming tinian island has historical implications as well which are probably the reasoning behind Chinese apprehension in addition to the obvious military reasons tenian Island was the base from which the 509th composite group was stationed and The Point of Departure for the b29 super fortresses which dropped the atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki reclaiming this Airfield not only reactivates a vital base of operations but also sends a clear message to the entire South Pacific region this concludes wire for 2200 Zulu December 28th 2023