Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- August 15, 2014

U.S. Military Shifts to Helping Kurds Fight Back -- Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—The U.S. military is turning its focus toward helping Kurdish forces launch a counteroffensive against Sunni militants now that the refugee crisis in the northern Iraqi mountains has abated, American officials said Thursday.

American military planners are building a coalition of countries that have agreed to take part in the effort to fly in ammunition, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades the Kurdish fighters need to uproot extremist forces that call themselves the Islamic State, the officials said.

The focus on arming Kurdish fighters represents the next stage of U.S. military operations in Iraq. Earlier, the U.S. military essentially declared victory in preventing the Islamic State from attacking thousands of Iraqi refugees from the country's Yazidi religious minority hiding in the Sinjar mountains.

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Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- August 15, 2014

US to Arm Kurdish Peshmerga Amid ISIS Offensive -- RIA Novosti

UK 'prepared' to supply arms to Kurdish forces -- RT

Pentagon Defends Early Sinjar Threat Picture, Blames Initial Surveillance -- USNI

Did the Pentagon misjudge the danger on Iraq’s Mount Sinjar? -- Craig Whitlock, Washington Post

No, Iran Is Not Building Iron Dome: Tehran’s missile-defense claim could be a bluff -- Michael Peck, War Is Boring

U.S. halts missile transfer requested by Israel -- Haaretz

Report: White House in the Dark Over Arms Supplies to Israel -- Defense News

No ‘iron curtain’ for Russian arms industry – Rogozin -- RT

China Is Developing Alarming High-Tech Weapons Systems -- Business Insider

China Declares Australia a Military Threat Over U.S. Pact -- Epoch Times

Afghan special forces say in talks on deal with Taliban in Helmand -- Reuters

Nuclear Weapons for South Korea -- Philip Iglauer, The Diplomat

The British Army: A changing force -- The Economist

Britain's High-Tech New Plan to Rule the Waves -- Bill Sweetman, Daily Beast

Top US General Visits Wartime Foe Vietnam -- Defense News/AFP

Work finally begins on building Marine Corps runway on Okinawa -- Stars and Stripes

Further restrictions lifted for F-35 test fleet -- Air Force Times

JSF Program Has Some Explaining To Do -- Aviation Week editorial

DARPA Uses Preteen Gamers to Beta Test Tomorrow's Military Software -- Motherboard

Army physical fitness uniform gets golden makeover -- USA Today

DoD submits Guam military buildup plan to Congress -- Marine Times

The Pentagon gave nearly half a billion dollars of military gear to local law enforcement last year -- Washington Post

Here's A Breakdown Of The Military-Style Gear Used On The Streets Of Ferguson, Missouri -- Business Insider

How Congress Helped Create Ferguson’s Militarized Police -- National Journal

How America’s Police Became an Army: The 1033 Program -- Taylor Wofford, Newsweek

Surplus Military Gear Is Good for Police and Taxpayers (Commentaries) -- New York Times

DOCUMENT: Homeland Security Predicts Rise of 'Anti-Government' Violence -- Breitbart

The Public Will Soon Be Able to Buy Military-Grade Satellite Images -- NextGov

Marine sniper involved in controversial video found dead -- Marine Times

Why America Doesn't Need All Its Nukes ... And It Can't Afford Them Either -- Kingston Reif, Real Clear Defense

Can America Maintain Its Military-Technology Edge? -- Ben FitzGerald, National Interest

Warship "Survivability" -- Information Dissemination

Air Force Has the Strategic Edge -- Alex ward, Real Clear Defense

Time to rein in the Pentagon's mysterious slush fund -- William D. Hartung, L.A. Times

Maj. Gen. Harold Greene receives full burial honors at Arlington -- Stars and Stripes