Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- July 8, 2015

Voice of America: Senate Panel Grills US Military Leaders Over IS Strategy

Republican senators vented frustrations over U.S. efforts to fight Islamic State (IS) radicals, and grilled Secretary of Defense Ash Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey at an Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.

During testimony, Carter acknowledged publicly for the first time the United States was only training about 60 Syrian opposition fighters to battle the Islamic State group as of July 3.

U.S. policymakers had hoped the program, launched in May in Jordan and Turkey, would train as many as 5,400 fighters a year as a strategy of engaging local partners to combat extremists.

Military And Intelligence News Briefs -- July 8, 2015

$500M US Program Has Only Trained 60 Syrians to Fight ISIS -- Military.com

Dempsey Describes ISIL Strategy, ‘Uncertain’ Global Security -- US Department of Defense

Pentagon chief stuns lawmakers on Syria -- The Hill

Operation To Retake Ramadi Underway, But Soldiers Doubt New Iraqi, US Military Strategy -- IBTimes

Assad Still Challenge for Pentagon, Congress -- Defense News

Don’t Expect Obama To Budge on His High Bar For Intervention -- Kevin Baron, Defense One

IDF would seek destruction of Hamas military wing if future conflict erupts -- Jerusalem Post

Israel Revamps Military, Announces New Elite Unit -- IBTimes

Next gen S-350 mobile mid-range missiles to make Russian air defense impenetrable -- RT

Russian antisubmarine ships go on combat duty in Pacific -- ITAR-TASS

Russia to Launch Space Based Missile Warning System -- Sputnik

Russia to Develop 'Aircraft Carrier Killer Sub' -- The Diplomat

$1.3 Billion Compensation for Mistral Non-Delivery 'More Reasonable' -- Sputnik

China's first aircraft carrier battle group to be formed next year -- Focus Taiwan

China: We Need Long-Range Strategic Bombers -- Sputnik

Thailand nears $1 billion submarine deal with China despite exclusive U.S. military training -- Washington Times

Philippines ramps up military spending in face of China threat -- Reuters

The Truth About Philippine Military Modernization and the ‘China Threat’ -- Prashanth Parameswaran, The Diplomat

Libya's Unrecognized Gov't Announces Army Restructuring -- Defense News

Georgia Opens Military Exercises With US, Other NATO Members -- AP

German missile battery receives orders from… unknown ‘hackers’ – report -- RT

'Hackers' give orders to German missile battery -- The Local

EU: More defence for less money -- EU Observer

Army plans to cut 40,000 troops -- Defense News

Navy Develops Mini-Drone Sensor -- Defense Tech

Heartbleed and beyond: Marine Corps ‘cyber range’ trains to fight off hackers -- Washington Post

NSA runs its spying activities on Red Hat Linux -- ITWire

‘Military hardware governed by US software equally vulnerable to hackers’ -- RT

US Cyber Command Admiral Reveals Details of 19-Day Training Exercise -- Sputnik

New Military Cyber Program Visualizes Invisible Attacks -- VOA

Trying to bring more diversity to the NSA -- Washington Post

Prosecutors: Top Gun grad offered China secrets for help with jailbreak -- Pilot Online

First Americans killed in the Vietnam War, July 8, 1959 -- Politico

Do Marines Have To Hitchhike At Sea? The Real Story -- Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense