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Will Yale

@wayale.bsky.social
3.5K followers 703 following 709 posts

Surface Warfare Officer (U.S. Navy) in DC. Six years in Japan, two years in China. Episcopalian. Johns Hopkins SAIS/HNC alum. 中文/日本語 🏳️‍🌈🇺🇦🇹🇼

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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
No surprise, one of the most clear-eyed takes on the Trump-Xi summit comes from Kurt Campbell: www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/new...
www3.nhk.or.jp
Expert warns about China's wedge strategy | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
Former US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has warned about Beijing's intentions, saying it is trying to undermine ties between Washington and Tokyo.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It can't possibly be a coincidence that North Korea's destroyer Choe Hyon has the same hull number as the USS Arleigh Burke. www.usni.org/magazines/pr...
usni.org
North Korea’s Choe Hyon–Class Naval Strike Destroyer
On 23 June 2026, North Korea commissioned the Choe Hyon, the first of four heavily armed destroyers introducing powerful new naval strike capabilities to their fleet.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Excited to announce that I have been selected to serve as a detailee to the National Commission on the Future of the Navy! I’m looking forward to supporting the commission and contributing both my experience at HQMC and my expertise in Navy force structure and shipbuilding to their work.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Strongly agree with this piece by @rushdoshi.bsky.social and Rosie Levine. For me, language study in China (supported by Gilman and Fulbright-Hays funding) and graduate education at Hopkins-Nanjing was transformative. What happens when those opportunities are gone? www.cfr.org/articles/ame...
cfr.org
America Is Losing the Ability to Train Tomorrow’s China Experts. The Trump-Xi Summit Can Help. | Council on Foreign Relations
Long-standing educational programs such as Fulbright, Boren, and the Critical Language Scholarship are all suspended. A leader-level deal could bring them back and protect the students who take part.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Happy to be quoted in this @breakingdefense.com piece by Michael Marrow on the closure of CASI. breakingdefense.com/2026/09/the-...
breakingdefense.com
The Air Force says its China think-tank will continue. Its director says it's basically dead. - Breaking Defense
The Air Force’s stance that the China Aerospace Studies Institute can function without civilian staff is “not credible,” Brendan Mulvaney told Breaking Defense.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This extraordinary WSJ article details the many ways China has enabled Iran during Operation Epic Fury. China may say it wants to play peacemaker in the Middle East, yet it indirectly participates in the war. I hope the U.S. imposes real consequences for this behavior. www.wsj.com/politics/chi...
wsj.com
Iran Has a Secret Weapon in Its War With America: Help From China
Trump wants to preserve relations with Xi, but Iranian customs data show Chinese entities have made thousands of shipments of components used in drones and missiles.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This story highlights two facts about the U.S. military supply system: 1) that it frequently utilizes commercial carriers to move parts; and 2) that the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) and Lockheed Martin maintain centralized control over all F-35 parts. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
China Is Holding Sensitive F-35 Parts Diverted to Hong Kong
The Chinese government has taken possession of potentially sensitive F-35 stealth aircraft parts that were inexplicably diverted to Hong Kong while being sent to the US from Australia, people briefed ...
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Make it make sense!
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Gerald C Brown @geraldcbrown.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
I'm glad to see the extent of outrage caused by Air University's short-sighted decision to shut down CASI. The analyst's at CASI aren't just close friends of mine, they're a series of top notch China hands doing a massive service to the USG that is rarely replicated.
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Brendan O’Kane @bokane.org · 21/09/2026
jesus
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Dr Emma Salisbury @salisbot.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
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Nick Kodama 🌳👻 @nickkodama.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
pikachu looking at dead ash but it's pacom looking at the pivot
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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
what the fuck
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David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Literal decades of damage to United States national security. There are kids now who would have gone to do ROTC or joined the IC. They won't be there in thirty years as senior officers or analysts. Think about what leadership looks like then if only populated by those who joined now...
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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Between the killing of DTIC and now CASI, DOD really trying to kill any and all scholarship on war, I’m sure that’ll work out smartly!
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David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
my god someone make it stop
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B. A. Friedman @bafriedman.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is awful. CASI does excellent work and put on the best PLA course in DC.
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David Burbach 🇺🇸 @dburbach.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This is a big mistake. I find CASI materials invaluable in teaching military officers at NWC about China's military space programs and strategy.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
It is extremely unfortunate and regrettable that the Department of the Air Force has decided to shutter the China Aerospace Studies Institute (CASI). CASI, along with its sister institutions the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI), China Landpower Studies Center (CLSC), and…
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is an important article which explains how the USMC is operationalizing Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO). These are exactly the same capabilities the Stand-in Force (SIF) would use in the First Island Chain during a Taiwan contingency. www.twz.com/sea/usmc-use...
twz.com
USMC Used Its Expeditionary Operations Playbook In Combat For First Time During Epic Fury
The USMC set up remote forward refueling and rearming points for F-35Bs and other aircraft, as well as sensing locations during the war with Iran.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Here, here! Excellent article from @briankerg.bsky.social. www.usni.org/magazines/pr...
usni.org
Where Exactly Has the Warrior Ethos Gotten Us?
The Marine Corps should revive its traditional ethos, emphasizing professional competence, readiness, honor, courage, and commitment for the demands of modern warfare.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Excellent argument--the Navy is an essential tool of statecraft in both wartime *and* peacetime. www.usni.org/magazines/pr...
usni.org
More Than a Warfighter
History proves readiness alone is not enough for war.
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Yen-han Chen 陳彥翰 🇹🇼🇺🇸🇺🇦 @chen-yenhan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
If you don’t have amnesia, you’ll remember that Biden, a president responsible for AUKUS, the US-Japan-Korea trilateral, increased FMF for Taiwan, and extensively using the Entity List against Chinese firms, was portrayed as too soft on China.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Set aside the controversy around this segment. This is absolutely a story the USG should publicize. What other military could possibly pull this off? www.youtube.com/watch?app=de...
youtube.com
U.S. Air Force officer shot down in Iran says it's a "modern-day miracle" he survived | 60 Minutes
YouTube video by 60 Minutes
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Every September 11th, I like to watch this clip of the memorial service held a few days after 9/11 at St Paul's Cathedral, London, in which the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey delivers the end of his sermon and the mostly British congregation... www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmpo...
youtube.com
Battle Hymn of the Republic - London 2001
YouTube video by julius923
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Brian Hioe @brianhioe.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Here's me on that Simon Shuster piece in The Atlantic. The reason why I think it struck a nerve is his sympathies are quite transparent. He spends two paragraphs at the start fawning over the grandeur of CCP state ceremonies
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Brian Kerg @briankerg.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
OMG she nailed the author for referring to the KMT as the 'Taiwanese Nationalists' ☠️
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Friends in Washington, DC: on Friday, September 25th, I will be moderating a @ycaps.bsky.social book talk by Dr. Geoffrey F. Gresh, author of Leaning Seaward: Japan as a Maritime Great Power. I hope you can make it! Please find more information and register here: www.ycaps.org/dc-leaning-s...
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
This article is a gift to CCP propaganda. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
theatlantic.com
Will Taiwan Just Give Up?
The Taiwanese don’t trust Trump, and they don’t believe America will come to their defense. A deal with China is starting to look inevitable.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Wow, a great score for my alma mater @johnshopkinssais.bsky.social!
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
The U.S. is making decisions that will damage the navy's readiness for years. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
Trump’s war on Iran is rapidly draining US navy budget, documents and interviews reveal
Exclusive: Experts and former officials say accounts are running dry, and funding a war with no clear endgame is the main challenge
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
“Both Watson and Scheller used their positions in the military to criticize their political leadership, failing in their duty as military officers to refrain from either endorsement or criticism of the decisions made by the civilians who lead the country.” thedispatch.com/article/wats...
thedispatch.com
The Military and Politics Don’t Mix
Service members shouldn’t be criticizing—or fawning over—politicians and military leaders.
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Another example of the Littoral Maneuver Bridging Strategy (LMBS) in action: the first Ancillary Surface Craft (ASC), sponsored by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL), has completed technical acceptance. www.workboat.com/landing-craf...
workboat.com
Landing craft prototype delivered to the Marine Corps
The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) has completed technical acceptance of the first Ancillary Surface Craft prototype, a roll-on/roll-off landing craft built through a partnership between B
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
@militarytimes.bsky.social profiles one of the lines of effort in the Littoral Maneuver Bridging Strategy (LMBS): the Mathilda 1, a stern landing vessel used by the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL), in collaboration with Australia, for experimentation. www.militarytimes.com/news/your-mi...
militarytimes.com
Marine Corps may charter more commercial vessels amid experimentation efforts
The charter agreement, the Corps' second since 2021, allows the service to experiment without having to invest heavily in in-house shipbuilding.
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Zach @thrustwr.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
This guy is supposed to be the smartest navalist out there. Nimitz production interval was what it was because the $$ was there to commit to the program. The current budget realities are different, and the brain dead proposal for steam-cat means this interval would get worse.
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thinkingbayonet.bsky.social @thinkingbayonet.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
someone should do a little experiment and search Hendrix's (and Salamander's, for that matter) tweets for "Obama" and "Biden," just for scientific purposes
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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Again, if Kamala Harris was doing this stuff, the slurs being hurled by this crowd would make Calvin Candie’s vocabulary look modest
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Mike Black @mikeblack114.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
"No actually completely redesigning the carrier will result in them being delivered faster" is incredible even by jerbear standards
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Sebastian Bae @sebastianbae.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
I did not have the PLA Navy playing my "Littoral Commander Indo-Pacific" #wargame on one of their ships on my bingo card for 2026. Absolutely wild. 🎲 #wargaming
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
No surprise that Jerry Hendrix and CDR Salamander are carrying water for what will be, if implemented, one of the worst shipbuilding decisions ever made. They presumably know better, and betray every principle they claim to uphold. cdrsalamander.substack.com/p/so-we-have...
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Jeffrey J. Hall @mrjeffu.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
・US Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby in January 2026: South Korea is a "model ally." ・Trump in August 2026: US-ROK joint exercises are "inappropriate and hostile." North Korea, which recently test fired several missiles without warning, is "unthreatening and respectful."
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This would have been an absolutely miserable situation. news.usni.org/2026/08/14/u...
news.usni.org
USS Benfold Was Stalled in the South China Sea for Four Days - USNI News
Guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold (DDG-65) spent four days in the South China Sea without power after an engineering failure, USNI News has learned. Benfold suffered the engineering casualty result...
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Friends in Washington, DC: on Friday, August 28th, I will be moderating a @ycaps.bsky.social book talk by Anna Beth Keim, author of Heaven Does Not Block All Roads: A History of Taiwan Through the Life of Huang Chin-tao. Please register here: www.ycaps.org/dc-book-talk...
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David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
There is another version of this WSJ article that goes: "Iran, with thousands of drones and missiles but no stand-in capability, has killed <20 Americans. Meanwhile, America destroys whatever it wants and can rescue a dude from inside their country. Maybe drones aren't a panacea."
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David Alman @davidalman.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
It is simultaneously possible that: 1) America is underprepared for the use of small one way attack drones 2) much reporting on how underprepared we are overstates its case 3) the American military would still likely win 4) Ukraine is good at using drones 5) Ukraine still wants our legacy kit
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
For all the bros complaining about rusty ships: this is what happens when you divert a ship mid-patrol and tell them to hang out in 5th Fleet for 4 months. There are real maintenance and readiness costs for decisions made by POTUS and SECDEF. www.instagram.com/reel/DbvBr3r...
instagram.com
MWR Sasebo Japan on Instagram: "Welcome Home USS New Orleans, we're glad you're back!"
718 likes, 27 comments - mwrsasebojapan on August 7, 2026: "Welcome Home USS New Orleans, we're glad you're back!".
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
TIL there is a member of Ishin no Kai in the Japanese Diet (Shi Ping, or Seki Hei in Japanese) who was born in China, posts online in both Japanese and Chinese, and is a fan of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the “Etajima Spirit” (江田島精神). 👀👀
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Will Yale @wayale.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Congratulations to the Tripoli ARG (including my former ship, USS Rushmore) and the 31st MEU on a successful deployment! For context, the FDNF ARG and 31st MEU rarely, if ever, deploy to 5th Fleet, and this deployment was about twice as long as a regular deployment. www.cpf.navy.mil/Newsroom/New...
cpf.navy.mil
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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
>wake up >global security architecture has degraded further >go to sleep >global security architecture has degraded further >wake up >global security architecture has degraded further >go to sleep >global security architecture has degraded further
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Secretary of Defense Rock @sodrock.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
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