Pacific Air Forces is slated to kick off its seventh annual joint humanitarian assistance operation with Tonga on Monday by sending approximately 65 US service members to the country. As part of Operation Pacific Angel-Tonga, they will work alongside Tonga’s military force to help provide “general health, dental, optometry, pediatrics, and engineering programs” during the six-day humanitarian operation, states a release. Led by Pacific Air Forces, Operation PACANGEL helps “improve and build relationships in the event of future humanitarian assistance and disaster relief efforts” and “supports US Pacific Command’s capacity-building,” states the release.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…