The U.S. Navy drilled alongside Italian warships this week in the South China Sea, the third time the two allies have worked together in the Indo-Pacific this year, the service announced Thursday.

Medical professionals at this airlift hub in western Tokyo are prepping to administer flu shots ahead of other Indo-Pacific bases as flu season approaches. 

Japan will have a new leader after outgoing Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s governing Liberal Democratic Party holds a vote on Sept. 27 to choose his replacement. 

Several serving and former Australian military commanders have been stripped of medals over allegations of war crimes committed during the Afghanistan war, Defense Minister Richard Marles said.

The Pentagon’s rare move to keep two Navy aircraft carriers in the Middle East over the past several weeks has now finished, as the USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading home, according to U.S. officials.

The Pentagon has named Army Lt. Gen. Xavier Brunson as the nominee to command U.S. Forces Korea, a triple-hatted position that includes leading the Combined Forces and United Nations commands. If approved by the Senate, Brunson would also pin on the fourth star of a full general.

North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the sea east of the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, according to South Korea’s military.

Moscow’s forces claim to have started an offensive to dislodge Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region of Russia, their first significant effort in more than five weeks since the start of Kyiv’s incursion.

The new airfield is being built on reclaimed land in Oura Bay. The U.S. and Japanese governments agreed to move the base in 1996, but construction of the new site was repeatedly delayed by the Okinawa prefectural government.

Hundreds show up at various events at bases designed to remember the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and honor those who died in them.

“Despite the strong opposition of the international community, North Korea continues to enhance its nuclear and missile capabilities,” Kim Yong Hyun told an audience of diplomats and military officials from over 60 countries.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith pledged this week to help the Philippine military develop capabilities to monitor its sea territory amid ongoing coast guard clashes with China, the latest top U.S. military officer to pledge support on behalf of the Philippines.

The USS Georgia — an Ohio-class, ballistic-missile submarine — joins two carrier strike groups in the Middle East, the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Several service members have recently been indicted on sexual assault or attempted sexual assault charges. Okinawa leaders want to know how the U.S. military confirms such cases and how the accused are disciplined. “The information sharing system did not function at all,” the prefecture’s governor said.

The Russian military on Tuesday launched massive naval and air drills spanning across both hemispheres and including China in joint maneuvers.

Japanese prosecutors asked for a 2½-year prison term for a US sailor who admitted running drunkenly into a group of Japanese pedestrians, seriously injuring four, at a beach in 2022.

American and Japanese middle and high school students gathered here for a weekend of cultural exchanges and entrepreneurial role-playing.

The amphibious assault ship USS America stopped in South Korea last week, its first-ever visit to the country in the ship’s nearly 10-year history, the Navy said. 

Bebinca finally strengthens into a typhoon. U.S. bases on Okinawa remain in TCCOR Storm Watch through Saturday evening.