US Navy – More details on the “Sea Swap” program.
International Navies – The latest naval news from England, Australia,, India, Pakistan, Canada, Finland, UAE, and Greece.
US Navy – The Sea Swap test, an experiment in dual-crewing of surface ships, continues successfully.
US Marines – Rarely in a career do we get the opportunity to challenge ourselves in a foreign education environment. The authors take us on the fabulous journey in store for prospective students at the French Joint Defense College.
Military Sealift Command – Transporting Army equipment to and from Kuwait aboard USNS Gordon.
US Navy – The U.S. Navyís top fleet leader, Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of the Norfolk, Va.-based U.S. Fleet Forces Command, wants to strengthen the input of operational forces with a fundamental shift in how the Navy identifies requirements for resources, equipment, manpower, and training programs.
Royal Navy – The first Sea Harrier squadron disbands soon.
Chilean Navy – Chile will purchase frigates from Holland.
US Navy – For a decade, the media has been rife with apparent evidence that the Peopleís Liberation Army Navy wishes to operate an aircraft carrier. However, the aircraft carrier today has no champion in the Chinese navy. Strategic priorities, costs, technical difficulties, and the likely reaction of neighboring countries all now argue against a Chinese carrier battle group. However, the PLAN has not abandoned the idea altogetherómerely shelved it.
Background – Iraq – William Lind documents how the US has entered into a 4GW conflict in Iraq.
NATO – A look at how NATO forces will help guard the Olympics.
US Navy – More about the problems with the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.
US Navy – Navy news from around the defense industry.
Background – History – The “Qualifications of a Naval Officer” quotation variously attributed to John Paul Jones and force-fed to U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen in the publication Reef Points presents a clear sign of naval transformation at the turn of the 20th century. The action of a recent Commandant of Midshipmen, however, officially acknowledges that Jones had nothing to do with this 100-year-old mantra.
Background – Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia is in the throes of a crisis, but its elite is bitterly divided on how to escape it. Crown Prince Abdullah leads a camp of liberal reformers seeking rapprochement with the West, while Prince Nayef, the interior minister, sides with an anti-American Wahhabi religious establishment that has much in common with al Qaeda. Abdullah cuts a higher profile abroad — but at home Nayef casts a longer and darker shadow.
US Marines – Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, aboard the USS Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group in the Gulf, will soon go ashore in Afghanistan to join the search for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.
Canadian Navy – Canada will do more to enforce its sovereignty over its northern territories.
US Navy – More on the Littoral Combat Ship.
Background – Port Security – How the US is trying to push its borders back to prevent seaborne terrorism.
Background – Operations Other Than War – The U.S. occupation of Iraq is a debacle not because the government did no planning but because a vast amount of expert planning was willfully ignored by the people in charge. The inside story of a historic failure by James Fallows.
US Marines – The Marines take over in Fallujah.
US Marines – Contrary to a recent preliminary U.S. Army War College study that downgraded the importance of speed in Operation Iraqi Freedom last year, the Marine Corps strongly believes that speed was absolutely essential in the rout of Saddam Husseinís forces.
Background – Iraq – This piece is the first in a series of periodic Inside the Command Center articles on the 2003 war in Iraq. The author spent six weeks of the war as an ìembedded reporterî at the Coalition Force Land Component Command headquarters at Camp Doha, Kuwait.
Background – Wargames – James F. Dunningan on what can be learned from wargaming the war with Iraq?
Russian Navy – The flagship of Russia’s Northern Fleet – the cruiser Peter the Great – has been ordered back to port as it is said to be too dangerous to be at sea.
Russian Navy – The decline of Russia’s armed services has been unmistakeable for more than a decade, but it is the crisis in the navy that has been most conspicuous of all.
Argentinian Navy – Argentina is accused of interferring in the Falkland’s economic zone.
US Navy – There are nagging doubts about the ability of the U.S. naval shipbuilding and repair industry to meet the demands of the century ahead. Some elementsóprimarily those associated with small boats and high-speed ferries and the offshore oil and barge industriesóare faring well, but the future is far less sanguine for many of the larger yards and their subcontractors.
Background – Spain – William Lind looks at one of historyís shortest and most successful strategic bombing campaigns.
US Navy – The US plans to permanently station an Aegis destroyer in the Sea of Japan as part of its ballist missile defense shield.
US Navy – An IT analysis of the disaster the Navy Marine Corps Intranet has become.
US Navy – Many critics in Washington predicted more than a year ago that the realignment of the Navyís integrated warfare systems (IWS) under one acquisition umbrella would not last because its size and complexity would pose impassable barriers to success. Today, Rear Adm. Charles T. Bush, the program executive officer in charge of IWS, offers this news: programs have been tightened, support costs are down, and open architecture ó the conversion of the serviceís diverse information system protocols into a universal network ó is becoming reality.
Bangladeshi Navy – Bangladesh will increase the size of its navy.
US Marines – Our Nation has become so dependent on spectrum-based services that it would be difficult to win a war without them.
Background – Warplanning – William Arkin looks at the current state of warplanning in the Pentagon.
Background – Afghanistan – An interesting look at the current state of affairs in Afghanistan, followed by a Question and Answer session with the author.
Royal Navy – Aboard a Royal Navy frigate in the Gulf, hunting Al-Qaeda.
US Navy – Is the title of the Secretary of the Navy about to change?
US Navy – After delays of about two years and significant cost overruns, the Navy considers the new LPD 17 amphibious transport dock ship to be on schedule now, with the first of 12 ships set for delivery early in the next fiscal year.
US Navy – The world order anchored by the U.S.-German relationship has integrated Germany into Europe without more bloodshed, brought the transformation of communist Europe, and visited prosperity on a part of the world that could easily have been embroiled in strife. That world order, however, is being severely eroded by misunderstanding and rhetoric on all sides. A statecraft is needed that comprehends the nature of military power and what a given country can and cannot do to defend itself.
Background – Bases – George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld have pledged to change the way America’s armed forces are distributed around the globe. What do they have in mind?
Chinese Navy – A look at how and why the Chinese Navy is increasing in size.
US Marines – Patroling at night in Port-au-Prince with the Marines.
US Navy – Aboard the USS George Washington in the Persian Gulf.
US Navy – Naval lessons learned from Iraq.
Background – Iraq – John Keegan looks back on the invasion of Iraq, one year later.
Background – Iraq – A look at how 4th Generation Warfare is being conducted in Iraq.
Background – History – The paths of two powerful men crossed in the early 1920s, and their actions shaped the future of the Navy and Marine Corps.
Background – War on Terror – The Bush administration has literalized its “war” on terrorism, dissolving the legal boundaries between what a government can do in peacetime and what’s allowed in war. This move may have made it easier for Washington to detain or kill suspects, but it has also threatened basic due process rights, thereby endangering us all.
Nigerian Navy – Nigeria sends a ship to patrol off of Equitorial Guinea.
Canadian Navy – Canada’s commando force, JTF-2, prepares for naval missions.
Chinese Navy – Is China building several aircraft carriers, to a modified Admiral Gorshkov design?
US Navy – In 2004, the Navy is poised at an important juncture, with its forces having been restructured following Operation Iraqi Freedom, and its leadership executing new plans for how the fleet will organize and deploy in support of the ongoing global war on terrorism. The transformation under way calls for enhanced capabilities and the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is building the platforms that will redefine the fleet well into the next century.
Russian Navy – Russia successfully test fires a submarine launched intercontinental ballistic missile.
NATO – NATO widens its antiterrorism patrols to the entire Mediterranean Sea.
Background – Geopolitics – Meet Colonel Tom Wilhelm, one of a new breed of soldier-diplomats that has come into being since the end of the Cold War. An essay by Robert D. Kaplan
Royal Air Force – Nimrod maritme patrol aircraft are being used for overland surveillance in Iraq.
Royal Navy – More design changes to the Royal Navy’s new carriers.
French Navy – More on the exercises between the French and Chinese navies.
US Navy – The USS Kitty Hawk battlegroup is exercising off of Korea.
US Navy – Will the 6th Fleet help provide security for the Olympic Games?
US Marines – The Marines begin nation building in Haiti.
US Marines – Mines and IEDs in expeditionary maneuver warfare environments: obstacles or nuisances? Fixing MAGTF mine countermeasures is essential.
US Navy – Are P-3 Orions operating in support of troops in Chad?
Background – Piracy – An update on piracy at sea.
Background – Taiwan – Background briefings on the current dispute in the Taiwan Strait.
Background – Russia – A further look at Russia’s exercises last month.
US Navy – American civilian and military leaders must dismiss the fatally flawed theory that time is on China’s side in the struggle over the fate of Taiwan. The real danger of a PRC attack is in this decade, when Taiwan is most vulnerable, not in the next. Closer military ties with Taiwan, more cautious dealings with China, a strengthened U.S. naval and air presence in the western Pacific, and complementary nonmilitary measures are needed.
French Navy – The French and Chinese navies will exercise next week.
French Navy – The French and Indian navies will exercise next month.
US Marines – Leathernecks of 1st Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment have been on a fast track since their return from Iraq. Now they are headed back.
Background – History – War produces many strange results. The submersible aircraft carrier was one.
New Site – BiodefenseEducation.org – In brief, a new site, similar in concept to NOSI, but dedicated to the topic of biodefense and biological warfare, that we are working on for the National Institutes of Health. Below is the formal description:
The biodefense field and biodefense information is growing rapidly, and keeping current is challenging.
BiodefenseEducation.org is a Biodefense Digital Library and Collaboratory which is intended to serve as a source of continuing education on biodefense affairs.
BiodefenseEducation.org is designed to serve several different populations: the current and next generation of biodefense investigators and trainees, medical personnel, first responders, and other interested parties.
BiodefenseEducation.org has three components:
1. News Library – An annotated list of links to biodefense news stories are posted daily after scanning over 100 international news sources. The purpose of this News Library is to serve as a source of daily biodefense education and continuing professional development for biodefense investigators and trainees and to define a biodefense learning curriculum.
2. Collaboratory – Discussions about the biodefense news stories or any other biodefense topic is encouraged. The purpose of this Collaboratory is to bring together online individuals interested in biodefense so they may freely and easily discuss the numerous issues in biodefense research, education, or patient care.
3. Reference Library – The reference library serves as a biodefense knowledge management system, connecting the individual interested in biodefense faced with a question with the right information at the right time so they can make the right decision.
BiodefenseEducation.org can be found at: http://www.biodefenseeducation.org
BiodefenseEducation.org is funded in part by a grant from the National Institute of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
BiodefenseEducation.org is a work in progress, and we welcome your comments which may be sent via our online Comment Form at http://www.biodefenseeducation.org/sendcomments.
Thank you for your consideration,
Donna M. D’Alessandro, M.D. and Michael P. D’Alessandro, M.D.
US Navy – A U.S. Navy strategic missile from the USS Georgia was damaged during a mishap at a submarine base last year, nearly striking a nuclear warhead.
Iraq – Will US learn from the lessons taught to the British during their occupation of Iraq starting in 1920?
Indian Navy – The Admiral Gorshkov is formally turned over to the Indian Navy.
Canadian Navy – An update on the status of the Upholder-class.
US Marines – The rules of engagment in Haiti are broadened.
US Navy – At least 22 commanding officers have been fired in the past 13 months ñ nearly as many as in the three previous years combined.
Royal Navy – The cause of HMS Trafalgar’s grounding during Perisher training in 2002 is revealed.
US Marines – The Marines are taking a new version of the M-16 back to Iraq with them.
Background – Leadership – Part 3 of Rick Atkinson’s first hand account of what it was like for Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus to lead the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq.
US Marines – William Arkin takes a look at some of the nonlethal weapons the Marines are taking to Iraq.
Background – Leadership – Part 2 of Rick Atkinson’s first hand account of what it was like for Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus to lead the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq.
Background – Defense Spending – Is the Bush defense buildup untenable?
US Marines – With the Marines in Haiti again???
US Navy – The U.S. Navy’s traditional missions are generally less relevant today than in recent decades, because of advances in technology and changes in the global environment. To meet the radically altered requirements now placed upon military forces, the Navy must transform itself, mission by mission. It is a tall order.
Background – Leadership – Part 1 of Rick Atkinson’s first hand account of what it was like for Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus to lead the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq.
US Marines – Marines move their patrols beyond Port-au-Prince.
Background – Pakistan – Seymour Hersch provides insight into how the Pakistani nuclear physicist Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan has enabled worldwide nuclear proliferation and goes on to ask why the US is doing nothing about it???
Background – Al Quaeda – An Algerian journalist who infiltrated a terrorist cell in France reveals how a clash of cultures has turned Muslim immigrants into radical Islamist militants.
NOSI - Naval Open Source Intelligence™ 
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