Navy ¦ Navy News ¦ Naval News ¦ NOSI – Naval Open Source Intelligence

Posted on by

Finally! – NOSI has been successfully transferred to its new hosting service. We should no longer experience any server outages (knock wood!).

Here is a catchup of all news items from April 3 until today. Many very interesting items, please take your time going through them. The big news item while we were down were the battles in Iraq, particularly in Fallujah, and will cover those going forward from here.

I will not have Internet access for the next few days, so NOSI will next be updated on Monday, April 26, and we will be back to our usual daily update schedule at that time. See you then!

First – Here are the news items from April 3 to April 6, which many of you missed during the server outages.

Malaysian Navy – Malaysia has rejected a proposal that the United States help patrol the Straits of Malacca.

US Navy – An introduction to network centric warfare.

US Navy – To learn where military research is going, ask DARPA. Here are a number of lectures from their most recent Symposium. In the naval sphere, they are focused on the littorals???

South Korean Navy – South Korea will host a submarine rescue exercise later this month.

US Coast Guard – The U.S. Coast Guard later this month will review recommendations from industry on the pros and cons of renovating 49 110-foot Island-class patrol boats ó workhorses of the fleet ó or curtailing that effort by buying in early on a new class of fast-response cutters.

US Navy – Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Vern Clark has directed his admirals to “develop a culture of improved productivity and find the resources to create the Navy of the future.”

US Navy – The extraction of lucrative natural resources is increasingly, in several regions of the world, a source of violence-conflicts in which transnational corporations are frequently complicit but that they are also typically best positioned to resolve. While theoretical analysis of natural-resource- related violence is not yet mature, there are strong reasons for the U.S. armed forces and their civilian leadership to be cautious about intervening in such conflicts.

Canadian Navy – Canada’s Aurora maritime patrol aircraft are being upgraded.

US Navy – More details on the sea-based US missile shield being built off of Korea.

US Marines – so much for the 1 MEF’s “go soft” approach to the Sunni Triangle???

US Navy – The US Navy is having its role in maritime security clarified.

US Navy – An interview with the Chief of Naval Research, Admiral Jay Cohen.

Background – History – A team reveals the story of the steam yacht Fox on its mission from Britain to determine the fate of an 1845 quest to find the Northwest Passage. Under the command of Captain Francis Leopold McClintock the ship’s crew found evidence of how Captain Sir John Franklin and his expedition spent their final days.

Background – Taiwan – George W. Bush was right to rebuke Taiwan’s president over his plans for a referendum on relations with China. Administration critics assume that democracy and independence are inseparable, that the “one China” principle is no longer useful, and that China would never go to war over Taiwan. But they are wrong on all three counts and fail to appreciate the dangers that may lie ahead.

Second – Here are the news items from April 7 until today.

Royal Navy – The submarines HMS Tireless and USS Hampton meet at the North Pole for a game of football.

Pakistani Navy – Pakistan will join the international task force in the Arabian Sea, searching for terrorists.

US Marines – The Marines are working hard at stopping terrorists from entering into Iraq from Syria.

US Navy – A close-up look at the HSV 2 Swift’s cutting-edge systems

US Navy – The Navy starts to retire its S-3 Vikings.

US Navy – The US opens a new antisubmarine command.

US Navy – The homeport for the USS John F. Kennedy will remain in Mayport, Florida.

US Navy – Never before has such a large quantity and broad scope of information been available instantaneously to the warfare commander. The impact of this fact cannot be overstated; it is transforming the way we conduct war.

US Marines – This is Part II of a three-part series concerning Phase IVósecurity and stabilization operationsóduring Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Background – 4th Generation Warfare – William Lind attempts to develop a grand strategy of 4th Generation Warfare.

Background – Afghanistan – Seymour Hersh on the Bush Administrationís unfinished business in Afghanistan, and how Afghanistan is turning into a quagmire for the US.

Background – History – A look at how a very small RAF force defended their airbase and utterly defeated the Iraqi army in 1941.

Background – Iraq – Historian Niall Ferguson draws parallels between the US occpuation of Iraq today and the UK occupation of Iraq in the 1920’s. The similarities are fascinating???

Background – Iraq – The US Army War College’s plan for post-war Iraq, done in the fall of 2002 and published in February 2003. Would post-war Iraq be a different place if this study of history had not been ignored?

Background – Iraq – The US Army War College goes on to criticize the plan for the US invasion of Iraq.

Background – Iraq – An interesting look at the Shias inside Iraq. The son of a famous Shiite family says that if elected, he can run Iraq.

Background – Peacekeeping – What happens when the shooting stops is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and the people who build nations, despite recent setbacks in Haiti and Kosovo, are convinced that peacekeeping can work.

Background – Environment – A Pentagon report claims that climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.

Background – Korea – U.S. war plans for the Korean peninsula are being rewritten to better reflect new and more capable equipment the U.S. and its South Korean ally are fielding.

Background – Body Armor – Robert Kaplan explains that body armor is a must in some lines of work, and it gives “fashion plate” a whole new meaning

Background – Iraq – First excerpt from Bob Woodward’s new book on the War in Iraq entitled “Plan of Attack.” Woodward describes the Cheney-Powell split over war with Iraq.

Background – Iraq – The second except from Bob Woodward’s book “Plan of Attack.” The CIA’s estimate of Saddam Hussein’s Arsenal Became the White House’s Rationale for Invasion

Background – Iraq – Third excerpt from Bob Woodward’s new book, which details the tension between the Vice President and Secretary of State Powell.

Background – Iraq – The fourth excerpt from Bob Woodward’s new book, in which Britain’s backing meant Bush didn’t have to go it alone.

Third – Here are the background articles for this weekend.

Background – History – During the March 28, 1941, Battle of Cape Matapan, British Admiral Andrew B. Cunningham decided once and for all who would be master of the Mediterranean.

Background – History – The Navy currently is developing the Littoral Combat Ship to meet its requirement for a craft that can travel at high speed, have a minimal draft to operate within the littoral, evade minefields, and deliver fire to destroy enemy targets. The origins of this radical new multimission ship, however, date back to an initial ó and equally radical ó attempt to meet those same requirements during World War I.

Background – Russia – Conventional wisdom in the West says that post-Cold War Russia has been a disastrous failure. The facts say otherwise. Aspects of Russia’s performance over the last decade may have been disappointing, but the notion that the country has gone through an economic cataclysm and political relapse is wrong–more a comment on overblown expectations than on Russia’s actual experience. Compared to other countries at a similar level of economic and political development, Russia looks more the norm than the exception.

US Navy – Gilbert and Sullivan’s fictitious Major General Stanley would have had little or no opportunity for formal professional military development. The U.S. military has evolved senior service colleges, including the U.S. Army War College, at which that nineteenth-century “modern major general” would find no place. These colleges must sustain their vital role in educating officers to meet the challenges of the emerging and future world.