Sea Power – The Navy underscored its sense of urgency and determination to foster new technologies with the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program by awarding two final system design contracts with options for detail design and construction to Lockheed Martinís Maritime Systems & Sensors Division and General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, while rejecting a bid by Raytheon.
Monthly Archives: July 2004
History – Combined Action Program: Marines' Alternative to Search and Destroy
Vietnam Magazine – Search-and-destroy operations in Vietnam failed as a working doctrine, and the strategy of attrition cost the needless deaths of thousands of American service personnel. That policy was based on principles the United States had employed in previous conventional wars, using superior American mobility and firepower to seize the initiative and inflict heavy losses on enemy units. The American policy and strategy during the Vietnam War should have been the pacification of the villages and hamlets, resulting in the destruction of the Viet Cong and their infrastructure. That could have been accomplished by the “clear-and-hold” tactics that the Marine Corps favored, using combined action platoons (CAPs).
Canadian Navy – Warship's crew was hamstrung by hypocrisy, opposition says
Times Colonist – HMCS Toronto returns from the Gulf where it was part of the USS George Washington battlegroup.
Meanwhile, the Canadian navy will sit out the war on terrorism for one year in an effort to give exhausted sailors a chance to recuperate. More at the Sun Ottawa.
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Iraq – Into the Abyss
Defense and the National Interest – Martin van Creveld predicts the future of Iraq.
Royal Australian Navy – China and Taiwan: flashpoint for a war
Sydney Morning Herald – Potential for a Chinese attack on Taiwan is simmering again, and, Australia’s next government may face a dilemma that makes Iraq look trivial – would Australia intervene on the side of Taiwan – or not?
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US Navy – Crew-swapping success carries a cost
Virginian Pilot – A ìSea Swapî experiment that kept a pair of destroyers deployed more or less continuously for 18 to 24 months was ìsuccessful technicallyî but undercut the morale of participating sailors and may spur some to end their naval careers, according to a report commissioned by the Navy.
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Turkish Navy – Turkey Launches its First Indigenous Coastal Minesweeper
Sea Power – The latest naval news from Turkey, India, Brazil, and Egypt.
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US Navy – Sea Basing
Air Force – How the naval servicesóand maybe the Armyóview sea basing as one answer to the anti-access problem.
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Canadian Navy – Navy shops around for new, midsized patrol vessels
Ottawa Citizen – The Canadian navy is looking at a new type of ship that could be used for sovereignty and security missions in coastal waters and potentially go to sea with mixed military and civilian crews.
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US Navy – SSGN Conversion Will Boost Offensive Power of the Fleet
Sea Power – A single Ohio-class guided-missile submarine (SSGN) will be armed with 154 Tomahawk cruise missiles. That is more cruise missiles than are now carried by an entire carrier strike group, and almost 20 percent of the 800 Tomahawks fired by a cadre of coalition submarines and surface ships during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Navy is obtaining four SSGNs, a step that will substantially increase the offensive power of the fleet.
US Navy – Whales' Plight Revives Sonar Theory
Washington Post – Another near-stranding of whales on a beach in Hawaii during a US Navy exercise. Is there a link between the sonar being used and the near-stranding?
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Iraq – Why Iraq Will End as Vietnam Did
Defense and the National Interest – Martin van Creveld documents Moshe Dayan’s visit to Vietnam in the 1960’s and draws interesting parallels to the situation in Iraq today.
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US Marines – Marines, families endure horror of bloody firefight
True Ozarks News Leader – An indepth look at one firefight in Iraq.
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Intelligence – Berlin to Baghdad, the Pitfalls of Hiring Enemy Intelligence
Foreign Affairs – Washington wants to hire ex-Baathists to help rebuild Iraq. The CIA’s experience using ex-Nazis to run West Germany’s intelligence service should give it pause.
Washington wants to hire ex-Baathists to help rebuild Iraq. The CIA’s experience using ex-Nazis to run West Germany’s intelligence service should give it pause.
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History – Into the Lion's Den
Naval History – Commander Seventh Fleet recounts a ìdicey nightî in the Vietnam War.
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Geopolitics / Iran – October Suprise?
Defense and the National Interest – William Lind asks if there will be a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s nascent nuclear capabilities before the US presidential election.
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Royal Navy – Imitate the Army – don't butcher it
Daily Telegraph – John Keegan on why the British military force size should be preserved, not cut.
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US Navy – Admiral: Huge exercise is not a message
Associated Press – The United States’ largest naval exercise in decades – Summer Pulse ’04, involving the deployment around the globe of seven of the Navy’s 12 carrier battle groups, is not designed to send political signals to potential enemies, a senior Navy officer said Thursday.
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US Navy – 'Silent Hammer' Will Test SSGN as Clandestine Sea Base
Sea Power – The Navy will conduct a critical sea trial, called ìSilent Hammer,î scheduled for this fall off the coast of San Diego, to evaluate the capability improvements offered by a clandestine sea base of networked undersea, surface, air and ground forces in a coordinated operation.
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Chinese Navy – China tests 'D-Day invasion' of Taiwan
The Times – Chinese soldiers will for the first time rehearse a D-Day-style invasion of Taiwan on a densely populated island off the mainland coast this month.
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Fourth Generation Warfare – Plan of Attack
The Atlantic – The United States is not just facing an insurgency in Iraqóit’s facing “netwar,” the newest kind.
US Navy – In global exercise, Navy tests out flexible new military plan
Associated Press – Aboard the USS Harry S. Truman, in the Mediterranean Sea.
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US Navy – Lockheed Martin Explores JASSM Vertical-Launch Potential
Sea Power – As the air-launched AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) enters full-rate production, its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, is studying the potential of it being adapted to the vertical launching systems of Navy warships.
US Marines – The Re-Baathification of Falluja
New York Times Magazine – Another look at how the Marines have attempted to pacify Falluja.
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Geopolitics / Empire – The End of Power
Wall Street Journal – Niall Ferguson on how without American hegemony the world would likely return to the dark ages.
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NOSI - Naval Open Source Intelligence™ 
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