Virginian Pilot – In a move to bring sailors closer to combat and to assume duties from the fatigued Army and Marines, the Navy formally established the Naval Expeditionary Combat Command at a ceremony Friday at Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
The new command pulls together Seabees, cargo handlers, ordnance disposal experts and maritime security forces under one structure. It will also create a new riverine force for patrolling inland waterways in countries plagued by terrorists, drug runners and pirates.
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Monthly Archives: January 2006
Royal Navy – Undercover troops face added danger as special sub is scrapped
Daily Telegraph – Special Boat Service chiefs said yesterday that operations would become even more dangerous when a submarine designed for secret missions, HMS Spartan, was withdrawn from service. The vessel, fitted with a dry dock hangar from which mini-subs are launched underwater, will be decommissioned next month.
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Royal Navy – Navy too small to defend us, warns First Sea Lord
Daily Telegraph – Cuts to the Royal Navy’s fleet of warships will render it incapable of protecting Britain’s coastline, ministers have been warned.
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Editorial Note – NOSI on break until Tuesday January 17
NOSI will take a short break and next update on Tuesday January 17th. See you then!
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Geopolitics / Iran – We should be very worried about Iran
Daily Telegraph – Military historian John Keegan’s reviews the current state of affairs in Iraq.
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Canadian Navy – Athabascan leaves port
Chronicle Herald – HMCS Athabaskan will join the Standing NATO Response Force Maritime Group 1 in Kiel, Germany. On Jan. 26, the destroyer will become the flagship for the squadron of Canadian, American, German, Portuguese and Polish vessels.
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Iraq – Changing the Army for Counterinsurgency Operations
Military Review – A senior officer in the British Army has published a damning indictment of American military conduct in Iraq, voicing publicly the private views of many of his peers.
Commentary on the article can be found in The Times, Daily Telegraph and Washington Post.
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US Navy – Navy Tests Look-to-Talk Device
Wired – The U.S. Navy is field-testing a new short-range communications device called LightSpeed that could soon let sailors talk securely up to two miles away — just by looking at each other. The device uses infrared, similar to that of a television remote control, to transmit audio and visual information.
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US Navy – Can sonar, sea life mix?
Scripps Howard – Just as the U.S. Navy is gearing up to install a 660-square-mile sonar training range off the coast of North Carolina, evidence is mounting that sonar harms some whales.
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Geopolitics / Iraq – Writing of Wrongs
Foreign Affairs – Professor Lawrence Freedman reviews The Assassins’ Gate, by George Packer – a searing account of the Bush administration’s failures in Iraq.
US Marines – Pentagon Study Links Fatalities to Light Armor
New York Times – A secret Pentagon study has found that as many as 80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.
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Sri Lankan Navy – Deadly attack on Sri Lanka navy
CNN – A nearly 4-year-old cease-fire between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels is coming under pressure after at least 13 sailors were killed when an explosives-laden boat rammed into a Sri Lankan navy vessel early Saturday.
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US Navy – San Diego-based Reagan heads for sea on maiden voyage
San Diego Union Tribune – The USS Ronald Reagan heads out for a routine six-month deployment to the western Pacific.
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Russian Navy – We won a cold battle beneath the waves
The Scotsman – Another look at last August’s rescue of a stranded Russian Navy mini-submarine.
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US Marines – Information Suggests 3/25 Marines May Have Been Betrayed
Ohio News Network – Reports surfacing about the death of 20 Brook Park Marine reservists indicate that the Marines may have been betrayed.
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US Marines – Soldier Known As The "Marlboro Man" Faces A Different Battle
WKYT – An eastern Kentucky soldier became known as the Marlboro Man after his picture was featured in newspapers and on TV stations across the country???he has since been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
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French Navy – French aircraft-carrier resumes its journey to India for breaking-up
Agence France Presse – A French aircraft-carrier Clemenceau, insulated with asbestos, at the centre of a court battle with environmental groups, resumed its final journey to an Indian breaker’s yard yesterday
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Pakistani Navy – Pak-navy decommissioned 4 more French origin submarines
International News Network – The Pakistani Navy on Monday decommissioned four of its Daphne class French origin submarines.
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History – Loss of a Yankee SSBN
Undersea Warfare – A look at the loss of Yankee-class submarine K-219 in October 1986 following an explosion in missile tube number six.
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