Foreign Affairs – Did the Bush administration disregard military expertise before the Iraq war? Should military leaders have done more to protest in response?
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Monthly Archives: October 2007
Dutch Navy – The Great Escape
Aviation Week – Escaping from a stricken submarine stranded on the bottom of the sea is a dangerous business. But escaping from a sub that’s still on the surface can be just as perilous — especially as many submarines have no life rafts and crew members are forced to rely on individual survival gear.
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US Marines – Marine Corps Moves to Take Lead Role in Afghanistan
Washington Post – The Marine Corps is making a bid to take over the command and primary mission of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, anticipating a gradual withdrawal of its troops from Iraq’s western province of Anbar.
New York Times – Marines Press to Remove Their Forces From Iraq.
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US Navy – Sea-Traffic Control
Esquire – Thomas P.M. Barnett asks if we know that maritime traffic is vulnerable to terrorism, wouldn’t we want to do something about it?
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Chinese Navy – Lost At Sea
New York Times – Robert Kaplan writes that the ultimate strategic effect of the Iraq war has been to hasten the arrival of the Asian Century.
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Royal Australian Navy – Ready to Embark
Aviation Week – Australia has formally completed the deal to spend A$3.1 billion on two amphibious ships from Tenix.The government has just inked the deal that should see the HMAS Canberra delivered in 2013, and its sister ship, the HMAS Adelaide, to follow in 2015. The 27,000 metric ton vessels are designed to offload 1,124 embarked troops and carry their artillery, Abrams tanks and other vehicles.
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US Marines – V-22 Osprey: A Flying Shame
Time – A critical review of the V-22 program???
???and Bill Sweetman’s response to it: Aviation Week – V-22 – The Real Questions
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US Marines – Iraq insurgency: Fighting on the beaches
Daily Telegraph – US Marines in Iraq’s Anbar province have taken the battle against al-Qa’eda to the unlikely setting of a beachside resort in the desert.
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Nonlethal Weapons – LRAD Joins the Navy
Aviation Week – The much-hailed Long-Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD, has been selected by the Navy for its ship protection system.
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Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force – Japan denies it will withdraw from Afghan naval mission
Associated Press – Japan’s Defense Ministry has denied a media report that it is planning to withdraw its naval mission to support U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan on Nov. 1, saying the government expects parliament to approve an extension before then.
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US Navy – Navy ship returns after two-year deployment with two crews
Virginian Pilot – After two years, three trips around the globe and more than 100,000 miles at sea, the Swift returned Friday to Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base.
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Geopolitics / China – When Congress Stops Wars
Foreign Affairs – Since the Democrats regained control of Congress, the Hill has been alive with the sound of hearings. Congress’ earlier slumber and recent awakening should come as no surprise: for the last six decades, the partisan composition of Congress has defined the politics of war. Now facing a Democratic majority, President George W. Bush will find it far more difficult to stay in Iraq.
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Iraq – Modern Heroes
Wall Street Journal – Robert Kaplan writes that “Our soldiers like what they do. They want our respect, not pity. “
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Information Warfare – Why Syria's Air Defenses Failed to Detect Israelis
Aviation Week – The big mystery of the recent Israeli strike on Syria is how did the non-stealthy F-15s and F-16s get through the Syrian air defense radars without being detected? Some U.S. officials say they have the answer.
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Iran – Shifting Targets
New Yorker – Seymour Hersch on the Bush Administrationís plan for Iran.
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Italian Navy – Air-Independent Propulsion Submarines Patrol in the Med
Aviation Week – Air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarines have started to prowl the Mediterranean, with Italian Type U 212 boats having reached operational capability and German boats of the same type deploying to the region in support of NATO’s Operation Active Endeavor.
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Iraq – Part 4: 'If you don't go after the network, you're never going to stop these guys. Never.'
Washington Post – Final part of Rick Atkinson’s excellent series. The US military is making progress by disrupting supply chains, but bombers are adapting.
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Royal Navy – Say When – new Oceanic Patrol Vessels for U.K.
Aviation Week – A look at the Royal Navy’s Future Surface Combatant program.
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Iraq – Part 3: 'You can't armor your way out of this problem'
Washington Post – Part 3 of Rick Atkinson’s series. Between the spring of 2005 and summer of 2006, the number of IED attacks doubles; promising technologies to combat attacks fizzle.
See also: Washington Post – When ‘Physics Gets in the Way’.
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US Navy – US quits Sardinia nuclear submarine base leaving skeleton staff
AFP – The US Navy has all but ended its presence at a nuclear submarine base in Sardinia with the departure of support vessel USS Emory Land.
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Iraq – Part 2: 'There was a two-year learning curve . . . and a lot of people died in those two years'
Washington Post – Part 2 of Rick Atkinson’s superb series on IED’s. Frustration mounts in 2004 and 2005 as various efforts fail to stop roadside bombs. And a new menace appears on the battlefield: the EFP, or explosively formed penetrator.
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US Navy – OMG! Navy Calls MySpace Kids "Alien Life Force" (And They Hate the War, Too)
Wired – The US Navy identifies an ‘Alien Life Force,’ and it is you???
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Indonesian Navy – Indonesia plans massive fleet expansion
Aviation Week – Indonesia is planning to expand its current fleet of 120 patrol-capable ships to a ìminimum fleet size of 274 units by 2024.
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Iraq – Introduction: 'The single most effective weapon against our deployed forces'
Washington Post – A series by Rick Atkinson explores how the roadside bomb, or IED, is a proximate cause and metaphor for the miscalculation, improvisation that have characterized the war in Iraq.
See also: Washington Post – Part 1: ‘The IED problem is getting out of control. We’ve got to stop the bleeding.’
Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force – P-X Airborne
Aviation Week – The first flight of an all-new military aircraft is an unusual spectacle these days. Japan’s Kawasaki P-X patrol aircraft, the intended replacement for the country’s P-3s, took to the air on Friday.
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