Los Angeles Times – America, the fragile empire
Niall Ferguson asks what if history is not cyclical and slow-moving but arrhythmic — at times almost stationary but also capable of accelerating suddenly, like a sports car? What if collapse does not arrive over a number of centuries but comes suddenly, like a thief in the night?
UPI – India’s emerging maritime clout
The Indian Defense Ministry’s Sixth Land and Naval Defense Systems Exhibition held in New Delhi last month showcased newly inducted equipment by the country’s navy and army.
Defense Technology International – A Follow-On To Kuznetsov?
The Russian Navy is making plans for a new aircraft carrier fleet. Navy commander Adm Vladimir Vysotsky announced on Friday, February 26, that the technical design of Russia’s new aircraft carrier will be completed by the end of 2010.
BBC – Singapore warns of threat to tankers in Malacca Strait
Singapore has learned that an unnamed group may be planning to attack oil tankers in the Malacca Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The Times – Russia announces plans to buy four French warships from France
Russia is to buy four warships from France in the biggest defence deal with a Nato member since the end of the Cold War. In a move that has alarmed Georgia and the Baltic States, France and Russia said that they were in “exclusive talks” on the sale of Mistral-class amphibious assault ships.
Washington Post – Combat Generation: Drone operators climb on winds of change in the Air Force
The Air Force’s identity crisis is one of many ways that a decade of intense and unrelenting combat is reshaping the U.S. military and redefining the American way of war. The battle against insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq has created an insatiable demand for the once-lowly drone, elevating the importance of the officers who fly them.
New York Times – After Push in Marja, Marines Try to Win Trust
CJ Chivers writes that after the declaration this weekend that the battle for the Taliban enclave of Marja had been won, for the Marines standing behind sandbags and walking patrols, the more complicated work has begun. With it will be a test of the strategy selected by President Obama and the generals now running the Afghan war.
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