– AP – Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency is reporting that the country has temporarily called off a plan to dispatch warships to the Atlantic Ocean.
Monthly Archives: April 2014
Royal Navy – Missing plane MH370: HMS Echo in ‘black box’ search
– BBC – The crew of a Royal Navy ship are “working 24/7” to hunt for flight recorders from the missing Malaysian plane, their commander has said.
Terrorism – Al-Qa’ida, the second act: Why the global ‘war on terror’ went wrong
– The Independent – Twelve and a half years after 9/11, al-Qa’ida-type organisations control an area the size of Britain in western Iraq and eastern Syria. Include Afghanistan, Libya and Somalia and the territory they rule is larger in size than the UK. What is so extraordinary – and blameworthy – is that this vast expansion of jihadist groups comes even as the US, Britain and others are waging a “war on terror”. In the name of such a struggle, great sums have been spent; wars have been fought in Iraq and Afghanistan; civil rights have been curtailed; and torture, rendition, detention without trial and domestic espionage have been justified. But attempts to eliminate the supposed enemy have wholly failed. It is to consider the roots of this failure that The Independent published a five-part investigation by our distinguished correspondent Patrick Cockburn this week. The aim of the series is to show the extent to which jihadist organisations identical in ideology and methods to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa’ida have survived, flourished and are now stronger than ever.
US Navy – Unman Your Battle Stations!
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Unmanned maritime systems will decisively alter the future of warfare, and the naval profession must adapt to the military and cultural changes under way.
US Navy – Silent threat: Are sea mines the Navy’s Achilles’ heel?
– Virginian Pilot – A generation ago, the Navy promised to get better at finding and destroying sea mines. The proclamation came months after the first Gulf War, when Iraq’s use of more than 1,000 underwater bombs overwhelmed the Navy’s fleet of anti-mine ships and helicopters. Two U.S. warships were rocked by explosions, and the Pentagon was forced to abort plans for an amphibious assault on Kuwait, leaving some 30,000 Marines stuck at sea. More than 20 years after that embarrassment, the sea service is still working to make good on its pledge to fully address a centuries-old threat that some analysts have called the Navy’s Achilles’ heel.
US Navy – The 2020 Navy—Bigger, Tougher, Possibly Broke
– War is Boring – U.S. Navy’s top officer previews future battle fleet … and budgetary risk
Geopolitics / Ukraine – Putin steals the CIA’s playbook on anti-Soviet covert operations
– Washington Post – The West has made NATO’s military alliance the heart of its response to Russia’s power grab in Ukraine. But we may be fighting the wrong battle: The weapons Russian President Vladimir Putin has used in Crimea and eastern Ukraine look more like paramilitary “covert action” than conventional military force. Putin, the former KGB officer, may in fact be taking a page out of the United States’ playbook during the Ronald Reagan presidency, when the Soviet empire began to unravel thanks to a relentless U.S. covert-action campaign. Rather than confront Moscow head-on, Reagan nibbled at the edges, by supporting movements that destabilized Russian power in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Angola and, finally, Poland and eastern Europe. It was a clever American strategy back then, pushing a wounded Soviet Union and opportunistically exploiting local grievances wherever possible. And it’s an equally clever Russian approach now, offering maximum gain at minimum potential cost.
A brilliant analysis by David Ignatius.
Geopolitics – The Geopolitics of Energy
– Stratfor – Robert D. Kaplan on the geopolitics of energy.
US Navy – US to send two more warships to Japan by 2017
– BBC – American Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has said the US will send two ballistic missile defence destroyers to Japan.
US Navy – Army-Navy Tag Team Trains to Defend Persian Gulf
– War is Boring – Army aviators in Kuwait spent much of 2013 training for an unusual mission—flying from Navy ships. This new mission is a major shift for the ground combat branch in the Middle East … and elsewhere.
Geopolitics / Pakistan – What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden
– New York Times Magazine – Our supposed ally had a special desk devoted to managing Osama bin Laden. How can the U.S. fight extremism when we’re unable to confront it where it really lives?
US Navy – Navy spots an Arctic future, but struggles to plot a course
– Stars and Stripes – The Navy has published a thorough breakdown of what it needs for future surface operations in the Arctic, from new doctrine to platform assessments and an updated cold-weather handbook for sailors. The next step? Getting buy-in from the rest of the fleet.
US Navy – A Few Disruptive Thoughts
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Unmanned systems may be the magic bullet the U.S. Navy is looking for, but here are a few points to ponder to keep it from making some costly mistakes.
US Navy – Growler Advocates Outline Stealth Vulnerabilities
– Aviation Week – Despite a squeeze on investment accounts, the Pentagon’s fiscal 2015 budget strategy prioritizes funding for the stealthy F-35—but at what cost, some in industry ask.
Iranian Navy – Iran’s 2 Navies Bring Mixture of Threats
– Defense News – Despite limited capabilities and lacking in modernization, Iran has always been seen as the major naval threat in the Arabian Gulf region.
Turkish Navy – Upgrading the Classic FFG for Modern Combat
– Defense News – The Oliver Hazard Perry guided missile frigates are one of the most numerous warships classes built since World War II. The first ships entered service in the 1980s, but many still serve under the flags of other nations, all of whom are intensely interested in keeping these vintage ships as effective as possible.
Royal Navy – MH370: UK submarine joins search for missing plane
– BBC – British submarine HMS Tireless has joined the hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. The Ministry of Defence said the Trafalgar class submarine had arrived in the southern Indian Ocean and would help search for the plane’s black box recorder.
US Marines – Budget cuts, F-35 delays eat into dwell for Marine aviation units
– Marine Corps Times – Approximately seven months after wrapping up a deployment at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, members of Fighter Attack Squadron 122 found themselves back in Japan, the latest sign of the increasingly quick turnarounds being asked of F/A-18 and other aircraft squadrons across the service.
Phillipine Navy – China-Philippines navy spat captured on camera
– BBC – Journalists on board a Philippine ship have witnessed Chinese coast guard vessels trying to block access to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.
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