1945 – James Holmes writes that Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed is not wrong when he urges fellow lawmakers and the U.S. Navy to concentrate their fleet-design efforts on fielding the right “capabilities” to win in combat rather than obsess over “arbitrary” numbers of ships, warplanes, or armaments.
Monthly Archives: May 2021
PN prefers US Cyclone patrol boats over Hamilton-class cutter
Philippine News Agency – The Philippine Navy (PN) would rather acquire the newly-decommissioned Cyclone-class patrol vessels than obtain another Hamilton-class cutter from the United States, its chief said Monday.
China’s Ballistic Missile Industry
China Aerospace Studies Institute – This report is the next in the series of studies by the China Aerospace Studies Institute that seeks to lay the foundation for better understanding the Aerospace Sector of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This report describes China’s ballistic missile capabilities and development. It reviews the history of the PRC’s research and development of ballistic missiles and traces the institutions that are key to these systems. It details the components and systems that are integral to these weapons and describes the companies, research academies, and production facilities, that form the core of the industry in the PRC.
A Tale of Two Seas: The Caribbean and South China Sea in Great Power Perspective
CIMSEC – The parallels between Soviet-U.S. relations vis-à-vis the Caribbean and China-U.S. relations vis-à-vis the South China Sea are as striking as they are instructive. The Red Navy’s mistakes in its transatlantic ventures serve as salutary course corrections for the U.S. Navy’s transpacific undertakings today.
Training Phase Of ARC21 Combined Amphibious Exercise Begins In Japan
Naval News – ARC21 combined amphibious exercise will gather units from Japan, USA, France and Australia in waters around Kyushu.
Interview With French Asia Pacific Commander Rear Adm. Jean-Mathieu Rey
USNI News – Far from France, Rear Adm. Jean-Mathieu Rey, Joint Commander French Armed Forces in the Asia-Pacific (ALPACI), is responsible for French security interests in the Indo-Pacific – an area of the world that’s growing in complexity as tensions between the U.S. and China continue to build.
Image May Reveal A New Type Of Submarine For The Chinese Navy
Naval News – China has a massive submarine building program. Yet new classes of submarine may only be revealed after they have been built. Right now Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) may give us our first glimpse of a completely new type.
Turkey Releases New Image Showing LHD Anadolu Carrying Drone
Naval News – After Turkey was removed from the F-35 project by the U.S. because of Turkey’s S-400 air defence system purchase from Russia, the Turkish Defence Industries Presidency announced that they have been working on deploying “TB-3 Bayraktar” Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAV) on Turkey’s future Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) Anadolu instead of F-35B aircraft which has vertical take-off and landing capability.
Envisioning a Dystopian Future in the South China Sea
CIMSEC – It is clear that the status quo or retrenchment will have negative consequences for the United States, the region, and the world. It is equally clear that Washington must act now to turn the tides in the SCS and avert a dystopian future when Beijing exerts administrative control and jurisdictional authority of the strategic waterway.
The U.S. Navy in the Indian Ocean: India’s ‘Goldilocks’ Dilemma
War on the Rocks – India’s strategic community was in a frenzy last month after USS John Paul Jones carried out a freedom of navigation exercise near India’s Lakshadweep Islands. Indian observers were mystified by the timing of maneuver, coming as it did at a moment when U.S.-Indian relations are on a high. The disquiet in New Delhi was compounded by a U.S. 7th Fleet press release that said the operation was carried out in India’s exclusive economic zone “without requesting India’s prior consent” to assert “navigational rights and freedoms”—language that many Indian observers saw as needlessly provocative.
Cannibalized parts, systems that sailors can’t fix: LCS maintenance woes could get worse, watchdog warns
Navy Times – Small crew size has led the Littoral Combat Ships to encounter maintenance challenges not seen elsewhere in the fleet, issues that could imperil the ability of such ships to get out of maintenance on time and therefore lessen the number of ships available for operations, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.
Warning Shots Fired After Iranian Vessels Swarm American Missile Submarine In Strait Of Hormuz
War Zone – Iranian boats have now harassed American warships in and around the Persian Gulf on three separate occasions in just over a month.
Suspected Chinese state hackers target Russian submarine designer
BleepingComputer – Hackers suspected to work for the Chinese government have used a new malware called PortDoor to infiltrate the systems of an engineering company that designs submarines for the Russian Navy.
Sea Transportation: South China Sea Scheduled Service
StrategyPage – The hardest working ships in the South China Sea are two Chinese two replenishment (“sustainment”) ships designed expressly tp support Chinese islands created or occupied in the South China Sea.
US Navy seizes weapons in Arabian Sea likely bound for Yemen
Associated Press – The U.S. Navy announced Sunday it seized an arms shipment of thousands of assault weapons, machines guns and sniper rifles hidden aboard a ship in the Arabian Sea, apparently bound for Yemen to support the country’s Houthi rebels.
Sun Tzu Versus AI: Why Artificial Intelligence Can Fail in Great Power Conflict
USNI Proceedings – The United States must invest more time, greater research, and more financial resources to overcome data deceptions and adapt AI to military applications.
Time For Cognitive Warfare Against China?
1945 – James Holmes writes “Cognitive warfare”? Yes, please—and more of it!
China Wants To Revive A Strategically Located Airfield Deep In The Pacific: Report
War Zone – The Chinese government reportedly has plans to refurbish and expand an airstrip on the island of Kanton, also spelled Canton, part of the archipelago nation of Kiribati in the central Pacific Ocean. If true, this could give Beijing an airbase in an incredibly strategical location, between North America and New Zealand, potentially giving China’s military much greater reach throughout a critical and increasingly tense region.
Strategic Predictability: Landpower in the Indo-Pacific
War on the Rocks – When people look at maps of the Indo-Pacific region, often they see a lot of blue and very little green. They see the massive Pacific Ocean with tiny islands speckled throughout. Closer to the Asian continent, they see archipelagos and island chains with large seas and bays with strategic straits cutting throughout. When national security professionals view the region in this way, they tend to discount landpower in favor of air and sea. While those domains are central to Indo-Pacific security, we see the region through a different lens.
All of One Company: The Need to Forge a Stronger Bond Between Navies and Commercial Shipping
CIMSEC – As the world’s navies dramatically shrink relative to the ever growing fleets of commercial shipping cousins, they should take time to understand their fellow maritime stakeholders and make themselves “all of one company.” Major powers are never going to be able to significantly alter the ratio of warships to commercial vessels, so they must seriously revisit the strategy for how the protection of trade is conducted in peace and in conflict.
Marines Retooling Infantry Training for Complex Warfare in Pacific
USNI News – After 20 years of counterinsurgency and low-end conflict in the Middle East, the Marines are rapidly retooling for a different kind of fight.
5 Years Of Submarine Secrecy: India’s Unique Arihant Class Is Still In Hiding
Naval News – 5 years after she was commissioned in 2016, the Indian Navy’s INS Arihant remains something of an enigma. Her existence is no secret, in fact it is a proud achievement of Indian industry. But photographs are very few. And nearly all those you will find on the internet are many years old. It is a very secretive submarine program.
The China model: why is the West imitating Beijing?
The Spectator – Niall Ferguson states that “It is one thing to compete with China. I firmly believe we need to do that in every domain, from artificial intelligence to Covid vaccines. But the minute we start copying China, we are on the path to perdition.”
Canada To Procure Two Polar Iceabreakers To Enhance Arctic Presence
Naval News – The Canadian Coast Guard announced on 6 May 2021 that two Polar icebreakers will join its fleet to enhance Canada’s Arctic presence and provide critical services to Canadians.
The Ship That Launched 1,000 Memes and Nearly Destroyed 12 Percent of World Trade
CIMSEC – Behind the veneer of memes and jokes the grounding of Ever Given exposed the fragile nature of global trade and the maritime infrastructure that supports it.
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