Defense News – After a bruising, year-long fight with Congress, part of the Navy’s plan to field unmanned ships appears to be on life support, making 2021 a crucial year for plotting a path forward.
Yearly Archives: 2021
War Studies Primer
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The American Sea Power Project
USNI Proceedings – A new series of articles in Proceedings encourages vigorous debate on the future of the US Navy.
Saab to build underwater robots for French-British naval countermine program
Defense News – Swedish vendor Saab has received a contract to deliver underwater vehicles for blowing up sea mines to an Anglo-French program.
The IMO’s 2021 Cyber Guidelines and the Work That Remains to Secure Ports
CIMSEC – The IMO’s guidelines for managing cyber risks on vessels are a key development for the shipping industry. Flag States and shipping companies worldwide now have an industry-sponsored framework from which to recurringly assess cyber safeguards on ships. There is more work to be done, however, to appropriately protect the rest of the maritime transportation system.
Moscow wants more tourists to northernmost archipelago
Barents Observer – Government developers call for the building of Russian cruise vessels that can bring wealthy travelers to the far northern Franz Josef Land.
The U.S. Navy Needs More Firepower On The Cheap
1945 – James Holmes says you can get it by buying preowned freighters for low, low prices.
Indonesia’s PT PAL Launches BRS Hospital Ship For TNI AL
Naval News – Indonesian state-owned shipbuilder PT PAL launched a new hospital ship for the Indonesian Navy (TNI AL) on 7 January 2021. The “Wahidin Soedirohusodo” is based on the existing Makassar-class of Landing Platform Dock (LPD).
Spate of Attacks on Ships In Middle East Points to Iran-Backed Group
USNI News – The Middle East remains a volatile area for merchant shipping into the new year, according to the analysis of attacks on ships in the region.
China as a Composite Land-Sea Power: A Geostrategic Concept
CIMSEC – In this study, Senior Fellow Toshi Yoshihara and Research Fellow Jack Bianchi argue that a deep study of China’s weaknesses as they relate to its worldwide ambitions is required to formulate an effective allied response. These weaknesses offer insights into the costs that Beijing will have to pay to go global. Importantly, the United States and its close allies enjoy agency over certain Chinese weaknesses, furnishing them leverage that, if exercised, could yield strategic dividends. The report concludes with a range of allied options that exploit China’s weaknesses to constrain and complicate the PLA’s global expansion.
By air and sea: China’s two-pronged strategy to grind Japan down over disputed islands
South China Morning Post – Beijing has ramped up its military and coastguard presence near the islands to get Tokyo to acquiesce on the disputed chain, analysts say
With Hammerhead Mine, U.S. Navy Plots New Style Of Warfare To Tip Balance In South China Sea
Forbes – The U.S. Navy took a step towards a new style of warfare this week with a request for proposals for its new Hammerhead Program. The Navy is looking for contractors to supply a mine that can be placed covertly on the sea bed by a robot submarine; when Hammerhead’s sensors spot a target, it fires an encapsulated homing torpedo.
China’s top warship maker builds new shipyard, phase I project to complete by 2023
Global Times – China’s major manufacturer of amphibious assault ships, amphibious landing ships and frigates on Monday started constructing an advanced new shipyard in Shanghai, a move analysts said on Tuesday would boost China’s technical level and efficiency in building such vessels.
Mystery Warship Seen In Iran May Be A Completely New Type
Naval News – New intelligence suggests that Iran has a locally built warship which has not been publicly revealed.
Navy Secretary: US Weighing Patrols Near Russian Arctic Bases
Breaking Defense – The Navy will start regularly sailing near Russian land claims in the increasingly ice-free Arctic, challenging Moscow’s push in the High North, Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite said today.
New Arctic Strategy Calls for Regular Presence as a Way to Compete With Russia, China
USNI News – The Navy and Marine Corps released a new Arctic strategy today, calling to extend their new focus on day-to-day competition with Russia and China into the Arctic as it becomes more navigable and therefore more congested in the coming decades.
The report can be found here: A Blue Arctic
China Maritime Report No. 12: Sansha City in China’s South China Sea Strategy: Building a System of Administrative Control
China Maritime Studies Institute – China established Sansha City in 2012 to administer the bulk of its territorial and maritime claims in the South China Sea. Sansha is headquartered on Woody Island. The city’s jurisdiction includes the Paracel Islands, Zhongsha Islands, and Spratly Islands and most of the waters within China’s “ninedash line.” Sansha is responsible for exercising administrative control, implementing military-civil fusion, and carrying out the day-to-day work of rights defense, stability maintenance, environmental protection, and resource development. Since 2012, each level of the Chinese party-state system has worked to develop Sansha, improving the city’s physical infrastructure and transportation, communications, corporate ecosystem, party-state institutions, and rights defense system. In effect, the city’s development has produced a system of normalized administrative control. This system ultimately allows China to govern contested areas of the South China Sea as if they were Chinese territory.
Iraqi explosives experts work to defuse tanker mine
FR24 News – Iraqi explosives experts were working to defuse a large mine discovered on an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and evacuate its crew. The statement came a day after two private security companies said sailors feared they had found a limpet mine on the MT Pola, a Liberian-flagged tanker in the waters off the Iraqi port of Basra .
(Thanks to Alain)
Modern-Day Beach Patrol: Add Coastal Defense Cruise Missiles to the Coast Guard’s Inventory
USNI Blog – The Coast Guard has stood the watch along U.S. coasts since the earliest days of the Revenue Cutter Service, protecting against myriad threats large and small. As the current National Security Strategy directs the U.S. military to refocus on countering peer and near-peer threats, the time is ripe for the Coast Guard to field coastal defense cruise missiles (CDCM) to both defend the homeland and prevail in a war at sea.
Congress, the U.S. Marines, and Missiles: The Fight for Asian Security
National Interest – James Holmes says the U.S. Marine Corps sensibly asked for Tomahawk cruise missiles for its strategy to fight the Chinese Navy in case of war. Why then did Congress say no?
UK Royal Navy Declares IOC for Queen Elizabeth Carrier Strike Group Ahead of Spring Deployment
USNI News – The U.K. Royal Navy’s first carrier strike group in 38 years has reached Initial Operating Capability (IOC) ahead of its first operational deployment later this year, the U.K. government announced today.
Sea Control and Power Projection: France’s Choice of a Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier
RUSI – Before the end of 2020, and just as the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier had passed its mid-life, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, decided that the only non-American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world in service will have a successor, expected to be commissioned in 2038.
South Korean forces arrive in waters near strait of Hormuz amid Iran tensions
Guardian – South Korean forces have arrived in waters near the strait of Hormuz as pressure builds on Iran to free a South Korean tanker it seized along with its crew on Monday.
2021: Stormy Seas Ahead While Navy Hammers Out New Fleet
Breaking Defense – The Trump administration waited four years to come up with a plan to increase the size of the fleet, dumping it on the Pentagon’s doorstep even as the moving vans were getting ready to pull up to the White House.
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