Philippine Sailor Severely Injured, Vessels Damaged as Chinese Block South China Sea Mission

USNI News – A Philippine sailor suffered severe injuries when Chinese forces blocked an Armed Forces of the Philippines resupply mission in the South China Sea, Pentagon officials confirmed to USNI News. The AFP mission to resupply the BRP Sierra Madre (LT-57) outpost at Second Thomas Shoal also resulted in damage to an unknown number of Philippine vessels.

Maritime Statecraft Is a Process, a Habit, and a Culture

National Interest – Maritime statecraft is a process of wielding levers of state in a concerted way to fulfill national purposes relating to the sea. It’s an approach to doing things. This process spans vastly more than building and deploying a navy, or a corps of marines, or a coast guard. If we do it right, maritime statecraft will bring together not just the naval services but fellow services that operate from land. In this age of joint sea power the U.S. Army and Air Force are sea services as surely as the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard are.

Mare Nostrum Revisited: Maritime Competition in the Mediterranean

War on the Rocks – Today, with the return of great-power competition and the corresponding activities of revisionist actors in the wider Mediterranean region, the Mediterranean has come roaring back as a contested body of water. Following Russia’s invasions of Ukraine and the war in Gaza, this sea is once again what it has been for millennia: a zone of competition.

Contested Seas: European Security and the Fragmentation of the Maritime Order

ISPI – Recent crises have demonstrated that maritime security is essential for international stability and Europe’s prosperity. This dossier examines the challenges to the maritime order and the governance and capabilities needed to address them, emphasizing the role of both state and non-state actors in shaping the global order at sea.

The Future of the Navy’s Underwater Component (2025-2050)

Ad Analisidifesa – On the occasion of the Combined Naval Event (CNE) 2024, an important conference-exhibition on the naval sector that is now held annually in Great Britain (Farnborough) in May, and this year particularly focused on the underwater, the Italian Navy has provided more details on the future plans of its underwater component.

(In Italian)

(Thanks to Alain)

Russian Nuclear Sub, Frigate with Long Range Land Attack Missiles Operating Off East Coast

USNI News – A nuclear Russian submarine carrying guided missiles with a range of 1,000 nautical miles is operating off the East Coast as part of Russian missile drills in the Atlantic.
Kazan, a Yasen-M-class guided missile submarine, is part of a naval action group the Russian Ministry of Defense deployed to the Atlantic. The group is bound for the Caribbean as part of military drills ordered by the Kremlin against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, according to the MoD.

The 50 Year Dilemma in Aircraft Carrier Design and the Future of American Naval Aviation

CIMSEC – The fifty-year dilemma of today’s aircraft carriers and airwings is how to embrace various technological developments in unmanned platforms, long-range weapons, and new methods of processing massive amounts of targeting data. Wartime experience in the Pacific clarifies that getting this right is never assured. Building flexibility and adaptability is paramount for today’s aircraft carriers and airwing.

A Chinese Economic Blockade of Taiwan Would Fail or Launch a War

War on the Rocks – Having spent years conducting extensive wargames with senior U.S. and allied government officials on the various cross-strait threat scenarios, I am confident, as I write in my recently released book World on the Brink, that an economic blockade in lieu of a full-scale military invasion has a low probability of success and, therefore, Beijing is unlikely to pursue such an operation and, indeed, hasn’t attempted it yet even though it has had the capability to do so for decades. In fact, an attempted economic blockade would almost inevitably lead to war or a humiliating defeat by China.