Breaking Defense – Twice in the last month, Iran has attempted to abduct US unmanned surface vessels produced by Saildrone. But the company’s CEO says he was unfazed by the events, instead calling the experience “valuable” and stressing the need for any organization operating unmanned ships to be anticipate hostile interference.
Author Archives: Naval Open Source Intelligence (NOSI)
Naval Operations Across South American Rivers: The “Other” Theater of Operations
CIMSEC – When thinking about navies, there is a natural tendency to focus on operations in the open sea and the role of carriers, frigates, and submarines. However, aside from protecting their territorial waters and exclusive economic zones, South American navies have another equally important theater of operation: inland water bodies like lakes and rivers.
Fingers Point At Russia In Baltic Undersea Pipeline Attack
War Zone – EU and other officials say the available evidence increasingly points to deliberate acts causing ruptures in two Baltic Sea gas pipelines.
Chinese Launch Assault Craft from Civilian Car Ferries in Mass Amphibious Invasion Drill, Satellite Photos Show
USNI News – The Chinese military held a major exercise to prove how the People’s Liberation Army Navy could use large civilian ferries to launch a massive amphibious invasion of Taiwan.
Navy’s XLUUV Undersea Minelaye
USNI News – A program to develop an unmanned, 80-ton minelaying submarine is three years late and $242 million over budget.
Navy About To Get World’s Largest Unmanned Warship But Has No Plans To Use It
War Zone – The U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command (MSC) is set to receive its newest ship, the thirteenth in a series of high-speed EPF expeditionary transports providing logistics services around the globe. But Number 13 is special – not only is it the first EPF fitted with autonomous navigation and operating systems, but it is possibly the world’s largest ship capable of unmanned operation. Yet as of now, neither the Navy nor MSC has any plans to use the unmanned capability when the USNS Apalachicola (T-EPF 13) enters the fleet. Rather, MSC intends to send the vessel to the western Pacific to serve as a logistics ship with the U.S. Seventh Fleet.
China Could Decide Now Is The Time For War With America
1945 – James Holmes asks will a ‘Peak’ China decide now is the time for war with America.
How China Targets the Global Fish Supply
New York Times – With its own coastal waters depleted, China has built a global fishing operation unmatched by any other country.
Sabotage Suspected In Undersea Gas Pipeline Explosions In The Baltic
War Zone – The controversial Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which are supposed to carry Russian gas to Europe, have been breached.
Understanding AUKUS
The Strategist – AUKUS is a technology accelerator agreement for the purpose of national defence, no more, no less. It is designed to allow three countries to work closely together to translate the promise of today’s maturing technologies, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, into tomorrow’s military edge.
Chinese Countermeasure Barge Covered In Radar Reflectors Emerges
War Zone – The barge, which is festooned with radar reflectors, antennas, defensive launchers, and other gear, first appeared in model form a year ago.
New Look At Air Force’s Ship-Killing Smart Bomb In Action, Seeker Details Revealed
War Zone – Air Force’s new Quick Sink weapon uses a low-cost seeker that turns Joint Direct Attack Munition bombs into all-weather anti-ship weapons.
Completing the Kill Web: The Multidomain Reconnaissance Troop in the Littorals
Modern War Institute – US combat power is massed just out of range of enemy fires, but there it is stalled, with ships and aircraft unable to penetrate the complex web of enemy sensors, missiles, antiaircraft weapons, and other equipment all organized specifically to keep US forces at bay. There is no easy answer to the fundamental question: What mixture of personnel and capabilities is best suited to make it through the web of the adversary’s antiaccess / area-denial (A2/AD) bubble and seize a lodgment for follow-on forces?
Defeat China’s Navy, Defeat China’s War Plan
War on the Rocks – U.S. commanders in the Indo-Pacific will have to fight with the forces and weapons policymakers provide them. Recent wargames, like their predecessors, demonstrate the United States needs a better plan for defeating an attack on Taiwan. This means forces and concepts that match U.S. competitive advantages against China’s weaknesses while minimizing the number of forces U.S. commanders will have to position within range of China’s firepower. Fortunately, a better matchup exists, one that focuses the U.S. bomber force against China’s navy and other maritime assets. China cannot take Taiwan, the Senkakus, or other territories in the region if its maritime power is destroyed. The U.S. bomber force could be a mortal threat to China’s maritime power if U.S. policymakers and military planners begin to properly prioritize it. By making China’s maritime assets the main target for the U.S. bomber force, then arming it accordingly, Washington would be well positioned to win a counter-maritime campaign in the western Pacific.
Ukraine’s New Weapon To Strike Russian Navy In Sevastopol
Naval News – A previously unreported drone boat, known as a USV (uncrewed surface vessel), appears to have slipped past Russian Navy patrols. The device was found on a beach close to the major Russian Navy base of Sevastopol in Crimea.
China’s New Extra-Large Submarine Drones Revealed
Naval News – China’s naval expansion may have a key program which was not previously reported. Secretly deployed to the South China Sea, two unknown underwater vehicles have been seen at Sanya naval base. This may be the first indication of a much larger program.
Sustainment of the Stand-In Force
War on the Rocks – The biggest challenge for the stand-in forces concept right now is that it puts marines inside high-threat areas with minimal logistics sustainment. This requires the Marine Corps to develop and train for a sustainment concept that is light, flexible, responsive, resilient, and redundant. This plan should enable decreasing replenishment time and maintain each stand-in force unit’s low signature. In the commandant’s words, “To persist inside an adversary’s weapons engagement zone, our Stand-in Forces must be set and sustained by logistics capabilities designed for distributed operations over long distances in a contested environment.” How can the joint force replenish supplies, maintain equipment, and restock combat losses while keeping stand-in forces in the fight?
Russian Navy Kilo Class Submarines Retreating From Crimea
Naval News – The changing tide of the Ukraine War appear to have led the Russian Navy to ‘regroup’ its forces in the Black Sea. Early during the invasion they loitered boldly close to Odessa. Now the Black Sea Fleet barely sails out of sight of Crimea for fear of Harpoon missiles. Its submarines too have recently shifted their base further from the shadow of Ukrainian attack.
Not So Fast: Insights From a 1944 War Plan Help Explain Why Invading Taiwan is a Costly Gamble
War on the Rocks – In 1944 U.S. military planners drafted a plan to invade Taiwan: Operation Causeway. The plan was ultimately rejected by senior leaders due to the high costs and risks relative to alternatives for advancing against Tokyo. Analyzing Causeway provides a historical baseline against which to assess the enduring challenges of joint forcible entry operations, particularly those executed from the sea. Put simply, crossing a contested sea only to fight on complex, canalizing terrain against a deliberate defense-in-depth makes amphibious assault in Taiwan a more complex operation than even the famed 1944 Operation Overlord — the D-Day landings. A mix of Taiwanese defense planning and the reality of modern battle network competition compound these challenges, making an invasion likely harder in 2022 than in 1944.
New Details On Japan’s Future BMD Vessels Revealed
Naval News – Here are the latest details on the Aegis system-equipped vessels (ASEVs), Japan’s future ballistic missile defense (BMD) ships.
ShinMaywa and USSOCOM Comment On The US-2 Seaplane
Naval News – Naval News reached out to ShinMaywa Industries, Ltd. in Japan to inquire on if the U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) might be interested in their US-2 seaplane. A representative from ShinMaywa’s Sales and Marketing Department replied. Naval News also reached out to USSOCOM for additional C-130J MAC status and comment.
Navy Electronic Warfare Container Could Go On Ships, Aircraft, Trucks
War on the Rocks – A new Navy program envisions a electronic warfare and intelligence suite that will work with any platform big enough to carry it.
Call the Maritime Cavalry: Marine Corps Modernization and the Stand-In Force
War on the Rocks – Genghis Khan and Napoleon Bonaparte used cavalry units and combined arms to wreak havoc in Europe and Eurasia long before debates about the future of the Marines Corps and maneuver warfare. Today, the Marine Corps can also apply these time-tested tactics to develop a “maritime cavalry” and provide an essential maneuver element that complements the latest joint force capabilities and fighting concepts. Perhaps more importantly, creating a maritime cavalry would add a dynamic combined-arms element to the Marine Corps’ latest Force Design 2030 formations and concepts while channeling its “first to fight” ethos.
Saudi naval modernization pushes ahead, with eye always on Iran
Breaking Defense – The first of five new corvettes recently arrived at King Faisal Naval Base in Jeddah, upgrading the Saudi fleet’s capabilities in the Red Sea.
Given China’s A2/AD Capabilities, How Would the United States Defend Taiwan?
USNI Blog – To effectively defend Taiwan from a military standpoint, the United States must be willing to defend Taiwan from outside of Taiwan. In other words, the defense of Taiwan from an invasion from China need not be confined to the main island of Taiwan, nor the Taiwan Strait. Moreover, expectations held by the United States should be that an invasion of Taiwan by China will look nothing like the previous four Taiwan Strait Crises (1954–55, 1958, 1995–96, 2022), which were generally limited, and instead be prepared for a conflict of a much larger-scale and intensity.
NOSI - Naval Open Source Intelligence™ 
You must be logged in to post a comment.