Marine Corps Gazette – The Marine Corps is shuttering its combat gear storage program in the Middle East as it shifts attention to Europe and the Pacific.
Author Archives: Naval Open Source Intelligence (NOSI)
Ground-Based Tor SAM System Seen Strapped To Russian Black Sea Warship
War Zone – Placing the Tor surface-to-air missile system on the Corvette was likely an improvised countermeasure following the sinking of the Moskva.
Taiwan Uses Naval Mines Designed Over A Century Ago
War Zone – Taiwan’s brand new minelaying ships are training to employ the U.S.-designed Mk 6 naval mine, which was designed in 1917.
Getting boats to sea – efforts to improve Royal Navy submarine availability
Navy Lookout – With the RN attack submarine fleet down to just 5 boats and the pressure of maintaining the nuclear deterrent unrelenting, initiatives to improve submarine reliability and availability have never been more important. Here we look at what is being done to mitigate chronic legacy issues and increase the time submarines spend at sea.
Chinese Aircraft Carrier Seen With A Fleet Of Drones On Its Deck
War Zone – Imagery shows the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong working as a deployment platform for vertical takeoff and landing drones.
Sweden Is Sending ‘Robot 17’ Coastal Defense Missiles To Ukraine
War Zone – The Robot 17 system will provide Ukraine with a survivable short-range coastal defense capability.
When Only a Chisel Will Do: Marine Corps Force Design For the Modern Era
CIMSEC – One of the U.S. Marine Corps’ greatest strengths has been a weakness of late. Its storied history and rich service culture make it an organization notoriously resistant to critical self-examination and change. If “man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor,” then the Marine Corps is particularly fond of its own marble and sensitive to the chisel.1 Such a fondness explains the spate of articles from retired Marine Corps leaders criticizing the “hasty” execution of 2019 Commandant’s Planning Guidance (CPG) and lamenting they sacrifice critical aspects of the Marine Corps combined arms heritage.
Japan’s converted aircraft carrier to undertake Indo-Pacific deployment
Defense News – Japan plans to send its recently converted aircraft carrier on the country’s annual deployment to the Indo-Pacific region, conducting training and enhancing ties with regional partners over the next four months.
Missing: Expeditionary Air Defense
CIMSEC – In the many discussions on the Marine Corps’ new Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO) concept, the subject of air defense seems to have largely fallen through the cracks and threatened a critical capability gap. More analysis must be focused on how these forces can be defended against various aerial threats and identify key capability gaps. By analyzing air defense across three broad categories, including advanced missiles, small drones, and traditional aircraft, EABO can be further strengthened as an operating concept.
China fighter jet intercepts Australian plane
BBC – Australia has accused the pilot of a Chinese fighter jet of carrying out a dangerous manoeuvre near one of its aircraft over the South China Sea.
Keep War Confined to the ‘Seas’
USNI Proceedings – Orienting more resources to naval, space, and cyberspace capabilities may be a more effective deterrent to war in the Pacific than a strategy based on strikes against the Chinese mainland.
American Sea Power Project: Geography Plays An Ocean-Sized Role
USNI Proceedings – Naval strategists and operational planners must consider chokepoints, bases, island chains, and vast oceanic distances as they draft warplans and consider adversary courses of action.
Don’t Buy Warships (Yet)
USNI Proceedings – The Navy should procure weapons to manage near-term risks, while revitalizing civilian shipyards to ready for long-term competition.
The Importance of Unmanned Logistics Support For a Transforming Marine Corps
CIMSEC – Advanced base operations could involve Marines being cut off from sustainment, whether as forces that have been blockaded or forces that have been bypassed by opposing naval forces. Marines will require robust pre-positioned stocks to have enough self-sufficiency to continue the fight in the absence of sustainment, and sustainment assets must be more distributed and risk-worthy than legacy platforms. Unmanned systems can fill this gap.
War Studies Primer
We invite you to try War Studies Primer – an introductory course on the study of war and military history. Its purpose is to provide an introduction to the study of war.
War Studies Primer is presented as a lecture curriculum at the university level. It is a free, non-credit, self-study course that consists of 28 topics and over 1,900 slides and is updated on a yearly basis.
Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents, and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.
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Navy Finally Sends Littoral Combat Ship To Middle East
War Zone – The Freedom class USS Sioux City recently became the first of either of the U.S. Navy’s two types of Littoral Combat Ship to deploy to Middle Eastern waters. The service has long said that these vessels, the first of which entered service in 2008, would be ideally suited to operating in the region. However, this historical trip comes as the Navy now plans to decommission and potentially sell off all of its existing Freedom class ships due to a design flaw, combat relevancy, and other considerations.
Feedback On French Navy High Intensity Exercise POLARIS
Naval News – In a report published by the French Parliament’s National Defense and Armed Forces Committee, members of parliament (MPs) review the French Navy (Marine Nationale)’s feedback on the high-intensity exercise ‘POLARIS’ conducted from November 18 to December 3, 2021.
China launches empire building exercise in Pacific theatre
The Sunday Guardian – China’s plan for the Pacific.
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary in 2022
Navy Lookout – The ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary are critical for the Royal Navy to operate worldwide but despite its excellent capabilities, the service is in slow decline. Here we look at the current status of the fleet.
The First Stand-In Forces: The Role of International Affairs Marines in Force Design 2030
CIMSEC – A key challenge facing the current and future Marine Corps is gaining and maintaining access. After framing the central role that access challenges will play in implementing Force Design 2030 and its associated warfighting concepts, recommendations are then proposed for how the USMC can best employ its cadre of international affairs (IA) Marines to address this access challenge.
How The Quad Can Take On China In The ‘Gray-Zone’
1945 – James Holmes says that The Quad initiative is a saltwater, multinational version of the “intelligence cycle,” whereby intelligence services plan what information they need to collect to attack issues at hand; gather raw data from technical and human sources; process and analyze the data to distill useful insights from it, and disseminate their findings to the right customers to help them devise and execute strategy and operations. And then customers provide feedback on the planning process, shaping future rounds of the cycle.
China Launches Drone Ship That Acts As A Mothership For More Drones
War Zone – China’s new drone ship is officially designed for ocean research, but has obvious value for the country’s military.
Navy’s 85-Foot Orca Unmanned Submarine Will Be A Minelayer First
War Zone – The first Boeing-built Orca unmanned submarine will begin testing this summer and its first mission will be laying sea mines.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard Tests Its Ability To Turn Cutters Into Ship Killers
War Zone – In what could be a very useful capability if an invasion kicked-off, the Taiwanese Coast Guard conducted live-fire drills with anti-ship missiles.
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