– Army Times – Another Beijing official has sounded off about the communist nation’s perceived dominance of the South China Sea region, this time coming as an alarming threat of inflicting mass casualties on the U.S. Navy.
Author Archives: Naval Open Source Intelligence (NOSI)
Russia to Deploy Precision Strike Missiles in Western Atlantic
– Washington Free Beacon – Kalibr cruise missiles will target Washington, East Coast cities.
Navy Tests ‘Littoral Combat Group’ Concept That Pairs DDG, LPD in South America Deployment
– USNI News – The Navy deployed a new ship pairing – a destroyer (DDG-51) and an amphibious transport dock (LPD-17) – to test out a new concept that could supplement amphibious squadrons and surface action groups as a formation in future operations.
What U.S. Submariners Actually Say About Detection Of So-Called Unidentified Submerged Objects
– War Zone – Big claims abound about mysterious objects submariners detect below the waves, so we went straight to the source and what we found out was surprising.
China’s NYC-Sized ‘Earthquake Warning System’ Array Sounds More Like A Way To Talk To Submarines
– War Zone – With the largest submarine force on Earth, the Chinese increasingly need long-range communications options that don’t require the boats to surface.
Time to Get Out of Afghanistan
– New York Times – Robert D. Kaplan on why the US should leave Afghanistan.
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Quandaries of the Kerch Crisis
– National Interest – The United States must act cautiously to defuse the new crisis in the Sea of Azov.
2018 World Naval Operational News Highlights
The ten most significant naval news stories / trends / themes this year included:
- The completion of the first Indian Navy SSBN deterrence patrol. When will India be able to do this routinely?
- The US Navy’s purchase of its first operational UAV, the MQ-25 tanker. Will its commitment to this operational concept remain strong, or fade as it has in the past with prior US Navy UAV programs? And when will the US Navy start investing as heavily as the Chinese Navy has in USVs and UUVs?
- The operational collapse of the German armed forces in general and the German Navy in particular. What is the point of having a navy that is not fit for sea?
- The slow but steady NATO military build up in the Baltic against Russia topped off by Exercise Trident Juncture this fall. When will the US consider Russia contained and focus most of its energies on the Chinese threat?
- The Royal Navy reacquiring a fixed wing aircraft capability at sea with the F-35B. Will they be able to afford enough aircraft to field a viable capability?
- The US Marine Corps rededicating itself to an offensive mission of seizing and holding advance bases that they can use to practice their own form of anti-access area denial. Will this be a mission they hold uniquely or share with the US Army?
- The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force taking a more serious approach to defending the Senkaku Islands, including activating a Marine unit and buying F-35B’s for its Izumi-class carriers. Is the tale of the popular Japanese manga story Kubo Ibuki coming true?
- China weaponizing its sand castles in the South China Sea with defensive and offensive missiles and aircraft. When will the US have the political will to hold military exercises in the South China Sea with its allies to counter these actions rather than just conducting FONOPs?
- China’s use of predatory financing to take control of critical infrastructure around the world including ports and airports. When will the world realize you don’t want your greatest rival owning you?
- The ever-increasing use of new commercial cubesat constellations to monitor commercial activities at sea and in port. When will they be weaponized and start being used to monitor operational naval activities at sea and in port?
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Why Russia is swallowing the Black Sea and won’t stop until it has ‘choked out Ukraine’
– Army Times – The Kremlin has proved that geographic boundaries can be redrawn without much more than stern words from the West. But absent harsher measures and greater push-back, the former commander of U.S. Army Europe warns that the Russian Federation won’t let up.
5 Big National Security Predictions for 2019
– National Interest – James Holmes says trouble with Russia and China top the list.
The US Navy’s surface fleet: Here’s what’s ahead in 2019
– Defense News – The U.S. surface fleet has a big year in store for 2019, and we’re going to start getting more details very soon on what the future has in store for surface warriors.
Cyber War Requires Cyber Marines
– USNI Proceedings – To ensure Marine Corps competitiveness in the cyber domain, personnel reforms must address policy, training, and organization, without compromising a warrior ethos.
Lack of Medical Readiness Is a War Stopper
– USNI Proceedings – Medical support of the sick and wounded is a complicated, resource intensive, and vital aspect of every over-the-sea operation. Over the past 15 years, operational deployments in the Middle East have required U.S. Navy and Marine Corps forces to focus on stability and counterinsurgency operations, but looking ahead, traditional amphibious roles likely will be required once again. During these future operations, how long will it take for a latent but “hopefully” functionally effective medical support system to evolve? Will medical support of the anticipated sea-base concept of operations, for example, suffer the same sad evolution of repetitive mistakes committed during prior amphibious conflicts over the past century? It is imperative that those who bear responsibility for ensuring prompt and competent care is provided to the combat injured examine the lessons of history.
Run Silent, Run Shallow
– USNI Proceedings – Offensive submarine operations against highly capable modern diesel boats in the littorals require new tactics.
Independent But Integrated
– USNI Proceedings – Although they appear to have disappeared from carrier strike group operations, submarines still are vitally connected to defense of the fleet—but only when and as needed.
Distribute Lethality to the Cutters
– USNI Proceedings – To counter the return of peer competitors, the Navy is taking steps to expand the fleet and make it more deadly by distributing lethality to smaller surface ships in the form of ship-killing missiles. Distributed lethality increases the effectiveness of the U.S. fleet, but it is deficient in one key respect: it does not include Coast Guard cutters.
Escalation at Sea: Stability and Instability in Maritime East Asia
– US Naval War College Review – Low-level instability is to be expected with maritime boundary disputes or when power competition occurs at sea; however, sustained escalatory cycles are unlikely because of the characteristics of the maritime strategic environment.
Team the P-8 and Sea Hunter for ASW
– USNI Proceedings – The U.S. Navy faces a growing submarine threat that it soon will be unable to match numerically. It is imperative that the service find an alternate approach. One solution is to use the U.S. Navy’s newly fielded P-8 Poseidon aircraft in tandem with the unmanned surface vessel Sea Hunter to prosecute submarines cheaply and with minimal manning.
“Getting Serious about Strategy in the South China Sea”: What Analysis Is Required to Compel a New U.S. Strategy in the South China Sea?
– US Naval War College Review – China’s extensive island-building projects in the Spratly Islands, the aggressive harassment tactics of its maritime law-enforcement and paramilitary fleets, and its rejection of binding arbitration rulings on both those activities threaten the rules-based international order and pose political, economic, and potentially military threats to U.S. interests in the region.
UK ship in Ukraine ‘sends message to Russia’
– BBC – A Royal Navy warship which has been sent to Ukraine will send a strong message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the UK’s defence secretary says.
Iraq’s Post-ISIS Campaign of Revenge
– New Yorker – The corruption and cruelty of the state’s response to suspected jihadis and their families seem likely to lead to the resurgence of the terror group.
Confessions Of An E-2C Hawkeye Radar Operator
– War Zone – The life of the often overlooked “quarterback” of the air wing that goes to work in a dimly lit flying tube to coordinate chaotic air wars from above.
A Vietnamese Fisherman Reeled In A Chinese Torpedo In The South China Sea
– War Zone – It’s now in the hands of the Vietnamese military and they will likely pick it apart for any intelligence value.
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