– Defense News – The Russian military is deploying a flotilla of at least 10 ships to the Syrian coast.
Author Archives: Naval Open Source Intelligence (NOSI)
The UK’s giant aircraft carriers
– BBC – A century ago the UK started work on the world’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier. Soon the first jets will fly off the massive deck of her latest successor – the giant HMS Queen Elizabeth. Along with her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, they’re the largest warships ever to be built for the Royal Navy.
Should the U.S. Arm Ukraine With Anti-ship Missiles?
– CIMSEC – Ukraine today, given the need of countering threats from the sea, is in a situation where the need for U.S. anti-ship missiles is much more important than obtaining Javelin ATGMs.
With $294 million in contracts, the US Navy keeps its promise to upgrade cruisers
– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to modernizing its cruisers.
Newly reorganized littoral combat ship program faces its first big test in 2019
– Defense News – Four littoral combat ships are on track to be available to deploy in 2019, the head of the U.S. surface Navy told Defense News in an interview.
UK restarts frigate competition – but will anyone take part?
– Defense News – Britain’s Ministry of Defence is restarting its contest to build five general purpose frigates for the Royal Navy after it terminated the original competition due to insufficient interest from industry.
The US Navy’s fight to fix its worn-out Super Hornet fleet is making way
– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is slowly making progress to restore to fighting condition its hard-worn fleet of F/A-18 Super Hornet fighters, which last year had just one in three of its fighters ready to deploy.
The Perils of Playing Footsie in Military Boots: Trident Juncture and NATO’s Nordic Front
– War on the Rocks – This October, 40,000 U.S. and allied troops will converge on the sea and in the air over Norway for a NATO exercise named Trident Juncture. This will be NATO’s largest exercise since 2002 and will involve 30 allied and partner countries. One-hundred thirty aircraft and 70 ships will churn the waters of the Norwegian Sea and darken the skies above it, while thousands of allied land troops will operate in Norway in what is called a NATO “Article 5” exercise. Article 5 is that part of the North Atlantic Treaty in which members pledge to come to the aid of an ally under attack. For the purposes of the Trident Juncture exercise, that ally is Norway.
Dealing With the Russian Lake Next Door: Romania and Black Sea Security
– War On The Rocks – The Black Sea is a body of many monikers: NATO euphemistically calls the sea an area of “strategic importance,” former Romanian President Traian Băsescu famously dubbed it “a Russian lake” in 2005 and the Russians, in response, labeled the body “a NATO lake.” While traditionally Romania has considered the Black Sea “its best neighbor,” these labels reflect today’s heightened threat perceptions in the region. Yet ultimately none of these nicknames, laden with geostrategic significance though they are, show the reality.
Sea Of Troubles: Azov Emerging As ‘Tinderbox’ In Russia-Ukraine Conflict
– Radio Free Europe – The Sea of Azov, a rich fishing ground in Soviet times that has been of great strategic importance to independent Ukraine, has emerged after months of growing friction as the latest flash point in the four-year conflict between Moscow and Kyiv.
Tradewinds 2018 and the Caribbean’s Maritime Security Challenges
– CIMSEC – The first two phases of the multinational, Caribbean-focused military exercise Tradewinds 2018 took place between 4-21 June. Said maneuvers, sponsored by U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), brought together an estimated 1,700 troops from almost two dozen nations. Given the ongoing maritime security challenges that the Greater Caribbean continues to face, these confidence and interoperability-building exercises continue to be very important.
War Without End
– New York Times Magazine – C.J. Chivers writes that the Pentagon’s failed campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan left a generation of soldiers with little to fight for but one another.
US sub hunters to operate from RAF station in Scotland
– BBC – US submarine hunting aircraft are to operate out of RAF Lossiemouth on the Moray Firth.
The Role of the Human Operator in the Third Offset Strategy
– US Naval War College Review – New gadgets are useful, but our personnel are the most critical component to continued operational success. The Third Offset Strategy provides a near-unique opportunity to leap forward in optimizing human performance. We must establish priorities, tangible deliverables, and a timeline.
Producing Unmanned Systems Even Lawyers Can Love
– USNI Proceedings – Advances in artificial intelligence, coupled with popular movies such as Ex Machina where robots turn on their humans, have exacerbated concerns the military might lose control of armed autonomous systems. Augmented intelligence may be the answer.
Lifting the Fog of Targeting: “Autonomous Weapons” and Human Control through the Lens of Military Targeting
– US Naval War College Review – Military targeting practices should be the core of any analysis that seeks a better understanding both of the concept of meaningful human control within a context of increasingly autonomous weapons, and of what human-machine relationship we require.
Be Aces For All Seasons
– USNI Proceedings – In October 2016, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Navy gave the public a glimpse into the future of aerial combat in the skies above Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake.
Into the Abyss?: European Naval Power in the Post–Cold War Era
– US Naval War College Review – A survey of how Europe’s naval forces have evolved since the end of the Cold War amid a complex and threatening security environment. More than two decades of fiscal austerity have jeopardized Europe’s ability both to ensure good order at sea and to provide credible deterrence, and have limited its ability to promote common interests and shape events abroad.
When China and Japan Went to War
– National Interest – Even as Western strategists spill gobs of ink recalling the Great War that convulsed Europe a century ago, Chinese military thinkers are actually fixated on another anniversary. 120 years ago, Japan shocked the world with a lightning campaign that not only reduced the faltering Qing dynasty to its knees in a matter of months, but more to the point: put the pride of China’s then ascendant fleet on the bottom of the Yellow Sea.
Visualize Chinese Sea Power
– USNI Proceedings – As China has built its naval power, it has relied on a variety of ideas—old and new, Eastern and Western. For U.S. military leaders seeking to understand China’s naval aspirations, certain images can bring the strategy into focus—like the crumple zones built into a modern automobile, designed to give but not fail.
Japan’s Defense Readiness: Prospects and Issues in Operationalizing Air and Maritime Supremacy
– US Naval War College Review – Facing a fluid regional security environment and the need to strengthen its alliance role, Japan has worked to increase the capabilities of the Japan Self-Defense Forces by adjusting the relevant bureaucratic, political, and operational frameworks and making key investments in new force structures.
Maritime Innovation
– CHIPS – A discussion with NPS faculty and students from Captain Wayne Hughes.
The Baltic, Poland, and President Trump’s Warsaw Declaration
– US Naval War College Review – There may be no greater potential flash point in Europe today than the Baltic Sea region (BSR). The convergence of the Kaliningrad outpost; the riparian powers, neutrals, NATO allies, and Russia; and economics and military force in general makes for an explosive brew that may merely simmer—or may boil over and ignite a larger conflict. While much of the debate focuses on the Baltic littorals and hinterlands, it is the Baltic Sea itself that sits, physically and strategically, at the center of the issue. It is critical for naval policy makers and scholars today to understand the history of the BSR.
Mission Command and Zero Error Tolerance Cannot Coexist
– USNI Proceedings – To enable true mission command, the Navy must dismantle its zero-defect mentality. It is doubtful World War II heroes Chester Nimitz, Ernest King, and Raymond Spruance would reach even the rank of captain today.
“Sea of Peace” or Sea of War—Russian Maritime Hybrid Warfare in the Baltic Sea
– US Naval War College Review – Russian destabilization efforts aimed at the Baltic States are most likely to come from the Baltic Sea; be maritime, nonlethal, and nonnaval; and use political, diplomatic, informational, psychological, and economic tools, and perhaps paramilitary forces.
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