– USNI News – At a recent congressional hearing Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jon Greenert bluntly stated “[the] Navy remains challenged in this (anti-surface warfare) mission area due to both capability and capacity shortfalls.”
Author Archives: Naval Open Source Intelligence (NOSI)
Chinese navy to focus on ‘open seas’
– BBC – China is to focus on projecting its military presence beyond its borders at sea, according to a strategy document.
China’s Military Strategy
– USNI News – The following is the first public Chinese Military Strategy white paper outlining a new policy of “active defense,” released by the Chinese Ministry of National Defense on May 26, 2015.
China’s Navy Makes Strides, Work Remains To Be Done
– Defense News – It’s no secret that China has embarked on a major modernization and expansion plan for its Navy, and its aggressive building program, coupled with the placing in service of more modern submarines, an aircraft carrier, destroyers with ever-sophisticated sensors and a large number of long-range surface-to-surface missiles, is altering politics and strategies throughout the Asian theater. What is not so clear is what sort of fleet the Chinese are building toward, and how far their industrial capability can take them.
Never Surrender the Language
– Real Clear Defense – My entreaty to American diplomats and naval leaders is this: yield nothing to China in the South China Sea. Do not compromise on surveillance flights, underwater surveys, or any other part of the law of the sea for the sake of amity with Beijing. Freedom of the sea is indivisible. Let some of it go and the rest is apt to follow. By contrast, exercising high-seas freedoms to the maximum extent lawful represents a statement—backed by steel—that no coastal state may annul or modify basic principles underlying the liberal maritime order.
The Pitfalls of a Maritime Police Force
– Real Clear Defense – On Monday EU foreign and defense ministers resolved to use naval power to go after human trafficking at its sources in North Africa. A tidal wave of refugees has crashed on European shores in recent years as tens of thousands of people flee armed strife and economic upheaval in Africa and the Middle East. The Mediterranean Sea has become a conduit for what Germans call a Völkerwanderung, a mass migration across the frontiers of civilization. Large-scale movements of Germanic tribesmen brought havoc to the Roman Empire in its dying days, giving rise to the term. European leaders hope deploying a forward maritime strategy will spare the European Union a Roman fate.
India Will Relaunch First Domestic Carrier Vikrant Next Week, More Money Approved for Second Carrier
– USNI News – India’s long-delayed carrier is set to enter the water next week while the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi government has approved more money for development of the second indigenous carrier.
SP-MAGTF Commander Details ISIL Strikes; Notes 1st Marines ‘Could Clear’ Iraq
– Breaking Defense – Since early November, three Marine Corps MV-22B Ospreys and 26 marines have been on alert at Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait, on 30-minute alert to fly in and rescue a U.S. or coalition pilot downed while bombing or shooting at the Islamic State in Iraq or Syria. On 29 occasions between Nov. 1 and April 24, two Ospreys and a KC-130J aerial refueling tanker assigned to this Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel (TRAP) mission have spent 145 hours loitering in the air as large coalition airstrikes were underway, “ready to swoop in if required,” their former commander says.
Japan Plans To Deploy Missiles To Strategic Island Near Taiwan
– FoxtrotAlpha – Japan is looking to further militarize Ishigaki-Jima with both surface-to-air and anti-ship missiles. Ishigaki Island is just 100 miles east of Taiwan and about 100 miles south of the highly disputed Senkaku Islands, putting it in a volatile yet strategic geographic position.
EU to back ‘boat-destroyer’ mission in Mediterranean
– BBC – EU foreign and defence ministers are expected to approve a mission to destroy the boats used by people-smugglers operating in war-torn Libya.
Pentagon says Iran warships ‘linked up’ with cargo vessel
– Reuters – The Pentagon said on Tuesday that two Iranian warships have “linked up” with a cargo ship that Iran has said is carrying humanitarian aid to Yemen, as activists on board the vessel said it was due to arrive at the Yemeni port of Hodaida on Thursday.
Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste: Extreme Makeover, the Chinese Coast Guard Edition
USNI Blog – “Never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” – Rahm Emanuel
Submarine Force Could Become the New A2/AD Threat
– USNI News – Targeted investments in improving weapons and decoys could propel the U.S. submarine fleet to be the underwater answer to anti-access and area-denial (A2/AD) threats.
Royal Navy submariner defends attack on Trident safety
– BBC – A Royal Navy submariner has defended his criticism of safety procedures around the Trident nuclear submarines and revealed he will hand himself over to the authorities within days.
Why the Chinese Navy is in the Mediterranean
– USNI News – For China, the broader Mediterranean region is of real interest in terms of both energy security and trade.
Nato’s ‘Dynamic Mongoose’: Hunting for submarines
– BBC – In the North Sea, off the coast of Norway, Nato has been conducting its largest ever anti-submarine warfare exercise.
U.S. Marines look to nurture integrated Asia-Pacific amphibious forces, China excluded
– Reuters – The U.S. Marine Corps is bringing together foreign commanders from amphibious forces deployed mostly in the Asia-Pacific for a conference aimed at taking steps to integrate operations, with China excluded from the event.
The Detail in Seymour Hersh’s Bin Laden Story That Rings True
– New York Times Magazine – Carlotta Gall, who reported from Pakistan for the New York Times for the last decade, on Seymour Hersh’s recent Bin Laden story.
Iran navy fires shots at tanker as tensions rise in Gulf
– Reuters – Iranian naval vessels fired shots at a Singapore-flagged tanker in the Gulf on Thursday, in what appeared to be Iran’s latest attempt to settle a legal dispute by force with passing commercial vessels.
U.K. Election Result Boosts Royal Navy Ballistic Missile Submarine Program
– USNI News – Had Labour emerged with the most seats in the House of Commons, its hopes of forming a viable government would have required the support of the fiercely anti-nuclear Scottish National Party. This was a worrisome prospect for advocates of strategic nuclear deterrence, who feared that a weak Labour leadership would inevitably cave in to SNP demands and scrap plans to renew the U.K.’s submarine-based Trident ballistic missile force.
Iran’s Latest Round of Maritime Brinksmanship
– USNI News – Iran’s recent seizure and release of the Marshall Islands flagged M/V Maersk Tigris could be what Iran claims it is, a reaction to a decade-long dispute over shipping containers that were diverted to the UAE and never delivered to Iran. More likely however, it is a thinly veiled attempt at brinkmanship to remind the United States of the kind of trouble that Iran can stir up in the Strait of Hormuz. – See more at: http://news.usni.org/2015/05/11/analysis-irans-latest-round-of-maritime-brinksmanship#sthash.Ladh4PjJ.dpuf
Pentagon weighs sending planes, ships near disputed South China Sea reefs
– Reuters – The Pentagon is considering sending U.S. military aircraft and ships to assert freedom of navigation around rapidly growing Chinese-made artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea.
Iranian warships will escort Yemen-bound cargo ship
– Reuters – Iranian warships will accompany a cargo ship bound for the Yemeni port of Hodaida, which is held by Iran-allied Houthi fighters. The Iran-flagged Iran Shahed cargo ship set sail on Monday and could be intercepted by Saudi-led coalition forces.
The Killing of Osama bin Laden
– London Review of Books – Seymour Hersh has a different tale behind the killen of Osama bin Laden.
Essex Amphibious Ready Group, 15th MEU Set to Deploy Today from San Diego
– USNI News – The three-ship Essex Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) will deploy today from Naval Station San Diego, Calif. for a deployment to the Western Pacific and the Middle East.
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