US Navy – Details emerge about the cause of the collision between the nuclear attack submarine USS Oklahoma City and a tanker in the Straits of Gibraltar in 2002.

• Virginian Pilot: Commodore contributed to sub collision, report says

US Navy – An interview with Vice Admiral Phillip M. Balisle is commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), largest of the Navy’s five major acquisition and support organizations, managing nearly one-fifth the service’s annual budget, or almost $20 billion annually.

• SeaPower: NAVSEA’s Balisle: Architect of Change in a Violent World

Background – 4th Generation Warfare – Is the war on terror a 4th generation warfare conflict?

• Military.com: 4GW: Tactics of the Weak Confound the Strong

Background – Terrorism – Gwynne Dwyer asks if we are overinflating the threat.

• Toronto Star: West overrates terrorism

US Marines – A large number of Marines who spent time ashore in Liberia have contracted malaria.

• Washington Post: Marines’ Malaria Cases Show Protections Failed
• Virginian Pilot: Outbreak of malaria hits Iwo Jima ready group

US Marines – A review of the fratricide incidents that occured in Iraq.

• SeaPower: Fratricide Mars U.S. Successes in Iraqi Freedom Conflict

Background – Information Warfare – James F. Dunnigan on how important it is to win the media war.

• StrategyPage: Do Media Victories Mean Anything?

Background – Wargaming, Information Warfare, and Transformation – An article by noted wargame designer Mark Herman, which makes the case that to be realistic, future wargames must stop being based upon force attrition models and instead must be based upon a model of a force’s entropy, or cohesion. Written in 1998, the article now appears quite prescient in light of the conflict in Iraq earlier this year in which the entropy of Iraqi forces can be said to have been maximised, leading to their disintegration.

• Joint Forces Quarterly: Entropy-Based Warfare: Modeling the Revolution in Military Affairs (PDF format only)

Indian Navy – India and the United States will hold the biggest-ever joint naval exercises off the Kochi coast in which for the first time an American nuclear submarine is to take part.

• People’s Daily: India, US to Hold Biggest Joint Naval Exercise

Background – Airpower – A look at how the Republican Guard was destroyed from the air.

• Air Force: Saddamís Elite In the Meat Grinder

US Marines – An in-depth look at the Battle of An Nasiriyah on March 23, 2003

• South Bend Tribune: Battle of An Nasiriyah was day their illusions died
  

Background – Empire – The United States has always been interventionist. What is new is the absence of a doctrine ó or even an honest principle or two.

• New York Times Magazine: Why Are We In Iraq? (And Liberia? And Afghanistan?)

Royal Navy – The Royal Navy’s most senior officer has given warning that Britain does not have enough ships to secure the country’s sea lanes from terrorist attack.

• Daily Telegraph: Navy chief has ‘too few ships to guard sea lanes from terrorists’

Background – North Korea – A discussion of the unparalleled cult of personality around North Koreaís President, Kim Jong Il, and the threat that the country poses to international peace.

• The New Yorker: Armies of the North

Background – Naval History – An excellent history of piracy on the high seas.

• The Atlantic: Pirates of the Atlantic

Indonesian Navy – Indonesia needs hundreds of additional patrol boats to police its territorial waters.

• Associated Press: Indonesia’s Navy Says It Needs New Boats

Nigerian Navy – The US will donate patrol boats to Nigeria to help it better patrol its territorial waters.

• Associated Press: U.S. Donates Ships to Protect Nigeria Oil

US Navy – A look at the current state of the US submarine force.

• Virginian Pilot: Submariner sees more potential

US Navy – The U.S. Navy’s formal report on Fleet Battle Experiment Kilo (FBE Kilo) is set for a fall release, but preliminary reports indicate the venture–at least its antisubmarine warfare (ASW) portion–provided numerous insights into managing the underwater battlefield.

• SeaPower: Navy Should Bolster Crisis Planning for Theater ASW

Background – Iraq – General Zinni harshly criticises the US reconstruction of Iraq. As a former Commander in Chief of Central Command, his views should carry great weight.

• Washington Post: Ex-Envoy Criticizes Bush’s Postwar Policy
• Virginian Pilot: Now-retired general says U.S. needs a plan for Iraq

US Navy – The United States and 10 of its allies wil press on with plans to intercept vessels suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction.

• BBC: US to search ships for WMD

US Navy – An essay by James F. Dunnigan describing how much ship’s sizes and lethality have increased over the last century.

• StrategyPage: Destroyers as Big as Battleships

US Marines – The Marines begin to turn over control of Iraq to a Polish-led force.

• New York Times: Marines Turn Over a South-Central Area of Iraq to a Polish-Led International Force

US Marines – The Marine Logistics Command came of age during Operation Iraqi Freedom, putting velocity and endurance into the logistics support operations for I MEF.

• Marine Corps Gazette: MLC: Sustaining Tempo on the 21st Century Battlefield

Russian Navy – A Russian cruiser makes a port of call in Italy???

• St. Petersberg Times: Putin Keeps Navy’s Flag Flying in Italy

Russian Navy – ???more details emerge about the newly sunken Russian November-class submarine.

• BBC: Submarine search goes on

Russian Navy – More details emerge about the loss of the Russian submarine last week.

• BBC: Negligence blamed in sub tragedy

Russian Navy – A decommissioned Russian nuclear-powered submarine, being towed to a scrapyard, has sunk.

• BBC: Russia pledges to raise nuclear sub

US Marines – The last Marines are about to pull out of Iraq. Here is a look at what they have accomplished during peacekeeping operations, and why we should fear their replacement by a multinational force.

• New York Times: Mind the Gap

US Coast Guard – Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is going to take away the Coast Guard’s warfighting roles.

• Washington Post: Coast Guard Fights to Retain War Role

Background – Al Qaeda – Despite the setbacks al Qaeda has suffered over the last two years, it is far from finished, as its recent bomb attacks testify. How has the group managed to survive an unprecedented American onslaught? By shifting shape and forging new, sometimes improbable, alliances. These tactics have made al Qaeda more dangerous than ever, and Western governments must show similar flexibility in fighting the group.

• Foreign Affairs: The Protean Enemy

US Navy – A look at the USS Ronald Reagan, the newest Nimitz-class carrier.

• Sea Power: Commissioning of USS Ronald Reagan Gives Navy One Hundred Thousand Tons of Combat Capability

Background – Military Space – Facts, figures, agency and system profiles, budget data, and other information about US and foreign space programs.

• Air Force: Space Almanac 2003 (PDF format)

US Navy – The USS Enterprise carrier battlegroup is about to deploy, starting a new era in carrier deployments.

• Virginian Pilot: Enterprise group sets sail for uncertain period

US Coast Guard – Too many types of boats can cause too many big headaches.

• Sea Power: Coast Guard Brings Order to Varied Fleet of 1,500 Boats

South Korean Navy – More minor clashes off the Korean coast.

• Reuters: Shots fired as vessel approaches South Korea

US Navy – More legal problems for the Navy’s low frequency sonar.

• Associated Press: Federal judge limits Navy use of sonar amid concerns for marine life

US Navy – The U.S. Naval Reserve is top heavy: more than three-quarters of its entire budget is spent on its own administration. It is time to remove the redundant bureaucracy that has separated the reserves from the active-duty Navy and integrate them into the fleet.

• US Naval Institute Proceedings: It Is Time to Transform the Naval Reserve

US Navy – How the US is trying to use technology to make up for the loss of Viecques as a training location.

• Virginian Pilot: Navy tests new technology to train sailors
• Virginian Pilot: Losing Vieques could be a blessing in disguise, Navy says

US Navy – A look at the next upgrade to the EA-6B Prowler.

• Sea Power: Northrop Grumman Jamming System Enters Low-Rate Initial Production

US Marines – The Marines in Liberia have returned to their ships, their mission ashore accomplished for the moment.

• Associated Press: U.S. Marines Return to Ships Off Liberia
• CNN: 150 Marines leave Liberia

Al Qaeda’s “Navy” – Estimates as to number of merchant ship available to al Qaeda varies from a low of a dozen to as many as 50. Assessing their numbers is complicated by the extensive use of ‘flags of convenience’ by maritime trade, in which vessels, often owned by Western companies, are registered overseas to avoid stringent safety standards and other regulations routinely imposed by the U.S. and Western European countries. Just how big a threat is posed by al Qaeda’s ‘Navy,’ and what measures have been put in place to counter this?

• Center for Defense Information: Al Qaeda’s ‘Navy’ – How Much of a Threat?

Background – What the US is looking for in Allies – She may look like G.I. Jane, but Defense Minister Kristin Krohn Devold has made her country’s military the model for small nations that want a meaningful role in world affairs.

• New York Times Magazine: Who’s Afraid of Norway?

Background – History – As the armistice brought Korean War hostilities to a close in July 1953, the First Marine Division was tasked to form a unique military police unit to help enforce the demilitarized zone.

• Leatherneck: DMZ Marines

Background – – Jim Dunnigan explains what Non Governmental Armed Forces are.

• StrategyPage: Fax Machine Firepower

US Navy – The new SECNAV will be???the old SECNAV?

• Virginian Pilot: Bush wants Gordon England back as Navy secretary

US Navy – The first Expeditionary Strike Group sets sail???and is described as an “Amphibious Ready Group on steroids.”

• Reuters: U.S. deploys new type of naval strike force

US Marines – The second in a continuing series of articles on the operations of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment against Saddam Hussein’s regime.

• Leatherneck: Breaking Through the Berms: Operation Iraqi Freedom

Background – Iraq – Military historian Gwynne Dwyer provides an interesting look at the guerilla’s possible strategy in Iraq.

• Toronto Star: A guerrilla war takes root –
  Iraqis opposed to U.S. are destroying structures and services on which the population depends
  

US Navy – This $4.5 billion piece of next-gen naval hardware is already obsolete – by design. Welcome aboard the flexible technology platform called the USS Ronald Reagan.

• Wired: The Best Defense Is a Good Upgrade

US Coast Guard – For decades the helicopters of the U.S. Coast Guard–looked upon by an admiring public for their rescue service along the nation’s coastlines–carried no armament and comported in the manner of the unarmed London Bobbies of yore. But like bobbies–who took up bearing arms in recent years to counter increasing violence on London’s streets–the Coast Guard’s helicopters are being equipped with small arms to enable them to meet their new post-9/11 homeland defense responsibilities.

• Sea Power: Armed and Unafraid: Coast Guard Helicopters Acquire Machine Guns

Background – Iraq – John Keegan on why Iraq is not another Vietnam.

• Daily Telegraph: Iraq is not another Vietnam, but the coalition needs more men
  

US Navy – Why people enter the silent service.

• Virginian Pilot: Despite hardships, submarines draw those in search of unique Navy duty

US Navy – The latest naval news from the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Australia, Russia, India, Canada, and China.

• Sea Power: Final River-Class OPVs Roll Off Line As Vosper Closes Woolston Yard

Background – History – Beach patrols, as performed by the US Coast Guard, in World War II.

• Sea Power: The Sand Pounders

Background – Terrorism – Defining terrorism has become so polemical and subjective an undertaking as to resemble an art rather than a science. Most attempts to arrive at a workable definition have tended to revolve around three inter-related factors namely, the terroristsí (or persons being termed terrorists) motives, identity and methods. The second article in CDIís Explaining Terrorism series examines the difficulties involved in defining terrorism.

• Center for Defense Information: Terrorism: The Problems of Definition

NOSI will next be updated on Friday.

US Navy – The US will attempt to intimidate North Korea through upcoming naval exercises.

• New York Times: U.S. to Send Signal to North Koreans in Naval Exercise

US Coast Guard – With the Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team 02 (MSST-02).

• Sea Power: Code of CG’s Security Team: ‘Failure is Not an Option’

US Navy – Aboard the new nuclear attack submarine USS Virginia.

• Virginian Pilot: Technology redefines life of the submariner

US Marines – With the Marines in Liberia.

• Daily Telegraph: ‘These guys just think it’s a big party’

Background – Persian Gulf – The sweeping military victory in Iraq has cleared the way for the United States to establish yet another framework for Persian Gulf security. Ironically, with Saddam Hussein gone, the problems are actually going to get more challenging in some ways. The three main issues will be Iraqi power, Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and domestic unrest in the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council. None will be easy to handle, let alone all three together.

• Foreign Affairs: Securing the Gulf

US Navy – Navy training is about to undergo a profound change.

• Virginian Pilot: Navy developing plans to deploy, train overseas with foreign fleets

US Coast Guard – How the Coast Guard is supporting US Navy operations around the world.

• Sea Power: Aquidneck Probes Iraqi Shipwrecks for Arms, Spies