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

US Marines – The Marines enter Liberia.

• Washington Post: With Flourish, Marines Enter Monrovia

US Navy – How the lack of a Secretary of the Navy is hurting the Navy.

• Virginian Pilot: Bush team appears in no hurry to name Navy candidate

US Marines – By demonstrating knowledge, concern, and respect for the Islam religion, Marines will make better ëambassadorsí when in Muslim countries.

• Marine Corps Gazette: Operations in the Muslim World ó A Clash or a Celebration of Civilizations

US Marines – More Marines prepare to go ashore in Liberia.

• Washington Post: U.S. to Send 200 Troops To Liberia
• BBC: US troops set to land in Monrovia

North Korean Navy – A detailed look at how North Korea smuggles Scud missiles via the sea.

• Washington Post: On N. Korean Freighter, a Hidden Missile Factory

US Navy – Cdr. Doug Denneny describes what it was like to be “on the first wave of ‘shock and awe'” as he led the initial Navy and Marine Corps attack on Baghdad from the air.

• Sea Power: In My Own Words

Taiwanese Navy – Taiwan detains a North Korean vessel carrying supplies for making rockets.

• Christian Science Monitor: Ship’s seizure sends warning to N. Korea

US Coast Guard – In spite of increasing responsibilities in homeland security, Coast Guard forces remain committed to and equipped to support expeditionary operations.

• US Naval Institute Proceedings: What Was the Coast Guard Doing in Iraq?

US Navy – The USS Iwo Jima amphibious ready group remains off of Liberia.

• Virginian Pilot: Norfolk ships briefly approach Liberian coast

US Navy – The Ohio-class SSGNs will do more than just fire cruise missiles.

• Sea Power: Ohio-class SSGNs: Experimental Test Beds for Future Attack Subs

Russian Navy – Russia is constructing the world’s deepest diving and quietest nuclear submarine.

• The Hindu: Russia builds world’s deepest submarine

US Marines – The Marines get a new helmet.

• Copley News Service: Marines ready to issue new, improved helmets

Background – Training – How the US military is outsourcing some of its training activities to civilian firms today; and how this most likely will increase tremendously in the future.

• Aviation Week: Arizona Co. with Fleet of A-4 Skyhawks Taps Huge Training Market

Background – Information Warfare – The first acknowledgements of how the US undermined Iraq’s military before the war.

• New York Times: U.S. Moved to Undermine Iraqi Military Before War
  

Background – Iraq – Having assumed responsibility for the physical and political reconstruction of an Arab state in the heart of the Middle East, the United States has yet to clearly articulate how this task is to be accomplished. Its success or failure will have wide-ranging strategic implications for Americaís relationship with the Arab/Islamic world, the war on terrorism, WMD proliferation, oil prices, and the political stability of friends and enemies alike. CDI Research Analyst Dr. Michael Donovan argues that the stakes for the United States have never been higher.

• Center for Defense Information: Iraqi Reconstruction Update No. 1: A Rough Start

Royal Navy – Iraqi’s continue to smuggle oil out of Iraq.

• BBC: Navy seizes smuggled Iraqi oil

Canadian Navy – A serious fire occurs aboard HMCS Ottawa.

• Times Colonist: Crew fights major blaze in frigate’s engine room

Background – American Warfighting – “The American way of war” refers to the grinding strategy of attrition that U.S. generals traditionally employed to prevail in combat. But that was then. Spurred by dramatic advances in information technology, the new American way of war relies on speed, maneuver, flexibility, and surprise. This approach was put on display in the invasion of Iraq and should reshape what the military looks like.

• Foreign Affairs: The New American Way of War

Royal Australian Navy – More problems with the Collins-class submarines.

• Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Navy recalls Collins Class submarine fleet

Taiwanese Navy – China probes Taiwan yet again.

• Taipei Times: Spy ship off southern coast

US Coast Guard – Deepwater is more important than ever to the Coast Guard.

• Sea Power: Need for Deepwater Rises as CG Workload Expands

US Navy – The Navy considers using blimps for anti-terrorism applications.

• Associated Press: U.S. Navy See Blimps As Anti-Terror Tool

US Marines – We are Marines who are also logisticians, not logisticians who are also Marines.

• Marine Corps Gazette: Excellence in Logistics Supporting Excellence in Warfighting
  

Background – Military Policy – Dr. Nikolai Zlobin, CDI Senior Fellow and Director of CDI’s Russia and Asia Programs, argues that changes in technology, political structures, threats and social conditions require a re-evaluation of security policy.

• Center for Defense Information: A New Military Policy for a New World

US Marines – The first few Marines arrive in Liberia.

• Associated Press: Team of Seven Marines Lands in Liberia

Taiwanese Navy – Is Taiwan serious about paying for its own defense?

• Washington Times: Unfilled order for subs casts doubt on defense posture

Background – Liberia – As the US considers sending peacekeepers to Liberia, an in-depth review of the relationship between the US and Liberia.

• The Atlantic: Our Liberian Legacy

US Navy – What is involved in decomissioning the aircraft carrier USS Constellation.

• San Diego Union Tribune: Retiring America’s Flagship

US Navy – Problems with the arresting cables on the USS Ronald Reagan.

• Virginian Pilot: Arresting-cable problems delay carrier Reagan’s certification

US Navy – The Cyclone-class coastal patrol ship may have found a new lease on life.

• Sea Power: Cyclone Ships May Find New Life in War on Terrorism

Background – Liberia – James F. Dunnigan’s analysis of the situation in Liberia.

• StrategyPage: Lost in Liberia

US Navy – The USS Iwo Jima amphibious ready group is off of Liberia.

• CNN: Peacekeepers expect Taylor to leave power

US Navy – The USS John F. Kennedy comes out of overhaul.

• Associated Press: Carrier John F. Kennedy coming back to life in Fla.

Royal Navy – More on how the Royal Navy may be forced to downgrade their aircraft carrier plans.

• Jane’s: Cost concerns force UK to consider smaller carrier

US Coast Guard – The Integrated Deepwater System project is under way, and will change the face of Coast Guard aviation as it introduces new systemsósuch as CASA twin-engine maritime patrol aircraftó and upgrades legacy aircraft.

• US Naval Institute Proceedings: Coast Guard Aviation Gets a New Look

Background – Asymetrical Warfare – Yet another way to think about asymetrical warfare.

• The Guardian: A worm’s eye view

US Marines – The latest on the MV-22 Osprey.

• SeaPower: Future Outlook Bright as Osprey Flies Through DOD Review

Background – CENTCOM – Thomas Ricks on the new Commander of Central Command.

• Washington Post: Centcom’s Renaissance Man

Background – Al Queda – An interesting review of why we have not found Bin Laden yet.

• The New Yorker: The Search for Osama
• The New Yorker: Questions and Answers with the author

Background – History – ëThe storm broke suddenly, about four oíclock in the morning. About six battalions of the enemy launched a ëdo-or-dieí counterattack preceded by intense mortar fire. Approximately a battalion of this force struck the positions of the [M]arines on Fonte Hill, with other hostile units hitting the line to [the] left and right in the zones of the 3d and 21st Marines. About two hours of fierce hand-to-hand combat ensued with the enemy coming in apparently never ending waves.í

• Marine Corps Gazette: The Battle of Fonte Hill, Guam, 25ñ26 July 1944