Russian Navy – Russia considers using Typhoon-class ballistic missile submarines as tankers.

• Bellona: Typhoon Subs to Ship Oil and Gas

International Naval News – News on the Australian, Canadian, German, and Portugese navies.

• Sea Power: Australia Updates Defense Plan To Counter Changing Threats

US Navy – A look at the US Navy’s mine countermeasures activities in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

• US Naval Institute Proceedings: Mine Countermeasures a Success

Background – Non-lethal weapons – A sceptical look at non-lethal weapons.

• BBC: The weapons of bloodless war

US Navy – Life aboard the destroyer USS Briscoe.

• Virginian Pilot: Destroyer Briscoe’s final deployment a vivid one

US Navy – An update on the Navyís future generation of surface combatants.

• Sea Power: DD(X):A Lethal Warship Leads the Way To the Navy’s Future Fleet

Royal Navy – England performs a drug bust in the Mid-Atlantic.

• The Times: Navy raid torpedoes Atlantic drugs gang

US Marines – Marine Corps doctrine for attack helicopter close air support (CAS) is not responsive to the needs of the ground commander and should be revised.

• Marine Corps Gazette: A Tale of Two (Close Air Support) Missions

Background – Embedding – William Arkin shows the true value of the embedded journalists.

• Los Angeles Times: Good News From the Front

Background – Seymour Hersh – I enjoying Seymour Hersh’s work as I consider it to be interesting and well written. Here is a fascinating analysis of Hersh’s work – basically if Hersh makes a predictation, he is bound to be wrong!

• Slate: The Leading Indicator That WMD Will Be Found – Seymour M. Hersh says they won’t

US Navy – Naval aviation news from around the US fleet.

• Sea Power: Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey Passes Key Test Milestones

Background – Targeting – Regional commanders and their staffs must be vigilant to ensure that they attack only targets that are legal under the law of war, and only in legal ways. They must be equally vigilant, however, against nongovernmental activists who would so reinterpret the law as to make their tasks much more difficult, even impossible.

• Naval War College Review: Targeting after Kosovo

US Navy – The USS Carl Vinson visits Japan.

• Associated Press: U.S. Aircraft Carrier Visit Japanese Port

Background – Information Warfare – An outstanding program on the information warfare threat to the US. I’ve linked below to the transcript, visit the Home page to watch the show or view more information.

• PBS Frontline: CyberWar!

???I will be able to update NOSI today and tomorrow after all???

US Navy – The USS Ronald Reagan successfully completes builders trials.

• Virginian Pilot: Carrier Reagan returning home after successful initial sea trials

Background – Intelligence – Donald Rumsfeld has his own special sources. Are they reliable?

• The New Yorker: Selective Intelligence

Background – Intelligence – Seymour M. Hersh looks at a small circle of analysts and advisers at the Pentagon who came to rival the C.I.A. as the President’s primary source of intelligence about Iraq; Hersh reports that questions have been raised about the integrity of the intelligence the group relied on.

• The New Yorker: War and Intelligence

US Navy – Aboard the USS Mount Whitney, off the Horn of Africa.

• Virginian Pilot: Almost seven months at sea and counting

Chinese Navy – China did not even know one of its submarines was missing???

• Daily Telegraph: Chinese navy did not know submarine was missing

NOSI will next be updated on Sunday. Until then, here are some extra articles to keep you occupied???

US Navy – The Navy is moving with “lightning speed” to design and build a fleet of up to 65 Littoral Combat Ships.

• Sea Power: Navy Plans to Develop Littloral Combat Ship Fleet with ‘Lightning Speed’

US Marines – The complexities and requirements involved in river crossings are explained.

• Marine Corps Gazette: Bridging the GapóThe Marine Corps Needs To Be Better Organized and Trained

Merchant Marine – What steps are being taken to protect US ports from terrorism.

• Sea Power: A Maritime Challenge of Staggering Dimensions

Background – Strategy – How Colonel John Boyd’s theory of Penetrate-Isolate-Subvert-Reorient-Reharmonize was used in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

• US Naval Institute Proceedings: Penetrate-Isolate-Subvert-Reorient-Reharmonize

Chinese Navy – More details on the Chinese submarine disaster.

• BBC: China sub victims ‘suffocated’

Royal Navy – John Keegan on why the UK needs new large-deck aircraft carriers.

• Daily Telegraph: Labour must keep its promise to build two new aircraft carriers

US Navy – The USS Kitty Hawk returns home.

• Associated Press: USS Kitty Hawk Returns to Home Port

US Navy – The USS Ronald Reagan begins builders trials.

• Virginian Pilot: Navy’s newest carrier begins builder’s trials

US Navy – How the US is trying to document “lessons learned” in Iraq.

• Virginian Pilot: Lessons of the war in Iraq

US Navy – Norman Friedman on the similar lessons learned from both Gulf Wars.

• US Naval Institute Proceedings: Both Gulf Wars Offer Lessons

Singaporean Navy – A review of the state of Singapore’s fleet, as it celebrates its 36th anniversary.

• The Stratis Times: Navy takes the rough with the smooth

Chinese Navy – More details on the Chinese submarine disaster – it happened over 2 weeks ago.

• Boston Globe: Cause of submarine disaster is mystery

US Navy – A look at US forces redeploying home from the Gulf.

• Sea Power: Naval Forces Begin Return Home As War in Iraq Subsides

Background – Nuclear Proliferation – At the end of the cold war, weapons of mass destruction were mostly abstractions. Suddenly, they are proliferating, and those who now have or want nukes will use them to blackmail, or worse.

• New York Times Magazine: The Thinkable

Indian Navy – The importance of the naval exercises between India and Russia.

• Stratfor: Indo-Russian naval exercises a message to United States

Chinese Navy – Still no explanation of what transpired aboard the Ming-class submarine resulting in the loss of the crew but the preservation of the boat.

• BBC: China sub deaths baffle experts
• Washington Post: Chinese Submarine Accident Kills 70

Royal Australian Navy – Australia’s efforts in mine clearance in the Gulf have been substantial.

• The Age: Secrets of Australian heroism revealed

Background – History – An excellent history of the beginnings of the US Navy’s
SOSUS program. SOSUS was a massive Cold War R&D project that built upon
earlier discoveries in ocean acoustics, particularly long-range sound
transmission, and applied it to the detection of Soviet submarines.

• International Journal of Naval History: From Surveillance to Global Warming:John Steinberg and Ocean Acoustics

Chinese Navy – A Chinese submarine suffers a mysterious accident, all of its crew are killed, and the submarine has been towed to port.

• BBC: Dozens die on Chinese sub
• Daily Telegraph: Chinese sub crew of 70 are killed by ‘malfunction’

US Marines – Marines in Iraq prepare to reembark for the US.

• Virginian Pilot: War duty done, Marines get set to load up for home

US Navy – With the Seabees in Iraq.

• Virginian Pilot: In the field with the Seabees

US Navy – Is the US considering a naval blockade of North Korea?

• Daily Telegraph: US plans ‘Cuba lite’ blockade on North Korea

Background – Air War – A review of the air war.

• Washington Post: An Air War of Might, Coordination and Risks

Background – Transformation – William Arkin on why the US military should rest on its laurels for a while and not worry about the future so much.

• Los Angeles Times: It Ain’t Broke After All

Nigerian Navy – Nigeria’s navy will attempt to end a hostage situation on several oil rigs.

• BBC: Nigeria oil rig crisis talks fail

Royal Marines – A Special Boat Squadron patrol that went wrong in Iraq???

• The Times: Two SBS survive ambush, desert trek and Syria jail

US Navy – The USS Abraham Lincoln battlegroup is almost home.

• Associated Press: USS Lincoln aircrews arrive at Navy bases along West Coast

US Navy – The Truman and Roosevelt battlegroups prepare to return home.

• Virginian Pilot: Roosevelt to Return in June

US Coast Guard – Patroling off of Iraq with the Coast Guard.

• Virginian Pilot: Patrol boats guard passage to Iraq

Background – Iraqi Army – Why the Iraqi Army performed so poorly.

• Washington Post: A Brief, Bitter War for Iraq’s Military Officers

Background – Imperialism – Niall Ferguson on why Americans don’t really have what it takes to rule the world.

• New York Times Magazine: The Empire Slinks Back

Background – Information Warfare – A look at how Naval Academy midshipmen are wargaming information warfare.

• Washington Post: Cyber War Game Tests Future Troops

Royal Marines – 3 Commando Brigade is heading home.

• Associated Press: British commandos head back to home and families

Canadian Navy – Canada needs to secure the sovereignty of the Northwest Passage.

• Toronto Star: Snowplow sinks sovereignty patrol

US Navy – The USS Harry S Truman battlegroup will head home soon.

• Virginian Pilot: Truman to return in May

NOSI will take a brief break until next Wednesday. Here is some weekend reading, in advance:

Background – Naval History – Maritime and naval history serve the needs of several ìaudiencesî in and around the Navy. However, the serviceís approach to naval history is ìdisjointed, sporadic, [and] inconsistent.î Despite various initiatives and widespread interest, the Navy lacks an integrated policy for employing naval history, and high-level interest will be required to make history the valuable resource it could and should be.

• Naval War College Review: The Uses of Maritime History in and for the Navy

Malaysian Navy – A new training ship will be build by the Malaysian Navy.

• The Star: Second training ship for navy

US Navy – Aboard the USNS Comfort.

• Virginian Pilot: War brings out wide-ranging skills of personnel

US Marines – Tales from an embedded reporter with the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.

• Washington Times: War diary: Tales from the front

US Marines – Downtime is bad time for these Marines.

• Virginian Pilot: War-tempered Marines find downtime is no good time

US Marines – To get to Baghdad, the marines of the Third Battalion fought the old-fashioned way ó by shooting as many of the enemy as they could. Their victims weren’t all soldiers.

• New York Times Magazine: ‘Good Kills’

Background – Strategy – Ralph Peters reviews what were the key decisions made in the war by the U.S.

• New York Post: The Key Decisions

Taiwanese Navy – Taiwan still can’t decide if it wants to buy the Kidd-class destroyers from the US.

• Taipei Times: MND asks navy to cut missiles in bid to save Kidds deal

US Coast Guard – Coast Guard members on board the USS Chinook have located
and secured a cache of Iraqi military equipment and weapons hidden in
coastal caves in southern Iraq.

• Daily Press: Yorktown-based Coast Guard patrol finds Iraqi weapons

US Coast Guard – They live a weird, watery, Mad Max kind of life, the
39 U.S. Coast Guard reservists who have landed the unlikely job of guarding
the Mina al Bakr oil rig 13 miles off the coast of Iraq. Commandeered by
Navy SEALs on March 19, the nearly milelong rig-a ramshackle, rusty
contraption overrun with cockroaches and connected to Iraq’s southern oil
fields by underwater pipeline-was Iraq’s only legal export point for oil
before the war.

• US News: Offshore security
  – A new role, and a different coast, for the Coast Guard

Background – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – The pilotless planes that hovered over Baghdad are the cusp of a technological revolution that could change the way wars are fought ó with fewer soldiers and smarter machines. But within the military itself, the idea persists that all wars eventually have to be won on the ground, with blood and guts.

• New York Times Magazine: The Unmanned Army

Royal Australian Navy – HMAS Stuart helps Australia defends its borders against drug smugglers.

• Daily Telegraph: North Korean heroin ship is seized by SAS
• The Australian: Bail refused for ‘heroin’ ship crew

US Navy – What the Seabees are doing in Iraq.

• Knox News: Admiral: Seabees still have major role in Iraq

Background – Air War – How the US continues to close the sensor – shooter loop.

• Baltimore Sun: Strike team advances precision, pace of war

Background – Middle East Bases – The US is starting reconsider where its bases should be in the Middle East. A financial drain and Arab sensibilities are driving military cuts in the Middle East.

• New York Times: Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq
• Los Angeles Times: Retreat Is Part of U.S. Strategy

Background – Iraq – Ralph Peters asks why shouldn’t Iraq be broken up?

• Washington Post: Must Iraq Stay Whole?

Royal New Zealand Navy – On antiterrorism patrol in the Gulf.

• Nzoom: Frigate Te Mana rescues Iranians

US Navy – The US may keep the aircraft carrier USS Constellation in commission, rathering than retiring it.

• San Diego Union Tribune: Constellation may be in service longer

Royal Navy – The Royal Navy’s nuclear attack submarines will be trimmed according to a new defense white paper.

• The Scotsman: More smart weapons as MoD plans for post Gulf war era

Background – Transformation – Thomas Ricks says the Secretary of Defense, emboldened by the swift US victory in Iraq, is ready to try to transform the military – again.

• Washington Post: Rumsfeld Stands Tall After Iraq Victory

History – A history of the end of the last Royal Yacht, HMS Britannia.

• Daily Telegraph: Queen blamed Major for royal yacht fiasco

History – A review of Operational El Dorado Canyon against Libya in 1986.

• SeaPower: Swift and Effective Retribution

Indian Navy – India launches its first stealth warship.

• Agence France Presse:
  India launches its first indigenous stealth warship
  

US Navy – The USS Constellation and USS Kitty Hawk battlegroups leave the Gulf and sail for home.

• Associated Press: Second U.S. Aircraft Carrier Leaves Gulf

US Marines – Marines begin exercising in the Phillipines.

• The China Post: U.S. troops arrive for war games in the Philippines

Background – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – How UAVs have been used in Iraq.

• New York Times: In the Skies Over Iraq, Silent Observers Become Futuristic Weapons

Background – Yemen and Eritrea – Robert Kaplan travels to Yemen and Eritrea, and finds that the war on terrorism is forcing U.S. involvement with the one country’s tribal turbulence and the other’s obsessive fear of chaos.

• The Atlantic: A Tale of Two Colonies

Royal Navy – The submarine HMS Turbulent returns home.

• The Guardian: Cruise missile sub back in UK

US Navy – Navy pilots complain that tanking from US Air Force tankers was not always conveniently available for them over Iraq.

• Virginian Pilot: Pilots complain of refueling delays

US Marines – With the Force Recon Marines.

• Associated Press: Secretive Marine special ops trio discuss their role in POW rescue

US Marines – 3 occupation zones are set up in Iraq, the Marines will take the south.

• Washington Post: U.S. Forces Will Redeploy Into 3 Zones

Background – Strategy – John Keegan takes a look at military rivalries and the differences and similarities between US and British forces.

• Daily Telegraph: Let the infighting begin: British and US rivalry resumes

With the fall of Tikrit, we now return you to our regularly scheduled programming???

US Navy – The first submarines return from off of Iraq.

• Associated Press: Submarines Return Home From Iraq War

US Navy – A new design for a naval unmanned aerial vehicle.

• Aviation Week: Navy Design Unveiled

US Marines – Tikrit falls to the Marines, the Pentagon says the war is essentially over.

• BBC: War ‘close to end’ after Tikrit seized

Background – Iraq – A look at how Baghdad’s collapase looked from inside Baghdad.

• The New Yorker: Letter from Baghdad – The Collapse