War on the Rocks – Commercial shipping has made major strides in recent decades toward digitalization. Supply-chain concerns, green technology, and costs across the industry have led to a new push for automation. This promises greater efficiency, but it also creates a massive new target for cyber attacks. Where the internet once borrowed the term “piracy” from the maritime domain, we are rapidly reaching the point where it will be possibly to digitally hijack a container ship on the high seas. 

US Naval War College Review – Small navies face two important problems: the difficulty of acquiring the requisite financial resources and managing them properly, and the need to transform themselves so they can cooperate as parts of multinational teams. The latter aspect is the most important factor affecting their continued existence.

Reuters – Subsea cables, which carry the world’s data, are now central to the U.S.-China tech war. Washington, fearful of Beijing’s spies, has thwarted Chinese projects abroad and choked Big Tech’s cable routes to Hong Kong, Reuters has learned.

War Zone – With an average depth of about 4,000 meters (or about 2.5 miles), most of the ocean and seafloor are out of sight and out of mind. However, trends suggest that the deep ocean and seabed are poised to rise in importance – both physically and as a venue for Information Warfare (IW) – due to the intertwined nature of critical infrastructure, resources, and national security. Undersea infrastructure is rapidly growing and populations are becoming ever more dependent on its utility. This infrastructure growth is posing novel challenges and opportunities for competition and national security. Navies must astutely follow the development of undersea infrastructure as they may be called upon to defend, attack, or influence it.

Council on Geostrategy – Professor Andrew Lambert writes that while the prospect of AUV submarines powered by AI roaming the deep ocean, striking submarine cables, ships and land targets at will may add a frisson of uncertainty to current anxieties, the technology is costly and offers limited return for continental powers focused on sea denial and area defence. It is more likely that, in the short term, AUVs develop into effective components of mixed underwater and three-dimensional security and combat forces which will enhance sea control, rather than challenge it. AUVs operating as fugitives in a hostile ocean will find it difficult to achieve tactical, let alone strategic effect.

Wavell Room – As the underlying technologies become ever more advanced, navies around the world are looking to integrate uncrewed vessels into their fleets.

The Strategist – Understanding what’s happening in the maritime domain, known as maritime domain awareness or MDA, is an essential element for any country that wishes to govern its maritime zones. But in the Indo-Pacific, many countries struggle to afford the costly top-down, military-style surveillance systems used by wealthy countries. However, new technologies provide the opportunity to democratise access to information and help Indo-Pacific countries to have sovereign capabilities to better monitor their maritime domains.

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European Defence Review – In 2011 the Turkish Navy launched a programme aimed at developing a new generation of sea bottom mines to be deployed by surface ships, submarines and aircraft. Known as project Malaman, the results of this programme surfaced at IDEF 2023.

(Thanks to Alain)

European Defense Review – At IDEF 2023 Havelsan unveiled a new concept of unmanned system, the Çaka submersible kamikaze unmanned surface vessel, s-kusv in short.

(Thanks to Alain)

CIMSEC – The following is the 1st Place, Gold Prize-winning essay of the First Sea Lord’s Essay Competition.

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CIMSEC – While it will take years to unpack all of the lessons learned from the ongoing war in Ukraine, one method that has surfaced during this conflict that connects maritime warfare and unmanned surface vehicles in the use of USVs armed with explosives to attack naval vessels. This is a tactic and concept of operations that has been frequently discussed and simulated, but until now has been hypothetical. Today it is real.

CIMSEC – The force employment of a military will largely be a function of how good its force development can make it. A military’s ability to fully manifest a new warfighting concept will depend on how well its force development can take the abstract notions of the concept and convert them into genuine force-wide improvement in warfighting skill. As the U.S. Navy explores the future of distributed warfighting and naval salvo combat, it must be prepared to make major changes to how its force development institutions cultivate warfighting skill so the fleet can effectively evolve alongside the intensifying threat environment.

CIMSEC – Distributed naval warfighting and massed fires offer a practical operational context for valuing the combat power of force structure. The broad fundamentals of these warfighting dynamics could provide an enduring basis for force design. By establishing criteria and frameworks based on lasting operational considerations, navies can preserve their relevance.

CIMSEC – Winning on the future battlefield will undoubtedly require an organizational culture that promotes human trust in artificial intelligent systems.

USNI Proceedings – The efforts of Southeast Asian nations to push back against Chinese aggression at sea should be recognized and bolstered.

CIMSEC – In practice, interactions-at-sea can escalate due to hyper-local misperceptions, influenced by factors like command, control, and communications, situational awareness, or relative capabilities. All of these factors are changing with the advent of unmanned and autonomous platforms. Escalation in this context cannot be an afterthought.

USNI Proceedings – Mission modularity has its place in a modern fleet, but it is not a panacea.

El Snorkel – Currently, batteries play a fundamental role in underwater operations, a role that will only increase in the future. (In Spanish)

(Thanks to Alain)

BBC – A look at how “narco-subs” bring cocaine from South America to Europe.

Data Center Dynamics – Demand for cable continues to increase, but the fleet laying and maintaining them is small and aging.

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BBC – A new international treaty aims to support protection of the high seas – what will this mean for deep-sea mining?

We invite you to try War Studies Primer – an introductory course on the study of war and military history. Its purpose is to provide an introduction to the study of war.

War Studies Primer is presented as a lecture curriculum at the university level. It is a free, non-credit, self-study course that consists of 28 topics and over 1,900 slides and is updated on a yearly basis.

Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents, and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.