– USNI Proceedings – Arming the Virginia-class fast attacks with submarine-launched ballistic missiles offers an affordable alternative to building the budget-busting Columbia-class SSBN(X).
Category Archives: Uncategorized
New Zealand Navy Chief: U.S. Nuclear Ship Issue ‘Behind Us’, Hopes for Regular USN Port Visits
– USNI News – After more than 30 years, an American warship will pull into a New Zealand port in November and could mark the start of regular port visits for the U.S. Navy
Rotary Wing Aviation in the Royal Canadian Navy
– CIMSEC – A key part of any modern navy is its rotary-wing component. The capabilities that helicopters bring to naval operations are essential in the context of modern warfare, and many large navies around the world boast impressive fleets of shipborne rotary-wing aircraft. Smaller navies, however, need to make due with much less, and there is perhaps no better example of a small navy employing its limited rotary-wing assets to the fullest extent as the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN).
Experts Advocate Harder Stance Against Illegal Claims In South China Sea
– USNI News – Three South China Sea and maritime law experts advocated a tougher stance against illegal Chinese actions, calling for more freedom of navigation operations, possibly with regional allies, that are aimed at Chinese territorial claims that have not previously been challenged.
Russia Building Nuclear-Armed Drone Submarine
– Washington Free Beacon – Russia is building a drone submarine to deliver large-scale nuclear weapons against U.S. harbors and coastal cities, according to Pentagon officials. The developmental unmanned underwater vehicle, or UUV, when deployed, will be equipped with megaton-class warheads capable of blowing up key ports used by U.S. nuclear missile submarines, such as Kings Bay, Ga., and Puget Sound in Washington state.
ISIS has a navy? The US is sinking it
– CNN – US and allied warplanes have sunk over 100 ISIS boats, destroying 65 of them in September alone, according to the international military coalition. While Iraq is nearly entirely land-locked, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that cross that country are navigable, and ISIS has been using watercraft for a variety of purposes, including transporting fighters and conducting improvised explosive attacks.\
China Experimenting With Catapult Launched Carrier Aircraft
– USNI News – China has stepped up development of Catapult-Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) operations for its carriers, with the appearance of a Shenyang J-15 Flying Shark carrier-borne fighter with CATOBAR apparatus and continued construction of supporting land-based infrastructure.
Counter-pivot: China, Russia hold massive South China Sea war games
– Asia Times – China is attempting to counteract the near total isolation it has incurred from regional states as a result of its maritime claims by using a regional show of force together with the Russian military.
Red Atlantic: Russia Could Choke Air, Sea Lanes To Europe
– Breaking Defense – Russia could hinder US reinforcements headed to Europe in the event of a major war, warned the recently retired Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. Philip Breedlove. It’s well known Russian radars, missiles, and strike planes — “Anti-Access/Area Denial” systems — threaten ships and aircraft across wide swathes of the Black Sea, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic. But Gen. Breedlove’s worries are on a wider scale: He’s anxious about the Atlantic.
China launches two more ASW corvettes
– Jane’s – The first of China’s 1,500-tonne Type 056 corvettes was launched in May 2012, so the rate of production over the last four years has averaged a new hull about every six weeks.
China’s Maritime Militia – Time to Call them Out?
– Defense News – “China’s maritime militia is only as deniable for China as we allow it to be, and we don’t have to allow it to be deniable,” said Andrew Erickson, a professor of strategy at the US Naval War College, where he is a founding member of the China Maritime Studies Institute. The militia, Erickson said, are controlled directly by the Chinese military, adding another degree of complexity to at-sea confrontations below that of the navy and coast guard. The craft, he said, are “working in close coordination with the other two more powerful sea forces or at least with their backing and coordination added as necessary.”
Russian Military Activities from South China Sea to Sevastopol
– USNI News – It may not be 1984 again, but it certainly is not 1994 or 2004 either. Incorporated into what appears to be an overarching strategy to assert Russian primacy in their self-identified “near abroad” the Russians are doing several things simultaneously, the most important of which may well be the large-scale exercises in Crimea as part of an apparent larger strategic war game. While many may argue the relative merits of various aspects of Russian power, sanctions, diplomatic isolation and other lines of effort, there is no denying that Russia is synchronizing a strategy to keep Europe off-balance, potential allies encouraged and possible enemies deterred from the Baltic to the Black Sea and further afield.
Think Tragically to Avoid Tragedy
– Washington Free Beacon – An interview with Robert D. Kaplan: What America can expect in an age of ‘great power anarchy’
Japan to join US in South China Sea patrols
– CNN – Japan is planning on upping its activities in the South China Sea through joint training patrols with the United States and exercises with regional navies, Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said.
Pågan: the tropical paradise the US wants to turn into a war zone
– The Guardian – Former residents and environmental campaigners to launch a lawsuit against Pentagon’s plans to use the Marianas islands for bombing practice.
China, Russia Kick Off Joint South China Sea Naval Exercise; Includes ‘Island Seizing’ Drill
– USNI News – China and Russia kicked off more than a week of naval exercises in the South China Sea that will include an “island seizing” exercise.
China’s High Seas Ambitions
– Der Spiegel – With its Maritime Silk Road, China is tapping the world’s oceans for its own strategic purposes. It’s a bold plan that is causing unease in India and the United States — and also has implications for Europe.
Silence, tight quarters and no women: On board Israel’s most advanced submarine
– Haaretz – Haaretz’s military correspondent joined the crew of INS Rahav, the Israel Navy’s newest submarine, on a brief training cruise. He learned about the unique physical and mental demands of service on the IDF’s most expensive war machine, its technological capabilities and why Israeli subs are still off-limits to women.
The Israeli Navy in Context
– CIMSEC – This piece aims to provide an overview of the Israeli Navy and the maritime dimension of Israel’s national security.
Deglobalization Will Change the Mission of Naval Forces
– CIMSEC – This article will argue that the convergence of new technologies is dramatically changing how we make things, what we make, and where we make them. These technologies plus trends in energy production, agriculture, politics, and internet governance will result in the localization of manufacturing, services, energy, and food production. This shift will significantly change the international security environment and in particular the role of the U.S. naval forces.
New South Korean Destroyers to Have Ballistic Missile Defense Capability
– USNI News – A trio of planned South Korean guided missile destroyers will be built with the capability to intercept ballistic missile threats. The addition of the capability will give the Republic of Korea (RoK) Navy a powerful organic BMD capability in addition to U.S. Army ground-based interceptors peppered throughout South Korea.
Iranian Boats Harass Another U.S. Navy Patrol Coastal Ship In Persian Gulf
– USNI News – A U.S. Navy patrol coastal ship was harassed by seven Iranian vessels on Sunday and narrowly avoided colliding with one, in the latest in a string of incidents in the Persian Gulf.
British warship sent to Libya to target people-smugglers
– The Guardian – Deployment of HMS Diamond part of EU crackdown as number of migrants trying to cross Mediterranean reaches record level
War with China: Thinking Through the Unthinkable
– RAND – Premeditated war between the United States and China is very unlikely, but the danger that a mishandled crisis could trigger hostilities cannot be ignored. Thus, while neither state wants war, both states’ militaries have plans to fight one. As Chinese anti-access and area-denial (A2AD) capabilities improve, the United States can no longer be so certain that war would follow its plan and lead to decisive victory. This analysis illuminates various paths a war with China could take and their possible consequences.
Held Up In the Shipyard, Carrier Bush Is Under The Gun To Deploy On Time
– Defense News – The USS George H. W. Bush, newest of the fleet’s operational carriers, is under the gun. The ship emerged from a shipyard in late July five months late – seven if compared to the original schedule. It’s facing a planned deployment later this year that needs to be on time if the Bush is to relieve another carrier already operating on the far side of the world. With a compressed training schedule, Norfolk-based Fleet Forces Command (FFC) is wrestling with how to get the ship, its air wing and supporting strike group fully ready to deploy to a combat zone, a situation its Optimized Fleet Response Plan (OFRP) was conceived to handle.
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