The War Studies Primer 2017 edition has just been released.
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– Quwa – Responsible for securing Pakistan’s coastlines and sea lanes, the Pakistan Navy had seen significant growth in terms of attention, and possibly momentum, in 2016. The principal driver of this attention has been the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and, at its core, the Gwadar deep-sea port, which opened for operations this past November.
– The Atlantic – The president-elect’s plans to defeat ISIS will rely heavily on elite soldiers already on the verge of burnout.
– New Yorker – President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has unwittingly revealed more about his country’s political structures than anybody could have imagined.
– UK Defence Journal – It has emerged that the UK plans to sail HMS Queen Elizabeth to the Pacific in 2021 amid concerns regarding freedom of navigation in the region.
– inews – Britain is facing an increasing number of incursions by Russian submarines through a strategic “choke point” in the North Atlantic and is struggling to confront Moscow’s increasingly muscular activity in or close to the United Kingdom’s territorial waters, experts have warned.
– Defense News – You’re Boeing and you’re still making Super Hornet strike fighters, but the US market for new F/A-18 E and Fs and their EA-18G Growler cousins won’t last much longer. Those 600+ US Navy aircraft will be around for many years to come, however, and the export market is only beginning to be tapped. So how you do keep your tried-and-true aircraft on the cutting edge? Boeing’s answer: a package of upgrades that can be bought together or separately, added on to existing aircraft or ordered in advance. Together, the package is known as the Advanced Super Hornet (ASH), a collection of system upgrades and add-ons intended to extend the Super Hornet’s performance envelope.
– CIMSEC – A lot has been said about Chinese naval modernization in recent years. However, China is not the only country that is currently investing in a modern naval force. Since 2011 Russia has been implementing its own naval modernization program. This comes after a period of neglect the as Russia Federal Navy (Russian Navy) is looking to build as many as a 100 new warships by 2020.
– National Interest – If the past is any guide, China may test the new administration early on. Beijing’s “maritime militia” could play an important part.
– CIMSEC – Russian involvement in Ukraine and Syria share one common thread which Russia has been fighting for since the first Russo-Turkish war in 1676. Tartus in Syria and Sevastopol in Crimea are warm water ports which provide direct Russian access to the Mediterranean or access via the Black Sea and the Dardanelles.
– CIMSEC – On the occasion of the publication of his newest book, Chinese Naval Shipbuilding: An Ambitious and Uncertain Course, the 6th volume in the USNI Press’ Studies in Chinese Maritime Development Series, CIMSEC spoke with editor and author Dr. Andrew Erickson, Professor of Strategy in, and a core founding member of, the U.S. Naval War College (NWC)’s China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI).
– CIMSEC – As this incident evolves and more information will become available, it might be useful to start thinking about some of the more long-term consequences of this UUV seizure.
– Times of India – India and the US are planning to further upgrade their already expansive and top-level Malabar annual naval exercise, in which Japan has now become a regular participant, with a renewed thrust on anti-submarine warfare operations.
– USNI News – Chinese forces returned a U.S. Navy buoyancy glider to the service.
– Breaking Defense – The Navy’s new Force Structure Assessment calling for a 355-ship fleet puts an important intellectual arrow in Donald Trump‘s quiver as he campaigns for more ships. But it doesn’t put any more money in the budget to buy them, or any more machinery in shipyards to build them. The Navy analysis will shape the budget debate, starting with the supplemental spending request Trump is likely to introduce early in his term, but there are many obstacles along the road to 355, a road that may well take into the 2030s.
– Breaking Defense – Mr. Trump, we’ll see your campaign pledge of a 350-ship fleet and raise you five vessels, the US Navy effectively said this morning. The long-anticipated Force Structure Assessment calls for a fleet of 355 ships to counter “a growing China and a resurgent Russia,” Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced today.
– BBC – The US has issued a formal request to China to deliver an unmanned underwater drone that was seized in international waters, US officials say.
– The Guardian – China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier battle group has conducted its first exercises with live ammunition, the country’s navy said, in a show of strength as tensions with the US and Taiwan escalate.
– BBC – New photographic evidence has emerged of “significant” Chinese military defences on artificial islands in the South China Sea, a think tank reports.
– New York Times – …It was the cryptic first sign of a cyberespionage and information-warfare campaign devised to disrupt the 2016 presidential election, the first such attempt by a foreign power in American history. What started as an information-gathering operation, intelligence officials believe, ultimately morphed into an effort to harm one candidate, Hillary Clinton, and tip the election to her opponent, Donald J. Trump.
– Shepard Media – In addition to the joint procurement of new frigates and mine hunters under a letter of intent signed by Belgium and the Netherlands in Brussels on 30 November, the two countries plan to cooperate on other maritime tasks.
– RealClear Defense – Russia conducted a test of a revolutionary nuclear-capable drone submarine that poses a major strategic threat to U.S. ports and harbors. U.S. intelligence agencies detected the test of the unmanned underwater vehicle, code-named Kanyon by the Pentagon, during its launch from a Sarov-class submarine on Nov. 27.
– Reuters – Vietnam has begun dredging work on a disputed reef in the South China Sea, satellite imagery shows, the latest move by the Communist state to bolster its claims in the strategic waterway. Activity visible on Ladd Reef in the Spratly Islands could anger Hanoi’s main South China Sea rival, Beijing, which claims sovereignty over the group and most of the resource-rich sea.
– Aviationist – Less than three weeks after losing a MiG-29, it looks like the Russian Navy has lost another aircraft during Admiral Kuznetsov operations: a Su-33 Flanker.
– Proceedings – Much has been written about the emergence of “hybrid warfare” in a variety of global scenarios, notably in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea. To date, this largely has been confined to land warfare, in terms of both actual practice and theoretical discussion. That is about to change, and we will see the emergence of maritime hybrid warfare over the coming decades, perhaps sooner. Now is the time for the U.S. Navy to begin thinking about these scenarios and how to counter them, both for our own forces and on behalf of allies, partners, and friends in the global maritime coalition.
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