The Conversation – Drugs are clandestinely shipped to Australia with traffickers attempting a variety of methods. It’s only a matter of time before Australian Border Force is confronted with these “maritime autonomous vehicles” being used to smuggle contraband into the country. These are ships or underwater vehicles that are remotely controlled or autonomous and don’t have humans on board. Both international and Australian laws need to catch up.
(Thanks to Alain)
Daily Mail – Britain is to send a fleet of nuclear submarines to the Pacific in a decisive move to thwart Chinese aggression in the region.The dramatic decision could see UK subs based in Australia until 2040, operating within striking distance of China.
(Thanks to Alain)
Navy Lookout – The XV Patrick Blackett arrived in Portsmouth today. She has been bought for use by the NavyX programme as a platform for trials and experimentation with new technologies.
Breaking Defense – At a large dinner here attended by its ambassador and a host of senior acquisition officials, South Korea made clear its eagerness to deepen defense ties with Australia, making the bold offer of building advanced conventional attack submarines in “seven years from signature to delivery.”
(Thanks to Alain)
1945 – Today the chief of naval operations, Admiral Mike Gilday, released an updated “Navigation Plan” for 2022. In effect, the Navigation Plan represents Admiral Gilday’s instructions to the service on how to execute the Triservice Maritime Strategy (2020), along with higher-order directives such as the National Defense Strategy and the interim National Security Strategy. Several things are worthy of note in the Navigation Plan, some of them head-scratchers.
USNI News – The latest plan to design a future force calls for a fleet of 373 manned ships, buttressed by about 150 unmanned surface and underwater vehicles by 2045, according to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday’s update to his Navigation Plan for the Navy.
USNI News – The increasingly frequent aggressive actions by the Peoples Liberation Army Air Force like “chaffing” an Australian patrol aircraft in international waters and causing a Canadian patrol aircraft to alter its course to avoid a collision off North Korea “look like a pattern and policy” dictated by Beijing rather than random acts by pilots, the Pentagon’s senior official on Indo-Pacific security said Tuesday.
War on the Rocks – The challenge of logistics in the Pacific theater is different than those associated with land movements across a shared border in Europe. Failure in the Indo-Pacific theater might not be represented by lines of stalled vehicles, but rather troops and equipment far removed from the battle and without adequate intra-theater lift to move them across the ocean. Though the Army and Marine Corps (via the Navy), each have plans to acquire intra-theater watercraft, without coordination and a significant increase in scale, U.S. forces could find themselves without adequate numbers of watercraft or a joint logistics concept that captures the dynamic changes of force design and modernization that each of the services has embarked upon.
War Zone – China’s E-2 Hawkeye-like KJ-600 is moving deeper into flight testing in preparation for joining the Type 003’s enhanced carrier air wing.
USNI News – Ukraine still faces hurdles in grain exportation despite an agreement with Russia, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations, to allow shipments of the food stuff to leave the country.
1945 – Niccolò Machiavelli, meet Chester Nimitz. In his Discourses on Roman history the Renaissance Florentine philosopher-statesman claimed that human beings do not relish change. In fact, he verges on saying people can’tchange as the times and surroundings change around them. They get stuck as events march on. Thankfully for World War II America, Fleet Admiral Nimitz was an exception to the Machiavellian rule.
Politico – No one can agree on how many ships the Navy needs, and Congress isn’t pleased.
War Zone – Imagine low-cost nuclear-powered torpedoes that can travel largely undetected in a swarm across the Pacific Ocean and strike U.S. targets in about a week. To a group of researchers in Beijing, that’s not just a fever dream, it’s a concept they believe they can turn into reality. And an ambition U.S. State Department officials have been warning about.
Naval News – The French Navy is working towards a Pacific Region deployment for its Charles de Gaulle carrier strike group in 2025.
BBC – A Royal Navy warship has tracked two Russian submarines in the North Sea.
USNI Proceedings – The U.S. government and its regional partners must harmonize proven COIN strategies with modern military capabilities to defend and maintain the accepted international order.
USNI Proceedings – Disaggregated forces would provide U.S. Navy commanders with more options to deter China.
CIMSEC – Compared to the marquee U.S. military installations at Diego Garcia, Yokosuka, or Guam, American Samoa is a U.S. territory that evokes images of idyllic island life rather than strategic competition. However, by considering American Samoa through the lens of strategic competition, a military installation manned by the U.S. Coast Guard is an easy step to demonstrate commitment in the region that makes imminent sense for several reasons. Due to the sheer distances involved in the Pacific — the closest Coast Guard installations are from Hawaii (2,260 nautical miles) and Guam (3,120 nautical miles) — current sustained operations in region are necessarily expeditionary.
Navy Recognition – The Romanian Minister of Defense, Vasile Dincu, said during an interview that he has signed a letter of intent to buy French-made Scorpene class submarines and helicopters.
(Thanks to Alain)
Navy Lookout – Following the news RFA Argus will be extended in service beyond 2030 it has been confirmed she will be upgraded to perform in the Littoral Strike Ship role (LSS). Here we look at the background to the decision and consider the pros and cons of the conversion.
The Interpreter – The Australian Labor Party faces a dilemma over nuclear-powered subs and the non-proliferation regime. An old partner might offer an answer.
(Thanks to Alain)
USNI News – The Navy quietly slipped a new, classified assessment on the number of ships the service needs to meet its missions around the world to Congress earlier this month. The report calls for a battle force of 373 ships – 75 more than in the current fleet.
CIMSEC – Amphibious and transport operations can play a vital role at all levels of war, but landing craft can do much more than just move things – they can also shoot. The global growth of anti-access/area denial capabilities favors smaller, harder to find, more numerous, and attritable vessels. At the same time, the potent evolution of missiles can be combined with the open cargo area on small and medium landing craft to shoot back against both sea and land targets. Civilian offshore support vessels suggest what tomorrow’s landing craft might look like, while the missions they could fulfill are only limited by the imagination.
1945 – James Holmes says that a contender has to take the field of competition and stay there in order to compete.
China Maritime Studies Institute – The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) believes that logistics support is one of the key determinants of a successful large-scale invasion of Taiwan. Logistics support includes transport, materiel and oil supply, medical care, search and rescue, logistics infrastructure protection, and maintenance of war materiel reserves. Despite the recognized importance of logistics support, it is likely the PLA does not currently possess the requisite logistics capabilities to successfully support a large-scale amphibious landing on Taiwan and a possible protracted conflict involving the United States and allies. Key deficits include a lack of amphibious ships (both military and civilian), transport aircraft, and war reserves. The PLA also continues to face difficulties with landing the requisite logistics supplies during the critical beach assault phase, constructing maritime transfer platforms or temporary wharves to sustain resupply if intact ports are not rapidly captured, establishing a landing base for logistics operations, maintaining the flow of logistics during on-island combat, and establishing strategic war reserves to support the large-scale operation and possibly prolonged conflict. These problem areas might be resolved with several years of sustained effort and complex training.
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