War Zone – Adding modular weapons launchers to the Navy’s experimental unmanned vessels will allow the service to explore new distributed warfare concepts.
Red Sea Drones: How to Counter Houthi Maritime Tactics
War on the Rocks – Mariners in the Red Sea have long been threatened by pirates, but they now must deal with a much more modern threat as well: unmanned explosive boats. Since 2017, Houthi forces in Yemen have been perfecting their use of maritime drones — sometimes referred as unmanned surface vehicles, drone boats, or water-borne improvised explosive devices — to carry out attacks against maritime vessels and port facilities in the region.
A Conversation With Steve Wills on the Decline of U.S. Navy Strategy
CIMSEC – From the effects of the Goldwater-Nichols act, to tensions between analysis and strategy offices in OPNAV, Wills discusses how Navy strategy and strategy development has changed over recent decades.
U.S. Coast Guard Continues to Expand Presence in the Western Pacific
USNI News – The U.S. Coast Guard’s status as a military service coupled with its law enforcement roles allows it to effectively contribute to both the military and maritime law enforcement requirements of the Indo-Pacific region, according to the commander of U.S. Coast Guard units operating in the region.
Raytheon’s precision landing system could be coming to more allied ships, expeditionary airfields soon
Defense News – Raytheon Technologies is pushing its aircraft precision landing system out to more customers globally, making it easier for allied navies to cross-deck on each other’s ships and for Marine jets to island-hop as high-end warfare concepts push the fleet in those directions.
Are China And Russia Trying To Attack The Law Of The Sea?
1945 – This week over at the Global Times, Deng Xiaoci has the story of how China intends to regulate shipping in China’s “territorial waters” starting September 1.
The Influence of Naval Strategy on the Future of Spacepower
CIMSEC – If the United States neglects interplanetary strategy, the United States will be left behind as other countries not only develop but execute their interplanetary strategies.
The Lion and the Mouse: The Need for Greater U.S. Focus in The Pacific Islands
StrategyBridge – China is infusing support into the Pacific island countries via Belt and Road Initiatives, mainly infrastructure, revealing China’s desire to influence its security posture in the South Pacific. China, like the U.S., recognizes the strategic geographic value of the region and is actively investing in the region. This is a threat to the U.S. influence and values in the region.
Things to Take from Kabul to WESTPAC
USNI Blog – What more can the Navy take away from the last 20-yrs of combat that it needs to remember and implement as a lesson identified to prepare for the next war?
USMC’ Ship Killing NMESIS To Become Operational In 2023
Naval News – The Navy/Marine Corps Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) is set to become operational in 2023, Naval News has learned from Marine Corps Systems Command.
The US Navy is combining diver teams as it readies for future wars
Defense News – A port of vital interest to the U.S. military is bombed and destroyed in a future great-power battle, with sunken ships and piers in the water blocking access for ships trying to resupply American forces. Navy Seabee divers and salvage divers are scattered across the theater conducting smaller missions, but the fight can’t continue until this major job is done — the underwater wreckage cleared and the port infrastructure rebuilt so resupply at this hub can resume. In this worst-case scenario for the U.S., the only way to get the port operating again may be to integrate the usually-separate divers — underwater construction and salvage — into a single unit unlike anything the Navy has fielded in the past.
War Studies Primer
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.
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Drones and Starlink: Combining Satellite Constellations With Unmanned Navy Ships
CIMSEC – It is these two emerging technologies, maritime drone vessels and large satellite communication constellations, that could allow for the Navy to solve some of its ongoing issues and permit the creation of a more nimble, lean, and modern force able to better confront the rising security threats facing the United States in the years and decades to come.
U.S. Marine F-35Bs to Operate off Largest Japanese Warship Later This Year
USNI News – U.S. Marine F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters will operate off a Japanese warship later this year.
Gulf Sky: ‘Our ship was hijacked and taken to Iran’
BBC – In July 2020, the oil tanker Gulf Sky vanished from waters off the United Arab Emirates, along with its crew. Days later it turned up in Iran where it’s now suspected to be working as a “ghost ship” – helping the regime ferry oil in breach of sanctions. For the first time, eight former crew have spoken to the BBC about the ship’s disappearance, saying they were hijacked by a group of armed men. All but the captain have asked not to be named, out of fear for their safety and livelihoods.
New Satellite Images Hint How Russian Navy Could Use Massive Nuclear Torpedoes
USNI News – The Russian Navy continues to develop how it intends to deploy its latest strategic weapon – a bus-sized torpedo tipped with a nuclear warhead.
Human Factors Meets New Technology in 2025
CIMSEC – This article is an exercise in “visualization,” looking at the art of the possible in combining science and technology— and changing Navy culture—to improve shipboard human performance.
DARPA Hopes A Plane-Boat Hybrid Can Solve The Pentagon’s Sealift Challenge
Breaking Defense – The Pentagon’s premiere research agency published a request for information earlier this month eyeing a new class of aircraft capable of utilizing the “wing-in-ground” effect. But analysts tell Breaking Defense the military’s request, on a relatively short turnaround time, will be a difficult for the industrial base to oblige — and worry that the system might not be viable for more than short trips.
Update On The U.S. Navy’s MUSV And LUSV Programs
Naval News – At the virtual Surface Navy Association’s 2021 Waterfront Symposium held on 26 August, 2021, the “U.S. Navy Operators Panel,” consisting of Captains and Lieutenant Commanders sitting on
6 Naval Task Groups From U.S., U.K., India, Japan and Australia Underway in Pacific
USNI News – Six task groups from the U.S, U.K., Australian, Japanese and Indian navies are currently on operational deployments in the Indo-Pacific region amidst an intense fall and early winter period of multilateral exercises.
Why there is no solution to our age of crisis without China
New Statesman – For decades, the West has ignored the significance of China’s rise – but we must recognise that it will be instrumental in all our futures
The HMS Defender Incident: Lawfare, Optics, and a Changing European Strategic Direction
CIMSEC – Despite its limited immediate impact, the significance of this FONOP cannot be overstated. Since the end of the Cold War, very few European nations have taken initiatives to upend their strategic interests in the face of powerful adversaries and have instead been relying on the American security umbrella. A multitude of factors are at play to influence this return to geopolitics in Europe, from the specter of Trump’s alienating policies towards America’s allies and partners, to the advent of a multipolar world. Yet this FONOP and renewed European interest in the Indo-Pacific shows that even a strategically independent Europe will remain a natural partner to America for military cooperation and burden-sharing, not just due to shared economic interests, but also common values.
Japanese Fighters Intercept Three Chinese Drones In As Many Days
War Zone – It isn’t clear if the surge in Chinese drone presence over the East China Sea is indicative of a new trend or prelude to a major naval movement.
Responding to the Proliferation of Uninhabited Underwater Vehicles
CIMSEC – The current status of aerial drones and their widespread use across the world offers militaries, policymakers, and international organizations the opportunity to prevent a similar scenario from occurring with underwater drones.
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