1945 – Recognizing what an antagonist is up to constitutes the beginning of wisdom.
The Royal Navy in the Indo-Pacific: Don’t Use a Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut
War on the Rocks – Why is the Royal Navy sending two of its smallest warships to the world’s largest ocean? The First Sea Lord’s announcement of the Royal Navy’s intention to forward deploy two offshore patrol vessels to the Indo-Pacific has been met with skepticism. Given the region’s sheer size and the growing menace of China within the South China Sea, some argue that a frigate is a better platform for this role. But using a frigate, the work horse of the fleet, for all overseas tasking is akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Each new maritime task needs to be judged on its own merits considering its objectives and operating environment.
New Egyptian Base Sends Messages of Support to Libya, Challenge To Turkey
Breaking Defense – The opening of the base signifies Egypt’s determination to assert itself as a regional naval power with vast capacities and challenge efforts by its competitors like Turkey to expand their area of influence and control oil and gas rich zones of the Mediterranean.
Fleet Problem IX and Enduring Lessons For the Anti-Access Dilemma
CIMSEC – Fleet Problem IX—an exercise conducted almost a century ago—is still instructive for naval strategists, tacticians, and planners today. While it is remembered, and rightly so, for demonstrating the offensive potential of the aircraft carrier, it also demonstrated their vulnerability, particularly when the adversary presents an opposing carrier fleet with a multi-layered A2/AD system consisting of complementary capabilities.
Is the Pentagon Killing Today’s Maritime Force to Save Tomorrow’s Force?
National Interest – James Holmes writes that a divest-to-invest strategy might yield a fleet equal to the challenges America will confront decades from now. But divestment might leave too little combat power in the fleet to, say, repel a Chinese assault on Taiwan in the next few years.
Drone Makes First Autonomous Aerial Delivery Between Two Military Vessels
War Zone – The U.S. Navy has been experimenting with a variety of drone delivery concepts in recent years in order to ease its logistical burden.
The Porcupine in No Man’s Sea: Arming Taiwan for Sea Denial
CIMSEC – Heavily reinforcing Taiwan through focused security subsidies while maintaining a policy of strategic ambiguity would maintain conventional deterrence through denial against China.
This Is What The Navy’s New Shipboard Electronic Warfare System Can Actually Do
War Zone – SEWIP Block III is much more than just a naval electronic warfare system. Northrop Grumman’s Mike Meaney breaks down its real potential for us.
How Russia’s Yasen-M Submarine Compares To The U.S. Navy’s Block-V Virginia
Naval News – Russia is rapidly modernizing its cruise-missile submarine fleet. At the same time, the U.S. Navy is building larger and more capable versions of the Virginia Class which carry more missiles. How do the latest submarine classes compare in terms of weapons load?
Russian Nuclear Submarine Broke Down In Danish Waters
War Zone – The Danish Navy described the situation as “dramatic” as the submarine Orel drifted towards its territory following an unknown propulsion malfunction.
USS Bonhomme Richard fire: Suspect identified as 20-year-old Navy sailor
BBC – A 20-year-old US Navy sailor has been identified as the prime suspect charged with starting a fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard warship in 2020.
India’s Indigenous Aircraft Carrier Has Gone To Sea For The First Time
War Zone – India has joined the select group of countries to have designed and built their own aircraft carriers, with its first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier, or IAC, named INS Vikrant, having begun sea trials today. While the program has suffered delays and cost overruns, the milestone is still a significant one for the Indian Navy and its air arm and is the next step toward India fielding its planned multiple-carrier force.
Ukrainian official reveals number of Ada-class corvettes on order from Turkey
Defense News – A December 2020 deal between Turkey and Ukraine for the sale of an unknown batch of Turkish-built corvettes has turned out to involve two vessels.
(Thanks to Alain)
Navy Will Test Freedom-class LCS Gear Fix Next Month; Years Before Repair Reaches Rest of Fleet
USNI News – The Navy is putting Littoral Combat Ship Minneapolis-Saint Paul (LCS-21) back together after completing a repair to beef up the complicated gearing mechanism that links the ship’s gas turbines to its diesel engines…but how the rest of the fleet of Freedoms will be repaired and who will pay for it is still an open question. The complexity of the repair, as currently devised, will take years to trickle into ships already in the fleet…
MV Asphalt Princess: Ship hijacked off UAE ordered to sail to Iran
BBC – A Panama-flagged ship has been hijacked by armed men in the Gulf of Oman and ordered to sail to Iran, Lloyds List Maritime Intelligence has confirmed.
British Littoral Response Group ships to be based in Oman
UK Defence Journal – The UK will operate two Littoral Response Groups, one deploying to the Euro-Atlantic region and the other deploying to the Indo-Pacific.
Spectrum Warfare Integration: Information Superiority For Marine Stand-In Forces
CIMSEC – The Marine Corps is not prepared for a battle of signatures. Despite being smaller and lighter than the Army, the Marines are no less vulnerable to attacks from spectrally aware adversaries.
Sea Duty: Still Wanna Do It?
USNI Proceedings – With fewer Coast Guardsmen choosing to go to sea, the cutter fleet is facing rough waters. Without intervention, it could be difficult to man, maintain, and operate the future fleet.
French Navy’s La Fayette-Class Frigate Mid-Life Update
Naval News – FS Courbet is the first of three French Navy La Fayette-class frigates (known as FLF for Frégate Légère Furtive – Light Stealth Frigate) to receive a mid-life update. The Commanding Officer of the ship and the program director at Naval Group gave Naval News a tour of the ship, focusing on the new upgrades.
Israel accuses Iran over deadly oil tanker attack
BBC – Israel has accused Iran of being behind an attack on an oil tanker in which two crew members – a British national and a Romanian citizen – were killed.
France’s Indo-Pacific Strategy
Government of France – France’s latest on its strategy for the Indo-Pacific region.
To Beat China In The Gray Zone, You Have To Be There
1945 – If you want to control something you have to be there to control it. Showing up intermittently and going away will not cut it if your opponent is there, in force, all the time, to impose its will.
US sailor charged over massive USS Bonhomme warship blaze in 2020
BBC – The US Navy has filed charges against a sailor over a massive blaze aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard in 2020 that destroyed the amphibious warship.
Keeping Littoral Combat Ships Nimble Key to Pacific Deployments, No Plans for 1st Fleet in Singapore
USNI News – The Navy is making Littoral Combat Ship deployments in the Indo-Pacific region more flexible and unpredictable, allowing the service to respond to impromptu engagement opportunities and ensuring the LCS are not tied to any fixed location for too long.
NATO Must Shore Up Control of a Key Maritime Chokepoint
Defense One – One of NATO’s geographic advantages—control of the lands around a key maritime chokepoint—may be in peril. For decades, alliance forces have used nearby bases to keep tabs on Russian submarines, surface ships, and aircraft transiting the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom, or GIUK, Gap, which consists of a 200-mile stretch of ocean between Greenland and Iceland and a 500-mile gap between Iceland and Scotland. But strong independence movements in Greenland, the Faroe Islands southeast of Iceland, and Scotland could soon jeopardize this position.
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