Defense Spending for Protracted Conflict: Lessons from the Napoleonic Wars​

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Center For Maritime Strategy – The major challenge facing the United States in a great power war over the Republic of China (Taiwan) would be the very real possibility that such a war would become a protracted one. Both the United States and the People’s Republic of China (China) place immense strategic value on Taiwan. In a war over the island’s freedom, both sides are likely to continue fighting until they either triumph or do not have the personnel or materiel to continue sustaining the war. Some analysts have offered up Great Britain’s experience during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815) as a useful basis for formulating a strategy to counter Chinese aggression, and hopefully deter a war from breaking out in the first place. British wartime spending also provides a number of lessons that the U.S. would do well to learn from.  

Norway still uncertain on port denials despite EU warnings of sabotage plans

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The Barents Observer – Russian fishing vessels are mapping critical infrastructure and conducting human intelligence gatherings in Norwegian waters. The government is well-informed about the spying, sources tell the Barents Observer. This is the main reason why Russian flagged ships last year got port stay limited to a maximum of five days. 

Wargaming the Future: A Year In Review of Wargaming at USC

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CIMSEC – Initiating decision-making training must begin early in officer accession pipelines and is best accomplished through curriculum-mandated wargaming. Incoming Officer Instructors could quickly receive instructional training to incorporate wargaming in NROTC at the Teaching in Higher Education course run biannually. The professional wargaming community has a deep bench full of capable instructors to maximize gaming in the NROTC enterprise, which would ultimately have a significant long-term effect and organizational change by delivering wargame literate officers to the Fleet. For now, the Trojan Battalion is preparing its first Wargaming Club meeting with the permanent absence of the Officer Instructor, who kicked the program off, meaning they achieved the first step towards organizational change.

Integration on Virginia-class subs the ‘greatest risk’ for nuclear sea-launched cruise missile

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Breaking Defense – The “greatest risk” for the Navy’s planned fiscal 2034 delivery of the nuclear Sea-Launched Cruise Missile Nuclear (SLCM-N) is integrating it onboard Virginia-class submarines that were never designed to carry a nuclear weapon, one of the Navy’s top officers in charge of overseeing nuclear weapons programs said.

Danish Navy’s Air Defense Frigate Iver Huitfeldt Showcases Advanced Air Defense Capabilities During NATO’s Exercise

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Army Recognition – The Royal Danish Navy’s flagship air defene frigate, HDMS Iver Huitfeldt (F361), is actively participating in NATO’s major live-fire integrated air and missile defense exercise, At-Sea Demonstration/Formidable Shield 2025 (ASD/FS 25). This high-stakes naval exercise, taking place throughout May off the coast of Bodø, Norway, is hosted by the U.S. Sixth Fleet and coordinated by Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO). It has become the largest of its kind in the European theater this year, involving more complexity, more nations, and a broader array of threats than any previous iteration.

(Thanks to Alain)

An island called Hope is standing up to Beijing in the South China Sea

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BBC – At just 37 hectares, the Philippines-controlled island of Pagasa – or “hope” – is barely big enough to live on. There is almost nothing there.

The 300 or so inhabitants live in a cluster of small, wooden houses. They fish in the clear, turquoise waters, and grow what vegetables they can in the sandy ground.

But they are not alone in these disputed waters: just off shore, to the west, lies an armada of ships.

These are all Chinese, from the navy, the coastguard or the so-called maritime militia – large fishing vessels repurposed to maintain Chinese dominance of this sea. As our plane approached the island we counted at least 20.