Sea Dragons: Special Operations and Chinese Military Strategy

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China Maritime Studies Institute – As China continues to rise as a global sea power, its maritime strategy continues to evolve. Among these critical evolutions is one of the People’s Liberation Army’s naval special operations forces’ most elite units: the Sea Dragons. A small yet highly specialized unit, the Sea Dragons entered the global spotlight and international consciousness with the 2018 film Operation Red Sea, raising several questions for Chinese naval experts. What does Chinese military strategy and doctrine require of special forces, and specifically naval SOF, to be able to accomplish the mission, particularly along the Taiwan Strait and in the South China Sea? What are their capabilities and limitations? What real-world experience do they have and how might they be employed in the future? This volume attempts to answer those questions and many more regarding one of China’s more enigmatic units and its role in future peacetime and low-intensity conflicts.

A British carrier group is coming to the Pacific—with doubts looming over it

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The Strategist – The British carrier force faces obstacles. The only kind of fighter that the carriers can operate is the F-35B, which can make short take-offs unassisted by a catapult and can land vertically, not needing arrestor wires. Britain doesn’t have enough F-35Bs, and there’s a serious risk that the price of buying them will rise steeply.

Meanwhile, the ships rely on helicopters for carrying air-surveillance radars aloft, whereas some kind of aeroplane, with greater altitude and endurance, would be far better for the task.

BlueWhale™ – A True Submarine Force Multiplier

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Naval News – Seafaring nations face unique challenges in ensuring the safety, security and sovereignty of their nautical frontiers. Even in times of tranquility they must guard against threats such as terrorism, smuggling, illegal fishing, natural resources theft, and uncontrolled mass immigration. And when conflict does arise, these nations must have anti-submarine and anti-surface vessel warfare capabilities to defend against naval incursion or attack. Even before the outbreak of open hostilities, it is imperative that they be able to detect and track hostile naval forces engaged in intelligence gathering and other covert activities.

(Thanks to Alain)

Securing the Depths: Rethinking EU Critical Infrastructure Protection in a Contested Underwater Domain

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Center for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy – Controlling and monitoring the undersea domain is becoming crucial for the European Union, with geopolitical and economic interests at risk in specific sea regions ranging from the Baltic to the Mediterranean.

The EU’s cable security plan puts the feasibility and security of new European underwater infrastructure at risk due to the legal, political and military implications, especially given Russia’s new assertiveness.

Instead of fixed cable sensors, Europe should prioritise investing in two alternative and combined solutions: EU-funded projects for unmanned vehicles and innovative fibre optic sensing solutions.

Why the explosion on a port in Iran sheds light on the supplies of weapons from China

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France 24 – More than sixty people were killed in an explosion over the port of Shahid Rajaee in Iran on April 26. Several sources designate a cargo as responsible for the explosion: containers containing sodium perchlorate – a substance necessary for the manufacture of missile fuel. If the causes remain unclear, the tragedy highlights the role of supply ships, connecting China to Iran, and which seek to hide their activities.

(In French) (Thanks to Alain)

Turkey Plots Nuclear-Powered Undersea Breakthrough: MILDEN Submarine Program Signals Bid for Maritime Supremacy

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Defence Security Asia – Turkish Naval Forces Commander Admiral Ercüment Tatlıoğlu revealed that the knowledge and expertise required to build nuclear-powered submarines would be cultivated under Turkey’s national submarine development program, known as MILDEN (Milli Denizaltı Projesi), which forms the cornerstone of the country’s naval modernization efforts.

(Thanks to Alain)

China’s exploitation of overseas ports and bases

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The Atlantic Council – This paper examines the potential for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to exploit its growing network of overseas ports and bases to challenge control of the seas in a conventional war with the United States. Security concerns with Chinese ownership of overseas ports fall into three main categories. First, China collects vast amounts of intelligence via its port network. Second, it could use that intelligence and its control of key ports and piers to disrupt US shipments during wartime. Finally, China could leverage these ports to pre-position weapons, ammunition, and equipment to resupply its warships and armed merchants or rapidly establish anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) nodes near major maritime choke points. In short, China could exploit this network to challenge the sea control essential to US success in an armed conflict.

A lesson from 1958 could help deter China from taking Taiwan

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Defense One – As China applies increasing military pressure against Taiwan, it’s worth considering an earlier era when conditions were much worse. In the fall of 1958, four countries—United States, Soviet Union, People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan)—found themselves on the brink of nuclear war. The incident, which would later be known as the second Taiwan Strait Crisis, led to a rupture in Sino-Soviet relations and altered the trajectory of the Cold War. Revisiting it reminds us of an element of deterrence that is getting short shrift today.

World First: Ukrainian Maritime Drone Shoots Down Russian Flanker Jet

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Naval News – A Ukrainian maritime drone operated by Group 13 of military intelligence (HUR) has made history, being the first uncrewed vessel to successfully shoot down an enemy fast jet. The historic event took place on May 2 close to the strategic Russian naval base of Novorossiysk in the eastern Black Sea. This single event reflects the rapidly changing world of naval warfare.

Achieving Depth: Subsea Telecommunications Cables as Critical Infrastructure

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UN – Today, submarine fibre-optic telecommunications cable systems are the backbone of our data and communications infrastructure, essential to the general functioning and integrity of the internet and the broader information and communications technology (ICT) ecosystem. While satellites and the new constellations in low Earth orbit are breaking ground, especially in terms of lowering costs and accessibility, they are still no match to the high capacity and low latency that today’s subsea cable systems provide. As more countries are connected, the security and resilience of the infrastructure becomes ever more critical.

In 2023, UNIDIR published its first report on subsea cables, entitled Wading Murky Waters: Subsea Communications Cables and Responsible State Behaviour. The initial scoping study sought to raise awareness of this essential transmission technology. Since then, a slew of new initiatives have been proposed, including at the international level, signalling both the strategic importance of the infrastructure and the need to strengthen security and resilience across all of its components.

This follow-on study sets out to understand what it means in policy and practice when governments qualify or designate subsea telecommunications cables as critical infrastructure (CI). The report draws from the CI literature to frame government approaches to security and resilience, identifying how government policy and practice interact with core CI concepts such as absorptive, restorative and adaptive resilience capacities. While subsea cable systems are generally designed and deployed with these capacities in mind, effective government action on security and resilience can contribute to strengthening them.

In Our Neighborhood: The United States’ Need to Address China’s Port Dominance in West Africa​

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Center for Maritime Security – A report published this March by the African Center for Strategic Studies revealed China’s large and growing influence in Africa’s port industry. According to the report, state-backed Chinese firms have ownership stakes in a third of African ports, with the largest portion of those ports being in West Africa. Even more alarmingly for the United States, many of these ports have already been used to house People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ships, conduct military exercises, and, in one case, host a Chinese naval base. A large Chinese presence in West African ports poses a security threat to the United States because it increases the PLAN’s presence in the Atlantic, which is in the United States’ direct security periphery and is less defensible than the Pacific.