– Defense News – Both Huntington Ingalls Industries and Bath Iron Works have signed on to build Flight III DDGs — DDG 125 will be the first one, built at Ingalls in Mississippi, followed by DDG 126 at Bath Iron Works — but questions linger about whether entering into a multiyear contract on what is almost a new class of ship invites delays and cost overruns.
2018 Forecast: Can the Navy Say No?
– Breaking Defense – In 2017, the Navy and Marine Corps hit the wall, with an string of deadly accidents on the sea and in the air. In 2018, we’ll see whether the overstressed sea services start saying “no” to missions.
Houthi Forces Capture U.S. Navy Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Off Yemen
– USNI News – Houthi forces have captured a U.S. Navy research unmanned underwater vehicle off the coast of Yemen.
MantaDroid could be the wet, electric, flapping robotic sea scout of the future
– Defense News – The manta is a fascinating creature, and so it should come as no surprise that the manta also makes a fascinating body for an underwater robot.
Banned Fuel Trade With North Korea Increases Need to Monitor Maritime Traffic
– USNI News – With tougher United Nations sanctions now restricting the flow of oil to North Korea, the regime is taking more extreme measures to evade international scrutiny, making monitoring regional maritime traffic an even more pressing mission for U.S. intelligence and naval forces.
India’s First Ballistic Missile Sub Sidelined For Nearly A Year Following Mishap
– War Zone – The country’s plans to modernize its submarine force have hit some obstacles, but in a decade the fleet will likely look nothing like it does today.
Russia Says January 5th Attack On Its Syrian Air Base Was By A Swarm Of Drones
– War Zone – It seems that the age of drone swarms has arrived, and that’s a terrifying reality to comprehend.
Does the US Navy have a strategy beyond hope?
– Defense News – Chris Cavas opines that the U.S. Navy begins the new year in crisis. By its own admission many of its ships and aircraft are in poor condition. Training is not where it should be, its ships can’t maneuver properly around other ships, and Navy leaders for years have complained the service is overstretched, constantly struggling to meet requirements and falling short in any number of areas. It is by no means clear that new ideas and concepts are being implemented to counter ever-growing military rivals.
Libyan navy rescues 272 migrants from stranded boats
– AP – Libya’s navy says it has rescued 272 migrants whose vessels were stranded in the Mediterranean Sea as they tried to reach southern Europe.
Fighting Forward to Ensure Littoral Access
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The defense has the advantage in amphibious operations. Marines will require small, swift, stealthy, and survivable platforms and units to access, persist, fight, and win in littoral environments.
3 Strategic Takeaways from the Guadalcanal Campaign
– National Interest – Americans involved with the Guadalcanal campaign formulated Maoist-sounding ideas for holding the Solomons—and that’s how they won.
The United States Needs Mobile Afloat Basing
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – With threats to access growing, the Navy cannot continue to depend on overseas facilities for maintenance and resupply. Adapting a modern version of the 1945 fleet train would re-establish the distinctly U.S. solution for naval maneuver warfare.
Great Red Fleet: How China Was Inspired by Teddy Roosevelt
– National Interest – China is looking to the United States’ early naval experiences for inspiration.
Sheffield’s Ghost Provides Lessons
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Analysis of the Falklands Campaign was a substantial section of the Joint Professional Military Education Phase I curriculum of the 1990s. It was even part of the Phase II course of instruction a decade later. Rather than the resounding and brilliant British victory portrayed in the limited 1982 news cycle, decades of independent analysis after the campaign have shown that the British forces were unprepared for the full range of Argentine military responses.
Groupthink Makes Navies Stupid
– National Interest – Want an intellectually inert U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard? Fine: stifle the free interplay of ideas and views on campus, and within the sea.
Can’t Kill Enough to Win? Think Again
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – When is the United States going to do the killing necessary to beat its terrorist enemies or eliminate them entirely?
Has China Been Practicing Preemptive Missile Strikes Against US Bases?
– War on the Rocks – The United States and its allies should take action now to ensure that China does not think that it can gain the upper hand in a conflict through successful missile strikes against U.S. bases in Asia. They must ensure that China is not tempted, as some of the United States’ previous adversaries have been, into making the grave error of trying to knock the United States down, expecting it not to get back up.
Russian tankers fueled North Korea via transfers at sea
– Reuters – Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea, according to two senior Western European security sources, providing an economic lifeline to the secretive Communist state.
Polish Navy inks $570M deal for minesweepers, rescue vessel
– Defense News – The Polish Ministry of Defence has signed a deal with a consortium formed by the Gdansk-based Remontowa Shipbuilding shipyard and the country’s defense giant PGZ to acquire two minesweeper vessels and one rescue vessel.
Would China Really Go to War with Taiwan over Some Boats?
– National Interest – So now China is overtly threatening cross-strait war should U.S. Navy vessels tarry at seaports in Taiwan.
New navy supply ship arrives in home port of Halifax
– CBC – The MV Asterix is the first naval ship to be delivered since the launch of the National Shipbuilding Strategy. Built in Germany, the former container ship was converted to a naval support ship at the Davie Shipyard in Quebec. The Asterix will replace HMCS Preserver and HMCS Protecteur, two supply ships no longer in service.
US Navy ends search for missing Argentine sub
– Defense News – The U.S. Navy is wrapping up its search for a missing Argentine submarine that disappeared in November with 44 crew aboard.
Australia and Japan Expected to Finalize Visiting Forces Agreement Next Month
– USNI News – Japan and Australia are close to inking their first visiting forces agreement, which would pave the way to smoother combined military operations.
2017 World Naval Operational News Highlights
The ten most significant naval news stories / trends / themes this year included:
- The lack of any meaningful progress towards creating a 355 ship fleet for the US Navy. How much longer will the US Navy continue to be over-tasked and under-resourced, and what will be the consequences?
- The tragic collisions involving the USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain and the root causes of those collisions. How could the training of these ship’s crews been allowed to lapse to such a shocking degree, and how will the US Navy ensure that such a lapse will not happen again?
- The loss of the Argentinian Navy submarine San Juan. Are modern submarines too complex for small navies to operate safely?
- The opening of the Chinese Navy’s first overseas base in Dijbouti. Is this the first concrete naval step in China’s One Belt and One Road Initiative?
- The Philippines folding to Chinese pressure over their claims to territory in the South China Sea, despite have the weight of a UN tribunal behind them. Who’s next?
- The announcement by both France and the United Kingdom of mini naval pivots to Asia in order to counter the Chinese Navy’s aggressive actions in the South China Sea. Why has it taken them so long to realize they have interests in the Pacific as well?
- The standing up of formal amphibious capabilities by the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force and the Royal Australian Navy. Why is the United Kingdom, at the same time, considering standing down the Royal Navy’s formal amphibious capability?
- The effect of BREXIT on the United Kingdom’s defense procurement and operations. How will it change the size and architecture of the Royal Navy’s fleet?
- The newly identified Russian threat to undersea communication cables. Are these Internet fiber optic pipes a new maritime center of gravity that NATO needs to plan on defending?
- The increasing Russian military strength in the Arctic which is backing up a clear strategy for the region. Can the West articulate a counter-strategy and resource it?
HMS St Albans: UK frigate shadows Russian warship in North Sea
– BBC – A British frigate shadowed a Russian warship through the North Sea near UK waters on Christmas Day.
NOSI - Naval Open Source Intelligence™ 
You must be logged in to post a comment.