– The Diplomat – New contract augments old Cold War “SOSUS” arrays.
Expeditionary Excellence: Not Passe
– Proceedings of the US Naval Institute – Amphibious assault remains critical to mastering the chaos of the contested zones.
White Hulls Must Prepare for Gray Zone Challenges
– Proceedings of the US Naval Institute – The Coast Guard is well suited for employment in gray zone environments, where interactions fall between the traditional war and peace duality. But the 2015 capture of U.S. Navy riverine crews by the Iranians should prompt an examination of predeployment training.
Russian Blue-Water Navy is a Pipe Dream
– Proceedings of the US Naval Institute – The aspiration to be a first-rate maritime power is beyond Russia’s maritime potential and industrial capacity, and Russia’s ambitions in the world’s oceans are out of reach.
Russia sending three submarines to Syria in preparation for major Aleppo assault
– Independent – Three Russian submarines armed with cruise missiles have reportedly joined a naval battleforce heading towards Syria. The Royal Navy and Nato have been tracking the two Akula-class submarines and a diesel-powered Kilo-class sub as they travelled to join the fleet of Russian ships headed by the Soviet-era aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov.
US, Israel, and Seapower in the East Med
– CIMSEC – Disengagement is always tempting for great powers. The “Weary Titans” of international politics have an ear for their politicians’ rhetoric of exhaustion and weariness. This encourages isolationism, the cutting of “entanglements,” and the desire to define “national interest” as purely homeland defense. But laying down our burdens rarely works. Enemies’ animosity and ambition is spurred, not deflected if states that benefit from the international order look the other way.
Carter Unveils Army’s New Ship-Killer Missile: ATACMS Upgrade
– Breaking Defense – The Army’s long-range artillery rocket, ATACMS, will get upgraded to strike moving targets on land and at sea, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced today. After at least two years of pressure from Congress and vague promises from Pentagon leaders, and for the first time since the Coastal Artillery Corps was disbanded 66 years ago, the Army is officially back in the business of killing ships. That gives the largest service a big new role in countering Russian aggression in the Baltic and Black Seas or defending allies like the Philippines against China.
Naval Strategy Returns to Lead the POM
– CIMSEC – Newly appointed U.S. Navy Secretary John F. Lehman Jr. gave a signature speech at the Naval War College in Newport, RI in 1981. In his remarks Lehman hailed, “the return of naval strategy” to the forefront of the Navy’s planning.1 Such a message was again issued last week by Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson. While the CNO’s 18 October naval message (R 182128Z OCT 16) did not have Secretary Lehman’s dramatic turn of phrases, it is no less important and in fact is the most significant change in the role of U.S. naval strategic thinking since late 1991. The CNO’s message implements a major change in the planning and execution of the annual Navy budget statement known as the Program Objective Memorandum (POM.) For the first time since July 1991, the Navy Staff (OPNAV) Operations, Plans and Strategy (N3/N5) office will have the first input to the Navy POM building process. While this may not seem significant at first glance, it is a major course correction in Navy thinking. It could signal a return to the halcyon days of the 1980s when the Navy’s Maritime Strategy served as the service’s global blueprint for operational naval war against the Soviet Union, informing Navy programs, budgets, exercises, war games, education, training, and real world operations.
Russian Carrier Deployment to Syria is Propaganda, not Practical
– USNI News – If there isn’t military purpose of the Russian fleet to be off Syria why are they going there?
Attacks Like Those on USS Mason Will Become More Common
– USNI News – The Navy should prepare for a future operating environment where anti-ship weapons propagate globally and attacks such as the recent ones against guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG-87) are more commonplace, one the service’s top budget officials said.
Bosphorus ship spotters set sights on Russian warships
– AFP – Several Russian warships pass in both directions through the Bosphorus every week, transporting cargo for Moscow’s military campaign in Syria, in a massive logistical effort known as the “Syrian Express”. Their passage through the densely-populated Turkish metropolis represents a unique chance to see close up a deployed Russian warship that would usually be kept well away from prying eyes. And each time they come, a group of amateur but well-informed and hugely dedicated Turkish ship spotters are there to photograph them and share their work on social media where their following has shot up.
White House Blocked Navy From S. China Sea Warship Passages
– Free Beacon – Senior White House officials blocked the Navy from conducting needed freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea amid growing concerns that China is militarizing newly reclaimed islands, according to the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board.
Russia beefs up Baltic Fleet amid NATO tensions
– Reuters – Russia is sharply upgrading the firepower of its Baltic Fleet by adding warships armed with long-range cruise missiles to counter NATO’s build-up in the region.
The Pentagon’s ‘Terminator Conundrum’: Robots That Could Kill on Their Own
– New York Times – The United States has put artificial intelligence at the center of its defense
strategy, with weapons that can identify targets and make decisions.
Russian warships: Spain says refuelling request withdrawn
– BBC – Russia has withdrawn a request for three warships to dock at the Spanish port of Ceuta for refuelling, following concern among Nato allies.
Spain urged not to allow refuelling of Russian warships
– BBC – Spain is coming under pressure from Nato allies not to allow the refuelling of Russian warships in the Kuznetsov carrier group bound for Syria.
USS Wasp to Japan Next Year in Support of Marine F-35B Squadron Next Year; USS Bonhomme Richard to San Diego
– USNI News – Next year the Navy will relocate big deck amphib USS Wasp (LHD-1) from Naval Station Norfolk, Va. to a new homeport in Sasebo, Japan as the USS Wasp has been recently modernized to accommodate the Marine Corps variant of the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35B).
French Navy’s new frigate design unveiled
– Janes – The concept design for the new Frégate de Taille Intermédiaire (FTI) for the French Navy was unveiled by the French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on 18 October.
US troops to be stationed in Norway in break with tradition
– BBC – Norway has announced it is to allow more than 300 US Marines to be stationed on its soil for a trial period in 2017.
Distributed STOVL Operations and Air-Mobility Support
– US Naval War College Review – This article examines the logistical support requirements of distributed short-takeoff–vertical-landing (STOVL) operations (DSOs) by U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II fighters, and alternative solutions to fulfilling those requirements.
New jet will likely change how America fights wars
– San Diego Union Tribune – A look at what current US Marine F-35 pilots think of their new aircraft.
A Thousand Splendid Guns
– US Naval War College Review – In Out of the Mountains, David Kilcullen provides a framework for his “theory of competitive control.” His work focuses on irregular warfare, and in general he addresses nonstate armed groups as one increment along a spectrum of actors competing to control a population. He theorizes that the competitor who can impose predictable norms through persuasive, administrative, and coercive means will succeed. The members of the target audience, for their part, need consistency, and will adhere to this normative system regardless of whether they inherently agree with it or with the competitor’s values.1 What do we learn when we apply Kilcullen’s core principles to China and its conduct in the wider western Pacific as a state-level competitor?
Major Russian naval deployment to intensify Aleppo assault
– Reuters – Russian warships off the coast of Norway are carrying fighter bombers that are likely to reinforce a final assault on the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo in two weeks, a senior NATO diplomat said on Wednesday, citing Western intelligence.
Countering Chinese Expansion Through Mass Enlightenment
– CIMSEC – From Newport to New Delhi, a tremendous effort is currently underway to document and analyze China’s pursuit of maritime power. Led by experts in think tanks and academia, this enterprise has produced a rich body of scholarship in a very short period of time. However, even at its very best, this research is incomplete—for it rests on a gross ignorance of Chinese activities at sea.
Pakistan Navy Submarine Force to Equal the Indian Navy’s in Numbers with Purchase of 8 Chinese Subs
– Yibada – Pakistan has finalized a deal to acquire eight Chinese-made S20 diesel-electric submarines for the Pakistan Navy, making this class of submarine the most numerous in the navy’s Submarine Service Force (SSF) and giving the SSF numerical parity with its opposite number in India.
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