– US Naval War College Review – Overall, a confluence of economic, military, and geopolitical factors suggests that the Senkaku/Diaoyu issue will increasingly define and shape the geopolitical environment in East Asia—to include the possibility of major-power war—for the foreseeable future.
US Navy – At What Cost a Carrier?
– Center for New American Security – In At What Cost a Carrier?, career naval flight officer Captain Henry J. Hendrix (Ph.D.), argues that the aircraft carrier — the centerpiece of American naval operations for over 70 years — is in danger of becoming too vulnerable to be relevant in future conflicts. Captain Hendrix examines the life-cycle costs and utility of the aircraft carrier and recommends a new approach for American naval operations.
US Navy – From Enterprise to Enterprise
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – From CV-6 to CVN-80, the developments of and improvements to aircraft-carrier design form a continuum from the early days of naval aviation to the horizon of tomorrow.
Geopolitics – Congressional Abdication
– The National Interest – Fascinating article by James Webb on how Congress is dangerously absent without leave in the realm of our foreign policy.
Iranian Navy – Gulf III: Iran’s Power in the Sea Lanes
– US Institute for Peace – What is the record of interaction between the U.S. and Iranian navies in the Persian Gulf?
US Navy – Navy Sends New Ship To Singapore Amid Budget Cuts
– Associated Press – The U.S. Navy’s hottest new ship and the centerpiece of its renewed focus on Asia isn’t its largest vessel, or its most technologically advanced. But it has advantages that its bigger siblings lack.
Chinese Navy – New Fleet on the Block: China’s Coast Guard Comes Together
– Wall Street Journal – In a move with significant implications for territorial disputes in the East and South China Seas, the Chinese government announced on Sunday that it plans to centralize bureaucratic control over its maritime law enforcement agencies by consolidating them under the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) and its parent ministry, the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources.
US Marines – Air wing back from war
– San Diego Union Tribune – Miramar general talks Afghan hand-off, accountability after Bastion attack.
US Navy – California regulators reject U.S. Navy's offshore training
– Associated Press – The California Coastal Commission on Friday rejected a U.S. Navy explosives and sonar training program off the Southern California coast that critics said could harm endangered blue whales and other sea life.
Russian Navy – Russia to Resurrect Titanium Submarines
– RIA Novosti – The Russian Navy will refit, modernize and recommission two Sierra class (Project 945) titanium-hull nuclear-powered attack submarines by 2017, the Zvezdochka shipyard said on Tuesday.
Russian Navy – Russian Warships Complete Gulf of Aden Anti-Piracy Patrol
– RIA Novosti – The Russian Navy’s Udaloy-class destroyer Marshal Shaposhnikov has completed an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden and set course for its Vladivostok base.
US Marines – Navy's New Mobile Landing Platform, Montford Point, To Revolutionize Amphibious Warfare
– AOL Defense – Saturday saw the formal christening of the USNS Montford Point, the first of a new class of Navy vessel, the Mobile Landing Platform, meant to revolutionize the conduct of amphibious operations. By serving as a kind of floating pier, the MLP allows an amphibious force to offload heavy combat vehicles and bulk supplies at sea, without having to capture a major seaport — which can be a bloody chokepoint in seaborne operations.
Russian Navy – Kiev Seeks Foreign Clients for Carrier Pilot Training Site
– RIA Novosti – Ukraine is considering leasing out a carrier-deck pilot training site in Crimea to other countries.
German Navy – German Navy Completes K 130 Fleet
– Aviation Week – The German navy’s 1st Corvette Squadron received its fourth K 130 Braunschweig class corvette, the Erfurt, yesterday during a ceremony at Rostock-Warnemünde naval base on the Baltic Sea.
US Navy – DARPA's New TERN, a Predator on a Frigate
– Aviation Week – Now DARPA wants to enable small ships such as the 2,800-ton Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship to launch and recover Predator-class medium-altitude, long-endurance UAVs. The Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program seeks to demonstrate a MALE UAV, and associated automated launch and recovery system, that can carry a 600lb payload 600-900nm from its host vessel.
Royal Australian Navy – Australia’s Biggest-Ever Warships Still On Track
– Aviation Week – Five years after contract signature, work on Australia’s largest-ever warships, the landing helicopter dockships HMAS Canberra and Adelaide, is going better than for previous large defense programs, according to the Australian government and prime contractor BAE Systems. “The project expects to successfully deliver the LHDs on time, on budget and to the contracted capability,” says an Australian defense department official.
Geopolitics / Syria – The Syria Question
– Air Force – An air war would likely be tougher there than what the US saw in Serbia or Libya.
US Navy – Pentagon Bloat Will Sink Ship Programs, Warn Former Navy Officials
– National Defense – John Lehman, a former secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration, had more tough words for the Pentagon’s civilian and military bureaucracies during a Feb. 26 hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower and projection forces subcommittee.
Nuclear Warfare – Bombing the Syrian Reactor: The Untold Story
– Commentary – As the civil war in Syria enters its third year, there is much discussion of the regime’s chemical weapons and whether Syria’s Bashar al-Assad will unleash them against Syrian rebels, or whether a power vacuum after Assad’s fall might make those horrific tools available to the highest bidder. The conversation centers on Syria’s chemical weaponry, not on something vastly more serious: its nuclear weaponry. It well might have. This is the inside story of why it does not.
Geopolitics / Africa – Neo-Imperialism and the Arrogance of Ignorance
– Time – Very interesting essay by Chuck Spinney on the complexity of the terrorism situation in Africa, and how the US underestimates it…to our strategic disadvantage.
US Navy – US naval workers all at sea as sequester looms
– BBC – It is an overcast day, and the skies are brooding over the Virginia coast, where two great grey US Navy ships are in dock.
Chinese Navy – China navy launches new stealth frigate
– BBC – China’s navy has taken delivery of the first of a new kind of stealth frigate, as tension continues with neighbouring countries over maritime borders.
Royal Navy – Trident spending to account for one third of defence budget within a decade
– Daily Telegraph – Spending on the successor to Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent will take up to a third of the defence budget within the next decade, defence experts are warning.
US Navy – A Fleet out of Balance
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – While naval strike capacity has grown since the Cold War, it’s come at a cost to the amphibious capabilities vital to U.S. power projection.
US Navy – 'Shipbuilding Is a Priority'
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – An interview with Sean J. Stackley – The Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development & Acquisition.
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