– The Diplomat – A recent query from a colleague asked a very simple question: If America’s AirSea Battle (ASB) was ever called into service against China’s anti-access/area denial strategy (A2/AD), who wins? Yikes. The simple answer, without making loyal Diplomat readers suffer through a 10,000 word academic slog is… no one.
Indian Navy – India submarine blast: Lives lost in Mumbai port
– BBC – A huge explosion and fire on an Indian Kilo-class submarine berthed at a Mumbai dockyard has killed a number of crew members, India’s defence minister has said.
US Navy – 'To Improve the Material Readiness of the Surface Fleet'
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Vice Admiral McCoy has spent five years as Commander of Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) working to correct a problem that seldom makes headlines. While reports on new ship construction dominate the trade press, much less attention is paid to maintaining the ships already in the Fleet. McCoy spent his career as an engineer focused on the exacting maintenance of submarines and aircraft careers. While at NAVSEA, McCoy focused his attention to bring the same rigor to the surface fleet.
Geopolitics – The Gaza Flotilla Incident and the Modern Law of Blockade
– US Naval War College Review – The law and operational practice of blockade were considered all but dead by many in the 1990s. However, in recent years, Israel has employed blockade twice: in 2006 against Hezbollah in south Lebanon and since then against Hamas in Gaza. The latter blockade, which will be the focus of this article, was instituted in January 2009 to prevent arms and other materials reaching Hamas and thereby to halt rocket attacks against Israeli territory.
US Navy – The Rise of the Missile Carriers
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Autonomous attack systems may be heralding the twilight of the aircraft-carrier era, but the venerable platform will remain important by returning to its pre–World War II operational roots.
US Marines – Marching toward the Sweet Spot: Options for the U.S. Marine Corps in a Time of Austerity
– US Naval War College Review – Before leaving his position as Secretary of Defense in 2010, Robert Gates offered a wake-up call in a speech to the Marine Corps Association in 2010: “It [is] time to redefine the purpose and size of the Marine Corps.” The perception
even then was that the Marine Corps had become too big, too heavy, and too far removed from its maritime roots…
Iran – Bomb Iran?
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – It was a protest chant heard across the nation during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. And it echoes into the current age. But actually going to war with Iran may yield some unintended consequences.
US Navy – The Utility of a Three-Tiered Navy
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – We can have 350 ships, 50 amphibs, 25 percent more overseas presence, 20 percent more wartime capacity, and use 10 percent fewer people, all with no new money.
Russian Navy – The Russian Submarine Fleet Reborn
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – A new breed of ‘alarmingly sophisticated’ submarines stirs memories of past Soviet aggression, just as Moscow becomes increasingly assertive on the international stage.
US Navy – Sustaining Undersea Dominance
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – The Navy’s submarine chief lays out the four coordinated ‘Ps’ that form the collective plan to maintain the nation’s strong toehold in the undersea domain.
Chinese Navy – Joint Responders
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Military-to-military cooperation between the United States and China has been stalled for years. Here’s a suggestion to help bolster it.
Geopolitics / Arctic – Ocean Governance in the High North
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Eight nations—the United States included—have a geographically direct stake in the opening of the resource-rich Arctic. Increased international cooperation is a must.
Miscellaneous – The Cold, Hard Realities of Arctic Shipping
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Maritime pundits believe a shrinking ice cap translates to a frenzy of traffic as shippers rush to exploit shorter sea routes. They’re wrong.
US Navy – A Navy Shipbuilding Plan that Works
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – Critics say the Navy’s newest 30-year shipbuilding plan is likely to overrun its budget and won’t deliver enough ships. Here are some alternatives that can enhance the Navy’s capabilities, save money, and win lawmakers’ approval in today’s fiscal squeeze.
Chinese Navy – China's coastguard confronts Japanese ships near disputed islands
– Guardian – China says its ships ‘sternly declared’ sovereignty over the islands, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.
Royal Navy – How to Sink an Entire Navy
– Medium – Just pretty much stop funding it, is how…
US Navy – Stacking the Deck
– Aviation Week – The LCS is currently a hard sell to the US Congress.
Geopolitics / China – China's Geopolitical Fallout
– Stratfor – Robert D. Kaplan says the biggest question in international affairs has nothing to do with Syria or Iran going nuclear. It is has to do with the state of the Chinese economy, and the ability of China’s one-party system to navigate through an economic slowdown to a different growth model. China’s leaders will likely survive this trial. But what if they don’t? What if China faces a severe socio-economic crisis and attendant political one of an unforeseen magnitude? What would be the second-order geopolitical effects? If Syria explodes, it does so regionally. If China explodes, it does so globally.
Phillipine Navy – Philippines pushes back against China
– Washington Post – China’s most daring adversary in Southeast Asia is, by many measurements, ill-suited for a fight. The Philippines has a military budget 1 / 40th the size of Beijing’s, and its navy cruises through contested waters with 1970s hand-me-downs from the South Vietnamese. From that shorthanded position, the Philippines has set off on a risky mission to do what no nation in the region has managed to do: thwart China in its drive to control the vast waters around it.
US Navy – New naval harassment in Asia
– Washington Times – A U.S. intelligence-gathering ship was harassed by a Chinese security ship last month in an incident that analysts say indicates Beijing is stepping up aggressive maritime encounters toward the U.S. Navy in the Asia-Pacific. A Chinese website, Sinocism, posted photographs of what it described as a “fierce confrontation” between the USNS Impeccable, an electronic spy ship, and a China Maritime Surveillance ship.
US Navy – Future Carriers Built to Carry Drone Fleets
– DefenseTech – Navy planners have anticipated the recent historic steps forward the Navy has taken toward outfitting the decks of their carriers with fleets of unmanned drones by designing future and current carriers to support the technological advances these aircraft will present.
US Navy – Navy Develops New Class of Oilers
– DOD Buzz – The U.S. Navy is surging through the early stages of development to build a new class of replenishment oilers able to replace the aging current fleet starting in 2020.
Royal Navy – Trident: Lib Dems and Conservatives at odds over nuclear future
– BBC – The Conservatives and Lib Dems are at odds over the future of Trident after a government report set out options for the UK’s nuclear weapons system.
US Navy – Mystery Weapon Terrifies America’s Admirals
– Medium – Somewhere out there, someone has built something that has the Navy absolutely freaked.
US Navy – Deja Vu All Over Again
– Aviation Week – By now the recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) findings on a certain U.S. Navy small-ship program are pretty well known. Costs and concerns about survivability keep rising and confidence keeps waning in the ship’s capability to fill national defense needs. Oh, lord, you may be thinking – not another piece about the GAO and the Littoral Combat Ship. But not so fast. The GAO report in question is the Jan. 3, 1979, statement to Congress on “The Navy’s FFG-7 Class Frigate Shipbuilding Program, and Other Ship Program Issues.” That’s right – we’re talking about the FFG-7s here, the now-noble Oliver Hazard Perry guided missile frigate-class ships slated to become the backbone of the Navy’s sea control in the mid-1980s and whose missions, or some of them, the LCS vessels are supposed to assume.
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