– New York Times – Thomas Friedman on just how difficult a democratic transition will be for the Middle East.
US Navy – Deaths of four Americans reflect increasing violence of Somali piracy
– Washington Post – The deaths of a US couple, at the hands of pirates who had ostensibly entered into negotiations with commanders aboard the nearby USS Sterett, reflected the increasingly violent ways of Somali pirates who have been pushing further out to sea in search of victims.
Royal Navy – UK warship redeployed to aid Libya evacuation
– Associated Press – The frigate HMS Cumberland is being deployed off the Libyan coast in the event that it could be needed for a sea-borne evacuation of British citizens living there
Iranian Navy – Iranian warships enter Suez Canal amid Israeli concern
– BBC – Two Iranian warships have entered the Suez Canal to make a passage to the Mediterranean Sea, canal officials say.
Spanish Navy – Spain's Aircraft Carrier Begins Air-naval Certification Campaign
– Defense Technology International – The Juan Carlos I, Spain’s amphibious aircraft carrier launched on September 30, 2010, is undergoing year-long sea trials and last week started the process of gaining its air-naval certification.
US Navy – X-47B Sorties Ramping Up
– Aviation Week and Space Technology – The U.S. Navy is building on the successful first flight of the stealthy, tailless Northrop Grumman X-47B demonstrator as a pivotal step toward the long-held goal of marrying persistent, autonomous unmanned intelligence and strike aircraft with the reach of its fleet of aircraft carriers.
Chinese Navy – Russian sold secrets for China’s first carrier
– Washington Times – Ukrainian authorities have imposed a six-year prison term on a Russian man convicted of spying for China who was assigned to steal military secrets for Beijing’s program to build and operate aircraft carriers.
Chinese Navy – Who rules the waves?
– Economist – China’s ocean scientists will soon start exploring a controversial patch of sea.
Iranian Navy – Iranian warships' plan to use Suez Canal 'cancelled'
– BBC – Plans by two Iranian warships to pass through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean have been cancelled, says an Egyptian official.
US Navy – Admiral: China’s ‘carrier killer’ missile won’t stop U.S. Navy
– Associated Press – A new “carrier killer” missile that has become a symbol of China‘s rising military might will not force the U.S. Navy to change the way it operates in the Pacific, a senior Navy commander told the Associated Press.
Geopolitics – Wanted: A Grand Strategy for America
– Newsweek – Niall Ferguson on Obama’s Egypt debacle and the vacuum it exposes.
US Navy – US submariners learn to live without smokes
– Associated Press – As if life on a submarine wasn’t already stressful enough, with its cramped quarters, long work hours and weeks at sea, thousands of smokers on the U.S. Navy’s submarine fleet recently got an unwelcome ultimatum from Uncle Sam. As of last month, all submarines in the U.S. Navy are officially smoke free — and it’s been a tense transition.
Danish Navy – Nato seizes 'pirate mother ship' off Somalia
– BBC – A Danish warship has captured a suspected pirate mother ship off Somalia, Nato’s counter-piracy mission has said.
US Marines – Looking Beyond the EFV
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – It’s time for the Marine Corps to examine its role across the broad expanse of national strategy rather than the narrow focus of a single-purpose mission.
US Navy – The future of seabasing
– Armed Forces Journal – Like a ship’s hull with too many barnacles, seabasing is laden with unnecessary conceptual debris that has obscured its central tenets and confused its core strengths. As the Navy ponders its roles and corresponding force structure for the coming decades, it is worth putting seabasing in dry dock and stripping it clean. Only then will a vision appropriate to the 21st century emerge.
Afghanistan – King David's War
– Rolling Stone – Petraeus has a new plan to finish the war: Double down on a failed strategy.
US Navy – How Are the Mighty Fallen
– US Naval Institute Proceedings – A former surface warfare officer looks at the cause and effect of the recent spate of surface-ship commanding officer firings.
US Navy – Liquid radio
– The Economist – America’s navy is developing an antenna made of seawater
Piracy – At Sea
– The Economist – Piracy off the coast of Somalia is getting worse. Time to act.
Indian Navy – Indian navy seizes pirates' Indian Ocean mothership
– Indian Navy – Indian navy seizes pirates’ Indian Ocean mothership – More than 20 pirates have been captured and some two dozen hostages rescued from a hijacked Thai fishing trawler in the Indian Ocean, the Indian defence ministry has said.
Afghanistan – Letter From Kabul: The Great Afghan Bank Heist
– New Yorker – Excellent analysis by Dexter Filkins of the corruption that permeates the Afghan government. The telling quote:
“The allegations against many appear to confirm wider suspicions that the vast army of private gunmen here, many hired to escort supply convoys headed for NATO military bases, often accomplish their work by bribing the Taliban to hold their fire. These bribes are believed by officials here and in Washington to be one of the main sources of the Taliban’s income. One Western diplomat told me that bribes paid to Taliban commanders by the private security contractors, along with the other ways the Taliban extort Western money, are themselves enough to finance a robust insurgency. “It costs NATO a hundred and forty thousand dollars to keep a soldier in the field for a year, and a Taliban fighter a fraction of that,” he said. “If just ten per cent of that money gets to the Taliban—through bribes or extortion or whatever—that’s enough to keep five Taliban fighters in the field.””
Piracy – No stopping them
– The Economist – For all the efforts to combat it, Somali piracy is posing an ever greater threat to the world’s shipping.
Piracy – Cloudy, Slight Chance of Pirates
– Defense Technology International – If the U.S. Navy has it way, it will soon be able to predict pirate attacks against civilian ships by combining wind, wave, and water current data with human and surveillance intel, and feeding the mix into algorithms that take into account pirate tactics, the time of day they normally attack, and the range of their vessels.
US Navy – Aircraft Carriers Face Growing Threats
– Aviation Week and Space Technology – On the American ballistic submarine USS Maine in waters off the Florida coast not too long ago, two submariners eyed a U.S. aircraft carrier through their periscope in the roiling sea. “I think it’s the Washington,” one submariner said. “It doesn’t matter — it doesn’t know we’re here,” the other replied, eyeing the carrier through the scope. “Bang,” he said. “You’re dead.”
US Navy – USS Abraham Lincoln provides air support to Afghanistan
– BBC – When British troops in Helmand need air support, it doesn’t only come from airfields within Afghanistan itself – it may come from a floating runway 500 miles away.
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