Afghanistan – Marines Face Stiff Taliban Resistance

Washington PostMarines Face Stiff Taliban Resistance

Marines pushing deep into a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province battled insurgents in a day of firefights around a key bazaar Sunday, as an operation designed as a U.S. show of force confronted resistance from Taliban fighters as well as constraints on supplies and manpower.

Russian Navy – The Fleet That Has To Die: The Russian Navy's "Irreversible Collapse"

Weekly StandardThe Fleet That Has To Die: The Russian Navy’s “Irreversible Collapse”

The reality now is that not only is the idea of Russia building and operating aircraft carrier battle groups an impossible dream, but just building enough new ships to replace those that are worn-out after decades of use is also not feasible. A recent analysis by the authoritative Moscow-based weekly, the Independent Military Review (NVO), entitled “BMF RF (Naval Military Fleet of the Russian Federation) on Foreign Warships” states that the Russian Navy is currently in a situation of irreversible collapse.

US Navy – Carrier culture shock

Armed Forces JournalCarrier culture shock

As the Obama administration formulates its approach to national security policy, it would do well to start with reading “A Cooperative Strategy for 21st Century Seapower,” the Navy’s new maritime strategy. The document is at once a bold argument for a new direction in foreign and national security policy, an inadequate plan for a U.S. maritime grand strategy, and a symptom (and perhaps call for help) of the Navy’s current operational crisis.

Royal Navy – Dauntless task for Scottish shipbuilders on the Clyde

Daily TelegraphDauntless task for Scottish shipbuilders on the Clyde

Standing in the shadow of the enormous steel bulk of Defender, the latest Type 45 destroyer to be built on the Clyde and looking across the river, the windows of blocks and blocks of newly-finished luxury flats wink back from the opposite bank. The river is narrow here but the two sides demonstrate the gulf between what Glasgow – and Britain’s – economy was and what it has become.

US Navy – Sub damaged in fatal crash rejoins fleet in S.D.

San Diego Union TribuneSub damaged in fatal crash rejoins fleet in S.D.

Four and a half years after its collision with an undersea mountain, the submarine USS San Francisco has rejoined the fleet in its new home port of San Diego. It took an unprecedented repair that involved cutting off the submarine’s front end and transplanting about 50 feet – more than 1 million pounds of metal – from the bow of a retired sister sub, the Honolulu.

Afghanistan – Afghan-Pakistani Hostility Impedes U.S. Troops

Washington PostAfghan-Pakistani Hostility Impedes U.S. Troops

Greg Jaffe writes that while senior U.S. and Pakistani officials have stepped up efforts in recent months to tame the chaotic border area, used by the Taliban as a base from which to fire rockets at U.S. positions in Afghanistan and smuggle fighters and weapons. But high-level talks have not led to cooperation on the ground, where U.S. troops are struggling to overcome decades of enmity between Afghanistan and Pakistan.