US Navy – Obsessed with tactics – The Navy neglects the importance of operational art

Posted on by

Armed Forces Journal – The Navy today is overly focused on the tactical employment of its combat forces, in its doctrine and practice. This might not be a problem in case of a conflict with numerically and technologically inferior forces. However, the Navy would have a much greater problem and possibly suffer a major defeat in a war with a relatively strong opponent that better balances the employment of his forces at the tactical and operational levels of war. The Navyís superior technology and tactics would not be sufficient to overcome its lack of operational thinking.
more…

Iraq – The Price of the Surge

Posted on by

Foreign Affairs – The Bush administration’s new strategy in Iraq has helped reduce violence. But the surge is not linked to any sustainable plan for building a viable Iraqi state and may even have made such an outcome less likely — by stoking the revanchist fantasies of Sunni tribes and pitting them against the central government. The recent short-term gains have thus come at the expense of the long-term goal of a stable, unitary Iraq.
more…

US Navy – Cold wars at sea

Posted on by

Armed Forces Journal – It might be tempting to dismiss the U.S. Navyís potential focus on China as a passing fad ó part of the now-familiar phenomena of ìChina fever.î Another perspective holds that this focus can best be explained by a simple case of enemy deprivation syndrome. While there is a kernel of truth in both of these intellectual approaches, facts on, above and especially under the water increasingly belie these conclusions and demand serious attention from American strategists.
more…

Geopolitics / Sudan – Beyond Darfur: Sudan's Slide Toward Civil War

Posted on by

Foreign Affairs – While the crisis in Darfur simmers, the larger problem of Sudan’s survival as a state is becoming increasingly urgent. Old tensions between the Arabs of the Nile River valley, who have held power for a century, and marginalized groups on the country’s periphery are turning into a national crisis. Engagement with Khartoum may be the only way to avert another civil war in Sudan, and even that may not be enough.
more…

US Navy – U.S. Downs Missile In Test Over Pacific

Posted on by

Associated Press – The U.S. military intercepted a ballistic missile Thursday in the first such sea-based test since a Navy cruiser shot down an errant satellite earlier this year.

The military fired at the target, a Scud-like missile with a range of a few hundred miles, from a decommissioned amphibious assault ship near Hawaii’s island of Kauai.

The USS Lake Erie, based at Pearl Harbor, fired two interceptor missiles that shot down the target in its final seconds of flight about 12 miles above the Pacific Ocean.

The $40 million test showed that Navy ships are capable of shooting down short-range targets in their last phase of flight using modified missiles, the military said.
more…

Geopolitics – The Age of Nonpolarity: What Will Follow U.S. Dominance

Posted on by

Foreign Affairs – The United States’ unipolar moment is over. International relations in the twenty-first century will be defined by nonpolarity. Power will be diffuse rather than concentrated, and the decline as that of nonstate actors increases. But this is not all bad news for the United States; Washington can still manage the transition and make the world a safer place.
more…

US Navy – Titanic search was cover for secret Cold War subs mission

Posted on by

The Times – The man who located the wreck of the Titanic has revealed that the discovery was a cover story to camouflage the real mission of inspecting the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines???When Bob Ballard led a team that pinpointed the wreckage of the liner in 1985 he had already completed his main task of finding out what happened to USS Thresher and USS Scorpion.
more…

Royal Navy – Avast there! Prince William to take on pirates of the Caribbean

Posted on by

The Times – Prince William is to go into action fighting the modern-day pirates of the Caribbean. He may be armed if he joins Royal Navy boarding parties that stop cocaine traffickers trying to smuggle drugs in fast launches.

The role is a consolation to the prince after he was banned from going to war in the Gulf with the Royal Navy because of fears his presence could provoke a terrorist attack on British ships.

Daily Telegraph – Prince William to take on Caribbean drug lords
more…