Defense Technology International – Bill Sweetman notes that the roll-out of the first Lockheed Martin F-35B is a milestone in the development of a runway-free supersonic fighter. But it does raise a huge question: what is it for?
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Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force – Japan tests anti-missile system
BBC – Japan has for the first time shot down a ballistic missile in flight, testing a defence system aimed at warding off any missile threat from its neighbours.
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Piracy – U.S. Steps Up Anti-Piracy Actions
Washington Post – The U.S. Navy is adopting more aggressive tactics to counter piracy off the coast of Somalia, helping last week to make the area free of captured vessels for the first time since February, according to a senior U.S. Navy commander in the region.
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Geopolitics / Asia – Winning Asia: Washington's Untold Success Story
Foreign Affairs – Pundits, academics, and Bush bashers insist that the United States is losing ground in Asia, but they are wrong. The Bush administration’s Asia policy has been an unheralded success. Improved relations with China, stronger U.S.-Japanese cooperation, North Korea’s gradual nuclear disarmament, and expanding regional alliances have made Asia more prosperous and secure than it has been in decades.
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Transformation – How Technology Almost Lost the War: In Iraq, the Critical Networks Are Social – Not Electronic
Wired – Is the emphasis on network-centric warfare the cause of the United States’ problems in Iraq?
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Russian Navy – Russian Carrier Steps Out
Defense Technology International – The Russian carrier Kuznetsov starts a cruise which will take the ship and its consorts through the Mediterranean.
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Iraq – Pushed Out of Baghdad, Insurgents Move North
New York Times – Michael Gordon writes that a growing number of Sunni insurgents have relocated to Mosul and other places in northern Iraq.
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US Navy – Aegis Make Over (2)
Defense Technology International – The U.S. Navy has given its final approval for Lockheed Martin to proceed with the integration and shipboard installation of the world’s first, fully-open architecture Aegis weapon system for a major surface warship.
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Iraq – Ex-Pentagon Aide Says U.S. Abandoned Quick Iraq Transition
Washington Post – Thomas Ricks writes that former top Pentagon official Douglas Feith blamed the Bush administration’s top official in Iraq for abandoning a plan for a quick transition to Iraqi leadership in the summer of 2003 and instead keeping the U.S. government in control of the country for more than a year.
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South African Navy – South Africa Can't Afford to Run its New Subs
Defense Technology International – South Africa is suffering from a critical shortage of qualified navy personnel because it cannot afford to pay them, thereby paralysing its brand new submarines
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Afghanistan – Into the Valley of Death
Vanity Fair – A strategic passage wanted by the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Afghanistanís Korengal Valley is among the deadliest pieces of terrain in the world for U.S. forces. One platoon is considered the tip of the American spear. Its men spend their days in a surreal combination of backbreaking labor-building outposts on rocky ridges-and deadly firefights, while they try to avoid the mistakes the Russians made. Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington join the platoonís painfully slow advance, as its soldiers laugh, swear, and run for cover, never knowing which of them wonít make it home.
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French Navy – French Navy Uses Second Life to Recruit
Defense Technology International – From 29 November to 4 December a virtual frigate (which looks remarkably like the yet-to-be-built Franco-Italian FREMM) called in on Second Life which could be visited 24 hours a day and where youngsters could meet virtual sailors who would answer questions about the jobs and careers they might have if they joined the French Navy.
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Geopolitics / Asia – Washington's Eastern Sunset: The Decline of U.S. Power in Northeast Asia
Foreign Affairs – After 60 years of U.S. domination, the balance of power in Northeast Asia is shifting. The United States is in relative decline, China is on the rise, and Japan and South Korea are in flux. To maintain U.S. power in the region, Washington must identify the trends shaping this transition and embrace new tools and regimes that broaden the United States’ power base.
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Royal Australian Navy – Sailors under pressure
The Australian – A look at submarine rescue exercises in the Pacific.
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Russian Navy – Russian navy to start sorties in Mediterranean
Reuters – Russia said on Wednesday it would start the first major navy sortie into the Mediterranean since Soviet times, the latest move by an increasingly assertive Moscow to demonstrate its military might.
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US Marines – Gates said to oppose force shift to Afghanistan
New York Times – Senior Pentagon and military officials said Wednesday that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had decided against a proposal to shift Marine Corps forces from Iraq to take the lead in American operations in Afghanistan.
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Malaysian Navy – Protection for submarines
New Straits Times – The Royal Malaysian Navy is looking at acquiring the capability of protecting its two Scorpene diesel-electric submarines.
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Piracy – U.S. warships corner Somali pirates who seized ship
Reuters – U.S. and German navy ships have cornered Somali pirates who seized a Japanese-owned chemical tanker more than a month ago and are demanding a ransom.
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Nuclear Warfare – Calculating the Risks in Pakistan
Washington Post – Thomas Ricks reports a small group of U.S. military experts and intelligence officials convened in Washington for a classified war game last year, exploring strategies for securing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal if the country’s political institutions and military safeguards began to fall apart.
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Iranian Navy – Iranian Navy receives stealth-capable submarine
Novosti -Iran’s Navy commissioned Wednesday a domestically designed and produced light submarine featuring extended stealth capability and strong firepower.
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Operations Other Than War – US Navy ship providing aid, medicine to Bangladeshi cyclone victims
Associated Press – The amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge was performing maritime security operations off the coast of Somalia when Tropical Cyclone Sidr hit southwestern Bangladesh. The ship rushed toward south Asia, traveling 3,000 miles over five days and reaching the Bangladesh coast on Nov. 22, to begin helping thousands of people left hungry, homeless and without clean water. The storm killed more than 3,200 people.
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US Navy – An Invader In Navy's Home Waters
Washington Post – The Army likes to brag that it’s got a significant navy of its own — even if there isn’t a destroyer or aircraft carrier in it.
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Royal Navy – Navy would struggle to fight a war
Daily Telegraph – The Royal Navy can no longer fight a major war because of years of under funding and cutbacks, a leaked Whitehall report has revealed.
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Geopolitics – A Disciplined Defense: How to Regain Strategic Solvency
Foreign Affairs – The United States now spends almost as much on defense in real dollars as it ever has before — even though it has no plausible rationale for using most of its impressive military forces. Why? Because without political incentives for restraint, policymakers have lost the ability to think clearly about defense policy. Washington’s new mantra should be “Half a trillion dollars is more than enough.”
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Afghanistan – In Counterinsurgency Class, Soldiers Think Like Taliban
Wall Street Journal – An inside look at the US Army’s new Afghanistan Counterinsurgency Academy.
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