Daily Telegraph – A new warship that can defend the entire city of London from missile and aircraft attack has completed its first Royal Navy sea trial.
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Geopolitics – Entente Infernale: How 300 Years of Anglo-French Rivalry Shaped the World
Foreign Affairs – Robert and Isabelle Tombs’ superb chronicle of 300 years of Anglo-French rivalry reveals how the love-hate relationship between France and the United Kingdom has left an indelible mark on today’s world.
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Canadian Navy – Canada to strengthen Arctic claim
BBC – As the race to back up claims over the resources of the Arctic Ocean heats up, Canada has said it will build two new military bases in its far north.
Russian Navy – Russia sparks Cold War scramble
BBC – Russian bombers have flown to the US Pacific island of Guam in a manoeuvre reminiscent of the Cold War era.
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US Navy – Stealth Goes to Sea
Aviation Week – Northrop Grumman is starting to reveal details of its X-47B unmanned combat aircraft demonstrator. Despite protestations by company officials that they only wanted to talk about the $635.8 million, 6-year project to demonstrate launches and recoveries at sea, they soon turned to the operational potential of its X-47B unmanned combat aircraft design.
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Iraq – As British Leave, Basra Deteriorates
Washington Post – Thomas Ricks describes the situation facing the British in the south of Iraq.
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US Navy – Whale fears silence US Navy sonar
BBC – The US Navy has been ordered not to use mid-frequency sonar equipment during training exercises off the coast of California until the end of 2009.
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US Coast Guard – An even keel
Armed Forces Journal – The Coast Guard has been under fire in the press and on Capitol Hill for a variety of problems associated with the Deepwater fleet recapitalization program. But ahead of the storm of criticism, the service took a deep look at its acquisition structure, and in July, it will establish a dramatically new integrated acquisition directorate.
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US Navy – Peril at sea
Armed Forces Journal – America’s maritime strategy amounts to neglect.
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Geopolitics / Pakistan – A False Choice in Pakistan
Foreign Affairs – Americans are increasingly frustrated with Pakistan’s counterterrorism efforts, but the United States should resist the urge to threaten President Pervez Musharraf or demand a quick democratic transition. Getting Islamabad to play a more effective role in the war on terrorism will require that Washington strike a careful balance: pushing for political reform but without jeopardizing the military’s core interests.
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US Navy – Warhead Zapper
Aviation Week – Is electromagnetic armor being installed on US aircraft carriers?
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US Navy – Lost That Bet
Aviation Week – The Navy has chosen Northrop Grumman for the Unmanned Combat Air System CV Demonstration (UCAS-D) contract, beating Boeing. It’s no small effort, valued at $636 million between now and September 2013, and it is an important win for Northrop Grumman and an important loss for Boeing.
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Chinese Navy – The long march to be a superpower
Economist – The People’s Liberation Army is investing heavily to give China the military muscle to match its economic power. But can it begin to rival America?
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Information Warfare – Arab Media and the Battle for Ideas
Marine Corps Gazette – The author encourages commanders to recognize that the Arab media, such as Al Jazeera, are critical battlefields that have to be shaped as a part of information operations. You have to know that battlefield as well as you do a battlefield of terrain in order to succeed.
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Russian Navy – As icecaps melt, Russia races for Arctic's resources
Christian Science Monitor – Call it the global warming sweepstakes.
As milder temperatures make exploration of the Arctic sea floor possible for the first time, Russia’s biggest-ever research expedition to the region is steaming toward the immense scientific prestige of being the first to explore the seabed of the world’s crown.
In the next few days, two manned minisubs will be launched through a hole blasted in the polar ice to scour the ocean floor nearly three miles below. They will gather rock samples and plant a titanium Russian flag to symbolize Moscow’s claim over 460,000 square miles of hitherto international territory ñ an area bigger than France and Germany combined in a region estimated to contain a quarter of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves.
The issue of who owns the North Pole, now administered by the International Seabed Authority, has long been regarded as academic since the entire region is locked in year-round impenetrable ice. But with global warming thinning the icecaps, the question has vaulted to the front burner.
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Russian Navy – Russia subs make Arctic test dive
BBC – Two Russian mini-subs have made a test dive to the floor of the Arctic Ocean near Russia’s most northerly islands.
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Iraq – Leaving now not the way out of Iraq
The Times – One of the key strategists behind Americaís last-ditch ‘surge’ in Iraq, Colonel HR McMaster explains his thinking to Marie Colvin, our award-winning correspondent, who has spent decades covering the Middle East and has witnessed the bloody reality of life in Baghdad. McMaster insists that ësustained stabilityí is possible ñ eventually. But was the surge the right policy too late?
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Intelligence – Intelligent intelligence
Washington Times – Arnaud de Borchgrave writes an interesting assessment of the state-of-the-art in open source intelligence.
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Royal Navy – £4bn carriers 'will be jewel in Navy's crown'
Daily Telegraph – The long awaited main gate approval for the UK’s new aircraft carriers was announced this afternoon in London.
Aviation Week – UK Carriers – Now The Work Starts
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US Navy – Sudan 'must pay USS Cole victims'
BBC – A US court has ordered Sudan to pay $8m (£4m) to the families of 17 sailors who died in a suicide bomb attack on the USS Cole warship in Yemen in 2000.
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Geopolitics / Africa – The Americans Have Landed
Esquire – A few years ago, with little fanfare, the United States opened a base in the horn of Africa to kill or capture Al Qaeda fighters. By 2012, the Pentagon will have two dozen such forts. The story of Africa Command, the American military’s new frontier outpost, by Thomas P.M. Barnett.
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Iraq – Exit Strategies
Washington Post – The Pentagon is wargaming possible US exit strategies from Iraq.
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Royal Navy – Scots shipyards to share in £3.9bn super-vessels contract
Scotland on Sunday – Prime Minister Gordon Brown is preparing to deliver a multi-billion-pound boost to his home nation, with confirmation that Scotland’s shipbuilders will help to produce the biggest vessels ever ordered by the Royal Navy. The Prime Minister is set to put an end to years of delay by announcing the decision on the construction of the two “super carriers” within the next few days.
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Iraq – Bush Leans On Petraeus as War Dissent Deepens
Washington Post – Thomas Ricks asks if General Petraeus is being set up by the Bush administration as a scapegoat if conditions in Iraq fail to improve.
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Iraq – My history lesson in the Oval Office
Daily Telegraph – Sir Alastair Horne insightfully compares the war in Iraq to the war in Algeria.
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