History – Geography, Technology, and British Naval Strategy in the Dreadnought Era

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Naval War College Review – Alfred Thayer Mahan and Admiral Sir John Fisher disagreed about capital-ship design and the utility of history as a guide to formulating naval policy, but the main difference between their ways of thinking about strategy was over the best means of defending the British empire in a maritime war. Where Mahan called for concentration at the center, Fisher contended that defense could be achieved at the periphery.
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Editorial Note – Naval Year in Review 2005

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2005

World Naval Operational News Highlights

The operational story of the year was the occupation of Iraq, and the tremendous challenges it continues to face due to the lack of planning for the post-combat phase of the war.

  • Several recurring themes were identified throughout this year’s naval news stories, many of which persist from last year:
    • Continuing piracy on the high seas, particularly off of Africa, that is beginning to be slowly addressed.
    • The threats terrorists pose to ships.
    • The continuing rise of the Indian Navy, backed by an extensive ship building program and naval exercise schedule.
    • The acknowledgement that China is becoming a rising naval power, as China recognizes the importance of protecting its sea lines of communication in order to protect its economic development.
    • The inability of the U.S. Navy to articulate and commit to a consistent ship building program.
    • The dangerous nature of submarine operations, evidenced this year by the collision of the USS San Francisco with an undersea mountain and the fire on board a Chinese submarine exercising in the South China Sea.
    • Concern over the damaging effect that low frequency active sonar has on marine mammals.
  • Significant naval operations this year included:
    • Extensive naval assistance in operations other than war including the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Bon Homme Richard along with assets of the Royal Navy / Royal Australian Navy / French Navy in the Indonesian tsunami relief effort in January, the USS Bataan in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in August, the USS Iwo Jima in the Hurricane Rita relief effort in September, and the US Marine’s Pakistan earthquake relief effort in October.
    • There was no ship-to-ship combat this year.
  • The most significant operational naval news story of the year was the Israeli Navy exercising with NATO forces for the first time.
  • The naval training story of the year was the assignment of US Marine forces to the US Special Operations Command, where they will assume a large role in training foreign militaries.
  • The most significant personnel naval news story this year was that some US Marine units are now serving their third combat tour in Iraq, and this is putting a huge strain on them professionally, personally, and psychologically.
  • The most dramatic naval news story of the year was the English rescue of a Russian Navy minisub crew which was tangled in fishing nets in the Russian Far East.
  • The most disappointing naval news story of the year was the documentation of continued deficiencies in the Advanced SEAL delivery system mini-submarine, which render it effectively non-operational.
  • The naval procurement story of the year is the continued saga of the former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag. Is China refitting it for operational use?
  • The naval aviation story of the year was the last combat cruise of the F-14 Tomcat fighter in the US Navy.
  • The most ignored naval news story of the year remains port security in the U.S., or the lack thereof.
  • The most surprising naval news story of the year was Japan allowing a US nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington, to be homeported there for the first time.
  • The most welcome naval news story of the year was the slow redevelopment of the US Navy’s brown water riverine naval capabilities, for use in Iraq.
  • The most technically significant naval news story of the year was the first successful use of a nonlethal sonic weapon to protect a cruise ship from a pirate attack off of Somalia.
  • The most bizarre naval news story of the year was Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi dictating the operational deployment of the hospital ship USNS Comfort to benefit his constituents during Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
  • The quietest naval story of the year was the extensive war planning underway in the US for strikes against Iran to neutralize its nuclear weapons capability.
  • And finally, the naval news story of the year with the most potential long term significance for the third year in a row was the continued rise of 4th Generation Warfare techniques in Iraq and Afghanistan. How will the U.S. effectively address 4th Generation Warfare?

Statistics
In 2005, there were news stories linked to on 308 / 365 days – that is on 84% of the days.

In 2005, NOSI linked to 864 articles covering 777 news stories.

In 2005, 343 of these stories (44%) were related to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, or U.S. Military Sealift Command.

In 2005, 236 of these stories (30%) were background stories and 51 stories (7%) were historical stories.

The remaining 147 news stories (19%) covered the operational activities of 24 nation’s navies, coast guards, and marine corps:

Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Netherlands, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom

In 2005, 254,437 pages of information were read on NOSI by 136,797 users.

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Geopolitics / India – America's New Strategic Partner?

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Foreign Affairs – Over the last year, the U.S. and Indian governments struck a deal that recognizes India as a nuclear weapons power. Critics say Washington gave up too much too soon and at a great cost to nonproliferation efforts. Perhaps. But India could in time become a valuable security partner. So despite the deal’s flaws and the uncertainties surrounding its implementation, Washington should move forward with it.
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US Navy – Gonzalez home after Sea Swap stint

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Virginian Pilot – The guided missile destroyer Gonzalez returned home Thursday from an 18-month deployment that involved three crews under the Navy’s Sea Swap program. The Gonzalez was part of the now-defunct Sea Swap program, which kept the destroyer overseas for a longer-than-traditional deployment while three crews rotated aboard for six-month stints.
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History – Night Session of the Presidium of the Central Committee, 22ñ23 October 1962

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Naval War College Review – A Russian historian of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis argues from archival evidence that while authority to use tactical nuclear weapons was never delegated to local Soviet commanders, it was only with difficulty (and the assistance of the Navy commander in chief) that hard-liners were prevented from pushing through a potentially dangerous policy.
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Geopolitics / Iraq – When the Shiites Rise

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Foreign Affairs – By toppling Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration has liberated and empowered Iraq’s Shiite majority and has helped launch a broad Shiite revival that will upset the sectarian balance in Iraq and the Middle East for years to come. This development is rattling some Sunni Arab governments, but for Washington, it could be a chance to build bridges with the region’s Shiites, especially in Iran.
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