Navy’s Newest, LHA-6, A Dead End For Amphibious Ships?

The Navy will christen its newest amphibious warfare ship in Pascagoula, Miss. on Oct. 20th. The boldly-named, $3 billion America is a major departure from past designs — and, quietly, the Navy has decided not to build many more like it in the future. The Chief of Naval Operations himself, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, has said…

US, Allies Wrestle With Intel Sharing Problems Exposed In Libya Ops

NATIONAL HARBOR: Last year’s Libya campaign revealed painful shortfalls in NATO, including intelligence sharing so molasses-slow that French pilots gave up on waiting for target data from US Predator drones. That’s something the allies are anxious to correct. “In Libya we got away with it. We made do, we had work-arounds, [but] we were not…

The Osprey After Five Years: Leading A ‘Tsunami Of Change’

This September, the controversial Osprey will reach the five-year mark in its operational deployment history. In September 2007, the Osprey was deployed for the first time to Iraq. The plane has not only done well, but in five short years has demonstrated its capability to have not only a significant impact on combat but to…

Personal Military Ties Key To Successful Alliances: CJCS Demspey

WASHINGTON: Just back from his trip to Asia, the jet-lagged Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff attended graduation ceremonies at the Pentagon’s National Defense University, where he singled out NDU’s first-ever Vietnamese graduate, a colonel in the People’s Army of Vietnam, as an example of the kind of relationship-building the US military must do…

Marines Sail Back To Future With Bataan Deployment

Libyan rebels, Somali pirates, Osprey tiltrotors, and a long, long time at sea: The future of the Marine Corps post-Afghanistan can be seen in what you might call “Yoda and Bart’s Great Adventure,” an extraordinary ocean journey that began a year ago Friday. This Yoda and Bart aren’t fictional characters, but the radio call signs…

Libya Lessons Learned Drive Huge Amphib Exercise

ABOARD THE USS WASP: Navy and Marine Corps leaders involved with the huge Bold Alligator amphibious warfare this week will tell you it’s all about the lessons learned. And there was no bigger lesson in amphib combat ops in recent years than Operation Unified Protector, also known as Libya. “Libya [operations] played a huge role”…

Abrial: NATO Closing ISR, Intel Sharing Gaps Exposed In Libya

WASHINGTON: NATO is wasting no time in taking the painful lessons learned from its peacekeeping mission in Libya and folding them into a new strategy for future operations, the NATO general overseeing that effort said today. The resistance from forces loyal to recently deceased Libyan strongman Col. Muammar Gaddafi was a “strategic surprise” to NATO,…

‘Stun Bombs’ Used to Guard Libyan WMD Sites?

AFP just published a very interesting account of secret NATO teams guarding Gaddafi’s weapons of mass destruction depots with bombs that were able to take out a car while leaving the occupants unhurt. Before Tripoli fell, NATO guarded his known chemical weapons depots from the air, maintaining near constant surveillance from them and ready to…

Gen. Amos Pumps the V-22 As Hill Weighs Multiyear

Washington: The Marine Corps is done paying for the past sins of the V-22 Osprey, commandant Gen. James Amos said today. The Osprey is now one of the most dependable weapons systems in the Marine Corps arsenal, Amos told attendees during his speech at the Center for Foreign Relations this morning. It has been battle…

Libyan Lessons For Doomed Autocrats and U.S.

With news of Muammar Gaddhafi’s death, the U.S., NATO, and the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) deserve a moment to relish in the successes of the democratic movement in Libya. Yet it’s important to understand that despite this success, the story of Libyan democracy is in its infancy. Now begins the difficult part. Can the…

Marine Libya Lessons: Short Command-Control Links, STOVL Flexibility

The French operational experience in and off of Libya has neatly dovetailed with that of the U.S. Marines and suggests a way forward for American thinking about littoral operations. With the decision of the U.S. national command authority to “lead from behind,” the Marines were almost inadvertently given a leading role. What “lead from behind”…

Missing Libya Missiles Already Smuggled Out, U.S. Searches for Them

Washington: A number of sophisticated shoulder-fired missiles looted from Libyan armories have already been smuggled out of the North African country and we don’t know where they’ve gone, a top U.S. general said today. Africa Command chief Gen. Carter Ham said his organization picked up “worrying indicators” that some of the unaccounted for Libyan stockpiles…

White House Believes 20,000 Sophisticated Missiles Missing in Libya

Washington: News reports appear to confirm weeks of worries by senior White House and congressional officials that large numbers of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles have gone missing in Libya. ABC News is reporting that a secret White House meeting discussed the disappearance of 20,000 “portable, heat-seeking” missiles. They quote Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security…

French Libya Lessons Learned: Better Targeting, Flexible ROEs, Limits to Armed UAVs

Robbin Laird, international defense consultant, has been in Paris interviewing French military officials about lessons learned in Libya. This is the first of two pieces he’ll do for Breaking Defense on what he’s learned. The Editor. A main point underscored by the French military was the impact of the political process on military planning. The…