Rear Adm. Manazir Speaks On Allied Force Transformation, A2AD

Rear Adm. Manazir Speaks On Allied Force Transformation, A2AD
Rear Adm. Manazir Speaks On Allied Force Transformation, A2AD

Recently, Chief of Naval Operations John Richardson drove home the point that using the term Anti-Access Area Denial (A2AD), was too vague as to be useful to define the effort of US and allied forces to deal with peer competitors. “The term ‘denial,’ as in anti-access/area denial is too often taken as a fait accompli,”…

Robot Subs, Electronic Warfare & Cyber: Navy’s Role In Offset Strategy

Robot Subs, Electronic Warfare & Cyber: Navy’s Role In Offset Strategy
Robot Subs, Electronic Warfare & Cyber: Navy’s Role In Offset Strategy

ARMY & NAVY CLUB: As the Pentagon prepares to roll out its 2017 budget, one strategically crucial piece is the so-called Third Offset Strategy. That’s the US military’s high-tech, high-stakes plan to keep our edge over Russia, China, and other rapidly advancing rivals. This morning, the Chief of Naval Research outlined some of what the Navy’s…

Uncle Sam Wants Your Ideas For Stopping Drones: Black Dart Tests

Uncle Sam Wants Your Ideas For Stopping Drones: Black Dart Tests
Uncle Sam Wants Your Ideas For Stopping Drones: Black Dart Tests

WASHINGTON: From July 27 through Aug. 6, the Defense Department is going to conduct a counter-drone testfest — and failure is an option. “In a sense, failure is free at Black Dart,” said Air Force Maj. Scott Gregg, referring by name to counter-drone tests he is directing for the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense…

Star Wars At Sea: Navy’s Laser Gets Real

Star Wars At Sea: Navy’s Laser Gets Real
Star Wars At Sea: Navy’s Laser Gets Real

PENTAGON: The age of laser weapons has officially begun. Since September, the Navy has had a $40 million, 30-kilowatt Laser Weapons System (LaWS) aboard the USS Ponce in the Persian Gulf. “They’re using it every single day,” said the Chief of Naval Research, Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder. Sailors — not contractors or engineers — perform basic…

Near Iran, U.S. Hosts Huge Persian Gulf Wargame; 35 Ships, 41 Countries

Near Iran, U.S. Hosts Huge Persian Gulf Wargame; 35 Ships, 41 Countries
Near Iran, U.S. Hosts Huge Persian Gulf Wargame; 35 Ships, 41 Countries

Just nine months after hosting the biggest multinational mine-warfare exercises “ever” to be held in and around the Persian Gulf, the Navy’s 5th Fleet and its foreign partners outdid themselves with a second, even larger wargame. More than 20 nations participated in September’s International Mine Counter-Measures Exercise 2012, collaborating against fictional ecoterrorists whose capabilities were suspiciously…

Navy Will Send Prototype Laser Weapon To Persian Gulf: Adm. Greenert

NATIONAL HARBOR: The Navy will send a prototype laser weapon to the troubled Persian Gulf for a roughly year-long test deployment starting “less than a year from now,” the Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, announced today at the Navy League’s annual Sea-Air-Space conference. The bad news is this isn’t some superweapon out of…

Military Sealift Command: A Flexible Key to The Asia Strategy

This is the first in a series of commentaries defense consultant and author Robbin Laird, a member of the Breaking Defense Board of Contributors, is penning about how the U.S. can and should shape its forces to perform the Asia strategy pivot. As a key part of that, he’ll be looking closely at what he…