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Naval Warfare

Former Navy Captain McCain Slams Iran For Seizing Disabled Boats

UPDATED: SecDef Says Crew Got Lost WASHINGTON: Iran violated international law by seizing two disabled US Navy vessels adrift in Iranian waters, according to the powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Iranians provided assurances that the sailors were being afforded “the care [and] the proper courtesy that you’d […]

By Colin Clark
Naval Warfare

Coast Guard Acts On Icebreakers; Releases Requirements

[UPDATED with Adm. Papp comments] SURFACE NAVY ASSOCIATION: In an important step to filling the increasing gap between American’s Arctic strategy and our capabilities, the Coast Guard has released its “notional program schedule [and] notional Polar Icebreaker requirements” for two new heavy icebreakers today. “This will be available to industry at noon today and I’m sure […]

By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.

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  • With the Reagan National Defense Forum in the rearview mirror, lawmakers are zeroing in on a $901 billion National Defense Authorization Act.

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budget

Don’t Expect Much About DoD From Obama’s Last SOTU

WASHINGTON: You never know til they deliver the speech, but all the indications are that President Obama is not going to discuss much of interest tonight about the Defense Department or the Pentagon budget and will mostly talk to Congress and to us about America’s future and how much better it could be. What does that […]

By Colin Clark
Air Warfare

US, Allies Must ‘Stop Fixating’ On ISIL & Friends; ‘Frankly, We Are Losing’

Western democracies and their military instruments of power are struggling with what seems to be the novel and dangerous apparition of radical global extremism. This headline-grabbing new threat, whether called the Islamic State, Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda, Boku Haram or something else, captivates both our military’s and the public’s attention. Yet for all the emphasis on dissecting […]

By Ben Zweibelson

Multi-Domain Operations: Global C2 and Joint Operations

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Congress

Where Are The Icebreakers?!

We’ve got something here for Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Angus King and Coast Guard Commandant Paul Zukunft to read before they speak Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on “National Security Challenges and Icebreaking Operations in the Arctic.” Scott Truver, known to most serious students of Navy shipbuilding, argues the case for icebreakers. […]

By Scott C. Truver
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Congress

HASC StratForces Chair Slams Air Force Space Management

CAPITOL HILL: The short view: Congressman slams Air Force for weather satellite fiasco. Long view: Congress, White House, Air Force, NASA, Commerce Department have all screwed up US weather satellite programs. “We could have saved the Air Force and the Congress a lot of aggravation if we put a half of a billion dollars in […]

By Colin Clark
Air Warfare

Navy To Try New Fast Acquisition Approach

CAPITOL HILL: The Navy’s 2017 budget will include a new authority similar to the Air Force’s Rapid Capability Office to improve the speed with which it can deploy new capabilities, especially classified ones, the head of Navy acquisition told the House Armed Services Committee today. “There will be something that closely mirrors the Air Force […]

By Colin Clark
Air Warfare

North Korean H-Bomb? Unlikely. What Will China Do?

WASHINGTON: The hysteric delivery on North Korea’s official news channel about her  country’s attempt to explode a hydrogen bomb doesn’t mean the crippled land south of China actually succeeded. The White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said, “the initial analysis is not consistent with the North Korean claims.” It does mean that China, its most important neighbor and […]

By Colin Clark

Golden Dome: The Path Forward

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Naval Warfare

New CNO’s Given His Vision – Now For The Hard Part

Yesterday, the new Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson, released his strategic vision for the Navy, “A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority.” One of the experts we asked for insight was Bryan Clark, a retired Navy commander and former top aide to the previous CNO, Adm. Jonathan Greenert. (Clark, Greenert, and Richardson are all […]

By Bryan Clark
Congress

CNO: Warfighting Trumps Presence; ORP, EW Win; LCS Likely Loser

[UPDATED with Rep. Forbes & Robert Martinage comments] WASHINGTON: Presence? What’s “presence”?” Once a primary measure of naval power and a driving factor in shipbuilding decisions, the word “presence” appears not once in the new Chief of Naval Operations’ strategic vision, out today. Instead, Adm. John Richardson‘s eight-page “Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority” mentions “war,” […]

By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Allies

Doing The Basil: Stalin 2.0 Must Prompt NATO Soul Searching

Russia has just released its new strategy document formally identifying the United States and NATO as a threat to Russian interests, a new step since the last publication in 2009. NATO is welcoming the tiny state of Montenegro to the alliance. NATO supports the duly constituted government of Ukraine. In Vladimir Putin’s eyes, that is clearly enough to establish […]

By Bob Butterworth
budget

Army 2016 Forecast: A Year of Peril

  The Army has gotten smaller every year since 2011, while the threats have gotten greater. Simply put, America’s Army – our nation’s foundational force since 1775 – is asked to face a dangerous and uncertain world with reduced and uncertain resources. It is confronted by turmoil abroad and hindered at home by politicians unable or […]

By Gordon Sullivan