Royal New Zealand Navy – The Royal New Zealand Navy hopes to construct 3 new vessels: a multirole vessel capable of carrying troops and equipment, and two offshore patrol vessels. These 3 vessels will be built instead of a third new frigate.

• ONENews: Local benefit to new navy contracts
  

Canadian Navy – Sabotage against Canadian Navy helicopters appears to be confined to only 1 aircraft.

• Halifax Daily News: Military: Sea Kings test clean
  

US Navy – The John F. Kennedy’s air wing is perfoming its final predeployment workup, without its carrier.

• Virginian Pilot: Commander ready for most important deployment

Background – Afghanistan – Who exactly was lifted out of Afghanistan and into Pakistan when the Taliban collapsed in southern Afghanistan in December? An analysis of the politico-military situation inside Pakistan today.

• New Yorker: The Getaway

Royal Navy – A little gunboat diplomacy between the Royal Navy and the Spanish Coast Guard off Gibraltar.

• Daily Telegraph: Navy in Gibraltar gunboat stand-off

Indian Navy – How the Indian Navy may obtain a nuclear strike capability.

• Pakistan News Service: ndian Navy’s club missiles being N-tipped

US Navy – More details on the USS Greeneville’s collision with the USS Ogden.

• Washington Post: ‘Jinxed’ Sub Hits Navy Ship

US Navy – The US Navy’s senior leaders have been told to ask for more new shipbuilding funds.

• Virginian Pilot:
  Warner to Navy brass: Fight for more ships
  

Background – Terrorism – Thomas Friedman on how the West must begin to understand what is happening in its own backyard, in the chemical reaction between Western societies and their own mosques and Muslim diasporas.

• New York Times: The 2 Domes of Belgium

US Navy – The USS Greeneville has collided with the USS Ogden in the Arabian Sea.

• Reuters: US warship, submarine, collide off Oman

US Navy – The crew of the USS John F. Kennedy are working hard to get ready to deploy.

• Virginian Pilot: Fixing the Kennedy
  

Canadian Coast Guard – Canadians must do more to defend their shores against terrorism.

• Halifax Daily News: Canada must step up coastal defence

Background – Afghanistan – The current situation on the ground faced by special forces in Afghanistan, with commentary by the editor of Jane’s World Armies.

• Christian Science Monitor: After Tora Bora, US hunts alone
  

Background – Secretary Rumsfield – William Arkin argues the US Secretary of Defense has been more talk than action in terms of transforming the military over the last year.

• Washington Post: Rumsfeld’s Year in Review

US Navy – Over the Arabian Sea, on patrol with US Navy P-3C Orions, looking for Al-Qaida members trying to flee Afghanistan by ship.

• Associated Press: U.S. Planes Scour Sea for Al-Qaida

US Marines – What the Taliban’s caves looked like to the US Marines searching them.

• Associated Press: Marines Reveal Items From Al-Qaida

US Navy – The USS Peleliu amphibious ready group will take a shore leave in Australia.

• The Australian: Hicks’s ship to dock in WA
  

Background – Saudi Arabia – Has the time come for the US to leave Saudi Arabia?

• The Economist: Time to move on

Background – Cryptography – Why and how the balance of power has shifted between the codemakers and the codebreakers – and the national security implications of this.

• The Atlantic: Losing the Code War

US Coast Guard – There are felt to be numerous terrorist targetson the Great Lakes, including locks, ports, and nuclear power plants.

• Toronto Globe and Mail: Terrorist targets exist on Great Lakes, says U.S. official
  

Russian Navy – The disassembly of the Kursk continues.

• Associated Press: Another seaman pulled from wrecked Russian submarine

US Navy – The USS John F Kennedy battlegroup will not go to sea until it is ready.

• Virginian Pilot: Ship won’t go until it’s ready, says Adm. Natter
  

Canadian Navy – HMCS Halifax is on its way home from the Arabian Sea.

• Halifax Herald: HMCS Halifax passes through Suez Canal, expected home Feb. 11

Chinese Air Force – The Chinese are outfitting their Su-30 attack aircraft with antiship cruise missiles, thus giving their air force a more potent antiship strike capability.

• Washington Times: Inside the Ring

US Merchant Marine – The Bush administration has admitted there is a huge shortage of US Merchant Marine sailors to man the Ready Reserve Force of merchant ships in time of war.

• Baltimore Sun: Shipping crew deficit called wartime risk

US Marines – The current plans to resume MV-22 Osprey flight testing.

• Virginian Pilot: Pentagon to resume Osprey flight tests
  

Russian Navy – The latest review of what is known about the Kursk incident, concluding that the explosion that sunk her came from within due to the volitility of the liquid hydrogen peroxide fuel used in its torpedoes. It asks: can this happen again?

• BBC: Analysis: Kursk cover-up

Canadian Navy – At sea aboard HMCS Iroquois. The Canadian’s Sea King helicopters are performing suprisingly well.

• Halifax Herald: Arabian Sea climate easier on Sea Kings

US Navy – Siblings serving together aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

• Associated Press: Ohio sisters reunited aboard U.S. aircraft carrier in Arabian Sea
  

Background – al Qaeda – An analysis of the leadership and management style of Osama Bin Laden, and how that has contributed to al Qaeda’s success.

• The Atlantic: Terrorism’s CEO

US Navy – The USS Peleliu amphibious ready group has been replaced by the USS Bon Homme Richard amphibious ready group in the Arabian Sea.

• San Diego Union Tribune: Peleliu heading home, BonHomme Richard on station

US Marines – The US Marines say the recent spate of helicopter crashes is not related to the chronic underfunding of maintenence that has plagued the services for the last few years.

• Virginian Pilot: In spite of air crashes, military says it’s ready

Canadian Navy – At sea, aboard HMCS Vancouver.

• Victoria Times: Keeping sailors supplied is hard work
  

US Navy – How coalition forces work in close concert in the Arabian Sea.

• Associated Press: U.S., coalition forces share radar, strategic data to prevent collisions in crowded seas and skies
  

Canadian Navy – Plans are being worked out to keep a Canadian Navy presence in the Arabian Sea until 2003.

• Victoria Times Colonist: HMCS Ottawa ships out Feb. 17
  

• Halifax Herald: Ships will spend year in Mideast

Background – Ports – More on why US ports make tempting terrorist targets.

• Washington Times: Seaports seen as terrorism target

Background – Special Forces – More details on Special Forces operations in Afghanistan.

• New York Times: Special Forces’ Success Reshapes War Doctrine

Chinese Navy – China has ordered two additional Russian Sovremenny destroyers to augment the pair it deployed in late 2000.

• Jane’s: China buys two more Project 956EM ships
• National Post: China continues naval expansion
  

US Navy – The maintainence woes aboard the USS John F. Kennedy are longstanding, and are the result of too little maintainence funding for too long.

• Virginian Pilot: Budget woes started spiral for carrier Kennedy
  

• Virginian Pilot: Carrier Kennedy’s woes troubling to congressmen
  

US Navy – The US Navy is extensively using satellite communications capabilities based in Auckland, New Zealand.

• New Zealand Herald: Auckland station to have key role with US Navy

Background – Afghanistan – James F. Dunnigan on how to get your way in Afghanistan – bribery.

• Strategy Page: What Speaks Louder Than Bullets?
  

2001 World Naval Operational News Highlights

• The biggest story this year was the huge role that US and allied navies have played in the war on terrorism.
• Several recurring themes were identified throughout this year’s naval news stories, many of which persist from last year:
• The continuing enforcement of economic sanctions and no-fly zones against Iraq, who remains able to successfully circumvent the economic sanctions on the exporting of oil.
• The Russian Navy promising – and failing – to rebound from its doldrums, this year abandoning its base in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam.
• Piracy in the South China Sea, which is worsening as Indonesia descends into anarchy.
• The tension in the Taiwanese Straits between Taiwan and China.
• Further consolidation of the US ship building industry.
• The ascendency of the Indian Navy, demonstrated during this year’s International Fleet Review, and its suprising new alliance with the US Navy.
• Territorial disputes over islands in the South China Sea, such as the Spratly Islands, which is what the EP-3 was really investigating.
• Clampdown on the entry of illegal immigrants into countries, evidenced by the aggressive actions of the Malaysian and Royal Australian navies.
• Underfunding of the US Coast Guard, which was unable to meet its missions before September 11, let alone after that date.
• The woes of the MV-22 Osprey, which is desperately needed to replace the US Marines aging rotary wing force.
• Concern over the damaging effect that certain types of sonars have on marine mammals.
• The most professional amphibious operation of the year was the landing of US Marine Expeditionary Units within Afghanistan, several hundred miles from the sea.
• The only ship-to-ship combat of the year was between the Sri Lankan Navy and the Tamil Tigers; and the Japanese Coast Guard and the (presumed) North Korean Navy.
• The most intriguing naval news story of the year was that US nuclear attack submarines continue to carry out clandestine intelligence missions to place taps on undersea fiber optics cables to intercept data traffic on them.
• The most strategically significant naval news story of the year is the “coming out” of the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force with its first overseas deployment outside Japan since World War II, and how it may serve in the future as a counter balance to the Chinese Navy.
• The most technically significant naval news story this year was the rise of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, and what its maritime applications will be, as demonstrated by the Global Hawk’s demonstration flight to Australia early in the year.
• The most narrowly averted naval disaster of the year was the downing of the US Navy EP-3 intelligence aircraft by the Chinese Air Force, and the continuing harrassment of US intelligence aircraft since that incident.
• The most tragic naval news story of the year was the accidental sinking of the Japanese fishing trawler by the USS Greeneville.
• The most bizarre naval news story of the year was the inabilty of the Swedish Navy to go to sea for the last 7 months of the year because it had been banned from allowing its sailors to work overtime.
• The most humorous naval news story of the year was the plight of the former Soviet aircraft carrier Varyag, which waited for years for permission to transit the Bosphorus Strait, and after doing so, broke its tow and went adrift for some distance in the Aegean before being successfully taken in tow again.
• The most technically impressive naval news story of the year was the raising of the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk from the sea bed and her return to port for scrapping.
• The quietest naval story of the year was the cancelation of the US Navy’s DD-21 class destroyers. This program seemed to have no clear supporters to oppose its cancelation.
• The non-story of the year was the US defense review, which never reached any solid conclusions are resulted in any definite plans.
• And finally, the naval news story of the year with the most potential long term significance was the dangerous overemphasis placed on avoiding collateral damage when making targeting decisions in Afghanistan by the US. What targets were missed in the name of “safety?”

Statistics
In 2001, there were news stories linked to on 311 / 365 days – that is on 85% of the days.

In 2001, NOSI linked to 1,077 articles covering 916 news stories.

The news stories linked to covered the operational activities of 43 nation’s navies, coast guards, and marine corps:

United States – 396 stories
United Kingdom – 75 stories
Russia – 54 stories
Australia – 30 stories
India – 29 stories
Canada – 21 stories
Taiwan – 20 stories
China – 14 stories
Japan – 12 stories
France – 9 stories
Malaysia – 9 stories
Sri Lanka – 6 stories
South Korea – 6 stories
Pakistan – 5 stories
Phillipines – 5 stories
Israel – 4 stories
Iran – 3 stories
Italy – 3 stories
Indonesia – 3 stories
Singapore – 3 stories
New Zealand – 3 stories
Turkey – 2 stories
Romania – 2 stories
Tamil Sea Tigers – 2 stories
Egypt – 2 stories

Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, Columbia, Denmark, Ghana, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Nigeria, North Korea, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela – 1 story

???and 117 Background news stories

In 2001, 92,436 pages of information were read on NOSI by 39,079 users.

US Marines – The US Marines have turned over their base at Kandahar airport to the 101st Airborne Division.

• Washington Post: Marines Vacate Kandahar Airport

US Navy – The Carl Vinson battlegroup is returning home.

• San Diego Union Tribune: Air squadron, Vinson return from Afghanistan
• Contra Costa Times: Grateful port greets carrier
  

• Virginian Pilot: Mission done, aviators return from war
  

Royal Australian Navy – Should the RAN be given sole responsibilty for rescue of asylum-seekers in Australian waters?

• The Australian: Anthony Bergin: Rescue at sea can’t be left to the navy
  

Background – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) – Defense contractors are bullish on the future prospects of UAVs.

• Los Angeles Times: Pentagon Flies High on Drones

Background – CIA – More on the CIA’s growing military capability and its use in the war on terrorism.

• Boston Globe: CIA takes on major new military role

US Navy – A US Navy EP-3 intelligence aircraft was again intercepted at close range by Chinese Air Force aircraft.

• Washingtion Times: Inside the Ring

US Navy – The US Navy has been criticized for doing little to transform itself in the last year, in comparison to the US Army and US Air Force.

• Virginian Pilot: Navy criticized for failing to reshape its role
  

NATO – The NATO Submarine Rescue System design process is moving forward.

• Jane’s : NSRS programme takes next steps

Canadian Navy – The Canadian Navy is willing to keep a contingent in the Arabian Sea indefinitely.

• Halifax Herald: Navy ships set to patrol area indefinitely

US Navy – Additional repairs to the USS John F Kennedy that are needed to bring her up to operational conditions may lengthen the stay of the USS Theodore Roosevelt in theater.

• Virginian Pilot: Kennedy repairs may delay carrier Roosevelt’s return

US Navy – More on how aircraft carriers have justified their continuing existence due to the war against terror.

• San Diego Union Tribune: Navy’s future has been ‘validated’ in Afghanistan war, admiral says
  

Background – Targeting – William Arkin on how, in an effort to do everything possible to minimize civilian casualities, the US has been fighting the air war in Afghanistan with one arm tied behind its back.

• Los Angeles Times: Fear of Civilian Deaths May Have Undermined Effort

Background – Supergun – The saga of the Iraqi Supergun continues – do they or don’t they have one?

• National Post: Saddam has super-gun, report says

Canadian Navy – Life aboard the Canadian Navy supply ship HMCS Preserver in the Arabian Sea.

• Canadian Press: Canadian sailors aboard Navy supply ship proud, homesick and bored
  

US Navy – Aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, the Chief of Naval Operations stated that more money is needed to allow the Navy to continue to do its job properly.

• Associated Press: Navy chief says $10 billion extra needed to update U.S. fleet, meet stresses of war against terrorism

US Marines – The new Marine camouflage pattern is now being issued.

• Associated Press: Marines sport new look if you can see them
  

• US Marines: Combat Utility Uniform

US Marines – Life at Kandahar airport appears to not be very safe for US Marines – there are suspicions of tunnel complexes running through the airport and Marines fear they will soon come under attack.

• Associated Press: Suspected Taliban taunt U.S. Marines: `They go back and forth, and we can’t do anything’
  

US Marines – US Marines are hunting cave complexes in Eastern Afghanistan.

• Daily Telegraph: US marines go it alone in cave hunt for terrorists

Canadian Navy – Canadian CP-140 Auroras are on patrol in the Arabian Sea.

• Halifax Herald: Auroras settle into their role

US Marines – US special forces, including Navy SEALs and Marines, have landed in the Phillipines to aid the Phillipine government’s fight against Islamic terrorists.

• Washington Post: Special Forces Join Effort in Philippines

US Navy – US sailors receive a pay raise in an attempt to retain more of them in service.

• Virginian Pilot: Leaders hope pay raise keeps more in uniform
  

• Virginian Pilot: Among sailors, pay raise lifts many boats — and spirits

US Navy – The US Navy is considering converting a cruise ship which is under construction to a command and control ship.

• Associated Press: Navy to Consider Use of Cruise Ship

German Navy – Germany naval units are participating in the patrols off Africa hunting for al Quaeda members. Speedboats have been recently sent to assist them.

• Associated Press: German speedboats sent to Horn of Africa

US Navy – How garbage is disposed of from a US Navy aircraft carrier.

• Associated Press: As aircraft carrier launches planes, U.S. sailors take out the garbage

Palestinian Navy – The Palestinian Authority’s Navy has no useable ships left.

• Agence France-Presse: Palestinian Navy has no working boats after Israeli raid

US Navy – The varied roles that women have aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

• Associated Press: Women in Forefront of Combat Action
  

Royal Australian Navy – Meanwhile women are fleeing the Australian armed forces.

• AAP: Women flee armed forces: report

Israeli Navy – The Israeli Navy has attacked a Palestinian Navy base in Gaza, destroying 2 patrol boats.

• BBC: Israeli navy attacks Gaza port
  

US Navy – More details have emerged about the plot to attack US warships in Singapore.

• Associated Press: Scheme against Navy ships foiled in Singapore

Royal Navy – It has been proposed the United Kingdom and Spain will share ownership of Gibraltar. No news on how this will effect the Royal Navy base there.

• Daily Telegraph: Britain ‘to share Gibraltar with Spain’

US Navy – Chemical warfare training aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt.

• Associated Press: U.S. aircraft carrier puts crew through drill for chemical attack at sea

US Navy – The USS John F. Kennedy will do her pre-deployment live fire training off of North Carolina and Virginia, and not off Vieques.

• Washington Times: Carrier barred from Vieques training
• Associated Press: Navy’s next firing school shifts to US from

Canadian Navy – The Canadians are starting to rotate their ships in the Arabian Sea.

• Canadian Press: HMCS Toronto to Move to Arabian Sea, HMCS Halifax May Come Home

Royal Australian Navy – A RAN frigate’s crew has been accused of disorderly conduct during a shore leave on Christmas Island.

• The Australian: ADF misconduct ‘here to stay’
  

• The Age: Navy misconduct claims rejected

Background – Strategy – A defense lesson from Afghanistan for European nations, by analyst Edward Luttwak.

• Los Angeles Times: A Military’s Power Isn’t in the Numbers

US Coast Guard – The US Coast Guard has received all of the US Navy’s Cyclone-class patrol craft to use in patrolling US shores and ports.

• Virginian Pilot: Navy gives patrol craft to Coast Guard for use
  

Royal Navy – A program for upgrading the Royal Navy’s Trafalgar-class submarines is over budget and over time.

• BBC: ‘Major difficulties’ in submarine upgrade
  

Indian Navy – India will be deploying new antiship missiles to counter new antiship missiles aboard new Chinese destroyers.

• Jane’s: Indian Navy in line for BrahMos missile

Background – Air bases – Why aircraft carriers are important – air bases are fleeting assets???while carriers are not.

• Los Angeles Times: U.S. Air Bases Forge Double-Edged Sword

US Navy – The EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft, though still highly capable, is beginning to get a bit long in the tooth???

• Associated Press: U.S. military’s key electronic jamming plane aging, deteriorating

US Navy – US allies in the Arabian Sea are playing a key role in maintaining the naval blockade against al-Qaida.

• ABC News: U.S. allies in Arabian Gulf providing ‘critical’ role in war campaign, admiral says
  

US Marines – With the Marines of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Company on the ground in Afghanistan.

• San Diego Union Tribune: Red Platoon’s light armor passes the test

US Navy – Making the US Navy knowledge-centric to give it an edge over its adversaries will be a challenge, but is necessary.

• Sea Power: The Web, The Wall, & Pure ICE

Russian Navy – A Russian journalist and former naval officer has been found guilty for his stories on the illegal disposal of nuclear waste.

• BBC: Jailed Russian journalist appeals

US Coast Guard – More details of how difficult it is to secure our ports.

• Washington Post: Where Sea Meets Shore, Scenarios for Terrorists
• Christian Science Monitor: America’s ports vulnerable, even with more patrols
  

Background – Strategy – A summary of the war to date.

• Economist: Half a Victory

Israeli Navy – More on the ship seized by Israeli Navy commandos suspected of trying to supply arms to the Palestinian Authority.

• Jerusalem Post: Terrorism on the high seas
• BBC: Arms haul sparks new fears
  

US Navy – The US Navy has admitted its sonars were responsible for harming whales during an exercise off the Bahamas in 2000.

• Washington Post: Whales’ Deaths Linked to Navy’s Sonar Tests

Royal Navy – HMS Triumph, which fired some of the first cruise missiles to strike Afghanistan, has returned home from the Gulf.

• BBC: Sub’s triumphant return home
  

Background – Saudi Arabia – Ralph Peters on how the Saudi’s are the US’s enemies, not it’s friends, and must be dealt with as part of the war against terrorism.

• Wall Street Journal: The Saudi Threat – Riyadh is at the root of much evil