Washington Post – A fascinating article by William Arkin on STRATCOM’s new mission of global strike – what it means and how they intend to carry it out.
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Monthly Archives: May 2005
US Marines – Looking for Battle, Marines Find That Foes Have Fled
Washington Post – Another look at last weeks battles along Iraq’s border with Syria.
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US Navy – For Shipyard and Region, Shock and Vow to Fight
New York Times – A look at the fate of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
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Fourth Generation Warfare – The Reality Gap
Defense and the National Interest – William Lind on the disconnect between the Pentagon and reality today.
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US Marines – U.S. Marines unit begin landing at Kuwaiti naval base for possible deployment in Iraq
Associated Press – The 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, aboard the USS Kearsarge Expeditionary Strike Group, goes ashore in Kuwait.
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Royal Navy – Safety fears over N-sub berths
Scotsman – Nuclear submarines using little-known Highland berths present a risk of radiation leaks, an official safety assessment seen by The Scotsman has found.
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US Navy – Means of Control
Sea Power – The Navy and Army are developing common ways to manage control of unmanned vehicles and systems of many types.
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Transformation – Military Is Consolidating Into Large Installations
Washington Post – In its first round of base closures in a decade, the Pentagon announced yesterday a sweeping plan to close or reduce forces at 62 major bases and nearly 800 minor facilities — consolidating military capabilities in large installations that are best equipped to train and quickly deploy forces in wartime.
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US Marines – U.S. Ends Iraqi Border Offensive
Washington Post – U.S. Marines rumbled back across the Euphrates River on a floating bridge Saturday, ending a week-long offensive against foreign fighters that had taken U.S. forces within two miles of the Syrian border. Marines said the sweep north of the Euphrates, called “Operation Matador,” was a success. Involving more than 1,000 Marines, it was the largest sustained U.S. offensive since the assault on Fallujah six months ago.
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Geopolitics / Strategy – Grand Strategies for Dealing With Other Stats in the New, New World Order
Naval War College Review – Three broad strategies for maximizing the benefits the United States receives from state-to-state assistance programs are current todayóthe pivotal, buffer (or ìseamî), and failed-state strategies. Examination of the assumptions and conceptual approaches imbedded in them shows that none represents an adequate strategy for dealing with the security threats of the present day and age.
History – Midway: Sheer Luck or Better Doctrine?
Naval War College Review – The American and Japanese navies in the interwar years both acknowledged the transformative nature of the aircraft carrier, but they made strikingly different choices in implementing that naval revolution. The contrasting carrier doctrines and force structures these choices produced were tested decisively at Midway, in ways that speak to the nature of military technological innovation.
Ground Warfare – For Female GIs, Combat Is a Fact
Washington Post – Many soldiers support qualified women joining infantry, but Congress is moving in other direction. A look at how US women serving in the Army in Iraq are in combat every day???
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US Marines – Demise of a Hard-Fighting Squad
Washington Post – The further, tragic adventures of the Marine squad profiled yesterday.
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US Marines – Activity-Based Costing and Activity-Based Management
Marine Corps Gazette – Activity-Based Costing and Activity-Based Management is designed to give greater visibility to actual costs, thereby enabling senior leaders to make better decisions on how Marine Corps funding should be spent.
US Marines – They Came Here to Die
Washington Post – Screaming “Allahu Akbar” to the end, the foreign fighters lay on their backs in a narrow crawl space under a house and blasted their machine guns up through the concrete floor with bullets designed to penetrate tanks. They fired at U.S. Marines, driving back wave after wave as the Americans tried to retrieve a fallen comrade. Through Sunday night and into Monday morning, the foreign fighters battled on, their screaming voices gradually fading to just one. In the end, it took five Marine assaults, grenades, a tank firing bunker-busting artillery rounds, 500-pound bombs unleashed by an F/A-18 attack plane and a point-blank attack by a rocket launcher to quell them. The Marines got their fallen man, suffering one more dead and at least five wounded in the process. And according to survivors of the battle, the foreign fighters near the Syrian border proved to be everything their reputation had suggested: fierce, determined and lethal to the last.
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Piracy – Resurgence of piracy on tsunami-hit seas
BBC – After a period of relative quiet following December’s tsunami, maritime piracy appears to be re-emerging in Asia and is sparking concerns about a potential terrorist attack.
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US Navy – Navy Cyber Cafes Help Keep Many in Touch
Associated Press – Since the Navy began setting up ”Internet cafes” for soldiers overseas to keep in touch with their loved ones, almost 200 of the high-tech tents have sprung up in war zones.
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US Marines – Article Prompts Marines to Recall Vests
Associated Press – The Marine Corps is recalling 5,277 combat vests issued to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Djibouti after a newspaper article raised concerns that they failed a test to determine whether they could stop a bullet.
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US Marines – Three Point Sling
Marine Corps Gazette – As the 7th Marines regimental gunner, the author provides tactical advice for young Marines going into combat.
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US Marines – Marines Kill 100 Fighters In Sanctuary Near Syria
Washington Post – More than 1,000 Marines backed by Cobra helicopter gunships and F-18 jets attacked targets Monday in a region of northwestern Iraq that commanders called a sanctuary for foreign fighters. As many as 100 insurgents were killed and 10 captured in the assault near the Syrian border.
More from the Daily Telegraph – US in border battle to curb Iraq insurgency
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US Marines – Larger Special Operations Role Being Urged on Marines
Washington Post – With conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan tying up many U.S. Special Operations forces, the Pentagon has found itself short of the elite teams it typically deploys around the world for specialized combat missions and for training foreign militaries, defense officials say. To help fill the gap, the Marine Corps has stepped forward with a decision to establish a standing force of “foreign military training units” by this autumn.
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Iraq – A Little Learning
New Yorker – The Pentagon’s Douglas Feith looks back on the case for invading Iraq.
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Russian Navy – What's Wrong With Russian Submarines?
StrategyPage – When people look at the Russian Akula and Oscar-class submarines, they wonder why these vessels have not been given as much respect and praise as Western submarines like the Los Angeles, Seawolf, and Trafalgar-classes. The answers are, illuminating, and are worth keeping in mind.
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US Navy – Navy Outlines Errors Preceding Fatal Submarine Crash
New York Times – Navy investigators have found that a series of mistakes both at sea and in preparations onshore helped cause a nuclear submarine to crash into an undersea mountain in January, killing one sailor and injuring 97 others.
More from the BBC – Crew blamed for grounding US sub.
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US Marines – The Marines' flawed body armor
Marine Corps Times – The Marine Corps issued to nearly 10,000 troops body armor that government experts urged the Corps to reject after tests revealed critical, life-threatening flaws in the vests.
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NOSI - Naval Open Source Intelligence™ 
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