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Archive January 2004 - June 2004
Background - Piracy - Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to conduct joint naval patrols in the Strait of Malacca, one of the world's busiest shipping routes, to combat piracy and the threat of terrorist attacks on cargo ships.
US Marines - A look at how the Marines prepared for operations in Kosovo
Remember that starting tomorrow, NOSI will have a slightly different appearance...
Indian Navy - India starts to overhaul its Sea King helicopters in order to respond to Pakistan's new submarine threat.
Background - Piracy - As leaders of the NATO military alliance head for a summit at which new measures against shipborne terrorism will be on the agenda, there are worries that world trade may be disrupted by new anti-terror rules for ports and ships that are about to come into force
Background - NATO - What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, or Nato, really for? It's a question that has dogged the alliance ever since the ending of the Cold War.
Background - Iraq - John Keegan on what America must do in Iraq.
US Navy - Should the number of US attack submarines be decreased?
Background - Iraq - A look at what Lt. General David Petraeus is currently doing in Iraq. Petraeus, the former commander of the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Iraqi Freedom, was featured in Rick Atkinson's book entitled "In the Company of Soldiers."
Royal Marines - 40 Commando is returning to Iraq.
Royal Navy - HMS Exeter makes a port call in China.
US Navy - A key House committee sharply rebuked the Navy’s shipbuilding program on Wednesday, complaining that “continued shifting” in the service’s plans has created “confusion and frustration” in the industry and among lawmakers.
US Marines - A look at what makes a good leader.
Background - Military Strength - James F. Dunnigan ranks the world's armed services.
NOSI is taking a break and will next be updated on Monday June 28. Here are the readings for this weekend.
Background - History - John Ericsson's effect on the Royal Navy.
Background - Geopolitics - Ralph Peters writes that in the US military, the danger of accepting the traditional wisdom has become part of the traditional wisdom. Despite our lip service to creativity and innovation, we rarely pause to question fundamentals. Partly, of course, this is because officers in today’s Army or Marine Corps operate at a wartime tempo, with little leisure for reflection. Yet, even more fundamentally, deep prejudices have crept into our military—as well as into the civilian world— that obscure elementary truths. There is no better example of our unthinking embrace of an error than our rejection of the term “war of attrition.” The belief that attrition, as an objective or a result, is inherently negative is simply wrong. A soldier’s job is to kill the enemy. All else, however important it may appear at the moment, is secondary. And to kill the enemy is to attrit the enemy. All wars in which bullets—or arrows—fly are wars of attrition.
Background - Leadership - A review of the book "The Modern Prince: What Leaders Need to Know Now."
Background - Diego Garcia - Former residents of Diego Garcia are again refused the right of return to their home.
US Marines - Training pays off as Marine artillery, aviation, and sister Service fire support assets silenced Iraqi indirect fires capability.
US Army - An overview of where the US Army is headed.
US Navy - A look at the Seaglider Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.
Background - Piracy - The Strait of Malacca, through which a quarter of the world's maritime trade passes, makes a tempting target for terrorists and pirates.
Malaysian Coast Guard - Malaysia will form its own Coast Guard.
US Navy - Naval aviation lessons learned from Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Background - Empire - Niall Ferguson, the author of Colossus, laments the emasculation of American imperialism.
US Navy - The U.S. Navy has awarded a Boeing Co. subsidiary a $3.89 billion contract to develop a long-range patrol plane to replace Lockheed's P-3 Orion submarine hunter.
US Navy - Naval news from around the fleet.
US Marines - This is the second article outlining the automatic rifle assessment conducted by 2d Battalion, 7th Marines (2/7).
Background - Iran - Is Iran developing a nuclear weapons program? Whose job is it to know? How can they know? And what's to be done if the answer is yes?
Please Note - On July 1, the appearance of the articles posted daily in NOSI will change slightly for the reader. When this happens, the 30 day archive of articles on NOSI's home page will temporarily be reduced to 1 day; it will then be built back up to a 30 day archive over the next month.
The reason for this change is that it will allow NOSI to automatically generate a valid Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feed. More on what an RSS feed is and why you may find it useful when it happens.
North Korean Navy - The navies of North and South Korea communicate for the first time since the Korean War.
International Navies - The latest naval news from New Zealand, Chile, Finland, Portugal, and Greece.
Background - Geopolitics - A review of Bernard Lewis' writings on the Middle East.
US Navy - The drive to develop pilotless aircraft that can replace manned planes on the most dangerous, or the tedious, combat missions has produced some important technological advances. However, while they may be unmanned, the authority for them to release weapons is likely to remain in human hands.
US Navy - In the 1930s, Joseph Stalin undertook to build one of the world’s largest navies, a Soviet fleet of battleships and battle cruisers. He did so in the face of well known impediments and shortfalls of geography, finances, and industrial capacity and capability—and in the absence of an obvious and compelling strategic rationale. Why?
Background - US Bases - America is reducing its troop levels in Germany and South Korea, two long-time allies, and is considering repositioning other forces too. Will improved strategic flexibility come at the cost of worsening already-strained relationships?
US Navy - With its sophisticated guidance package, long range and ability to be fired from a variety of platforms, the Joint Common Missile (JCM) will give Army, Navy and Marine Corps aviation crews a powerful new weapon from the air.
Background - History - The Marines hit Saipan hard and found, for the first time in the Pacific, what combat in the cities was all about.
Background - Transformation - The purpose of the present article is to describe the consequences of overreliance on technologically advanced systems over the course of a single war.
Background - 4th Generation Warfare - William Lind reviews the 4 generations of warfare.
Background - Iraq - Thomas Ricks reflects on the casualties in Iraq.
Swedish Navy - The Swedish Navy is testing out a new ship which is believed to be the most "invisible" yet. The Royal Navy and the US Navy both have plans of their own for similarly futuristic "stealth" ships.
Royal Navy - A large naval exercise is occuring in the Atlantic.
US Marines - William Lind says the Marines are dividing into two camps - the fighting troops and the Beltway Bandits, and it will eventually lead to the end of the Marines.
US Navy - The two top contenders for a novel Navy program to buy robotic planes for ocean surveillance are offering substantially different aircraft — and operating philosophies — to earn a larger stake in the military’s market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
US Marines - An interview with the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps.
Background - Empire - Niall Ferguson reviews Why Globalization Works by Martin Wolf.
Please note that the shows mentioned yesterday on C-SPAN can be viewed live on the television or later on the Web via streaming video, for which RealPlayer is required.
Israeli Navy - Israel acquires its first cruise missile.
Royal Navy - Royal Navy experts are preparing secret designs for a new generation of multi-purpose nuclear submarines to replace Britain’s Trident fleet at the end of the next decade.
US Navy - Naval surveillance experts envision a future of broader, more persistent coverage of the oceans, faster search and localization of targets, and more lethal response, provided by a smaller force with less manpower and lower life-cycle operational and maintenance costs.
Background - Geopolitics - Thomas P.M. Barnett's latest article on our strategy in Iraq.
A Viewing List: - Booknotes on C-SPAN1 and BookTV on C-SPAN2 every weekend have at least one interesting interview with or reading by an author / historian related to their recent books related to geopolitics, world history, or military history. An outstanding resource, check their weekly programming schedules!
US Navy - At a time when the Navy is making deep cuts in uniformed personnel, the “bottom line” is not a number but a “revolutionary” concept in how the service matches its sailors to its needs, according to the chief of naval personnel.
Background - China - Interesting yearly look at the Chinese military, with a small amount of information about the Chinese Navy in it.
US Navy - An interview with Rear Adm. John M. Kelly, head of the Navy Warfare Development Command.
US Marines - In Operation Iraqi Freedom, Marine Corps aviation was integrated into a joint force as never before.
Background - - William Arkin says the truth about this administration's policies is obscured by a barrier of secrecy.
Royal Navy - The UK is interested in the Littoral Combat Ship.
US Navy - With Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF) ships at its heart, and protective strike groups at its perimeter, the sea base is envisioned as the operational corpus for U.S. tactical forces of the future. Its various parts will be bound together by the major arteries of the sea base; the logistics management systems that will make the difference between success and failure of the entire concept.
Background - Transformation - An excellent PBS documentary on transformation. It asks the question - can the US military's high tech weaponry prevail against insurgents? Read the individual interviews (especially the ones for and against transformation) and the Program Transcript.
Background - History - John Keegan on D-Day.
US Navy - More on the new "Fleet Response Plan."
Russian Navy - An important, troubling, and unresolved legacy of the Cold War is the remaining stock of nonstrategic tactical nuclear weapons, many of them obsolete—a complex matter beyond the reach of traditional arms control or cooperative threat reduction, and that Russia, with the predominance of such weapons, is particularly reluctant to address. The West can reduce the threat in a free market manner: by simply buying Russia’s excess weapons and disposing of them.
Background - Geopolitics - Thomas P.M Barnett interviewed on CSPAN this week. Watch the program or read the transcript.
Israeli Navy - Israel wants to procure an amphibious assault vessel.
US Navy - The US navy is planning an unusual task force deployment off the West African coast.
US Marines - The Marines prepare to pull out of Haiti.
Background - Geopolitics - Thomas P.M. Barnett feels that we should encourage Russia, China, and India to join us as allies in Iraq...
Background - History - "The title of my paper is a 'Trinity’ of sorts—"John Ericsson", "the Monitors", and "Union Naval Strategy"—and each element is part of, a consequence of, the other. It is inappropriate to discuss Ericsson in any symposium without addressing his most notable, if not crucial invention (arguably), the ironclad U.S.S. Monitor; impossible to make note of that particular warship and her follow-ons without acknowledging Ericsson’s central role in their construction; and altogether bad history to explore the naval strategy of the Union during the great American Civil War of 1861-1865 without stressing the utter reliance of the United States and its Navy upon both the monitors and Ericsson—upon its front-line fleet of ironclads, and one man."
Background - History - A look at the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.
Background - Foreign Policy - Sandy Berger says that by stressing unilateralism over cooperation, preemption over prevention, and firepower over staying power, the Bush administration has alienated the United States' natural allies and disengaged from many of the world's most pressing problems. To restore U.S. global standing--which is essential in checking the spread of lethal weapons and winning the war on terrorism--the next Democratic president must recognize the obvious: that means are as important as ends.
US Navy - The lack of "connectors" — aircraft and ships — to ferry troops and supplies from the sea base to tactical units ashore is one of the biggest gaps in the Navy’s sea basing concept.
Background - 4th Generation Warfare - William Lind looks at Psychological Operations and 4th Generation Warfare.
Background - Geopolitics - Another interview with Thomas P.M. Barnett.
US Navy - The carrier Harry S. Truman sailed Wednesday in a test of the Navy's ability to have seven of its 12 carriers away from port simultaneously, a major shift from the way carriers have traditionally been used.
A second Norfolk-based carrier, the Enterprise, was expected to leave Thursday to participate in the exercise, dubbed "Summer Pulse 04."
US Navy - Sea basing is built upon jointness.
US Marines - Sometimes logic dictates that we change the way we’re conducting day-to-day business. Here the author recommends that the Marine Corps hire civilians to manage on-base businesses.
Background - Intelligence - An interesting look at how to apply John Boyd's OODA loop to intelligence.
Background - Geopolitics - More on Thomas P.M. Barnett and his theories.
Please note: - The address http://nosi.org now points to this site!
Singaporean Navy - What role will the US play in assisting in patroling the Strait of Malacca?
US Navy - Our adversaries in the global war on terrorism will not fight us at sea or in the air or on traditional naval terms. They will intermingle with innocent civilians and continue to choose symbolic soft targets. “Sea Power 21” is the wrong strategy for the times.
US Navy - Ten days to the next world hot spot. That goal sums up a vision of the future shared by Navy and Marine Corps officials who intend to revolutionize the way the United States manages its forces, plans its operations and projects power ashore.
Background - History - John Keegan on how modern media excel at ignoring the lessons of history.
Background - Geopolitics - Thomas P.M. Barnett's first article, describing his strategy for fighting the war on terror. A landmark article, in my estimation, that attempts to replace the Cold War global strategy of containment with a War on Terror global strategy of connectivity and globalization.
US Navy - At look at the latest gadgets from the Office of Naval Research.
Background - Geopolitics - An introductory look at Thomas P.M. Barnett, who has developed an interesting strategy on how to fight and win the war on terror. We will be looking at his work in depth this week.
Background - Iraq - Thomas Ricks compares the war in Iraq to other US wars.
Background - Intelligence - An interesting look at how hard it is to report on intelligence matters, in this case the intelligence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Gives perspective to the difficulty of reporting intelligence issues in the press.
Background - History - The big-gun battleships softened the German defenses and made for dramatic newsreel footage 60 years ago. But the spunky destroyers in the Normandy Invasion came within less than 1,000 yards from the shore, providing direct gunfire support for troops on the beach.
Background - History - The Navy had an obvious role in the June 6, 1944, D-Day landings 60 years ago in Normandy, France, by performing the pre-invasion shore bombardment, follow-on gunfire support, plus transporting and landing many of the Army troops who stormed ashore. Less known are the heroics of Navy Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs) that preceded the invasion force to disable obstacles planted along the French coastline.
US Navy - Newly available Russian sources suggest that the superpower naval confrontation during and immediately after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War was more dangerous than has been generally appreciated, and that the Soviet Navy had made remarkable progress in correcting the deficiencies revealed in the Cuban missile crisis only a decade before. The episode is a cautionary case study for the U.S. Navy, which today has another “upstart” navy to consider.
NOSI will next be updated on Tuesday June 1. See you then!
US Navy - The USS Ronald Reagan sails for its new homeport in San Diego.
US Navy - Naval news from around the fleet.
Background - Iraq - Fascinating analysis of the current situation in Iraq.
US Navy - An interview with Vice Adm. Gary Roughead who commands U.S. Second Fleet and NATO Striking Fleet Atlantic, and is responsible for executing the fleet readiness program (FRP), a major restructuring of the Navy’s maintenance, training, scheduling and deployment processes to create a fleet that can more quickly surge to world trouble spots and is employable for more sea days each year.
US Marines - The relationship between the lethality of weapons and the dispersion of the troops found on the same battlefield has been a consideration for commanders since man first engaged in combat. From the Spartan phalanx to German stormtroop operations, combat leaders have been forced to adjust their tactics to the technology of the day. The dispersion of the troops has always been a critical aspect of the tactics employed. As the lethality of weapons has increased so has the dispersion necessary to preserve combat power.
International Navies - The latest naval news from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Yemen, Ecuador, Malta and the Phillipines.
Background - Iraq - William Lind says the US military needs to start planning an orderly withdrawal from Iraq.
Background - Iraq - Niall Ferguson on why America is such an inept empire.
Background - Iraq - Transcript of yesterday's 60 Minutes interview with General Zinni.
Indian Navy - India makes a port of call visit to Israel.
US Navy - What is entailed in guarding US cargo ships at the Kuwaiti port of Port Ash Shuayba.
US Navy - The USS John C. Stennis battlegroup heads to the Persian Gulf.
US Navy - The USS Belleau Wood expeditionary strike group is about to head to the Gulf.
US Navy - On May 29, a powerful new surface combatant will be commissioned and join the U.S. Pacific Fleet. It is outfitted with new radar designed to detect and track deadly sea-skimming missiles in cluttered, near-shore environments. It also will carry the first integrated unmanned surface vehicle of its kind in the surface Navy. And its cutting-edge combat system will harness the horsepower of commercial computer processors.
US Marines - Since we live in a less than perfect world, sometimes it pays to learn from others’ admitted mistakes.
US Coast Guard - The Coast Guard is four years away from fielding its first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), one that promises to revolutionize the way it patrols the seas. The swift new UAV will enable a Coast Guard cutter to exponentially increase the ocean area it can search.
US Coast Guard - The year 2003 was a watershed for today’s Coast Guard. The Coast Guard’s roles as a military service, as a federal law-enforcement agency, as a regulatory authority, and as a member of the new Department of Homeland Security place it squarely at the center of national initiatives to reduce security risks to our nation.
Background - Iraq - Following up on remarks given to the board and staff of Center for Defense Information, Gen. Zinni candidly went on the record in a question and answer session. He discussed the current state of affairs in Iraq and potential solutions to the ever-growing quagmire.
US Navy - In late September and early October, two experimental vehicles will come together — probably at the Navy’s test ranges off Southern California — for a series of demonstrations that will comprise a snapshot of the fast, highly automated platforms indicative of what Navy senior officials envision for the 21st century.
Background - History - "As far as I know, the guns at Filipstad are the only ones of their kind left in the world today. And what guns they are. Two 15-inch, cast-iron, muzzle-loaded smoothbores—"Dahlgrens"—each weighing some 42,000 pounds (21 tons) and capable of firing a 450-pound solid shot. They were the terror of the American Civil War. So what are these mammoth specimens doing in Filipstad, Värmland, in rural Sweden?"
Background - Afghanistan - An analysis of some of the possible policies for the US to pursue in Afghanistan.
French Navy - France rescues a stricken ferry off the Ivory Coast.
US Navy - Now that the Shadow, Dragon Eye and Global Hawk have proved in Iraq how much unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can contribute to the fight, the question for the Navy is how the different services can use them to contribute to each other.
US Marines - Joint Close Air Support training should be transformed to correct procedural deficiencies.
US Navy - The USS Kitty Hawk is patroling off of Taiwan.
US Coast Guard - The Coast Guard’s intelligence branch is undergoing an unprecedented expansion as it aims to solidify its role in the national intelligence arena.
US Marines - The Joint National Training Capability will provide new training venues.
Pakistani Navy - Pakistan will buy 4 frigates from China.
German Navy - The European shipbuilding industry begins to consolidate.
US Marines - The violence at al Fallujah, Iraq, which in April drew the 1st Marine Division into a deadly street fight, highlighted weaknesses in the U.S. and coalition forces’ intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities for supporting urban operations.
US Navy - An address by former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman at the U.S. Naval Institute 130th Annual Meeting and Annapolis Naval History Symposium in 2004.
Background - Iraq - An excellent article on a possible exit strategy for Iraq by Peter W. Galbraith, the current US Ambassador to Croatia. According to Thomas Ricks, this is being widely circulated in the US military.
US Navy - With the pilots aboard the USS George Washington, in the Persian Gulf.
US Navy - When the U.S. Navy’s first integrated power system (IPS)/electric drive warship arrives in 2011 as the DD(X), the service will mark a technological breakthrough that not only signals a new era for naval engineering, but provides huge amounts of electrical power for uses once considered fanciful, such as free electron lasers, high-powered microwaves and electromagnetic rail guns.
Background - Intelligence - A brief course that is based on Naval Doctrine Publication 2 - Naval Intelligence. It addresses the broad scope of Naval Intelligence, the definition, purpose, fundamentals, intelligence cycle, coordination, training, and readiness to meet future challenges and support to operating forces. It describes the ways Naval Intelligence supports military planning for routine peacetime operations, operations other than war and combat, and identifies specific challenges for Naval Intelligence in the future.
US Marines - When Marines prepared to jump off in the initial attack against Saddam’s forces in miserable weather last year, the Corps’ leadership knew they had a problem. It was not the hail, driving rain or Iraqi bayonets that concerned them. It was logistics.
Background - Iraq - Seymour Hersh states that the roots of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal lie not in the criminal inclinations of a few Army reservists but in a decision, approved last year by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to expand a highly secret operation, which had been focussed on the hunt for Al Qaeda, to the interrogation of prisoners in Iraq. Rumsfeld’s decision embittered the American intelligence community, damaged the effectiveness of elite combat units, and hurt America’s prospects in the war on terror.
Background - Iraq - Former commander in chief of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Zinni, outlines a 10-point critique of the vital mistakes the United States made leading up to and during the war in Iraq. A brilliant and insightful analysis by someone with impeccable credentials...
Royal Navy - The Joint Strike Fighter is overweight - which has severe implications for the Royal Navy.
US Navy - The Navy's air-to-air refueling needs are not being met by the Air Force.
US Navy - Do small navies have a role to play in network-centric warfare?
Background - Iraq - Will moderate Iraqis embrace democracy—or Islamist radicalism?
US Coast Guard - The Coast Guard is reorganizing its command chain at the nation’s largest ports to ensure that a single commander is responsible for all missions and operations in the area.
Background - Immigration - Another look at the new book by Samuel Huntington entitled "Who Are We?"
Background - History - This little-known leatherneck expert in Arab culture and language made significant contributions to Corps and country, both in uniform and out.
Background - History - A look at communications during the Age of Sail.
US Navy - The US now can board over half the world's merchant vessels at sea.
US Coast Guard - Enforcement powers remain murky as port security duties add to service’s mission
US Marines - An overview of the Marine Corps University.
Background - Geopolitics - An indepth analysis of Samuel Huntington's new book, titled "Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity", and how it relates to his previous book, "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order."
Royal Navy - The UK surface fleet is to lose 20% of its ships.
US Coast Guard - The latest on the Deepwater Program.
Background - Iraq - Seymour Hersh looks at what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison, and how it is related to the flaws in the American war plan.
US Navy - A missing unmanned submarine that eluded the U.S. Navy for a week was found Tuesday by a man strolling along a beach in western Norway.
US Navy - Another way for the Navy to save money - use civilians instead of sailors to man its ships.
US Coast Guard - An interview with the program director of the Deepwater Program.
US Navy - Expeditionary Strike Groups are exiled in the Far East, in the author's opinion.
US Navy - Pacific Command has undertaken one of the most ambitious and complicated ventures in the war on terrorism as it seeks to prevent seaborne terrorist and criminal assaults on nations bordering the Pacific and Indian oceans.
German Navy - A German submarine is ensnared by a fishing trawler.
US Marines - The latest on the MV-22 Osprey program.
US Marines - An interview with the Commandant of the Marine Corps.
Background - Iraq - Thomas Ricks writes how senior US officers feel they may be winning battles but losing the war...the beginning of a revolt of the generals?
US Navy - A look at what the Aerial Common Sensor program will mean to the Navy.
US Marines - Here are the Marines' Small Wars Manuals, in 1940 and 2003 editions. Each is in PDF format.
US Marines - The Marines are now conducting operations inside Afghanistan.
US Navy - An indepth discussion of the Littoral Combat Ship.
US Navy - "Where," it has been asked, "is the theory of space power? Where is the Mahan for the final frontier?" Both can be found in the past. The theory of space power is implicit in thinking about the maritime environment, and its exemplar is the early-twentieth-century theorist Sir Julian Corbett.
Chinese Navy - A look at the Chinese Navy's new fast attack craft.
US Navy - James F. Dunnigan explains what went wrong about the USS John F. Kennedy.
US Navy - The latest naval news from around the fleet.
Background - History - On Christmas Day 1914, an audacious British air attack on a Zeppelin base in northern Germany caught the Germans with their defenses down.
Background - History - From politics to intoxication, naval terminology has filtered into every area of modern discourse. The nautical roots of such common phrases as “clear the deck,” “took the wind out of my sails” and “when my ship comes in” are obvious. However, the impact of naval life runs far deeper than a few salty terms.
Background - Terrorism - Another look at terrorism's origins.
US Marines - The 11th and 24th Marine Expeditionary Units will head to Iraq this summer.
US Navy - We have brushed aside battlefield resolution and action and allowed images of victimization to take their place.
International Navies - The latest naval news from the UK, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, India, and Australia.
Background - Iraq - James F. Dunnigan debunks some of the myths of Iraq.
Background - Islam - Bernard Lewis talks about his seventy years spent studying the Middle East—and his thoughts on the region's future
NOSI will next be updated on Saturday. See you then!
US Navy - Another way to look at how the Navy and the whales can coexist in peace.
US Marines - This is the third of a three-part series on security and stabilization operations (SASO) during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
US Marines - James F. Dunningan on the importance of snipers in urban combat.
Background - Iraq - William Lind on how the US may be finally making some wise choices in Iraq.
Background - Iraq - Niall Ferguson consels patience in Iraq.
US Marines - The situation in Fallujah is not working out right...
US Navy - Opposition grows to a proposed new Navy fighter field in North Carolina.
International Navies - The latest naval news from Iraq, Chile, India, the UK, and China.
Background - Terrorism - Michael Ignatieff on what it will cost us to succeed in the war on terror.
US Navy - The USS Boxer returns from a deployment to the Persian Gulf.
US Marines - The Marines are about to deploy a new Unmanned Aerial Vehicle in Iraq, the Silver Fox.
US Marines - The latest from Fallujah.
US Navy - Naval news from around the defense industry.
US Navy - It has been, since Vietnam, conventional wisdom that the American public will not accept military casualties. There is, however, no evidence that the public is intrinsically casualty averse. It is a myth that distorts policy making and execution, and it is a issue that in itself has no place in professional military advice and judgment.
Chinese Navy China makes an unusual port call in Hong Kong.
US Marines - The Marines pull back from Fallujah.
US Navy - American commanders expect that the Arab terrorists or Iraqi insurgents behind Saturday’s unsuccessful suicide attacks on offshore Iraqi oil facilities will attempt more such boat bombings in the coming weeks.
US Navy - Naval news from around the fleet.
Background - History - With Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship dead in the water, the British had apparently won the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie. But then the quick-thinking American commander turned the tables and snatched an astounding victory in the bloodiest naval fight of the War of 1812.
Background - American Empire - From Washington to Baghdad, the debate over American empire is back. Five new books weigh in, some celebrating the imperial project as the last best hope of humankind, others attacking it as cause for worry. What they all fail to understand is that U.S. power is neither as great as most claim nor as dangerous as others fear.
Royal Navy - The crew of HMS Trafalgar are cleared of mutiny.
US Marines - A complete change of plan for the Marines - advocating the development of an Iraqi militia to take over in Fallujah. Taking a page from the "Small Wars" Manual?
US Marines - The authors offer recommendations that will improve coordination between training and education organizations within the Marine Corps with the goal of creating a more efficient training system.
US Navy - Naval news from around the fleet.
US Marines - The latest in Fallujah.
US Navy - An interview with Rear Adm. Mark P. Fitzgerald, director of air warfare for the chief of naval operations.
Background - Iraq - An insightful look at the genesis and course of the uprising in Iraq.
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Wednesday, April 28, 2004
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Royal Navy - Some of the submarine HMS Trafalgar's crew lose confidence in her.
US Marines - With the Marines in Fallujah.
US Navy - A recent symposium spanning 25 sometimes turbulent years of integrating women into the fleet.
US Navy - Satellite communications capability — critical to network centric operations — has become the dominant feature of the U.S. Navy’s involvement in space, and despite the anticipated delay of a key program, the service is committed to its missions in this arena.
Background - Iraq - William Lind on why we always seem to make the wrong decision in Iraq.
US Marines - With the Marines inside Fallujah.
US Navy - The US will change how it guards Iraqi oil terminals from terrorist suicide attacks.
US Navy - In September 2005, a little-known engineering office in Crystal City, Va., will deliver to the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Washington, D.C., a computer model known as Configuration 05. If successful, this new computer model will enable the Navy to take several giant steps forward in its years-long quest to fully implement the theory of network centric warfare.
Please Note: Do not use the address nosi.org when trying to access NOSI. Make sure to use www.nosi.org. This is a technical glitch we are still working on fixing.
Indian Navy - India restores the Cross of St. George to its emblem.
Royal Australian Navy - Australia is helping US Navy survivors of a suicide bomb attack that occured during the boarding of a dhow.
US Marines - The Marines decide not to invade Fallujah with an all out assault.
US Navy - Seaswap is having a huge effect on the Navy. The Navy’s top leadership has decided to pursue radical changes in the size and shape of its forces, likely resulting in the service’s shrinking by “thousands of sailors” and scaling back plans to add a substantial number of ships in the next few year.
US Navy - The Navy moves forward to implement the seabasing concept.
US Marines - Progressive reconstruction of target nations must be added to the Marines' concept of Expeditionary Maneuver Warfare.
US Marines - Marines are convinced future battlefields will be just as chaotic and unpredictable as past conflicts, and perhaps even more so. And Corps officials say this “fog of war” calls for a flexible net centricity that will adapt to various command styles and allow a commander to either continue the march or change his approach as the situation dictates.
Background - Iraq - The last excerpt from Bob Woodward's book, "Plan of Attack."
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
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Finally! - NOSI has been successfully transferred to its new hosting service. We should no longer experience any server outages (knock wood!).
Here is a catchup of all news items from April 3 until today. Many very interesting items, please take your time going through them. The big news item while we were down were the battles in Iraq, particularly in Fallujah, and will cover those going forward from here.
I will not have Internet access for the next few days, so NOSI will next be updated on Monday, April 26, and we will be back to our usual daily update schedule at that time. See you then!
First - Here are the news items from April 3 to April 6, which many of you missed during the server outages.
Malaysian Navy - Malaysia has rejected a proposal that the United States help patrol the Straits of Malacca.
US Navy - An introduction to network centric warfare.
US Navy - To learn where military research is going, ask DARPA. Here are a number of lectures from their most recent Symposium. In the naval sphere, they are focused on the littorals...
South Korean Navy - South Korea will host a submarine rescue exercise later this month.
US Coast Guard - The U.S. Coast Guard later this month will review recommendations from industry on the pros and cons of renovating 49 110-foot Island-class patrol boats — workhorses of the fleet — or curtailing that effort by buying in early on a new class of fast-response cutters.
US Navy - Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Vern Clark has directed his admirals to "develop a culture of improved productivity and find the resources to create the Navy of the future."
US Navy - The extraction of lucrative natural resources is increasingly, in several regions of the world, a source of violence-conflicts in which transnational corporations are frequently complicit but that they are also typically best positioned to resolve. While theoretical analysis of natural-resource- related violence is not yet mature, there are strong reasons for the U.S. armed forces and their civilian leadership to be cautious about intervening in such conflicts.
Canadian Navy - Canada's Aurora maritime patrol aircraft are being upgraded.
US Navy - More details on the sea-based US missile shield being built off of Korea.
US Marines - so much for the 1 MEF's "go soft" approach to the Sunni Triangle...
US Navy - The US Navy is having its role in maritime security clarified.
US Navy - An interview with the Chief of Naval Research, Admiral Jay Cohen.
Background - History - A team reveals the story of the steam yacht Fox on its mission from Britain to determine the fate of an 1845 quest to find the Northwest Passage. Under the command of Captain Francis Leopold McClintock the ship's crew found evidence of how Captain Sir John Franklin and his expedition spent their final days.
Background - Taiwan - George W. Bush was right to rebuke Taiwan's president over his plans for a referendum on relations with China. Administration critics assume that democracy and independence are inseparable, that the "one China" principle is no longer useful, and that China would never go to war over Taiwan. But they are wrong on all three counts and fail to appreciate the dangers that may lie ahead.
Second - Here are the news items from April 7 until today.
Royal Navy - The submarines HMS Tireless and USS Hampton meet at the North Pole for a game of football.
Pakistani Navy - Pakistan will join the international task force in the Arabian Sea, searching for terrorists.
US Marines - The Marines are working hard at stopping terrorists from entering into Iraq from Syria.
US Navy - A close-up look at the HSV 2 Swift's cutting-edge systems
US Navy - The Navy starts to retire its S-3 Vikings.
US Navy - The US opens a new antisubmarine command.
US Navy - The homeport for the USS John F. Kennedy will remain in Mayport, Florida.
US Navy - Never before has such a large quantity and broad scope of information been available instantaneously to the warfare commander. The impact of this fact cannot be overstated; it is transforming the way we conduct war.
US Marines - This is Part II of a three-part series concerning Phase IV—security and stabilization operations—during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Background - 4th Generation Warfare - William Lind attempts to develop a grand strategy of 4th Generation Warfare.
Background - Afghanistan - Seymour Hersh on the Bush Administration’s unfinished business in Afghanistan, and how Afghanistan is turning into a quagmire for the US.
Background - History - A look at how a very small RAF force defended their airbase and utterly defeated the Iraqi army in 1941.
Background - Iraq - Historian Niall Ferguson draws parallels between the US occpuation of Iraq today and the UK occupation of Iraq in the 1920's. The similarities are fascinating...
Background - Iraq - The US Army War College's plan for post-war Iraq, done in the fall of 2002 and published in February 2003. Would post-war Iraq be a different place if this study of history had not been ignored?
Background - Iraq - The US Army War College goes on to criticize the plan for the US invasion of Iraq.
Background - Iraq - An interesting look at the Shias inside Iraq. The son of a famous Shiite family says that if elected, he can run Iraq.
Background - Peacekeeping - What happens when the shooting stops is one of the greatest challenges of our time, and the people who build nations, despite recent setbacks in Haiti and Kosovo, are convinced that peacekeeping can work.
Background - Environment - A Pentagon report claims that climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.
Background - Korea - U.S. war plans for the Korean peninsula are being rewritten to better reflect new and more capable equipment the U.S. and its South Korean ally are fielding.
Background - Body Armor - Robert Kaplan explains that body armor is a must in some lines of work, and it gives "fashion plate" a whole new meaning
Background - Iraq - First excerpt from Bob Woodward's new book on the War in Iraq entitled "Plan of Attack." Woodward describes the Cheney-Powell split over war with Iraq.
Background - Iraq - The second except from Bob Woodward's book "Plan of Attack." The CIA's estimate of Saddam Hussein's Arsenal Became the White House's Rationale for Invasion
Background - Iraq - Third excerpt from Bob Woodward's new book, which details the tension between the Vice President and Secretary of State Powell.
Background - Iraq - The fourth excerpt from Bob Woodward's new book, in which Britain's backing meant Bush didn't have to go it alone.
Third - Here are the background articles for this weekend.
Background - History - During the March 28, 1941, Battle of Cape Matapan, British Admiral Andrew B. Cunningham decided once and for all who would be master of the Mediterranean.
Background - History - The Navy currently is developing the Littoral Combat Ship to meet its requirement for a craft that can travel at high speed, have a minimal draft to operate within the littoral, evade minefields, and deliver fire to destroy enemy targets. The origins of this radical new multimission ship, however, date back to an initial — and equally radical — attempt to meet those same requirements during World War I.
Background - Russia - Conventional wisdom in the West says that post-Cold War Russia has been a disastrous failure. The facts say otherwise. Aspects of Russia's performance over the last decade may have been disappointing, but the notion that the country has gone through an economic cataclysm and political relapse is wrong--more a comment on overblown expectations than on Russia's actual experience. Compared to other countries at a similar level of economic and political development, Russia looks more the norm than the exception.
US Navy - Gilbert and Sullivan's fictitious Major General Stanley would have had little or no opportunity for formal professional military development. The U.S. military has evolved senior service colleges, including the U.S. Army War College, at which that nineteenth-century "modern major general" would find no place. These colleges must sustain their vital role in educating officers to meet the challenges of the emerging and future world.
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Wednesday, April 14, 2004
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NOSI Update - Last week, NOSI's Web hosting service suffered a service outage. At that time I decided to finally transfer NOSI to a new hosting service, which would use its address http://www.nosi.org. There have been some technical problems transferring NOSI to this new hosting service, but they hope to have the bugs ironed very soon. Stay tuned for details, and I apologize for the problems and appreciate your patience...
French Navy - The aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is exercising in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean.
Royal Navy - The cuts run even deeper - there will be no Harrier aircraft to fly off of HMS Ark Royal.
US Navy - How will the US get permission to base a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan?
US Navy - The latest naval news from around the fleet.
Royal Navy - The UK will withdraw HMS Invincible and HMS Illustrious from service.
US Marines - A look at the Marine's activities in Fallujah to date.
US Marines - The Marines have landed in Afghanistan.
US Navy - The USS Bataan returns to port after a deployment to the Gulf.
Background - Iraq - An excellent overview of the war with Iraq, at its one year anniversary.
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Wednesday, March 31, 2004
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US Navy - More details on the "Sea Swap" program.
International Navies - The latest naval news from England, Australia,, India, Pakistan, Canada, Finland, UAE, and Greece.
US Navy - The Sea Swap test, an experiment in dual-crewing of surface ships, continues successfully.
US Marines - Rarely in a career do we get the opportunity to challenge ourselves in a foreign education environment. The authors take us on the fabulous journey in store for prospective students at the French Joint Defense College.
Military Sealift Command - Transporting Army equipment to and from Kuwait aboard USNS Gordon.
US Navy - The U.S. Navy’s top fleet leader, Adm. William J. Fallon, commander of the Norfolk, Va.-based U.S. Fleet Forces Command, wants to strengthen the input of operational forces with a fundamental shift in how the Navy identifies requirements for resources, equipment, manpower, and training programs.
Royal Navy - The first Sea Harrier squadron disbands soon.
Chilean Navy - Chile will purchase frigates from Holland.
US Navy - For a decade, the media has been rife with apparent evidence that the People’s Liberation Army Navy wishes to operate an aircraft carrier. However, the aircraft carrier today has no champion in the Chinese navy. Strategic priorities, costs, technical difficulties, and the likely reaction of neighboring countries all now argue against a Chinese carrier battle group. However, the PLAN has not abandoned the idea altogether—merely shelved it.
Background - Iraq - William Lind documents how the US has entered into a 4GW conflict in Iraq.
NATO - A look at how NATO forces will help guard the Olympics.
US Navy - More about the problems with the Navy Marine Corps Intranet.
US Navy - Navy news from around the defense industry.
Background - History - The "Qualifications of a Naval Officer" quotation variously attributed to John Paul Jones and force-fed to U.S. Naval Academy midshipmen in the publication Reef Points presents a clear sign of naval transformation at the turn of the 20th century. The action of a recent Commandant of Midshipmen, however, officially acknowledges that Jones had nothing to do with this 100-year-old mantra.
Background - Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia is in the throes of a crisis, but its elite is bitterly divided on how to escape it. Crown Prince Abdullah leads a camp of liberal reformers seeking rapprochement with the West, while Prince Nayef, the interior minister, sides with an anti-American Wahhabi religious establishment that has much in common with al Qaeda. Abdullah cuts a higher profile abroad -- but at home Nayef casts a longer and darker shadow.
US Marines - Marines from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, aboard the USS Wasp Expeditionary Strike Group in the Gulf, will soon go ashore in Afghanistan to join the search for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.
Canadian Navy - Canada will do more to enforce its sovereignty over its northern territories.
US Navy - More on the Littoral Combat Ship.
Background - Port Security - How the US is trying to push its borders back to prevent seaborne terrorism.
Background - Operations Other Than War - The U.S. occupation of Iraq is a debacle not because the government did no planning but because a vast amount of expert planning was willfully ignored by the people in charge. The inside story of a historic failure by James Fallows.
US Marines - The Marines take over in Fallujah.
US Marines - Contrary to a recent preliminary U.S. Army War College study that downgraded the importance of speed in Operation Iraqi Freedom last year, the Marine Corps strongly believes that speed was absolutely essential in the rout of Saddam Hussein’s forces.
Background - Iraq - This piece is the first in a series of periodic Inside the Command Center articles on the 2003 war in Iraq. The author spent six weeks of the war as an “embedded reporter” at the Coalition Force Land Component Command headquarters at Camp Doha, Kuwait.
Background - Wargames - James F. Dunningan on what can be learned from wargaming the war with Iraq?
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Wednesday, March 24, 2004
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Russian Navy - The flagship of Russia's Northern Fleet - the cruiser Peter the Great - has been ordered back to port as it is said to be too dangerous to be at sea.
Russian Navy - The decline of Russia's armed services has been unmistakeable for more than a decade, but it is the crisis in the navy that has been most conspicuous of all.
Argentinian Navy - Argentina is accused of interferring in the Falkland's economic zone.
US Navy - There are nagging doubts about the ability of the U.S. naval shipbuilding and repair industry to meet the demands of the century ahead. Some elements—primarily those associated with small boats and high-speed ferries and the offshore oil and barge industries—are faring well, but the future is far less sanguine for many of the larger yards and their subcontractors.
Background - Spain - William Lind looks at one of history’s shortest and most successful strategic bombing campaigns.
US Navy - The US plans to permanently station an Aegis destroyer in the Sea of Japan as part of its ballist missile defense shield.
US Navy - An IT analysis of the disaster the Navy Marine Corps Intranet has become.
US Navy - Many critics in Washington predicted more than a year ago that the realignment of the Navy’s integrated warfare systems (IWS) under one acquisition umbrella would not last because its size and complexity would pose impassable barriers to success. Today, Rear Adm. Charles T. Bush, the program executive officer in charge of IWS, offers this news: programs have been tightened, support costs are down, and open architecture — the conversion of the service’s diverse information system protocols into a universal network — is becoming reality.
Bangladeshi Navy - Bangladesh will increase the size of its navy.
US Marines - Our Nation has become so dependent on spectrum-based services that it would be difficult to win a war without them.
Background - Warplanning - William Arkin looks at the current state of warplanning in the Pentagon.
Background - Afghanistan - An interesting look at the current state of affairs in Afghanistan, followed by a Question and Answer session with the author.
Royal Navy - Aboard a Royal Navy frigate in the Gulf, hunting Al-Qaeda.
US Navy - Is the title of the Secretary of the Navy about to change?
US Navy - After delays of about two years and significant cost overruns, the Navy considers the new LPD 17 amphibious transport dock ship to be on schedule now, with the first of 12 ships set for delivery early in the next fiscal year.
US Navy - The world order anchored by the U.S.-German relationship has integrated Germany into Europe without more bloodshed, brought the transformation of communist Europe, and visited prosperity on a part of the world that could easily have been embroiled in strife. That world order, however, is being severely eroded by misunderstanding and rhetoric on all sides. A statecraft is needed that comprehends the nature of military power and what a given country can and cannot do to defend itself.
Background - Bases - George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld have pledged to change the way America's armed forces are distributed around the globe. What do they have in mind?
Chinese Navy - A look at how and why the Chinese Navy is increasing in size.
US Marines - Patroling at night in Port-au-Prince with the Marines.
US Navy - Aboard the USS George Washington in the Persian Gulf.
US Navy - Naval lessons learned from Iraq.
Background - Iraq - John Keegan looks back on the invasion of Iraq, one year later.
Background - Iraq - A look at how 4th Generation Warfare is being conducted in Iraq.
Background - History - The paths of two powerful men crossed in the early 1920s, and their actions shaped the future of the Navy and Marine Corps.
Background - War on Terror - The Bush administration has literalized its "war" on terrorism, dissolving the legal boundaries between what a government can do in peacetime and what's allowed in war. This move may have made it easier for Washington to detain or kill suspects, but it has also threatened basic due process rights, thereby endangering us all.
Nigerian Navy - Nigeria sends a ship to patrol off of Equitorial Guinea.
Canadian Navy - Canada's commando force, JTF-2, prepares for naval missions.
Chinese Navy - Is China building several aircraft carriers, to a modified Admiral Gorshkov design?
US Navy - In 2004, the Navy is poised at an important juncture, with its forces having been restructured following Operation Iraqi Freedom, and its leadership executing new plans for how the fleet will organize and deploy in support of the ongoing global war on terrorism. The transformation under way calls for enhanced capabilities and the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) is building the platforms that will redefine the fleet well into the next century.
Russian Navy - Russia successfully test fires a submarine launched intercontinental ballistic missile.
NATO - NATO widens its antiterrorism patrols to the entire Mediterranean Sea.
Background - Geopolitics - Meet Colonel Tom Wilhelm, one of a new breed of soldier-diplomats that has come into being since the end of the Cold War. An essay by Robert D. Kaplan
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Wednesday, March 17, 2004
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Royal Air Force - Nimrod maritme patrol aircraft are being used for overland surveillance in Iraq.
Royal Navy - More design changes to the Royal Navy's new carriers.
French Navy - More on the exercises between the French and Chinese navies.
US Navy - The USS Kitty Hawk battlegroup is exercising off of Korea.
US Navy - Will the 6th Fleet help provide security for the Olympic Games?
US Marines - The Marines begin nation building in Haiti.
US Marines - Mines and IEDs in expeditionary maneuver warfare environments: obstacles or nuisances? Fixing MAGTF mine countermeasures is essential.
US Navy - Are P-3 Orions operating in support of troops in Chad?
Background - Piracy - An update on piracy at sea.
Background - Taiwan - Background briefings on the current dispute in the Taiwan Strait.
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