NOSI is taking a summer break and will next update on August 2nd. See you then!

2009

World Naval Operational News Highlights

The ten most significant naval news stories / themes this year included:

• The ever-increasing piracy off of Somalia and the expanding, expensive and ultimately ineffectual response to it by the world’s navies. When will some country pass a law against piracy and start prosecuting and jailing these pirates?

• The continued ascent of the Chinese Navy, with its near-official declaration of its desire for an aircraft carrier during its 60th anniversary celebrations and with even more clues emerging as to how its anti-ship ballistic missile capability will work. When will the entire system be tested?

• The continued descent of the Russian Navy, with the future credibility of its ballistic missile submarine deterrent force in question as the Bulava missile fails test after test and as the Russian fleet turns to France as a supplier of amphibious assault ships. Will the Russians have to out source all their naval procurement in the future?

• India’s continuing pursuit of a modernized aircraft carrier force with the keel laying of its first indigenously built carrier. Will it be commissioned before the refurbished carrier Admiral Gorshkov is delivered to India from Russia?

• The continuing evisceration of the Royal Navy due to retargeting of funds to fight the war in Afghanistan. Will the two new carriers be completed before the funds run out and will there be any escorts left to screen them?

• The use by Israel of its navy for signaling it’s strategic retaliatory capabilities to Iran, in the form of its Dolphin-class submarines. How many nuclear-tipped cruise missiles do they carry?

• The increase in size and importance of the US and allied (Japanese) Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) force, especially in light of the decision not to deploy ground-based ballistic missile interceptors in Eastern Europe. How can the US Navy get BMD so right and the US Army get BMD so wrong?

• The conflicting sovereignty claims in the Arctic, as Russia heats up its claims to the region. Will the Russians back their claims with force – and if so exactly what deployable forces do they have?

• The Chinese lawfare campaign to upset traditional notions of freedom of navigation in order to deny foreign warships and aircraft access to its coastal waters. Can China win this campaign solely by scholarly articles and symposia?

• The mysterious at-sea collision between the British ballistic missile submarine HMS Vanguard and its French counterpart Le Triomphant. The silence surrounding this event was deafening. What exactly is the chance of two boomers running into each other accidentally in the middle of the ocean?

NOSI’s archive from January – December 2009 is now available: January-December 2009

The War Studies Primer 2010 edition has been released with 150 new slides and updated content.

We invite you to try War Studies Primer – an introductory course on the study of war and military history.

Its purpose is to provide an introduction, or primer, to the study of war.

War Studies Primer is presented as a lecture curriculum at the university level. It is a free, non-credit, self-study course that consists of 28 lectures and over 1,400 slides and is updated on a yearly basis.

War Studies Primer is licensed for your use and reuse under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

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Please contact me with your comments and feedback about the War Studies Primer.

Sincerely,

Michael P. D’Alessandro, M.D.

Curator, War Studies Primer (http://www.warstudiesprimer.org) and Naval Open Source Intelligence (http://www.nosi.org)

I have started a new Web site, using Facebook, entitled P-8 Poseidon God of the Sea. It is dedicated to operational naval news and discussion on the P-8 Poseidon as well as the world wide VP / maritime patrol aircraft community. You are invited to give it a try.

NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on Monday August 10.

During this time, please consider visiting our related site and downloading the War Studies Primer for an introductory course on the study of war.

Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents, and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.

2008

World Naval Operational News Highlights

The ten most significant naval news stories / themes this year included:

• The increasing amount of piracy off of Somalia, and the increasingly ad-hoc response from the world’s navies. It seems the law needs to catch up with reality, and that there needs to be better coordination between the various navies in the region.

• The continued conflicting sovereignty claims in the Arctic, as global warming does its work. Can this be settled by a treaty?

• The increased emphasis on humanitarian operations by all navies. Unfortunately, this emphasis is for nought if the devastated country refuses assistance, as Burma did this year.

• The increased number of Russian Navy exercises in the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Can petrodollars help it to keep increasing its tempo of deployments?

• The slow but steady ascent of the Chinese Navy on all fronts. Most interestingly, more clues emerged this year as to how its anti-ship ballistic missile capability works.

• The use of semisubmersibles to smuggle drugs into the U.S. What countermeasures can be effectively deployed against them?

• The MV-22 Osprey’s first successful deployment in Iraq. Will it be deployed to Afghanistan in 2009?

• The shoot-down of a faulty spy satellite by a US Navy cruiser. How widely deployed is this capability in the fleet today?

• The continuing lawfare over US Navy sonar use in training and the potential harm it does to marine mammals, referred this year all the way to the Supreme Court. How closely must the US military follow environmental laws?

• The continuing crisis in quality and quantity in US Navy ship building. Do the shipbuiders have no shame?

Statistics

In 2008, there were news stories linked to on 292 / 365 days – that is on 80% of the days.

In 2008, NOSI linked to 408 news stories.

In 2008, 114 of these stories (28%) were related to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, or U.S. Military Sealift Command.

In 2008, 152 of these stories (37%) were background stories.

The remaining 142 news stories (35%) covered the operational activities of 23 nation’s navies, coast guards, and marine corps:

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Columbia, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, United Kingdom

In 2008, 189,995 pages of information were read on NOSI by 115,850 users.

NOSI’s archive from January – December 2008 is now available: January – December 2008

NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on Tuesday January 6.

During this time, please consider visiting our related site and downloading the War Studies Primer for an introductory course on the study of war.

Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents, and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.

Today NOSI has migrated from the Manila blogging platform which it has used over the last 9 years, to the more popular WordPress blogging platform.

The entire site was migrated over in an automated fashion. If you see any bugs or broken links in this new site, please take a moment to let me know.

The feature set of WordPress is quite different from Manila, and it will take me some time to find my way around this new tool. At a minimum, the appearance of each post will change a bit, and I expect more will change over time. Thank you in advance for your patience…

NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on Monday September 22.

During this time, please consider visiting our related site and downloading the War Studies Primer for an introductory course on the study of war.

Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents, and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.
more…

NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on Monday August 25th.
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NOSI is taking a summer break and will next update on July 1.

During this time, please consider visiting our related site and downloading the War Studies Primer for an introductory course on the study of war.

Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents, and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.
more…

NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on May 12.

During this time, please consider visiting our related site and downloading the War Studies Primer for an introductory course on the study of war.

Look at slides 2 and 3 in the War Studies Primer for its Table of Contents, and then choose a lecture to read and enjoy.
more…

War Studies Primer is an introductory course on the study of war: 28 lectures and over 1,250 slides.

The purpose of the War Studies Primer is to provide a primer, or introduction, to the study of war.

In its current form, the War Studies Primer is presented as a lecture curriculum for a university course that is an introduction to war studies. It is a non-credit, self-study course.

War Studies Primer was begun in 2004, is a work in progress, and will be updated on a yearly basis.

War Studies Primer is made available for your use and reuse and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Please contact me with your comments and feedback about the War Studies Primer.
more…

NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on Saturday March 29th. I apologize for posting this so late, I had intended to post it on March 14th???I will see you again on March 29th!
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NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on Monday March 3rd. See you then!
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NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on Tuesday February 19th. See you then!
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2007

World Naval Operational News Highlights

The ten most significant naval news stories / themes this year included:

• The US military’s recognition that climate change poses a security threat to the U.S. Most interesting was their recommendation that the U.S. government work to mitigate climate change.
• The Chinese anti-satellite test which showed that China has the capability to destroy satellites in low earth orbit. Could the U.S. Navy operate today without satellites?
• The Russian cyberwar waged against Estonia, which showed how wars in cyberspace will be conducted. Could the U.S. Navy have defended itself as well as the Estonians did?
• The success of the surge / Sunni Awakening in Iraq. Remember that the Sunni Awakening began in Anbar Province and was aided by the US Marines first.
• The seizure of Royal Navy personnel in the Gulf by Iran. Iran continues to take an offensive rather than defensive attitude in the Gulf.
• The growing sovereignty claims over the Northwest Passage. This year Russia planted a flag on the seabed there, the US Coast Guard opened a base there, and the Canadian Navy funded a class of arctic patrol ships intended to work there.
• The resurgence of the Russian Navy, funded by petrodollars. Long range patrol flights coupled with the first task force deployment to the Mediterranean Sea since Soviet times means the Russian Navy is (mildly) back.
• The decreasing size of the Royal Navy. Note though its two new aircraft carriers were formally funded this year.
• The deepening disaster of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Deepwater procurement program. It seems empowering contractors to oversee their own contracts was not such a great idea after all.
• The crisis in the U.S. Navy’s shipbuilding program has come to a head with the canceling of follow-on Littoral Combat Ships due to massive cost overruns. Will the U.S. Navy finally take a more hands-on approach to its shipbuilding programs to keep costs down?

Statistics

In 2007, there were news stories linked to on 275 / 365 days – that is on 75% of the days.

In 2007, NOSI linked to 428 articles covering 394 news stories.

In 2007, 118 of these stories (30%) were related to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Coast Guard, or U.S. Military Sealift Command.

In 2007, 186 of these stories (47%) were background stories and 4 stories (1%) were historical stories.

The remaining 85 news stories (22%) covered the operational activities of 19 nation’s navies, coast guards, and marine corps:

Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom

In 2007, 177,202 pages of information were read on NOSI by 106,546 users.

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The NOSI Archive for 2007 is now available here.
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