- Washington Times – A Russian bomber recently carried out simulated cruise missile attacks on U.S. missile defenses in Asia, raising new questions about Moscow’s goal in future U.S.-Russian defense talks. According to U.S. officials, a Russian Tu-22M Backfire bomber on Feb. 26 simulated firing air-launched cruise missiles at an Aegis ship deployed near Japan as part of U.S. missile defenses.
US Navy – Radar Shove
- Aviation Week – There must be a typo. That’s the understandable first thought that could pass through anyone’s mind upon seeing the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) new cost estimates for the Navy’s proposed Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR), which is meant to combine S- and X-band radars for simultaneous and unmatched air and ballistic missile defense (BMD). The Navy plans to first put the AMDR on its DDG-51 Flight III destroyers. AMDR’s total price tag is now estimated at about $5.8 billion, compared to the $15.2 billion projected by GAO last year.
Royal Navy – UK must keep Trident nuclear deterrent – David Cameron
- BBC – The UK would be “foolish” to abandon Trident in the face of the potential threat of nuclear attack from North Korea and Iran, David Cameron has said.
Geopolitics / India – Know your own strength
- Economist – India is poised to become one of the four largest military powers in the world by the end of the decade. It needs to think about what that means.
Geopolitics / India – Can India become a great power?
- Economist – India’s lack of a strategic culture hobbles its ambition to be a force in the world
US Navy – Keeping Asian Waters Pacific
- Aviation Week – As the rhetoric boils and simmers over North Korea’s increasingly capable ballistic missiles, it might be wise to consider a thought posed recently by Vice Adm. Richard Hunt, the U.S. Navy director of staff, during an interview with Aviation Week. “Preventing conflict is as important as prevailing in conflict,” Hunt says.
Geopolitics / Jordan – The Modern King in the Arab Spring
- The Atlantic – Amid the social and political transformations reshaping the Middle East, can Jordan’s Abdullah II, the region’s most pro-American Arab leader, liberalize his kingdom, modernize its economy, and save the country from capture by Islamist radicals?
Chinese Navy – The Chinese Navy Has a Problem
- The Diplomat – Debates over China’s anti-access system of systems and its desire to pierce the successive Pacific Island chains often overlook the fact that China faces a very basic set of maritime problems. The PRC draws its most important resources from across an ocean that it cannot control, and exports most of its finished goods to overseas partners who similarly lay beyond the reach of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN). Whether or not the PLAN can deter or defeat the U.S. Navy (USN) in China’s littoral, the organization’s true test lies in its ability to secure the PRC’s critical lines of communication.
South Korean Navy – South Korea ‘deploys warships to track North missiles’
- BBC – South Korea has deployed two warships with missile-defence systems, reports say, a day after the North apparently moved a missile to its east coast.
US Navy – History’s Costliest Fleet Auxiliary
- US Naval Institute – When in doubt about grave questions, reach for the classics. What would the likes of Alfred Thayer Mahan or Julian Corbett say about the fate of the big-deck aircraft carrier or nuclear carrier (CVN)? I suspect their ghosts would voice skepticism.
Geopolitics / China – Don’t Break the China
- American Conservative – William Lind argues we need Beijing as an ally against anarchy.
US Navy – Hormuz Transits: Never Dull, Never Routine, Always Tense
- Defense News – This is definitely a place, not just a patch in the sea.
US Navy shifts destroyer in wake of North Korea missile threats
- NBC – The U.S. Navy is shifting a guided-missile destroyer in the Pacific to waters off the Korean peninsula in the wake of ongoing rhetoric from North Korea, U.S. defense officials said. The USS McCain is capable of intercepting and destroying a missile, should North Korea decide to fire one off, the officials said.
US Navy – Pivotal Needs
- Aviation Week – Tom Donilon, the nation’s security adviser, recently provided a short list of what will be important – from a military perspective – for a successful U.S. focus shift to Asia and the Pacific and it’s critical to note what he included as well as what he did not.
Chinese Navy – China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities—Background and Issues for Congress
- Congressional Research Service – The question of how the United States should respond to China’s military modernization effort, including its naval modernization effort, has emerged as a key issue in U.S. defense planning. The question is of particular importance to the U.S. Navy, because many U.S. military programs for countering improved Chinese military forces would fall within the Navy’s budget.
US Navy – Doomed US Navy Ship Removed From Philippine Reef
- AP – Workers in the southwestern Philippines have removed the last major part of the U.S. Navy minesweeper USS Guardian from a protected coral reef where it ran aground in January, and the damage will be assessed to determine the fine Washington will pay.
US Navy – Aircraft Carriers: R.I.P?
- The Diplomat – Two detailed arguments on the end of the aircraft carrier emerged earlier this month.
US Navy – Navy Will Make 2013 Its Year of the Laser Gun
- Wired – During a year of budget cuts that has the U.S. military freaking out, the Navy is improbably signaling it’ll take major steps forward on developing laser cannons.
US Navy – Admiral at Center of Inquiry Is Censured by Navy
- New York Times – The Navy on Monday officially disciplined the admiral who had commanded a carrier strike group until being abruptly removed from the position last fall while the vessels patrolled the North Arabian Sea.
US Navy – After the Aircraft Carrier: 3 Alternatives to the Navy’s Vulnerable Flattops
- Wired – The U.S. Navy’s huge, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers — capital ships that have long dominated military planning and budgeting — are slowly becoming obsolete, weighed down by escalating costs, inefficiency and vulnerability to the latest enemy weapons. But if the supercarrier is sinking, what could rise to take its place? Smaller, cheaper flattops; modified tanker ships; and missile-hauling submarines are three cheaper, more efficient and arguably more resilient options.
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