NOSI - Naval Open Source Intelligence

Royal New Zealand Navy - Protector Fleet Comes Together

Michael D'Alessandro

Defense Technology International - The New Zealand navy has just launched the third of four Inshore Patrol Vessels (IPVs), the Pukaki, marking another step in the country’s plan to field seven Protector fleet ships before year end.

Iraq - The Surge and Beyond

Michael D'Alessandro

Harvard Political Review - Former CENTCOM Commander Anthony Zinni discusses the future of Iraq and more.

Operations Other Than War - Britain Orders Warship to Deploy off Burma

Michael D'Alessandro

Irrawaddy - A British Royal Navy frigate has been ordered to stand by off Burma with emergency aid for the survivors of cyclone Nargis. The 4,900-ton HMS Westminster will join US and French warships waiting in international waters off the Burmese coast, ready to rush relief supplies to the Irrawaddy delta if instructed by the UN or invited by the Burmese regime.

Air Warfare - Air Combat by Remote Control

Michael D'Alessandro

Wall Street Journal - Another look at how the Predator is changing the way the US Air Force operates.

Operations Other Than War - US sends in first aid, awaits green light on bigger Myanmar role

Michael D'Alessandro

Associated Press - The USS Essex Amphibious Ready Group is standing by to assist cyclone-devastated Burma, all it needs is permission to begin relief operations...

US Navy - Marines, sailors prepare for possible operations in Burma.

Piracy - Captain: My 'heart sank' when pirates attacked

Michael D'Alessandro

CNN - A first person account of what it is like to be captured by pirates.

Chinese Navy - Chinese nuclear submarine base

Michael D'Alessandro

Daily Telegraph - China has secretly built a major underground nuclear submarine base that could threaten Asian countries and challenge American power in the region.

Editorial Note - NOSI on break until May 12

Michael D'Alessandro

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.

US Navy - USS Kitty Hawk makes last port call in Hong Kong

Michael D'Alessandro

Associated Press - The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk sailed into Hong Kong on Monday on its final away-from-home port call five months after being turned away by China.

US Marines - US Marines deploying in Afghanistan for first time in years

Michael D'Alessandro

Associated Press - U.S. Marines are crossing the sands of southern Afghanistan for the first time in years, providing a boost to a NATO coalition that is growing but still short on manpower.

US Navy - Lesson on How Not to Build a Navy Ship

Michael D'Alessandro

New York Times - A critical look at the troubled gestation of the Littoral Combat Ship.

US Navy - Norfolk-based destroyer Stout deemed unfit, triggering fleet review

Michael D'Alessandro

Virginian Pilot - The Navy will review maintenance and training across the surface fleet after a recent inspection found the Norfolk-based destroyer Stout unfit for sustained combat.

US Navy - What makes a Global Hawk into a BAMS?

Michael D'Alessandro

Defense Technology International - Surprisingly few airframe changes are needed to make Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk into the US Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance System, although the RQ-4N will have a different mission profile than the US Air Force's RQ-4B.

US Navy - Flight-Test Program Accelerates for U.S. Navy's E-2D

Michael D'Alessandro

Aviation Week - Within three years, the U.S. Navy's fleet will have fielded the technology for precisely locating small, flying targets. The target set embraces some of the Navy's latest nightmares, including the next-generation of stealthy - sometimes supersonic - cruise missiles.

Information Warfare - Behind Analysts, the Pentagon’s Hidden Hand

Michael D'Alessandro

New York Times - The Pentagon has cultivated "military analysts" in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the Bush administration’s wartime performance.

History - Teamwork saved stricken warship

Michael D'Alessandro

San Diego Union Tribune - A look at what saved the frigate Samuel B. Roberts when it hit an Iranian mine in the Persian Gulf 20 years ago.

Geopolitics / Venezuela - An Empty Revolution: The Unfulfilled Promises of Hugo Chávez

Michael D'Alessandro

Foreign Affairs - Even critics of Hugo Chávez tend to concede that he has made helping the poor his top priority. But in fact, Chávez's government has not done any more to fight poverty than past Venezuelan governments, and his much-heralded social programs have had little effect. A close look at the evidence reveals just how much Chávez's "revolution" has hurt Venezuela's economy -- and that the poor are hurting most of all.

Geopolitics / Asia - Robert Kaplan on the new balance of power

Michael D'Alessandro

Spero - An essay summarizing Robert Kaplan's keynote address at Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Fourth Annual Partners Brunch.

German Navy - Germany Fields Braunschweig-Class

Michael D'Alessandro

Defense Technology International - The Germany navy this week has formally put into service the K-130 Braunschweig corvette, the first of five boats in a new class.

US Navy - Taking risks

Michael D'Alessandro

Armed Forces Journal - A comparison of good risk with bad risk. Successful implementation of the new maritime strategy depends on the Navy leadership seizing the first while mitigating the latter.

US Navy - The big gamble

Michael D'Alessandro

Armed Forces Journal - A questioning of the wisdom of introducing three major new ship platforms (DDG 1000 destroyer, CVN 78 carrier and LCS) at the same time - all based on untested designs. Is this bold new thinking or reckless risk?

Geopolitics - War Plans

Michael D'Alessandro

New York Times - Niall Ferguson review's Philip Bobbitt's new book, entitled "The Wars for the Twenty-First Century."

French Navy - Where French Naval Aviation Stands Today

Michael D'Alessandro

Defense Technology International - The state of France's naval air fleet.

Royal Navy - Pirates can claim UK asylum

Michael D'Alessandro

The Times - The Royal Navy, once the scourge of brigands on the high seas, has been told by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because doing so may breach their human rights.

Geopolitics / India - Oh! Kolkata!

Michael D'Alessandro

The Atlantic - Robert Kaplan writes that Calcutta has been renamed. Now, with investment on the rise, tech companies moving in, and a growing middle class, can it be reborn?

French Navy - French commandos swoop after pirates free hostages

Michael D'Alessandro

Reuters - French commandos seized six pirates in Somalia on Friday during a daring helicopter raid launched shortly after the bandits had released the 30-strong crew of a luxury yacht hijacked last week.

French Navy - Desperately Seeking Better Quality Recruits: French Navy

Michael D'Alessandro

Defense Technology International - The French navy has to recruit 4,000 men and women annually... and it's becoming tough.

US Navy - Undersea warfare: The hidden threat

Michael D'Alessandro

Armed Forces Journal - The author points downward to a potential threat still overlooked: an attack on seabed infrastructure critical to the economy and to U.S. security.

Royal New Zealand Navy - New Zealand Shows Off its New Multi-Role Vessel

Michael D'Alessandro

Defense Technology International - HMNZS Canterbury (L 421), the Royal New Zealand Navy's brand-new multi-role vessel (MRV) amphibious transport ship, is on its first major multinational exercise.

Nuclear Warfare - A Smuggler’s Story

Michael D'Alessandro

The Atlantic - Meet Oleg Khintsagov, a small-time hustler in Russia who can get you dried fish, furs, Turkish chandeliers … and weapons-grade uranium. He’s not the only one.

The Atlantic - Uranium on the Loose - Lawrence Scott Sheets discusses the lawlessness of the former Soviet republics and the nuclear threat no one talks about..

French Navy - France is tracking hijacked yacht

Michael D'Alessandro

Angola Press - The French coastal frigate Le Commandant Bouan had been sent to monitor the luxury yacht seized, with its crew, on Friday by Somali pirates.

Associated Press - Pirates Dock French Boat in Somali Port.

US Navy - Nuclear carrier GW on voyage of diplomacy to Japan

Michael D'Alessandro

Virginian Pilot - When the George Washington ties up in Yokosuka, Japan, in August, it will become the first nuclear-powered carrier based in the only nation ever to be attacked by nuclear weapons.

Geopolitics / Nationalism - Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism

Michael D'Alessandro

Foreign Affairs - Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. But in fact, it corresponds to some enduring propensities of the human spirit, it is galvanized by modernization, and in one form or another, it will drive global politics for generations to come. Once ethnic nationalism has captured the imagination of groups in a multiethnic society, ethnic disaggregation or partition is often the least bad answer.

US Navy - GW leaves for new base in Japan on Monday

Michael D'Alessandro

Virginian Pilot - The aircraft carrier George Washington, with a crew of about 3,200, is slated to depart Monday en route to its new home base in Yokosuka, Japan, where it will replace the Kitty Hawk as the United States’ only permanently forward-deployed aircraft carrier.

US Navy - Carried Away

Michael D'Alessandro

Armed Forces Journal - A challenge to the US Navy to align its old-style, carrier-heavy procurement strategy with the new maritime strategy.

Fourth Generation Warfare - A Battalion’s Worth of Good Ideas

Michael D'Alessandro

New York Times - John Nagl on the crucial importance of the small group of American military advisers who live and fight alongside foreign forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US Navy - Future of Mayport Naval Station remains uncertain

Michael D'Alessandro

Virginian Pilot - The Navy could spend nearly $500 million to ready Mayport Naval Station in Florida for a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier - perhaps from Norfolk - by 2014...Or it could choose to make no changes in the base's operations.

US Navy - DOJ Asks High Court Review on Navy Sonar

Michael D'Alessandro

Associated Press - The Justice Department on Monday asked the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar off the Southern California coast because of potential harm to dolphins and whales.

Royal Navy - Guns for hire? No, but there are warships for rent

Michael D'Alessandro

The Guardian - The MoD is increasingly outsourcing to the private sector. It's leasing aircraft and ships today; will it be tanks and armies tomorrow?

Royal Navy - MoD hands over Royal Navy project to BAE to bypass £700m tax

Michael D'Alessandro

The Times - The Ministry of Defence will reluctantly hand control of a project to build two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy to BAE Systems in an attempt to avoid a £700 million tax bill.

Geopolitics / Arctic - Arctic Meltdown: The Economic and Security Implications of Global Warming

Michael D'Alessandro

Foreign Affairs - Thanks to global warming, the Arctic icecap is rapidly melting, opening up access to massive natural resources and creating shipping shortcuts that could save billions of dollars a year. But there are currently no clear rules governing this economically and strategically vital region. Unless Washington leads the way toward a multilateral diplomatic solution, the Arctic could descend into armed conflict.

Iraq - Fateful Choice on Iraq Army Bypassed Debate

Michael D'Alessandro

New York Times - Michael Gordon writes that the decision by L. Paul Bremer III to dissolve Iraq’s Army was a reversal from a plan the White House had approved.

Geopolitics / NATO - Equal alliance, unequal roles

Michael D'Alessandro

New York Times - Robert Kaplan on the future of NATO.

Ground Warfare - Scions of the Surge

Michael D'Alessandro

Newsweek - Five years on, the war is transforming the American officer corps.

Editorial Note - Announcing the War Studies Primer - an introductory course on the study of war

Michael D'Alessandro

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.

Editorial Note - NOSI on break until Saturday March 29th

Michael D'Alessandro

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!

Afghanistan - Afghan war trend worse than Iraq: U.S. trainer

Michael D'Alessandro

Reuters - LTC John Nagl comments on the situation in Afghanistan.

Royal Navy - The Whale In The Drawing Room

Michael D'Alessandro

Defense Technology International - BAE Systems is working on the design of new-generation ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) for the Royal Navy, under a two-year study program that started after a March 2007 parliamentary vote. The SSBNs are expected to extend the life of the UK's independent deterrent to at least 2040, together with participation in the US Navy's Trident D5 Life Extension program and development of a new warhead, either built in the UK or collaboratively developed with the US.

Piracy - Pirates... of the Somali Coast

Michael D'Alessandro

Defense Technology International - Another look at attempts to control piracy off of Somalia.

Iran - Top U.S. Officer in Mideast Resigns

Michael D'Alessandro

Washington Post - Thomas Ricks weighs in on Admiral Fallon's resignation...