Undersea Surveillance: Supplementing the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Outlook
By Shang-su Wu The recently announced Indo-Pacific Outlook by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at the 34th Summit indicates the Southeast Asian perspective on the evolving...
View ArticleTightening the Chain: Implementing a Strategy of Maritime Pressure in the...
The following is adapted from a recent report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, Tightening the Chain: Implementing a Strategy of Maritime Pressure in the Western Pacific. By Peter...
View ArticleAviation as the Key to Navy-Marine Integration
By Carl Forsling Marine Aviation Needs to Enhance Naval Integration The Corps has drifted away from the Navy over the last two decades, and it didn’t need the Navy in Iraq or Afghanistan. Shortages of...
View ArticleThe Future of Aircraft Carriers: Consider the Air Wing, Not The Platform
By Robert C. Rubel A lot of ink has been spilled over the past decade or so concerning the viability of the aircraft carrier. Some regard its combination of expense and vulnerability to cruise and...
View ArticleWinning the Invisible War: Gaining an Enduring Advantage in the EMS
The following article is adapted from a new report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), Winning the Invisible War: Gaining an Enduring U.S. Advantage in the Electromagnetic...
View ArticleIgnorance of China is Not Bliss
By Capt. Brent Ramsey (ret.) China Rising China is modernizing every element of its military. It has announced plans to field a world-class military by 2035 and a dominant military by mid-century.1...
View ArticleThe Number of Mines is Less Than Infinity
By Dr. Michael M. Rosenthal, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Panama City Division “I would be very surprised if professionals engaged full time in [Mine countermeasures] MCM who speak routinely with...
View ArticleThe Currency of Mission Command
By Capt. Bill Shafley Information is the currency of mission command. Mission command’s six tenets include trust, shared awareness, disciplined initiative, mission orders, commander’s intent, accepting...
View ArticleClausewitz, Corbett, and Corvettes
This article originally appeared in edition 2/2020 of the German-language publication SIRIUS: The Journal for Strategic Analyses and is republished with permission. SIRIUS is edited by the foundation...
View ArticleHuman Intelligence: The Missing Piece to Comprehensive Maritime Domain Awareness
By Jay Benson The Challenge of Maritime Domain Awareness To effectively govern the maritime space, states need an accurate picture of what is happening and where in order to establish normal “patterns...
View ArticleTaking Notes from Narcos: Semisubmersible Unmanned Ships for Great Power...
By Collin Fox In September 2018, the Panamanian Aeronaval Service (SENAN) captured a fairly crude low-profile vessel (LPV). It was their first of several; just a few months ago they tracked and...
View ArticleHow China has Overtaken Japan in Naval Power and Why It Matters
The following article is adapted from a new report by Dr. Toshi Yoshihara at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA), Dragon Against the Sun: Chinese Views of Japanese Seapower. By...
View ArticleLifting the Veil on the Lightly Manned Surface Combatant
By Ben DiDonato Introduction As the U.S. Navy moves into the unmanned age and implements Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO), there is a need for small, lightly manned warships to streamline that...
View ArticleThe Commandant Needs Our Help: Accelerating Marine Corps Force Development
By Chris “Junior” Cannon The Commandant of the Marine Corps (CMC), General David H. Berger has recently updated his guidance with “Force Design 2030.” The plan calls for major changes, including a...
View ArticleMarines and Mercenaries: Beware the Irregular Threat in the Littoral
By Walker D. Mills The world is increasingly urban and littoral. This convergence between urbanization and the littoral, or littoralization, can lead to “the worst of both worlds” and may remake the...
View ArticleWhy Military Sealift Command Needs Merchant Mariners at the Helm
By Dr. Salvatore R. Mercogliano COVID and the Straining Merchant Marine On July 29, 2020, the heads of three maritime unions – Marshall Ainley of the Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association, Don...
View ArticleShell Games at Sea: A Resilient Force Structure Component for Modern Maritime...
By Chris Bassler and Steve Benson On October 6 2020, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper debuted Battle Force 2045. As foundational elements of U.S. naval force design, Secretary Esper emphasized the...
View ArticleMore Hulls Now: What Treaty Cruisers Can Show the Navy About Innovating Ship...
By Ryan Hilger “‘I am forced,’ said Mr. Balfour, ‘to the conclusion that now, for the first time in modern history, we are face to face with a naval situation so new and so dangerous that it is...
View ArticleDistributed Manufacturing for Distributed Lethality
By Collin Fox Increasingly powerful strategic competitors and a flat defense budget call to mind this pithy quote, often misattributed to Winston Churchill: “Gentlemen, we have run out of money; now we...
View ArticleArmed and Independent: Thinking Outside the Box on Small Carriers
By Ben DiDonato There is a long-running debate in the United States Navy over building smaller aircraft carriers. These arguments generally focus on cost and hull count. Rather than dive into these...
View ArticleLooking for a Non-Kinetic Win? Invest in a Public Affairs Paradigm Shift
By Lt. Cmdr. Matthew A. Stroup, USN “This is information war, and it’s official.” –”Maxim” (a former employee of the Internet Research Agency – a Russian troll factory – as reported in LikeWar: The...
View ArticleService Squadron Ten and the Great Western Base
By LCDR Ryan Hilger, USN USS Houston (CL 81), in a hard turn with her underside exposed, felt the torpedo explosion across the ship. Commander William Behrens recalled “that all propulsive power and...
View ArticleIs the Moskva-class Helicopter Cruiser the Best Naval Design for the Drone Era?
By Przemysław Ziemacki A variety of factors, including the long range capabilities of modern artillery, the evolution of drones and missiles, together with the need for stand-off and distributed...
View ArticleSeabed Mining: The Coast Guard’s Deep Future
By Kyle Cregge What if the final frontier is much closer to home? From SpaceX to Space Force, many groups are seeking to dominate space in an era of Great Power Competition and commercialization. Yet...
View ArticleModern Naval Mines: Not Your Grandfather’s Weapons That Wait
By Scott C. Truver Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael M. Gilday has good reason to recall the morning of 18 February 1991. In support of Operation Desert Storm, the Aegis guided-missile cruiser...
View ArticleWhy The Moskva-Class Helicopter Cruiser Is Not the Best Naval Design for the...
By Benjamin Claremont In a recent article titled “Is the Moskva-Class Helicopter Cruiser the Best Naval Design for the Drone Era?” author Przemysław Ziemacki proposed that the Moskva-class cruiser...
View ArticleForging the Apex Predator: Unmanned Systems and SSN(X)
By LCDR James Landreth, USN, and LT Andrew Pfau, USN 2041: USS Fluckey (SSN 812) Somewhere West of the Luzon Strait Like wolves stalking in the night, the pack of autonomous unmanned underwater...
View ArticleEmploying Unmanned Surface Vehicles To Guard Ports and Harbors
By George Galdorisi “Globalization” instantly brings to mind the flow of international trade that has both lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and delivered abundant choices to consumers. Almost...
View ArticleSend Skimmers to the Skirmish: A Case for a Wing-In-Ground Effect Attack Craft
By Michael Knickerbocker The People’s Liberation Army – Navy, PLA(N), has rapidly modernized and grown their fleet with advanced warships and weapons. China’s fleet expansion and widening air defense...
View ArticleNaval Gunfire Liaisons and 21st Century Fires
By Alan Cummings It’s no secret that a fight in the Pacific is atop the Pentagon’s list of concerns. The 2022 National Defense Strategy fact sheet explicitly states that China is “our most...
View ArticleA New DESRON Staff – Beyond the Composite Warfare Commander Concept
By Bill Shafley A destroyer squadron (DESRON) staff’s employment as a Sea Combat Commander in the Composite Warfare Commander (CWC) construct is unnecessarily narrow and prevents a more lethal and...
View ArticleEABO Degraded Logistics in the WEZ: Self Propelled Semi-Submersible Solutions
By LtCol Brent Stricker The Marine Corps is faced with an intensified challenge of contested logistics as it employs its novel concept of Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations (EABO). EABO calls for...
View ArticleDepth from Above: Reinventing Carrier ASW
By Ben DiDonato With the return of great power competition, the threat posed by hostile submarines has garnered renewed attention. Russia’s submarine fleet in particular has been regarded as a serious...
View ArticleEvolving Marines and Aerial ASW for the Undersea Fight
By Jason Lancaster Introduction The Marine Corps is an expeditionary crisis response force designed to project power globally from the sea. For the first time in a generation the shape of the Corps is...
View ArticleTankers For The Pacific Fight: A Crisis in Capability
By Stephen M. Carmel The Department of Defense is projected to need on the order of one hundred tankers of various sizes in the event of a serious conflict in the Pacific.1 The DoD currently has access...
View ArticleKamikazes: The Legacy of Soviet Naval Aviation, Pt. 1
The following selections are derived from an article originally published in the Naval War College Review under the title, “Kamikazes: The Soviet Legacy.” Read it in its original form here. By Maksim...
View ArticleKamikazes: The Legacy of Soviet Naval Aviation, Pt. 2
The following selections are derived from an article originally published in the Naval War College Review under the title, “Kamikazes: The Soviet Legacy.” Read it in its original form here. Read Part...
View ArticleFrom Eyes Above: Information Architectures for Striking Maritime Targets
By Richard Mosier One of the six force design imperatives in the CNO’s NAVPLAN 2022 is, “Expand Distance: Long-range precision fires across all domains and platforms with greater reach to enable naval...
View ArticleAdapting Navy Medicine for Future Warfighting: Scenario Thinking for Combat...
By Art Valeri, Jay Yelon, Juanita Hopkins, and Seamus Markey In May 2018, the Chief of Naval Operations directed a comprehensive review of Navy Medicine’s ability to support Distributed Maritime...
View ArticleFighting DMO, Pt. 2: Anti-Ship Firepower and the Major Limits of the American...
Read Part 1 on defining distributed maritime operations. By Dmitry Filipoff Introduction As navies look to evolve during the missile age, much of their ability to threaten other fleets will come down...
View ArticleMore Than “Wet Gap Crossings”: Riverine Capabilities are Needed for Irregular...
This article is part of the Irregular Warfare Initiative’s Project Maritime, a series exploring the intersection of irregular warfare and the maritime domain. It is republished with permission. Read it...
View ArticleDistributed Maritime Operations – A Salvo Equation Analysis
By Capt. Anthony Cowden, USN (ret.) A recent article published by the Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) – the first in a series – does an outstanding job of describing and explaining...
View ArticleRO-RO Ferries and the Expansion of the PLA’s Landing Ship Fleet
By Conor Kennedy The role of civilian roll-on/roll-off (RO-RO) ferries in a PLA invasion of Taiwan deserves its growing notoriety. With port access secured or coupled with developing logistics over the...
View ArticleThe Royal Canadian Navy Must Be Equipped for Real-World Pacific Scenarios
By Dr. Julian Spencer-Churchill and Alexandru Filip Introduction With tension level ever increasing in the Pacific, Canada must prepare for future naval threats from revisionist states, which threaten...
View ArticleSearching for Lost Submarines: An Overview of Forensic Underwater Methodologies
By Andrew Song How does one find an object not meant to be found? Forensic maritime investigators in 2017 stumbled across this question when searching for the disappeared ARA San Juan (S-42) – an...
View ArticleThe 50-Year Dilemma In Aircraft Carrier Design and the Future of American...
By Brent D. Sadler June 2024 marks the 90th year since commissioning the Ranger (CV-4), the first purpose-designed and built U.S. aircraft carrier. The Ranger stood on the legacies of several ships,...
View ArticleThe Indispensable Ingredient for Victory: Defeating Deadly Sea Mines
By George Galdorisi At no time since the end of World War II have so many nations fielded blue water navies that have roamed the globe. Navies from Australia, China, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom,...
View ArticleThe Queen Sacrifice: Use the Carrier for Naval Deception
This piece was originally written and submitted as part of an essay contest in September 2023. By Trevor Phillips-Levine and Andrew Tenbusch A large Japanese force emerged from the San Bernadino...
View ArticleDMO and the Firepower Revolution: Evolving the Carrier and Surface Force...
By Captain R. Robinson Harris, USN (ret.) Introduction 39 years ago, in the October 1985 issue of USNI Proceedings, then-LCDR Joe Benkert and I questioned how the Navy structured the relationship...
View ArticleBuilding Resilient Killchains for the Stand-In Force
By Aaron Barlow, Patrick Reilly, and Sean Harper Introduction As the Marine Corps prepares to contest the regional superiority of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Indo-Pacific alongside the...
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