From the monthly archives:

April 2010

USMC Heavy Lift: What's with the CH-53K?

by Craig Hooper on April 27, 2010

Earlier this month, the U.S. Marine Corps announced their much-needed CH-53K was going to experience a three year delay before reaching the field…but they didn’t really say way, exactly.  But all reasons aside, Aerospace Daily and Defense Report’s Bettina H. Chavanne reported on April 1 that the delay was “no surprise.”  (direct link not available; […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

A New Navy Blogger!

by Craig Hooper on April 23, 2010

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

In the light of the recent Afghanistan CV-22 crash,  Insidedefense.com reports this interesting CV-22 nugget: “The U.S. Air Force is investigating a CV-22 mishap that occurred at Kirtland AFB, NM, March 2, 2009,” said spokeswoman Col. Robyn Chumley. “At that time a CV-22 assigned to the 58th Special Operations Wing suffered a single engine failure […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Is the organization attempting to “save” the ex-USS Iowa (BB-61) telling the truth? With the agreement to shed the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, the ex-USS Iowa is set to be disposed of in about seven years (by then most of the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet will be gone–and the pressure to shed the few remaining […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Maritime strategy: Confronting comfortable bias

by Craig Hooper on April 10, 2010

The Center for Naval Analyses built their new report, “The Navy at a Tipping Point: maritime Dominance at Stake?” on a comforting trellis of assumptions: “First, there will be a continued demand for a safe and secure global maritime environment. Advantages to having an open world economy and trade for all major powers are growing…Increasingly, […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Loren Thompson's "ill-mannered rant":

by Craig Hooper on April 10, 2010

The Lexington Institute’s tired and overused “source”, Loren Thompson, might find that the following paragraph sounds awfully familiar:

{ 4 comments }

Osprey Down: Four dead

by Craig Hooper on April 9, 2010

News is sketchy, but reports say that a CV-22 went down in Afghanistan.  Four are reportedly dead, many reportedly injured.  Cause unknown. CV-22s have been the quiet, successful side of the MV-22 story.  Whenever anything looked bad for the Marines’ MV-22, the Air Force CV-22s were out there doing good things. This is, of cour […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

So a lot of people have been chatting about the Center For Naval Analyses’ new report, “The Navy at a Tipping Point: Maritime Dominance at Stake?“.  As much as I like digging into a good Navy study, the broad-brush imprecision of CNA authors worries me.  Use caution before citing this report as a decision document. […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

In Press: Quoted In the Globe and Mail

by Craig Hooper on April 6, 2010

And coverage of Iran’s small-craft acquisition continues.  Out of all the rehashing, the Globe and Mail’s Paul Koring generated a standout Bladerunner story, with some interesting info on the Bladerunner craft itself and some added background on the small boat threat: “…The Tamil Tigers attacked cargo vessels with explosives-laden launches with some success. Against Sri […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

In Press: Quoted In the Financial Times

by Craig Hooper on April 5, 2010

I recently had the pleasure of  talking to a Financial Times reporter about Iran’s appetite for small boats. The story, dealing with the saga of the “Bradstone Challenger“, a Bladerunner 51 speedboat, just hit the press today (and it got some love from Drudge (bottom middle column), so…good times). (.pdf here) I noted Iran’s interest […]

{ Comments on this entry are closed }