From the monthly archives:

November 2013

Every QDR season, Wayne Hughes rousts himself from his Naval Postgraduate School hideout and mounts a push for his beloved teeny-tiny combatant–the “Seafighter”.  His latest, “Sustaining American Maritime Influence,” published in the September 2013 USNI Proceedings, is his usual salesman-like effort (in which he is joined by retired Admiral John Harvey, NPS Operations Research heavy-hitter, […]

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Beating Drug Use In The Defense Industrial Base

by admin on November 21, 2013

Drug use in the defense industrial base is a problem. Despite initial pre-employment drug screening, limited post-employment drug tests do little to deter post-employment use within the defense industrial base. As defense manufacturers strain to get by on fewer employees, increased overtime or aggressive performance goals may act as an inducement for workers to swap […]

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Water, is, in a word, important.  Even for an organization that puts “Warfighting First”, water purification and water distribution weighs in at the top of any commander’s list of concerns.  And this is no a trivial matter, as the average requirement for a foot soldier or sailor is estimated to be about 4 to 8 […]

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Philippines Rescue Fleet Faces A Grim Fate

by admin on November 13, 2013

You might hate the “Global Force For Good” slogan, but I, for one, am darn proud of how the Navy is pivoting to the Philippines and preparing to project order ashore. But even as we (and many of our regional friends) cheer for this mission of mercy, the Fleet headed to the disaster zone faces […]

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The U.S. and Japan must consider the potential geopolitical impact of Super-Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda.  This natural disaster will “change the game” in the South China Sea–The demand for disaster recovery assets alone will force the rapid deterioration of the Philippines’ ability to support their South China Sea outposts, leading to further Chinese encroachment (though some Filipino […]

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Submarines rely on stealth.  And American Virginia Class submarines are considered the quietest, safest subs on the planet–it’s how the U.S. Navy justifies spending about $2 billion dollars for each of the two boats the nation wants to build every year. So…who would expect that the pricey subs–the foundation of America’s dominance under the seas–would […]

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To continue the discussion of Marine Corps amphibious warfare, I turn to the amphibious tank, an asset the Marines have been trying to procure since the early days of Operational Maneuver From the Sea (OMFTS).  Now, let me be frank– I like the idea of an amphibious tank, and believe a turn towards the Pacific […]

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Marine Corps Week: Look to your LCUs

by admin on November 3, 2013

There is a certain rigidity to Marine Corps thinking on amphibious warfare that is exasperating. It’s ironic–Their decades-long pursuit of tools to enable “Operational Maneuver From the Sea” (an inherently adaptable approach to the amphibious battlefield) has spawned far too many rigid doctrinarians.  And that crowd is either unable–or unwilling–to break away from their OMFTS […]

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