MSC–Far Busier Than The Navy (and Navy Times) Expects!

June 16, 2014

David Larter over at Navy Times has an interesting story up, detailing the average time Navy combatants have spent at sea over the past three years. Go take a look. The data, apparently acquired from the Center for Naval Analyses, is good stuff–you can break it down to the individual ship level for almost every […]

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Why General Dynamics Shipbuilding Is Crushing The Competition

June 9, 2014

In naval shipbuilding, General Dynamics is crushing the competition. They are simply outthinking and out-maneuvering everyone. It’s not a twist of fate, either–they’re reaping the rewards of a lot of solid strategic thinking and years of strategic positioning. They’re hitting at all cylinders. Over at today’s Defense News, Chris Cavas gives us all a lesson on […]

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The Coming Fight Over The Navy’s Fighting Ferries

June 4, 2014

The future U.S. Navy is full of ferries. And the Nation should not only tolerate them, but embrace them, and accept them for what they are–good, capable, handy-sized ships of civilian origin. In the right CIVMAR hands, ferries are do-anything, economical “environmentally-friendly” platforms, capable of putting right-sized forces in the right place at the right […]

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Military Sealift Command News: CIVMARs To Operate JHSV

June 3, 2014

In a rare–and long overdue–victory for strategic realists, the normally business-first Military Sealift Command (MSC) has abruptly cancelled plans for the JHSV fleet to be operated by civilian contractors. The Green-Eyeshade crowd–the annoying folks who think that war should be run like a modern, “lean” and “just-in-time” business–lost big today. I couldn’t be happier. What’s […]

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Is The Future Of Naval Stealth Just…Hiding In Plain Sight?

May 27, 2014

Stealth! Low observables! Reduced signatures! Wake reduction! It’s all the rage in naval warfare…Modern navies just won’t leave home without a full suite of pricey features deemed necessary to make a 16,000 ton DDG-1000 dwindle away to a rowboat-sized radar blip. But…outside of that uncomfortable moment when, say, an anti-ship missile starts seeking your vessel, […]

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A NextNavy.Com Win: CV-22s Getting Guns and Armor

May 22, 2014

Back in late December of 2013, after ground fire somewhere in South Sudan bloodied a CV-22 flight and forced an ambitious Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) to abort with four injuries, I detailed how the V-22’s Operational Maneuver From The Sea (OMFTS) origins–and resulting inability to adequately suppress ground fire and lack of armor–made the platform […]

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Conventional Frigates Are Dead Ships Sailing

May 19, 2014

The current global crop of “conventional” frigates (which I loosely define as a multi-purpose combatant of somewhere in the vicinity of 2,000-4,500 tons), has reached something of a developmental dead end. These ships cannot be improved–or, in the case of foreign models, brought into compliance with U.S. Navy standards and then improved–without a huge investment–An […]

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Time To Establish An Annual MSC/Civilian Mariner Conference:

May 16, 2014

In the game of “annual” Navy conferences, it seems every naval “Community”, no matter how small, has a conference of their own. Sail on surface ships as a Line Officer? Go to the Surface Navy Association meeting. Special Operators have their convo. Submariners have theirs. Marines have a few. Aviators have whatever they are calling Tailhook […]

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Stop Proliferation of Portable Aircraft Carrier Killing Systems (PACKS)

May 12, 2014

It is high time to stop the proliferation of Portable Aircraft Carrier Killing Systems–or PACKS. There’s no need to sell PACKS–dangerous tobacco-delivery systems–at sea, and no need to subsidize sales of ’em at bases. Bear with me. We all know cigarettes are dangerous to individuals and hurt others via second-hand smoke. But I’ll bet you […]

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Surface Navy: Survivability Is Not One of CNO’s Three Tenents

May 7, 2014

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Greenert’s call to put “Warfighting First” has focused attention on the Navy’s overall lack of offensive firepower. The Surface Navy, in particular, is wringing their hands over their community’s now ingrained (and almost congenital) Praetorian Guard “protect-the-carrier-or-big-deck-amphib” defensiveness, and there’s now an effort afoot to remedy things. That’s good. […]

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