Save a Minesweeper–Save Omaha’s Freedom Memorial Park!

July 22, 2013

Let’s take a moment to pity Omaha’s poor Freedom Memorial Park–the final resting place of the World War II-era Admirable Class minesweeper USS Hazard (AM-240).  When I visited the Navy memorial a few times in the 2008-10 timeframe it was a delightful little hideaway–a lovingly preserved ship in an idyllic little “all-hands-on-all-the-exhibits” waterfront military park […]

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NextNavy.com Recommissioning Notice

July 20, 2013

After almost three years on hiatus, Nextnavy.com is reactivating and coming back to life! I am, pilule however, salve cleaning up and updating the place.  In the months after the SEA-AIR-SPACE video (posted below) was released on CSPAN, some Internet graffiti artists wreaked a bit of havoc–odd links were inserted and so forth.  So while […]

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In Press: A Clip From Sea Air Space 2013

July 20, 2013

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Personal Note: Appointed Vice-President of Sales, Marketing and External Affairs at Austal USA

April 11, 2011

Austal is the world’s premier manufacturer of advanced aluminum ships. An industrial iconoclast, Austal USA entered the brutal U.S. shipbuilding market in 2000, and is now producing two key components of the future U.S. Fleet, the Littoral Combat Ship and the Joint High Speed Vessel. I have been a fan of Austal and the LCS-2/JHSV […]

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And some China musings: Papers in USNI Proceedings and the Hoover Digest

April 10, 2011

Over the course of my naval blogging, nothing has worried me more than the Pacific. I worry that American policymakers have taken their eyes off the ball, distracted by impulsive, poorly justified national security choices (i.e. Iraq and Libya). As resources dwindle, the margin for error and or ability to absorb/compensate/fix strategic mistakes dwindle too. […]

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In Press: Talking Huntington Ingalls in the Mississippi Press

April 9, 2011

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to chat and email with the Mississippi Press’ Kaija Wilkinson, to discuss the future of the Huntington Ingalls’ yard. I think that yard has its work cut out for it. Craig Hooper, a San Francisco defense consultant who runs the website NextNavy.com, said there are advantages to […]

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Australia buys the Bay!

April 9, 2011

Sometimes a deal is just so good, you’ve just gotta take it. Australia’s announcement that it will buy the the UK’s soon-to-be-redundant LHD Largs Bay for $100 million Australian dollars (@$105 USD at present rates) must have government minsters in a gleeful state. Even if the Largs Bay has serious problems, at this price, it’s […]

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Some ASW counsel that never gets old:

April 5, 2011

While doing some research on anti-mine and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) issues, I came upon this wonderful gem from a September 1964 ASW paper in the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings. I strongly suspect that, at least for ASW, similar sentiment still holds true today: “The problems in the field are tremendous, and getting worse, not only […]

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And now, an interlude with Hunter S. Thompson

April 4, 2011

If you have not read any of Hunter S. Thompson’s essays, then you are missing something. For all the drug-tinted, hard-living hyperbole of Hunter S. Thompson’s image, the guy wrote like a fiend. And he was an amazing observer. For me, one Hunter Thompson essay particularly resonates–an essay about Air Force test pilots, entitled, “Those […]

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In praise of heavy weather and breaking stuff

March 25, 2011

One of the underestimated pieces of infrastructure in the American warfighter’s toolkit is, well, their meteorologists. It’s neat to be able to have an up-to-the-minute global read on the weather, so ships and aircraft can know–at a very, very high level of detail, where to go to avoid tough sea conditions or bad weather. The […]

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