Posts tagged as:

china

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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U.S. ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) have done a great job maintaining America’s second-strike nuclear capability–lurking at sea, undetected, every day. But their era of invulnerability is coming to a close; once SSBNs lose their ability to hide in the oceans, these single-purpose arsenal ships are finished. The sea is already a crowded place, and hiding […]

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Blockading China is hard.  Yes, China depends upon oil.  Yes, China ships that oil from the Mideast, and yes, America has the biggest, baddest submarines and Navy in the business. But advocates for blockade seem to have forgotten that times have changed, and a blockade–particularly on petrochemicals–run from an old “subs sink everything” World War […]

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There is nothing inherent in the Chinese Navy that makes their fleet more successful than anybody else’s in the world.  By rights, the PLA(N) shouldn’t move the needle; the Chinese Navy is growing, but it is still small, relatively low-tech and untested.  It’s just that the Chinese government has, for the past quarter-century, used their […]

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China’s Navy: Threat or Not…Yet?

by admin on August 14, 2013

As Japan and China teeter on the brink of another confrontation (this time over how to appropriately recall war dead), it is time to offer a reality-check of Chinese Navy capabilities (you know, for policymakers!). To do that, one of the best public resources I know of is a late-2010 Institute for National Strategic Studies […]

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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 a balanced Fleet at The Atlantic

by Craig Hooper on March 15, 2011

In my second piece over at The Atlantic, I argue for the under-appreciated do-anything amphibs. You can read it here. But as the budget gets grimmer and grimmer, I fear that some in the Navy are looking to cut amphibious platforms or restrain/downsize the JHSV, LCS or other experimental platforms that may change the way […]

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Back in 2008, In NDIA’s National Defense Magazine, I called for the purchase of the Mistral-class “projection and command” ships, noting that the acquisition of the vessels would be an ideal mix of capability and geopolitical utility. In what was a sidebar discussion of next-generation hospital ships, Jim Dolbow and I snuck in some geopolitical […]

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The Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University came out with a fantastic, information-packed study entitled “China’s out of area naval operations: Case studies, trajectories, obstacles and potential solutions” (ChinaStrategicPerspectives3). There is a lot of good, solid research here, and I commend the authors. It’s great, and my comments (those that follow […]

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In Press: Talking Shipbuilding with the Seattle Times

by Craig Hooper on January 2, 2011

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