Manoj Ambat's Blog dealing with Defence, Foreign Affairs, Strategic Affairs and Politics

USS John C. Stennis ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Loren B. Thomson Large-deck, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers are the signature expression of American military power.  No other combat system available to U.S. warfighters comes close to delivering so much offensive punch for months at a time without requiring land bases near the action.  As a result, the ten carriers in the current fleet are in continuous demand from regional commanders -- so much so that extended overseas combat tours are becoming the norm.  ( Read on )

Image credits- Indian navy Source- The National Interest Author- Kyle Mizokami The most powerful navies in 2030 will be a reflection of the broader state of the world. Some countries are invested in preserving the current international order, and see naval power as a means to maintain it. Other emerging countries are building navies commensurate with their newfound sense of status, often with an eye towards challenging that order. The eastward shift in naval power will continue in 2030, a product of both declining defense budgets in Europe and growing economies in Asia. While the most powerful navies of the Cold War were concentrated largely in Europe, by 2030 both China and India will be on the list, with Japan and South Korea as runners-up also fielding large, modern naval forces. Ship-wise, there are two classes that will define the most powerful navies: aircraft carriers and ballistic missile submarines. Aircraft carriers reflect the need to maintain a global

Image credits- Wikimedia Commons /United States Navy Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The United States Navy has started work on plans for a new family of warships that will eventually replace the service’s current surface fleet. These new warships will be tailored to address a future global security environment that is expected to be quite different from the one the United States faces today. “The Navy is working on the requirements for the family of ships that will join the future fleet replacing several combatants to include the first DDG-51 class ships,” said Lt. Kara Yingling, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s Surface Warfare Directorate (N96). “The Navy began a Future Surface Combatant Capabilities Based Assessment (FSC CBA) to identify a holistic common analytic basis for coordinated development of a future combatant shipbuilding strategy." While the work is currently in its preliminary stages, the Navy expects to start developing a set

USS America, LHA-6 ( Credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author-  Nikolas K. Gvosdev Earlier this month, I had the privilege of being on a panel as part of the Naval War College’s Regional Alumni Symposium, discussing the strategic importance of the Black Sea region, along with Michael Kofman of the Center for Naval Analysis and Chris Marsh of the School of Advanced Military Studies. After all, as Marsh noted, the Black Sea is assuming much greater importance as part of China’s ambitious “one road, one belt” system, designed to link the Asia-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic worlds—a point made graphically clear by Parag Khanna’s “connectography” maps, while Kofman called attention to Russia’s new power-projection capabilities emanating from Crimea. Yet for all our eloquence in calling for the Black Sea to assume greater importance in American strategic thinking, equally compelling cases were being made for why additional U.S. attention

USS Annapolis ( Credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The United States Navy needs more attack submarines to meet its global commitments. Worldwide, the service is only able to provide the Pentagon’s regional combatant commanders with less than two-thirds the number of submarines that they need. “The threats in the undersea environment continue to go up,” Vice Adm. Joseph Mulloy, the service’s deputy chief of naval operations for integration of capabilities and resources told the House Armed Services Committee’s seapower and projection forces subcommittee on February 25. The U.S. Navy—which has roughly 52 attack submarines—is on track to have 41 attack boats by 2029. The Chinese, meanwhile would have “at least 70, and they’re building,” Mulloy said. “You get back into the whole quality versus quantity issue, but at the same time the Russians are also building. . . and they build much higher-end submari

USS Leity Gulf , CG-55 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The U.S. Navy’s next generation surface combatants will be developed with information technologies baked into the core of their designs. While the Navy’s current generation of warships like the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers use digital information technology, they were designed in a different era when technology did not evolve as rapidly as today. The next generation replacement for those vessels will have to incorporate digital-information technologies from the outset—and will have to keep pace with rapid technical advancements. “That’s going to be a key part of the next generation of warships,” Adm. John Richardson, U.S. Navy’s chief of naval operations, told an audience at the American Enterprise Institute on February 12. “It will also be digitally native—or information native.” The Navy’s cu

United States Naval personal ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author-  James Holmes So Admiral John Richardson, the chief of naval operations (CNO), a.k.a. the United States’ top uniformed naval officer, plans to unfurl a “campaign design” next month to guide the U.S. Navy’s future endeavors. We know very little about the draft document. Nevertheless, it’s worthwhile proffering a few thoughts in this largely fact-free setting—even while the draft remains under strict embargo. Some ideas animating the directive have begun to seep out of the Navy Staff. For one, the world is changing around the sea services—the U.S. Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard—at a fast and quickening rate. While the U.S. Navy remains tops in knowledge and capability—the human and material sinews of sea power—for now, prospective antagonists are improving even more swiftly. They’re coming from behind. To visualize this way of thinking, im

Harpoon missile being fired ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Ben Rimland With the venerable RGM-84 Harpoon growing rather long in the tooth, the U.S. Navy has begun searching in earnest for a new and cutting-edge anti-ship missile (ASM) in both air and ship-launched varieties. Unsurprisingly, the Navy has looked to further evolutions of two legacy weapons systems, the Tomahawk and Harpoon, to replace its fleet of 1980s-vintage weapons. Of course, weapons procurement – especially for the world’s greatest maritime superpower – does not occur in a vacuum. While the Navy has distressingly neglected to construct new warships with organic Harpoon capability since 1999, China, Russia, and other adversaries have begun fielding advanced supersonic, long-ranged ASM like the SSN-27A Sizzler, the YJ-18, and other such weapons. America’s longtime technological and quantitative edge in wielding a “big stick” in the Asia-Pacific,

United States Navy  FA-18 Super Hornet ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author-  Benjamin David Baker As the Diplomat has noted recently, the Asia-Pacific has become an important market for modern military aircraft. Companies from countries such as France, Sweden, Russia, and China have been attempting to sell their platforms to a range of states in the region (see here and here for Beijing’s Asian aircraft bids). Several states, including Indonesia, Malaysia and India, are either planning to or are in the process of acquiring modern fighter jets. U.S. companies have a long and established position in this market. This has partially been for political purposes. During the Cold War, many states bought American kit out of necessity as much as quality, as there were few other acceptable sellers available (the French company Dassault being an important exception). U.S. companies are still among the top suppliers of Asian ai

USS Zumwalt ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The U.S. Navy’s first DDG-1000 destroyer Zumwalt (Note; It’s not USS until the ship is commissioned) is set to undergo an initial set of sea trials in December. The ship is one of three DDG-1000-class vessels the service is buying—which effectively means that the ships are glorified technology demonstrators for the various high-tech innovations found onboard. “We’ve got a builder’s sea trial with a notional start of the 7th of December,” said Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition in an interview with Defense News. “That is the critical milestone in terms of being able to deliver in the spring. We need a successful trial. We’ll learn things from the trial, we always do. First-of-class, we expect to learn a lot.” The roughly 15,700-ton vessel has been years in the works and features a host of

USS Carl Vinson ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons / United States Navy) Source- National Interest Author- Dave Majumdar The U.S. Navy is struggling to meet its worldwide commitments with only ten aircraft carriers in the fleet. The service has been down to ten flattops ever since USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was retired in December 2012. The Navy will only return to eleven ships once USS Gerald R. Ford is commissioned in 2016, but that vessel won’t be ready for deployment until 2021. But the law requires the Navy to operate a minimum of eleven carriers. The service is operating under a temporary exemption that allows it operate only ten vessels. But because the Navy is struggling to meet requirements with the current number of operational carriers, Congressman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) has introduced legislation to that would require the service to maintain a fleet of no less than twelve carriers. The law used to require the Navy to operate twelve flattops until the last