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

USS San Antonio- LPD17 ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Author- Government of the United States) Source- The Diplomat Author- Prashanth Parameswaran Earlier this week, media outlets reported that the U.S. Marine Corps was bringing together foreign commanders from amphibious forces – mostly those deployed in the Asia-Pacific – for a new conference to help integrate amphibious operations, with China excluded from the event. The engagement in question is the inaugural U.S. Pacific Command Amphibious Leaders Symposium (PALS) held from May 17 to 21 in Hawaii involving around two dozen foreign nations. The Star Advertiser notes that according to the Marine Corps, the objective of the symposium is to get a handle on regional considerations with respect to amphibious operations – useful for a variety of purposes including humanitarian assistance, power projection and territorial defense. PALS reportedly includes group briefings, scenario-based exercises, and the observatio

USS Gerald R Ford (CVN-78) ( Image source- Wikimedia Commons / Credits- United States Navy) Source- The National Interest Author- James Hasik Ever since I was a midshipman—way back under a Navy Secretary named Lehman—pundits, analysts, and strategists have been wondering whether the US Navy’s supercarriers are too big. And so again in 2015. The new Ford-class ships are a few billion more expensive than their Nimitz predecessors, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain is worked up about that price. The Navy and Newport News Shipbuilding argue that the cost is merited, as the newer ships promise more sorties per hour than those in the fleet today. Even so, Sam LaGrone of USNI News reports that the “Navy is Conducting an Alternative Carrier Study”. He quotes Navy Secretary Stackley, in testimony before McCain’s panel, telling of how the service wants to know Is there a sweet spot, something different other than today’s 100,000 ton carrier that woul

Malabar Exercises 2014 ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons, United States Navy / Author- Mass Communication Specialist Alonzo M. Archer) Source- The Diplomat Author- Robert Farley One of the potentially most interesting developments to emerge from President Obama’s recent trip to India was news that the United States and India have decided to embark on cooperative efforts with respect to naval aviation.  Of course, India and the United States already enjoy some degree of collaboration, as the U.S. has assisted the Indian Navy with pilot training and deck management for several years. Still, the open discussion of this relationship implies a more expansive, longer-term cooperative framework than has previous been clear. India has taken a much different road with its carrier force than the United States. It’s current carriers are transplants from the United Kingdom and Russia, albeit with significant modification.  Instead of pursuing a common design for its three carrie

USS Santa Fe ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States Navy) Source- The Diplomat Author- Franz- Stefan Gady The U.S. Navy’s dominant position in undersea warfare can no longer be taken for granted. “Emerging technologies present a serious challenge in that they may empower development of potential rival undersea forces and erode the stealth of U.S. submarines,” concludes a new report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA). The report, entitled “The Emerging Era in Undersea Warfare,” lays out the rapid changes occurring in the technological realm and how they will affect future combat under waters. While the report’s author, Bryan Clark, notes that the United States will have the opportunity to be the “first mover” and establish itself as a leader in this emerging new field within undersea warfare, he also unequivocally points out that the U.S. Navy will have to give up its current undersea warfare concepts due to the “vulnerability of to

USS America ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ United States Navy) Last week the U.S. Navy  accepted USS  America , first of the America -class amphibious assault ships, into service. Unlike most recent amphibious assault ships, USS  America  and her sister USS  Tripoli  lack well-decks, instead focusing on aviation facilities.  When fully operational,  America  and  Tripoli  will operate as many as 20 F-35Bs, potentially playing a critical role in what the Navy projects as the future of air superiority. Inevitably, the delivery of USS  America  rekindles the  ongoing conversation  over what, precisely, constitutes an aircraft carrier. In the United States, we endure the polite fiction that the USN’s 45,000 ton aircraft carriers are not aircraft carriers, but rather some other kind of creature.  USS  America  is roughly the same size as the French  Charles De Gaulle  and the INS Vikramaditya , although a bit smaller than the RFS  Admiral Kuzetsov  or her Chinese sister, the  L

USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), Image credits-Wikimedia commons/ United States Navy The aircraft carrier inventory question has always been up for debate, but it has largely centered on the number of hulls and not the physical size of each carrier. In an age of shrinking  ‪#‎ defense‬  budgets, smaller wars, and the  ‪#‎ Pacific‬   ‪#‎ Pivot‬ , the U.S. should ditch its supercarrier-only policy and build smaller, less expensive aircraft carriers. In 2010, the magic carrier question turned from more of a theoretical academic exercise to a hardcore fiscal one, with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates positing: "Does America need 11 plus super carriers when our competitors don't even have one?" This was the beginning of a painful process that would see America's defense apparatus attempt to rationalize its military might, much of which was built up over a decade of almost totally unbridled spending spurned by the events of 9/11, along with retaining costly elements of

USS Freedom ( Image Courtesy-Wikimedia commons/US Navy) The task force working to come up with ideas for the US Navy’s small surface combatant (SSC) got a major data download Thursday, as industry submitted their proposals for modified or entirely new designs. Both builders of littoral combat ships — Lockheed Martin and Austal USA — submitted ideas to modify their designs. Huntington Ingalls proposed frigate variants of its national security cutter design. And at least one outlier, General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, put in a bid. Companies were also invited to come up with ideas for the ship’s combat system. In separate proposals, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GD AIS) described systems and components to equip the SSC. The submissions were in response to two requests for information (RFIs) issued in April by the task force — a unit stood up in March to provide recommendations to Navy leadership by the end of July on p