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Russian President Vladimir Putin
To understand what President Vladimir Putin may do in the future, the author of a new book on today’s Russia said Americans need to understand why and how he became a national hero by brutally suppressing separatists in Moscow’s second war in Chechnya. Read More
USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) on May 20, 2016. US Navy Photo
There has been a lively debate in recent years over whether the appurtenance of American military might—the supercarrier—will be rendered irrelevant, even obsolescent, by the burgeoning anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) systems of the likes of China and Russia should war ever break out between them and Washington. This state of affairs is not helped by a glaring capability shortfall the U.S. Navy faces currently and in the foreseeable future: the lack of a carrier-based deep-strike aircraft due to the relatively short “legs” of its mainstay Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet attack fighter as well as the upcoming Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Read More
USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) transits the Atlantic Ocean during acceptance trials April 21, 2016. US Navy Photo
ABOARD GUIDED MISSILE DESTROYER ZUMWALT – One of the most conspicuous ships in the Navy is among the least understood. Read More
U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment , Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Crisis Response Central Command 16.2, participate in a live fire range during Exercise Eager Lion 16 at King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Center, Kingdom of Jordan on May 17, 2016. US Marine Corps Photo
The Marine Corps needs to push the envelope now during a so-called inter-war period – pursuing better technology, tighter international partnerships, higher manpower levels – to be ready whenever and wherever the next war breaks out, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps said this week at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2016. Read More
Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall in 2012. Department of Defense Photo
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The Pentagon’s top weapons’ buyer said the Fiscal Year 2017 president’s budget paid in the research and development projects to “buy some options” for the U.S. to retain its military technological superiority. Read More
The following is a May 16, 2016 U.S. Navy video in which Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson outlines the roles and the future challenges of the service. The audio is an edited version of a speech Richardson has delivered several times this year when presenting overviews of the current state of the service and its potential threats. Read More
The following is the April 13, 2016 Congressional Research Service report, Arms Control and Nonproliferation: A Catalog of Treaties and Agreements. Read More
Ralph Johnson (DDG-114) launching at the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard on Dec. 12, 2015. HII Photo
An ongoing force structure assessment and the goals of the next presidential administration will likely give the service’s latest long-range shipbuilding plan an unusually short shelf life. Read More
Russian T-72B Main Battle Tank in 2013. Russian Ministry of Defence Photo
In late April Russia shipped the first 20 of 50 T-72B tanks ordered by Nicaragua—causing a Cold War Back to the Future moment for Latin America watchers. Read More
Two Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft fly over the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) on Apr. 12, 2016. US Navy Photo
This piece is based on the recently released Atlantic Council Issue Brief “A Maritime Framework for the Baltic Sea Region” by Magnus Nordenman and Franklin D. Kramer.
The Baltic Sea region has emerged as one of the friction zones between an aggressive Russia and the United States and its NATO allies in northeastern Europe. Recently the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) was twice buzzed by Russian Sukhoi Su-24 Fencers during an exercise in the Baltic Sea. The Cook incident is just the most recent of a string of close encounters between Russia and the West at sea and in the air over the Baltic Sea over the last two years. Read More
