Tag Archives: Russia

Opinion: It’s Time to Rethink U.S. Carrier CONOPS

Opinion: It’s Time to Rethink U.S. Carrier CONOPS

USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) on May 20, 2016. US Navy

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

Paxton: Marines Must Prepare Manning Level, Partnerships Now For Next Conflict

Paxton: Marines Must Prepare Manning Level, Partnerships Now For Next Conflict

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

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

Analysis: Baltic Sea Heating Up as Friction Point Between U.S., NATO and Russia

Analysis: Baltic Sea Heating Up as Friction Point Between U.S., NATO and Russia

Two Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft fly over the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) on Apr. 12, 2016. US Navy Photo

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

Russian Flyby of USS Donald Cook Highlights International Tension in the Baltics

Russian Flyby of USS Donald Cook Highlights International Tension in the Baltics

160412-N-00000-007 BALTIC SEA – A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft makes a low altitude pass by the USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) April 12, 2016. Donald Cook, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, forward deployed to Rota, Spain is conducting a routine patrol in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe. (U.S. Navy photo/Released) 160412-N-

A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft makes a low altitude pass by the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) on April 12, 2016. US Navy Photo
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The fly-by of the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) in the Baltic Sea by Russian Sukhoi Su-24 Fencers on two separate occasions earlier this week serves as a dramatic reminder of the Baltic Sea region as a friction zone between Russia and the U.S. and its NATO allies. Read More