Observing Recent Headlines

The photo is the IDAS missile breaking the surface, seen from the U33's periscope, story here.

The USNS Mercy (T-AH 19) helicopter took a bullet yesterday, and it has stalled the humanitarian mission. Maybe we need to paint the helicopters that go on Pacific Partnership white, and go after the shooter for violations of the Geneva Convention. Just kidding... sortof. Wouldn't matter, painting the helicopter white won't mean a damn thing to terrorists, highlighting a serious problem facing the peacetime Navy. Law of the Sea is only one of many legal mechanisms the Navy needs the US government to get the international community to take more seriously during the long war.

The USS Boxer (LHD 4) has arrived in Peru as it continues its SOUTHCOM humanitarian deployment to the Pacific side of South America. Coming up later this summer is the deployment of the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) which will deploy to the Caribbean Sea on essentially the same humanitarian mission profile to a different region. We are aware of a few marketing outreach programs the Navy is putting on during the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) deployment, so we are definitely looking forward to observing that deployment. Telling the soft power, peacetime strategy mission of the Navy is difficult to do unless someone is there to highlight the big picture, hopefully we will get a peek into that picture with the extra outreach.

Brookings is giving some advice to the Navy regarding how to fix the Littoral Combat Ship program. It is an interesting read, but at the end of the day, we still believe motherships should be big not small, so it isn't the program that is flawed so much as the conceptual vision of how technology will change the maritime environment. We will give Brookings credit though, they are asking good questions and giving good advice.

Mike Burleson's latest editorial is out, and he has set his sights on the DDG-1000 with the catchy title New Destroyer is "Navy's Next Major Debacle". By our count, that makes three weeks in a row we start a new week with a less than favorable editorial in regards to the current direction of the Navy. I'm starting to see a pattern.

As we continue to think about Grand Strategy, insert this very interesting piece by Thomas Barnett, who highlights that while Saudi Arabia may be the center of the world when it comes to oil, the United States is the center of the world when it comes to food. There is a perfect storm coming that includes high energy demand, high food demand, and a changing climate that effects both in different ways. If you think about it, only massive worldwide death prevents this collision, in other words, the price of world peace since WWII will soon impact the planet. It is a real shame that both political candidates working to be the next president have energy plans that reduce the food supply for more energy. We have to grow, we have to drill, and we need to start thinking about how to adapt to climate change instead of thinking man can play God and control the climate of a planet, such human arrogance has no place in responsible governance. We continue to observe an enormous demonstration of political stupidity by the collective political elites in the United States, the absence of vision in full living color sacrificed to the gods of ideology.

When we were talking about Proceedings last week, a Naval officer in the comments mentioned he did not see the value of Proceedings. That is unfortunate. When we first started blogging last year, we covered articles in Proceedings every month, and while we haven't done so the last few months, we intend to get back on track. Proceedings is critical to the discussion not only in the Navy, but the entire maritime environment if not the entire US armed forces. This month John D. Christie has an article available to non-members. This is an important article as we look to the future, DOD on a Glide Path to Bankruptcy is a reminder that the greatest danger to the defense of our nation is in fact ourselves. A great read, a must read.