Monday Morning Reading

When the President jumps out of a submarine hatch in uniform, we think it is noteworthy. No, not the President of the United States, rather the President of Russia. President Dmitry Medvedev recently took a short trip on one of Russia's nuclear submarines and also stressed the importance of new submarine construction for Russia. Makes sense, as we have noted in the past, Russia is spending %25 of its entire defense budget on shipbuilding programs, and 80% of that money is specific to building new ballistic missile submarines. Essentially, the Russian shipbuilding strategy has been to build the most expensive platforms first.

SteelJaw Scribe is noting the NOC will be released in October. The NOC will hold a full week as a theme on the blog. The NOC release will dominate the conversation once it happens, that is a safe prediction. I've been thinking about asking some big names in the business if they would be interested in giving a reaction to be published here. I'm not sure I could get anyone, but I figure asking couldn't hurt, and it beats those people getting quoted piecemeal by the media when they can lay out a full blown opinion.

An academic look at Evangelists and evangelical networks. I think it is a facinating topic.

Mike notes McCain brought up the LCS in the debate on Friday. Actually, what people may have forgot is that McCain has previously weighed in on the topic in this interview. If anyone has a link for any comments by Obama regarding the Navy or any Navy programs I'd be interested.

The Long War Jounral notes that the US and Iraqi forces have stepped up operations against Iranian terror groups. I still expect the IRGC to do something provokative in the Persian Gulf soon. Too much global market uncertainy right now, which is why I believe the timing is right.