Piracy? In the IRTC?

The above title refers to the reaction HNLMS Tromp got from a yacht sailing in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor. From the twitter account of the CO of the Tromp:

Encountered a small sailing yacht in the IRTC, when queried it stated “what do you mean piracy?” welcome to the real world.

I would have loved being able to see the look on the face of the crew member that made the inquiry when he got that answer.

Another nice one was the dhow that was behaving suspiciously. Turned out it was because everyone aboard was asleep.

The Japanese Refueling Decision

Check out this interesting account of the domestic political context of Japan's decision to allow its Indian Ocean refueling mission to lapse.

Chile Earthquake

I'm sure many of you guys have already heard this news. In case you have not, you can check some of the latest on the different news sites and channels. I don't have much to say at the moment other than let's keep the Chilean people in our prayers. And I hope that the international community can help Chileans as much as Haitians.

Expeditionary Warrior - Conclusion

Expeditionary Warrior: Concluding Thoughts

Assembling a seabase was a good solution to a finite campaign when lots of forces and material need to be brought ashore. After the initial movement, the seabase can be reduced to those platforms you need to support operations ashore with logistics, command and control, medical, hot chow, PX, aircraft maintenance, etc. There are conditions of security situations ashore, or a desire for a limited footprint ashore that naturally leads you to conduct operations from a seabase.

We are currently building what is lately called MPF-Transitional. It will have:

1. Selective off-load capability of cargo and vehicles, pull out the right pallet in a matter of minutes, at sea.
2. Ability to use lots of different kinds of connector boats. LCAC’s, LCU’s, riverine boats, international navies’ boats.
3. Additional Berthing. The Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) has 1,100 racks.
4. Vehicle Transfer: The VTS will allow us to transfer vehicles skin to skin at sea.

Concerns:
1. The hospital ships are going away soon, with no programmed replacements.
2. Connectors, connectors, connectors: will we have enough LCU’s, LCAC’s, raider craft, riverine craft, etc. Will they work together?
3. Incorporating other nations. Lots of other nations are building amphibs with great capabilities. We will need to be able to work with them.

Thanks a lot for reading this week. Sorry if the posts were too long; if I had more time, they would have been shorter.

Move 5 - Red Teaming

In Move 5 of Expeditionary Warrior 2010, our Red Team analysts told us how they would degrade, disable or attack the seabase.

1. It is harder to attack a seabase than it is a land base for your typical bad guy ground force.
2. The difficulty of attacking the seabase will cause opposing forces to attack the connector boats ferrying supplies and forces ashore and back.
3. OpFor will use bad weather and sea state to their advantage.
4. During HA or NEO, the OpFor will attempt to overwhelm aid distribution points, medical stations, evacuation points, etc., in order to show our inadequacy.
5. The trends of technology will make unmanned aircraft, vehicles and boats as well as anti-ship missiles smaller and cheaper.
6. Rumor or whisper campaigns counter to our efforts are more difficult to detect and counteract from a seabase.
7. U.S. forces will be continually filmed while ashore, for opportunities to show us as cruel, uncaring, inadequate, etc.

Based on these observations from the Red team, it would seem like we need to develop:

1. Seabase and connector force protection practices and craft.
2. Increase our ability to operate in rougher weather.
3. Develop international standards for connector craft.

The game will wrap up today, I'll try to collect thoughts to a conclusion post, stay tuned!