Monthly Archives: July 2012
Distant Corner Lab
Crossing the Baltic Sea recently from Gdynia to Karlskrona, both major naval bases, I had the opportunity to observe ships of both the Polish and Swedish navies. By coincidence, I had just finished reading Tom Kristiansen and Rolf Hobson book Navies in Northern Waters. I began to wonder how a big navy could benefit by observing these small fleets. [...]
Read MoreSea Ghost Enters the Fray
On Friday Lockheed Martin announced its entrant, the Sea Ghost, in the hunt for the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) contract. On Sunday, Northrop Grumman’s X-47B, winner of the contract to demonstrate the feasibility of a carrier-based drone “launched from Pax River and flew for a planned 35 minutes. The aircraft reached an [...]
Read MoreDivers Find Sunken WWII German U-boat off Nantucket
Divers using side-scan sonar on Monday found the wreck of U-550. This discovery is a reminder that the oceans that flank America, and have often shielded the nation from the direct wrath of enemies, are not impregnable. NBC news provides an account of the naval action that sent the U-boat to the bottom: On April 16, [...]
Read MoreChina’s Maritime Policies: An Opportunity for Canada
By Joelle Westlund In some ways overshadowed by events elsewhere in its maritime claims, China added fuel the regional fire that has characterized its relations with neighbouring states for the last several decades on July 10th. This time it did so by launching a naval exercise in the waters near the Zhoushan islands in the [...]
CIMSEC July Meet-Up
If you’re in the DC area next Tuesday, we hope you’ll stop by RFD in Chinatown for our July meet-up. Come by to swap ideas, meet some interesting people (and I do mean interesting), and catch up over a beer or mussels. Look for an ongoing game of battleship. All are welcome – interesting ideas doubly [...]
Read MoreA Busy Week in the South China Sea
It’s been a busy week for the South China Sea. For those of you keeping score at home, these are some of the news stories we’ve been following: 1. Post-ASEAN fall-out: After ASEAN failed last week to release a joint communiqué for the first time in 45 years, Cambodia is looking to some [...]
The Maple Leaf Model
Canada’s Plans for Power Projection For nations with a global outlook, the ability to respond to contingencies around the world has often been a mix of necessity and choice. Nations dependent on overseas trade or empires for their livelihood have found it a requirement to establish on distant shores the means to protect their prerogatives. [...]
Crimea River – Will the Syrian Conflict spread into the Black Sea?
As Russia continues to conduct port visits and provide weapons to Syria amidst the violence, it does so with a preponderance of transits through the Turkish Straits. The Montreux Convention of 1937 set forth guidelines for warship transit in the Dardanelles Straits, for which, Turkey was established as gatekeeper. Black Sea littoral nations are permitted [...]