Key Points NATO is seeing Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic return to Cold War levels Russian submarines have also made a major jump in technical capability, according to NATO’s top naval commander Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic is currently equalling or even surpassing Cold War levels, according to NATO’s top naval…
Category: Tactics
Evolving the Marine Corps for Irregular Warfare
The concept of an evolution to a new type of warfare has been understood for decades, but the U.S. military, the Marine Corps included, has failed to adapt to the changing methods of waging war. The type of warfare that goes by the names irregular, counterinsurgency, low-intensity, and hybrid, among others, is not new…
Welcome to the Age of the Commando
A FEW months ago, my wife and I had dinner with a couple we didn’t know very well. It was awkward at first, but there was wine, and conversation soon followed. At one point, the wife asked about my tour in Iraq, where I served four years as a cavalry officer. I began talking about…
WW I History: Operation China Snow, The Top Secret Mission of Germany’s Zeppelin L59
“The mission would be a risky one – no airship had ever flown such a distance.” TO DESCRIBE Germany’s Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck as a thorn in the side of the British Empire is something of an understatement. Beginning in 1914, the dashing 34-year-old Prussian lieutenant-colonel led a rag-tag band of 3,000 regulars and 10,000 colonial troops…
This is How WW3 Starts
Russian Fighter Conducts Dangerous Intercept of U.S. Recon Jet Pentagon calls Black Sea aerial provocation ‘unsafe and unprofessional’ A Russian Su-27 jet fighter came within 20 feet of a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea on Monday in Moscow’s latest military provocation involving dangerous aerial encounters. “On Jan. 25 an RC-135 aircraft flying…
Chinese Military Revamps Cyber and Intelligence Capabilities
This story reminds me of Paul Newman’s famous line in the scene from Cool Hand Luke where the “Road Boss” with the Mirror sun glasses Shoots a bird flying with a rifle with one shot: “That man don’t say much, but I think he just said something right there….” The Chinese are continuously making statements…
Preparing for the Next BIG War
As a footnote to this this list I would add the ability for our Military and Intelligence Agencies to Operate within the same parameters as the Russian, Chinese and Iranian Military operates; in a “hybrid” 4th Generational Capacity, where war is waged against your adversary in every facet of their society; Financial, Social, Political, Religious…
Regimes and Revolt: Authoritarian Ways of Counterinsurgency
Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from the author’s article in the Journal of Strategic Studies, “‘The People are Revolting’: An Anatomy of Authoritarian Counterinsurgency.” Scores of dead civilians, smoldering wastelands where villages used to be, a cowering people, and a regime thriving on tyranny and fear — these are the images evoked by the mention…
6 Lessons Being a Military Pilot Taught Me For Life
These are all tried and true Principles that every Armed Civilian can use..think about them and how they are all Applicable to you personally. -SF Lessons from being a military aviator can make your life better, Carl Forsling, a former MV-22B Osprey pilot, writes. Being a military pilot has some skills that cross over to…
Examining the Future of Ground, Naval and Air Combat
The following are three articles from the Cipher Brief I collated into one big article for the convenience of reading it in one sitting. These are good, relevant and succinct articles with little fluff.-SF Ground Warfare After the United States emerged from the Vietnam War, it witnessed the events of the 1973 Yom…