From the monthly archives:
January 2011
The U.S. Navy in Egypt: A bright spot during dificult times
by Craig Hooper on January 28, 2011
As Egypt implodes, the incredible diplomatic resiliency of the Cairo-based U.S. Navy Medical Research Unit Number 3 (NAMRU-3), deserves another look. With the U.S. government scrambling to control the diplomatic damage in Egypt–and as the U.S. Embassy’s traditional friends in the cozy upper-echelon of Egyptian society pack up and leave–this Navy facility will still be […]
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Did RAND force the “Green Fleet” out of the State of the Union Address?
by Craig Hooper on January 27, 2011
With all the excitement over the East Coast snowstorm, the President’s State of the Union and AFCEA’s WEST 2011, Navy-types may have missed an interesting bit of DC bureaucratic theater–RAND’s preemptive strike at the DOD’s aggressive adoption/promotion of renewable energy–in a report released early in the week. I strongly suspect the perfectly-timed media coverage of […]
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Show, don’t tell: Circumspection over Virginia Class MIP/SHT woes
by Craig Hooper on January 21, 2011
Daily Press reporter Peter Frost broke the news yesterday that the Navy has put the Virginia-class submarines’ sloughing hull-coating problem “behind” them. Here’s parts of the interview (full story here): “Clearly we had problems on the early ships,” said Vice Adm. Kevin M. McCoy, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command, the Navy’s ship-buying and maintenance […]
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In Press: Talking carriers and INSURVs with the San Diego Union-Tribune
by Craig Hooper on January 20, 2011
Jeanette Steele, one of the better national security reporters working today, chatted with me about the USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), which will, in 2012, be headed off for a year’s maintenance in far-off Washington State. The story is here. This was big news for the San Diego region, which was all excited about being the […]
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In Press: Talking tankers with the Mobile Press-Register
by Craig Hooper on January 17, 2011
Had a nice chat about the T-AO(X) program with the Mobile Press-Register’s Jeff Amy last week, and the story dropped yesterday. Read it here. It’s a good article–making the best of a tough editorial assignment. Basically, the reporter was put to work assembling this story because some Gulf Coast folks hope that the money saved […]
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Australia’s Amphibs: Retire the old stuff and experiment!
by Craig Hooper on January 14, 2011
Australia has three creaky old amphibious vessels, the HMAS Tobruk, HMAS Kanimbla and HMAS Manoora. They are scheduled to retire over the next 8 years to be replaced in 2014-15 by the Canberra Class LHDs. Australia’s legacy amphibs are, at this point, feeble, unreliable platforms. They’ve done yeoman service, but, in September, the Kanimbla an […]
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CNO Admiral Roughead: An unsung healer of the civil-military divide
by Craig Hooper on January 12, 2011
We can point to the heartfelt speech CJCS Admiral Mullen just gave on military professionalism and the civil-military divide, and come away worried. Or, we can look at what CNO Admiral Roughead is doing over at Navy and feel a lot better about how things are going. As far as the civil-military divide goes, the […]
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French arms for sale: Reckless opportunism or glue for a future NATO?
by Craig Hooper on January 10, 2011
Back in 2008, In NDIA’s National Defense Magazine, I called for the purchase of the Mistral-class “projection and command” ships, noting that the acquisition of the vessels would be an ideal mix of capability and geopolitical utility. In what was a sidebar discussion of next-generation hospital ships, Jim Dolbow and I snuck in some geopolitical […]
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A national security meme to end: China and territorial expansion
by Craig Hooper on January 5, 2011
The Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University came out with a fantastic, information-packed study entitled “China’s out of area naval operations: Case studies, trajectories, obstacles and potential solutions” (ChinaStrategicPerspectives3). There is a lot of good, solid research here, and I commend the authors. It’s great, and my comments (those that follow […]
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Captain Owen P. Honors: Remember Navy, style has strategic value.
by Craig Hooper on January 3, 2011
Admiral Nimitz may have loved his raunchy jokes, cussed a blue streak and been all manner of weird in his private life. I don’t care. Why? Because Nimitz, when dealing with the public and his subordinates, understood his rank and role in the Navy demanded professional comportment. Even as a low-ranking commander of the ROTC […]
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