From the SSI: 2013-14 Key Strategic Issues List

The SSI has made the 2013-14 Key Strategic Issues List monograph available as a free download.

For several years, the Strategic Studies Institute has annually published the Key Strategic Issues List (KSIL). The overall purpose of this document is to make students and other researchers aware of strategic topics that are of special interest to the U.S. Army. Part I of KSIL is entitled "Army Priorities for Strategic Analysis" (APSA) and is a list of high-priority topics submitted by Headquarters, Department of the Army. Part II is entitled "Command Sponsored Topics" and represents the high-priority command-specific topics submitted by MACOMs and ASCCs. This KSIL provides military and civilian researchers worldwide a listing of the Army's most critical national security issues. The KSIL is developed by soliciting input from the appropriate elements of HQDA to develop the Army's high priority topics for strategic analysis. In addition, a similar solicitation is made to the Geographic Combatant Commands and Major Army Commands to identify their high-priority command-specific topics researchers can address. Topics for the APSA are organized to support the four imperatives and related objectives as identified in the "2013 Army Strategic Planning Guidance." Research on these topics will continue to contribute to the transition to the Army of the future. Part II of the KSIL incorporates many critical strategic issues that are both unique to the submitting organizations, and common to a number of commands. The intent of this document is to achieve greater fidelity and harmony between the research needs of the Department of Defense, and the considerable work done by the many different research assets.

By: Brant

File Under: "Empty Threats"?

Perhaps, but which action is the one to get filed there, the Chinese water grab, or the US overflight?

At a briefing in Beijing, the Foreign Ministry said the quiet reaction to what was a clear test by the United States of the new zone was “in accordance” with the rules announced by the Chinese Defense Ministry. China’s response to foreign aircraft in the new zone would depend on “how big the threat” was, the spokesman said.

Japan’s main civilian airlines also disregarded the new defense zone Wednesday, flying through the airspace claimed by China without notifying the Beijing authorities.

Tensions in the region have escalated since Beijing published a map of a new “air defense identification zone” on Saturday that overlapped with an air defense zone of its archrival, Japan, increasing the possibility of an encounter between Japanese and Chinese aircraft and heightening the dispute over islands in the East China Sea that both countries claim.

The Chinese declaration brought the United States, a treaty ally of Japan, directly into the dispute when Washington dispatched the B-52 bombers to the area overnight Monday.

The abrupt declaration by China of its air defense zone unnerved Asian countries and was criticized by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan as a “dangerous attempt” to change the status quo in the East China Sea by coercion.

China said it would require foreign aircraft flying through the zone to identify themselves or face possible military interception. The Pentagon said the B-52 bombers, which took off from Guam, were on a long-planned exercise, but Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that Washington had no intention of changing its procedures by notifying China of United States Air Force flights through the zone.

The Chinese Ministry of Defense, which released the coordinates of the new zone, said Wednesday that it had monitored the flight path of the two B-52 bombers and noted that they flew about 125 miles east of the Diaoyu Islands from 11 a.m. to 1:22 p.m. on Tuesday. The disputed islands in the East China Sea are known as the Diaoyu by China and as the Senkaku by Japan.

“China has the ability to implement effective management and control of the airspace,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

By: Brant

Complete US Withdrawal From Afghanistan?

Well, if Karzai keeps shooting his mouth off... maybe we just say "fuckit" and bring everyone home.

On Sunday, an assembly of Afghan elders, known as the Loya Jirga, endorsed the security pact, but Karzai suggested he might not sign it until after national elections next spring.

The impasse strengthens questions about whether any U.S. and NATO troops will remain after the end of next year in Afghanistan, which faces a still-potent insurgency waged by Taliban militants and is still training its own military.

Karzai's defiance has surprised the many who had attended the Loya Jirga, which he had proclaimed would have the final word on the security deal.

A senior politician in Kabul said it appeared that Karzai's reluctance to let the deal go through stemmed from his eagerness to keep his hands on the levers of power in the run-up to a presidential election in April, when he is due to stand down.

"He is now in confrontation with his own nation as well as the United States," said the politician, who asked not to be named.

He added that the president's demand for no U.S. meddling in the coming election suggested that Karzai could be looking to ensure he has room to influence the outcome himself.

By: Brant

The Myth of "No Easy War"

Foreign Policy has an interesting article by Scott Gerber called No More Easy Wars that opens with a compelling question.

Why is the myth of easy war so appealing to American strategists?

Now, the article has a variety of good answers, but I ask you, gentle reader - what's your answer? Tell us before you go read the article, and then tell us how well your idea compares to what he said.

We'll come back to my answer another day. (Someone remind me; I might forget to come back to it)

By: Brant

DoD Pushing Back on China's "Expansion"

Following China's belligerent landsea grab toward Japan and Okinawa, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel released the following statement on the East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone.

The United States is deeply concerned by the People's Republic of China announcement today that it is establishing an air defense identification zone in the East China Sea. We view this development as a destabilizing attempt to alter the status quo in the region. This unilateral action increases the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculations.

This announcement by the People's Republic of China will not in any way change how the United States conducts military operations in the region.

The United States is conveying these concerns to China through diplomatic and military channels, and we are in close consultation with our allies and partners in the region, including Japan.

We remain steadfast in our commitments to our allies and partners. The United States reaffirms its longstanding policy that Article V of the U.S.-Japan Mutual Defense Treaty applies to the Senkaku Islands.

By: Brant

Coming Trends in Future Warfare

An interesting summation of a talk by Dr Kilcullen, from The New America Blog, looking at the future of warfare.

According to Dr. Kilcullen, there are four environmental “mega- trends” that will be critical in planning future operational strategies. First, the continuing increase in the world’s population in the next generation will change the global landscape. Dr. Kilcullen noted that most studies that record this data predict that the world’s population will accelerate until it reaches around 9.5 billion around the year 2050, meaning that another 3 billion people will arrive before then. Second, the urbanization of that population means that these people will not be evenly distributed over the globe. Based on his research, Dr. Kilcullen believes that around two-thirds of the world’s population will reside in cities, and notably, that population will be aggregated in the developing world. Third, the littoralization (the movement of people from rural, inland areas to the coast) of those densely populated cities will be critical in terms of conflict patterns. Today, around 80 percent of the world’s population lives within 50 miles of the coast and Dr. Kilcullen predicts that this number will only increase. Fourth, and perhaps most significant, the connectivity of the world’s population is rapidly changing, enabling greater access to information and a higher ability to organize among non-state groups.

There's also this interesting quote, too

Dr. Kilcullen noted that since around 1846 until today, the U.S. military has very rarely become involved in state-on-state conflicts. Instead, the United States has engaged with non-state armed group adversaries, a trend completely independent of presidential political preference and one that is growing globally.

I've been saying since 2002 that the excuse of "The US Army doesn't do COIN/small wars/whatever you want to call them" is bunk. We've done it on our own western frontier, in the Philippines (several times), in Central America, in Greece, on the Mexican border, in Africa, all over. Some overt, some not. But to say we "don't do it" because training for a Red invasion of Western Europe is both (a) easier and (b) sexier is ignoring the bulk of US military history.


By: Brant

The Limits of the Use of Power

The Economist has an interesting geo-political look at the uses and limits of force and the real threats to US power.

Seen from Washington, the main threat to America’s armed forces is to be found not in Helmand or Hainan but in the automatic budget cuts of the sequester. This roughly doubles the savings that will have to come from the Pentagon’s budget in the next nine years, to about $1 trillion.

During the summer Chuck Hagel, the defence secretary, mapped out a possible first round of cuts: shrinking the army by up to 110,000 troops from its current target of 490,000; and losing possibly two of ten aircraft-carriers, as well as bombers and transport aircraft. The alternative, Mr Hagel said, was to cut spending on modernisation.

Cut, but not to the quick
Inevitably, the proposed cuts have stirred up a hornets’ nest. But just how bad are they? In the ten years to 2011, when America was at war, pay and benefits for the army increased by 57% in real terms. The number of support staff, too, grew rapidly. Because Congress will not touch this large and politically sensitive part of the budget, the cuts must be borne elsewhere.

That is a foolish way to run an army. However, even without the sequester, much of the enormous build-up in spending after the attacks of September 11th 2001 should be going into reverse. Moreover, America’s military might will remain unchallenged, even after the cuts. Just after Mr Hagel set out his ideas, the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress about the Pentagon’s revised plans for potential wars around the world. Large invasions may be out, but it can draw on quick-reaction forces and stealth air power and ships. And not only does it outspend most of the rest of the world combined on conventional defence (see chart 3), it also has a formidable nuclear arsenal and the wherewithal for cyber-warfare.

By: Brant

Karzai Shoots of Mouth; Foot Next?

While admitting that Afghanistan needs US security deal he simultaneously insults us.

A Loya Jirga, or grand council, involving about 2,500 delegates convened a day after Karzai and Washington reached agreement on a pact defining the shape of the U.S. military presence after a 2014 drawdown of a multinational NATO force.

"My trust with America is not good. I don't trust them and they don't trust me," Karzai told the assembly. "During the past 10 years I have fought with them and they have made propaganda against me."

Is it propaganda to admit that you're an ineffective, corrupt, unloved figurehead who is little more than a warlord with a grandiose title who outright refuses to tackle the problems of his own underlings while simultaneously accosting others for the same failing?

It is?

OK then, we're making propaganda against you.

Oh yeah, it's true, too, if that matters at all.

By: Brant

Anniversary: The Gettysburg Address

Today marks the anniversary of the delivery of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

What's the best post-battle / commemorative speech? By: Brant

Four Female Marines to Graduate Infantry School

The first female Marines to graduate enlisted infantry training will wrap up this week.

Four women will graduate this week from the Marine Corps’ enlisted infantry training course, Marine Corps Times has learned.

Their successful completion of the program, confirmed Monday by a Marine official with knowledge of ongoing efforts to determine what additional ground combat jobs should open to women, is a historic milestone, one that would suggest at least some female Marines posses both the physical strength and acumen to keep pace with their male counterparts on the battlefield. A graduation ceremony is scheduled for Thursday at Camp Geiger, N.C.

The four women are assigned to Delta Company, Infantry Training Battalion, which is part of the Marine Corps’ School of Infantry–East. Fifteen women began the 59-day course Sept. 24. By Oct. 28. the beginning of the grueling 12½-mile march — what many consider the course’s most strenuous event — there were seven women remaining, along with 246 men.. It’s not immediately clear how many men passed the course.

Throughout the training, female students were held to the same standards as men, Marine officials said. For example, during the 12½-mile march, all students were required to haul almost 90-pounds of combat gear. The women assigned to Delta Company also were required to perform pull-ups — not a flexed-arm hang — during their Physical Fitness Test.

By: Brant

Major Aviation Exercise Underway in South America

The Aviationist has a nice article about Cruzex 2013 in Brazil.

About 90 airplanes and nine helicopters, and more than 2,000 Brazilian and foreign military personnel are currently taking part to Cruzex 2013, South America’s largest military exercise this year.

Hosted by the airbases of Natal and Recife, in the north of Brazil, the international drills organized by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) is attended by the air forces of Canada, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. It could have been even larger if Argentina would not drop out at last moment.

By: Brant

US Carrier Group Arrives off Leyte

The USS George Washington is now on station and the support is getting underway in earnest.

A US aircraft carrier and its escort of two cruisers have arrived off the Philippines coast to help communities devastated by Typhoon Haiyan.

The top US commander in the Philippines told the BBC that US military support would be on an unprecedented scale.

Officials have begun burying some typhoon victims in mass graves. The confirmed death toll stands at more than 2,300 but is likely to rise.

The UN says some 11 million people have been affected by the typhoon.

By: Brant


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US Relief Headed to Philippines

The DoD is sending US support to the Republic of the Philippines.

Statement from Pentagon Press Secretary George Little on Additional DOD Support to the Republic of the Philippines

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has ordered the aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN 73) and other U.S. Navy ships to make best speed for the Republic of the Philippines.

The aircraft carrier, which carries 5,000 sailors and more than 80 aircraft, is currently in Hong Kong for a port visit. The crew is being recalled early from shore leave and the ship is expected to be underway later this evening.

In company with the carrier will be the cruisers USS Antietam (CG 54) and USS Cowpens (CG 63), and the destroyer USS Mustin (DDG 89). The supply ship USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE-10) is already underway and will rendezvous with the group as they get closer. USS Lassen (DDG 82) got underway yesterday for the region. Embarked on board USS George Washington, is Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5).

CVW-5 is a collection of aircraft designed to perform various functions including disaster relief and includes the "Golden Falcons" of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 12 flying the MH-60S Seahawk; and the "Saberhawks" of Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 77 flying the MH-60R Seahawk.

As needed, these ships and aircraft will be able to provide humanitarian assistance, supplies, and medical care in support of the ongoing efforts led by the government and military of the Republic of the Philippines.

The ships should be on station within 48-72 hours. The Defense Department is continuing to work closely with the Philippine government to determine what, if any, additional assets may be required.

By: Brant

Mike Royko on Veterans' Day

Mike Royko is a WWII Veteran who was a newspaper columnist for a lot of years. This column has been in circulation for over a decade, but it should be required reading every Veterans' Day.

I just phoned six friends and asked them what they will be doing on Monday.

They all said the same thing: working.

Me, too.

There is something else we share. We are all military veterans.

And there is a third thing we have in common. We are not employees of the federal government, state government, county government, municipal government, the Postal Service, the courts, banks, or S & Ls, and we don’t teach school.

If we did, we would be among the many millions of people who will spend Monday goofing off.

Which is why it is about time Congress revised the ridiculous terms of Veterans Day as a national holiday.

The purpose of Veterans Day is to honor all veterans.

So how does this country honor them?…

…By letting the veterans, the majority of whom work in the private sector, spend the day at their jobs so they can pay taxes that permit millions of non-veterans to get paid for doing nothing.

As my friend Harry put it:

“First I went through basic training. Then infantry school. Then I got on a crowded, stinking troop ship that took 23 days to get from San Francisco to Japan. We went through a storm that had 90 percent of the guys on the ship throwing up for a week.

“Then I rode a beat-up transport plane from Japan to Korea, and it almost went down in the drink. I think the pilot was drunk.

“When I got to Korea, I was lucky. The war ended seven months after I got there, and I didn’t kill anybody and nobody killed me.

“But it was still a miserable experience. Then when my tour was over, I got on another troop ship and it took 21 stinking days to cross the Pacific.

“When I got home on leave, one of the older guys at the neighborhood bar — he was a World War II vet — told me I was a —-head because we didn’t win, we only got a tie.

“So now on Veterans Day I get up in the morning and go down to the office and work.

“You know what my nephew does? He sleeps in. That’s because he works for the state.

“And do you know what he did during the Vietnam War? He ducked the draft by getting a job teaching at an inner-city school.

“Now, is that a raw deal or what?”

Of course that’s a raw deal. So I propose that the members of Congress revise Veterans Day to provide the following:

- All veterans — and only veterans — should have the day off from work. It doesn’t matter if they were combat heroes or stateside clerk-typists.

Anybody who went through basic training and was awakened before dawn by a red-neck drill sergeant who bellowed: “Drop your whatsis and grab your socks and fall out on the road,” is entitled.

- Those veterans who wish to march in parades, make speeches or listen to speeches can do so. But for those who don’t, all local gambling laws should be suspended for the day to permit vets to gather in taverns, pull a couple of tables together and spend the day playing poker, blackjack, craps, drinking and telling lewd lies about lewd experiences with lewd women. All bar prices should be rolled back to enlisted men’s club prices, Officers can pay the going rate, the stiffs.

- All anti-smoking laws will be suspended for Veterans Day. The same hold for all misdemeanor laws pertaining to disorderly conduct, non-felonious brawling, leering, gawking and any other gross and disgusting public behavior that does not harm another individual.

- It will be a treasonable offense for any spouse or live-in girlfriend (or boyfriend, if it applies) to utter the dreaded words: “What time will you be home tonight?”

- Anyone caught posing as a veteran will be required to eat a triple portion of chipped beef on toast, with Spam on the side, and spend the day watching a chaplain present a color-slide presentation on the horrors of VD.

- Regardless of how high his office, no politician who had the opportunity to serve in the military, but didn’t, will be allowed to make a patriotic speech, appear on TV, or poke his nose out of his office for the entire day.

Any politician who defies this ban will be required to spend 12 hours wearing headphones and listening to tapes of President Clinton explaining his deferments.

Now, deal the cards and pass the tequila.

- Mike Royko

By: Brant

Pentagon Releases Required Report on Progress in Afghanistan

The DoD has released the latest report on "progress" in Afghanistan. Or lack thereof. Lets hope they don't confuse "activity" with "progress"...

The November 2013 “Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan,” a report to Congress in accordance with Section 1230 and 1231 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2008 (Public Law 110-181), as amended; to include section 1221 of the NDAA for FY 2012 (Public Law 112-81); and sections 1212, 1223, and 1531(d) of the NDAA for FY 2013 (Public Law 112-239) was provided today to Congress.

While the insurgency remains resilient there has been a fundamental shift in the course of the conflict. “Afghan security forces are now successfully providing security for their own people, fighting their own battles, and holding their own against the insurgency,” according to Pentagon Press Secretary George Little.

The Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) continue to progress and they now conduct 95 percent of conventional operations and 98 percent of special operations in Afghanistan. This year marked the first fighting season with Afghan forces in the lead for security operations throughout the country. The only unilateral operations that International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) continues to conduct are ISAF force protection, route clearance, and redeployment.

“The fact that the ANSF – a force in its infancy five years ago – has maintained the gains made by a coalition of 50 nations, with the best trained and equipped forces in the world, is a major accomplishment,” said Little.

The report is posted at http://www.defense.gov/pubs/October_1230_Report_Master_Nov7.pdf.

By: Brant

Happy Birthday to the US Marine Corps

on 10 November, 1775, Samuel Nicholas founded the USMC.

What do you think is your most touching story of Marine valor or heroism? Sound off in the comments below!

By: Brant

Navy to Christen Aircraft Carrier Gerald R. Ford on Saturday

The Navy is launching its newest aircraft carrier - the USS Gerald R. Ford - this weekend.

Navy to Christen Aircraft Carrier Gerald R. Ford

The Navy will christen its newest aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford, Saturday, Nov. 9, during an 11 a.m. EST ceremony at the Huntington-Ingalls Industries Newport News shipyard, Newport News, Va.

Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee will deliver the ceremony's principal address. Susan Ford Bales, daughter of the 38th President Gerald R. Ford, will serve as the ship's sponsor, break a champagne bottle against a plate welded to the hull, and officially christen the ship Gerald R. Ford.

The Gerald R. Ford, designated CVN 78, honors the late president who guided the nation through the end of the Vietnam War and the Bicentennial of American Independence. President Ford served aboard USS Monterey (CVL-26) in the Pacific during World War II, and was the first President to serve aboard an aircraft carrier.

“The christening of USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) marks an important milestone in both the life of this ship and the development of our future fleet; a fleet built on the innovation that makes our Navy and Marine Corps team the finest expeditionary fighting force the world has ever known,” said Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus.

Gerald R. Ford is the lead ship of the Gerald R. Ford class, the first new aircraft carrier design in more than 40 years. The Gerald R. Ford class will eventually replace all Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. The Ford class is designed to provide increased warfighting capability with approximately 700 fewer crewmembers for decreased total ownership cost.

Ford will be the first aircraft carrier to deploy with the electromagnetic aircraft launching system, advanced arresting gear, dual band radar, and all electric auxiliaries. Gerald R. Ford is designed for a 50-year service life with one mid-life refueling complex overhaul.

By: Brant

Pakistan Upset Over Taliban Killing

Not "killings conducted by the Taliban" but rather "the killing of a top Taliban leader"...

Pakistan is to review its relationship with the United States, the prime minister's office said on Sunday, following the killing of the Pakistani Taliban leader in a U.S. drone strike.

But a top-level meeting to examine relations, scheduled for Sunday, was postponed at the last minute without explanation.

Mehsud, who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, was killed on Friday in the northwestern Pakistani militant stronghold of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

The Pakistani Taliban have killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and members of the security forces in their bid to impose Islamist rule, but the new government has been calling for peace talks.

The government denounced Mehsud's killing as a U.S. bid to derail the talks and summoned the U.S. ambassador on Saturday to complain.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office had said he would chair a meeting on the consequences for ties with Washington. There was no indication when it might now take place.

Some politicians have demanded that U.S. military supply lines into Afghanistan be blocked in response.

So let's get this clear - we put a hole in a guy who was wanted for killing people in at least 2 countries, who was hiding in a part of your country where you are powerless to do jack-all about it, and with whom you're trying to cut some sort of treaty so they'll quit killing people, and it's our problem he's dead?

You're welcome, bitches.

By: Brant

Pakistan Upset Over Taliban Killing

Not "killings conducted by the Taliban" but rather "the killing of a top Taliban leader"...

Pakistan is to review its relationship with the United States, the prime minister's office said on Sunday, following the killing of the Pakistani Taliban leader in a U.S. drone strike.

But a top-level meeting to examine relations, scheduled for Sunday, was postponed at the last minute without explanation.

Mehsud, who had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head, was killed on Friday in the northwestern Pakistani militant stronghold of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border.

The Pakistani Taliban have killed thousands of Pakistani civilians and members of the security forces in their bid to impose Islamist rule, but the new government has been calling for peace talks.

The government denounced Mehsud's killing as a U.S. bid to derail the talks and summoned the U.S. ambassador on Saturday to complain.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's office had said he would chair a meeting on the consequences for ties with Washington. There was no indication when it might now take place.

Some politicians have demanded that U.S. military supply lines into Afghanistan be blocked in response.

So let's get this clear - we put a hole in a guy who was wanted for killing people in at least 2 countries, who was hiding in a part of your country where you are powerless to do jack-all about it, and with whom you're trying to cut some sort of treaty so they'll quit killing people, and it's our problem he's dead?

You're welcome, bitches.

By: Brant