We open this issue with what we intend to be an occasional feature that we're calling "Crossing Swords," a point/counterpoint discussion of a national issue or an issue of importance to the Sea Services. The matter to be debated this month-and it should come as no surprise-is what has come to be called "the generals' revolt," the unusual decision by a number of retired generals to challenge the conduct of the war in Iraq and, concurrently, the leadership of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Is such outspokenness by retired senior officers proper, especially by those just leaving active duty, or does it violate an unwritten code that says officers may state their objections in private, but never in public? Asserting that speaking out is appropriate for those no longer in uniform is retired Army Major General John M. Riggs, one of the generals who called for Secretary Rumsfeld to resign. Taking the opposite position, that such action is improper, is George Worthington, a retired Navy rear admiral.
For this issue of Proceedings, we've done something new for us. We sent a reporter overseas to get a story. We dispatched him to Africa, specifically the Horn of Africa, to find out what U.S. military forces were up to in countries such as Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia.
Our correspondent was David J. Danelo, whom regular readers will recognize as Hurricane Dave, the former Marine captain and Iraq war veteran we sent to Louisiana to cover Hurricane Katrina for us. The only instructions we gave him then were: get a good story and don't do anything stupid. In retrospect that may have been mildly irresponsible since Dave was not, at that point, a seasoned reporter. But he came through with a wonderful story about a young Marine trying to help his flood-stricken family.
Since Katrina, Dave has written for us a number of times and seemed like the obvious choice when we decided we were curious about military activities on the Horn of Africa. So Dave headed off with slightly more detailed instructions than the last time. The result? Our lead story, "Around the Horn."
This issue features our annual focus on the submarine warfare community. We lead off with a look at the new role for the Trident II fleet ballistic missile. Captain Terry Benedict describes how the Trident nuclear missile has been modified to carry conventional warheads. This new weapon system will allow a conventional response to be delivered with the same reach, stealth, and speed offered by nuclear weapons.
We also commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Navy's decision to deploy a sea-based ballistic missile in Norman Polmar's "Polaris: A True Revolution." This revolutionary Cold War weapon system had a development period of just over four years. The system also had a significant impact on submarine, missile, and operational concepts. Few weapon systems were as complex as Polaris when it was under development. Fewer still were developed within such a short time span and achieved its level of success. Finally, in "No Glass Jaw" Captain Robert P. Girrier, the commander of Destroyer Squadron 15 in Yokosuka, Japan, explains that, by teaming with other sea service communities and navies of allied nations, the acoustic advantage is shifting in favor of the U.S. Navy's antisubmarine warfare effort. What might have been seen as a "glass jaw" in the past, he says, is now a force to be reckoned with. "Our ASW calculus," Captain Girrier predicts, "will account for numbers of subs killed per sortie, not sorties required per sub kill."
There is more. Dr. Craig Hooper takes a critical look at the Navy's response-or lack thereof-to the strategic challenge posed by the rise in liquefied natural gas (LNG) production and consumption. He also points out in "The Peril of Power: Navigating the Natural Gas Infrastructure" the difficulties of assessing the hazards of LNG and the mushrooming of applications for permits to construct new LNG terminals. One oil company, Dr. Hooper tells us, has its eye on Camp Pendleton, the giant Marine base on the Southern California coast.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Magda Hanna, in a fascinating article titled "In the Dark and Out in the Cold," details the commercial and national security implications of the continued melting of the Polar ice cap. Ignore it at your peril, she warns. She punctuates her argument by relating that last year the United States had to lease the Russian icebreaker Krasin (above) to complete a resupply mission because American icebreakers were in need of repair.
Editor's Page
Robert Timberg