The Navy and Nation Need a Maritime Strategy

By Paul S. Giarra
December 2017
Since the closing of the American frontier, U.S. Navy strategy has been both instrument and guide for U.S. national power, international engagement, opposition to hegemony and totalitarian regimes, and the ...

Can't Kill Enough to Win? Think Again

By Lieutenant Colonel David G. Bolgiano, U.S. Air Force (Retired), and Lieutenant Colonel John Taylor, U.S. Army (Retired)
December 2017
In 2008, then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Admiral Michael Mullen said, “We can’t kill our way to victory.” Ever since, many have parroted his words. But what ...

Naval Intelligence: Build Regional Experts

By Captain Bill Bray, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2017
In a world returning to regional power competition, Naval Intelligence must devote career paths to knowing potential adversaries. Developing better regional threat expertise will help Naval Intelligence refocus on its ...

Armed Drones: The Coast Guard's Next New Frontier?

By Lieutenant Commander Craig Allen Jr., U.S. Coast Guard
December 2017
At the core of the Coast Guard’s identity as a multimission service is the careful balance among its military, law enforcement, and humanitarian roles. Those roles occasionally conflict, requiring the ...

From Wells to Wings

By Lieutenant (junior grade) Daniel Stefanus, U.S. Navy
December 2017
Littoral operations in the 21st Century require amphibious ready groups to take flight The U.S. Marine Corps and Navy long have been the world’s leaders in amphibious operations. Sweeping victories ...

Revamp FITREPs for Lethality

Lieutenant Brendan Cordial, U.S. Navy
December 2017
If the U.S. Navy is going to be led by the best tacticians, officer FitReps must include objective evaluations of warfighting prowess. For the first time since 1996, senior naval ...

A Woman's Place Is in the Corps

By Lieutenant Colonel W. John Butler, U.S. Marine Corps
December 2017
armed service with the lowest percentage of women in its ranks. That the Corps is an infantry-based organization that only recently opened the ground combat role to women is no ...

Comment & Discussion

December 2017
She’s a Warrior (See S. Brugler, p. 66, November 2017 Proceedings) WHERE FIGHTING is concerned, Commander Brugler targeted James Webb’s long-ago, but still true assertion that women can’t perform in ...

Ensure COMMS: Tap Commercial Innovations for the Military

By Lieutenant Commander Steven Moffitt and Lieutenant Evan Ladd, U.S. Navy
December 2017
The U.S. military and the defense industrial base have long enjoyed being in the vanguard of technology and innovation. At one time, many of the military’s—as well as society’s—most important ...

CEO Notes

December 2017
Naval Institue Made Great Progess in 2017 As 2017 draws to a close, I want to highlight some of the important progress the Institute has made on our Strategic Plan ...

Back To Driving Ships: Part I

Lieutenant Commander Toy Andrews, U.S. Navy
December 2017
The surface warfare community, has seen a great deal of money-saving corrections or efficiencies sold as trade-offs to get more time at sea for the Navy’s ships in recent years ...

Back To Driving Ships: Part II

Lieutenant Commander Toy Andrews, U.S. Navy
December 2017
The surface warfare community, has seen a great deal of money-saving corrections or efficiencies sold as trade-offs to get more time at sea for the Navy’s ships in recent years ...

2018 Defense Budget Restores Hope for 355-Ship Navy

Rear Admiral Terry McKnight, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2017
On 12 December 2017, before a large contingent of defense and military leaders, President Donald Trump signed into law the Reform and Rebuild: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year ...

Professional Note - Modernize Submarine Mission Planning

By Commander Michael V. Maclaine, Captain Vern Parks, U.S. Navy, Captain John Zimmerman, U.S. Navy (Retired), and Dr. William Krebs
December 2017
In 2007, the Office of Naval Research (ONR), with assistance from the U.S. submarine force, set out to improve the mission-planning capabilities on submarines. ONR’s efforts focused on navigation because ...

Navy Too Busy to Learn?

Commander John T. Kuehn, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2017
The Navy’s officer corps crisis reflects something bigger. The U.S. Navy is in violation of the law as regards Joint Professional Military Education (JPME). It is not in marginal or ...

Core Values & Competencies Are Fundamental

Andrew Kerr, Chris O'Keefe, and Captain Robby Harris, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2017
At the U. S. Naval Institute’s Defense Forum Washington (DFW) on 4 December, we found ourselves sobered not so much by the myriad embarrassing failures by the U.S. Navy over ...

We Must Master Our Game

Captain Gerry Roncolato and Commander Audrey Monish, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2017
During the U.S. Naval Institute Defense Forum Washington event on 4 December, an attendee posed this question to the Surface Warfare panel regarding the recent collision reviews, “What immediate steps ...

Fix the Fighter Pilot Shortage

By Commander George Perry, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
December 2017
Over the past two decades the culture and climate of our air forces have changed and, in many ways, not for the better. For a variety of reasons, opting for ...

Sheffield’s Ghost Provides Lessons

Captain Joseph Pugh, U.S. Navy
December 2017
One of the prominent events of the Falklands Campaign was naval engagement between the HMS Sheffield and elements of the Argentine Air Force. The sinking of Sheffield demonstrated that the ...

Leadership Forum - We Crafted a Charter

By Lieutenant Commander Matthew Brown, U.S. Navy
December 2017
U.S. Navy warship commanding officers (COs) are given a great opportunity during their command training in Newport, Rhode Island, to think deeply on the many issues of leadership at sea ...

Five Ways to Make the Navy Leaner and Meaner

Master Chief Fire Controlman Thomas Lohr, U.S. Navy (Ret.)
December 2017
The U.S. Navy has done more with less for far too long. Studies suggest that our fleet needs at least 308 ships to meet mission requirements, yet we have witnessed ...

Limited Strikes on North Korea Are Past Due

Captain David Allan Adams, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2017
Those who call for diplomatic solutions and a posture to deter North Korean aggression while at the same time calling out Pyongyang’s conduct as irrational cannot have it both ways ...

Combat Fleets

By Eric Wertheim
December 2017
Photo credit: Naval Press Service, N. Nitz On 22 September Egypt took delivery of the El Fateh , the first of four French-built Gowind 2500-class corvettes planned under a 2014 ...

Understand Bread & Water Punishment

Captain Kevin Eyer, U.S. Navy (Retired)
December 2017
Bread & water punishment is often a better option for misbehaving sailors than harsher ones provided by the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Naval Systems - The San Antonio Class Evolves

By Edward J. Walsh
December 2017
The San Antonio class is intended to replace 41 ships of the Austin- and Anchorage-class dock landing ships (LPDs), Newport-class tank landing ships (LSTs), and the already retired Charleston-class amphibious ...

Professional Note - Protect the Fleet

By Lieutenant Joseph Lillie, U.S. Navy
December 2017
The Navy approaches force protection with an overemphasis on standardization, which, while necessary, frequently results in operations performed with a bare minimum level of proficiency. Units exercise the same tactics ...

Book Reviews

December 2017
Harold Brown: Offsetting the Soviet Military Challenge, 1977-1981 Edward Keefer. Department of Defense, 2017. 815 pp. Abbrev. Notes. Selected biblio. Index. Maps. Charts. Diagrams. Tables. $94. Reviewed by Thomas E ...

Editor's Page

December 2017
In his CEO Notes (page 6) summarizing some of the Institute’s highlights for 2017, Vice Admiral Pete Daly called out a few that involved the Proceedings team. Clearly, this has ...

Time to Review the FitRep Paradigm

By Lieutenant Brendan E. Cordial, U.S. Navy
December 2017
Navy fitness reports go back to the Civil War, and we still need them—while recognizing their limitations. Chief of Naval Personnel Vice Admiral Robert Burke is leading the first major ...

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