Help the Coast Guard Weather This Storm

By Rear Admiral Cari B. Thomas, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired)
January 2019
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funds the U.S. Coast Guard, and the ongoing government shutdown has left DHS—and thus the Coast Guard—unfunded. The impacts are real and immediate for ...

Breaking Faith with America's Coast Guard

By Admiral Paul Zukunft, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired)
January 2019
The 2019 government shutdown has now gone on so long it is doing real harm to Coast Guard families. America's political class has broken faith with with its most unique ...

Build Statues of Critics

By Lieutenant Katelyn Davidson and Commander Josh Menzel, U.S. Navy
January 2019
Dissent is not disloyalty, and the Navy needs to eliminate the perception that people will be punished for disagreeing with a superior. A junior officer and a senior one disagree ...

Build the Future Fleet

By Vice Admiral Barry McCullough, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2019
Pinpointing the right number of ships for the U.S. Navy’s fleet is a long-running debate. And while fleet size is important, it is not the only consideration. As the Surface ...

Expeditionary Forces Are America's Military Crown Jewel

By Rear Admiral Terry McKnight, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2019
In any crisis expeditionary forces are prepared to fight in uncertain environments. If required during contingency response operations, amphibious ships and their associated MAGTFs will "fight fast" in hostile environments ...

Stop Accessing Surface Nuclear Officers

By Captain James P. McGrath III, U.S. Navy
January 2019
The Navy should stop accessing officers into the surface warfare (nuclear) community and fill the aircraft carrier nuclear surface billets with engineering duty officers (nuclear).
Harris PT

Converting Merchant Ships to Missile Ships for the Win

By Captain R. Robinson Harris, U.S. Navy (Ret.); Andrew Kerr; Kenneth Adams; Christopher Abt; Michael Venn; and Colonel T. X. Hammes, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.)
January 2019
Converting merchant ships to missile shooters would be an economical and rapid route to a more lethal fleet. Aegis "engage on remote" functions would allow the elimination of costly sensors ...
McGrath

Engineer-Warriors or Engineers and Warriors?

By Captain James P. McGrath, U.S. Navy
January 2019
The Navy must find a way to balance tactical and technical proficiency in its officers. It is essential to understand how the surface community arrived at its current generalist format ...

Master the Art of Risk Assessment

By Captain Robert C. Rubel, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2019
In a highly distributed force situation, however, units might very well encounter conditions the force commander has not anticipated, causing even broad commander’s guidance—not to mention specific orders or plans—to ...
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75)

Redesign the Fleet

By Captain Arthur H. Barber III, U.S. Navy (retired)
January 2019
The current fleet design is built on ever-larger, ever more-expensive ships. New thinking is required to find new ways to reduce risk and increase lethality and capability.

Losing the Great Pacific War for Lack of Ships and Mariners

By Captain Douglas R. Burnett, U.S. Navy (retired), and Rear Admiral Christopher McMahon, U.S. Maritime Service
January 2019
The United States must maintain a viable flag fleet crewed by well-qualified mariners if it wants to win the next war. This hypothetical letter from 2025 explains to the Secretary ...

The Last Battleship Sailor

By Captain Stuart Landersman, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2019
With his crew, Captain Albert Lee Kaiss took the Missouri to war and wrote the final chapters in her history.

Reimagine Intelligence Officer Training

By Lieutenant William N. Murray, U.S. Navy
January 2019
Naval intelligence officer basic training is far too elemental for today’s complex threat environment. The nature of naval intelligence work in peacetime obscures the significance of the situation the Navy ...

Editor's Page

By Bill Hamblet, Captain, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2019
Notes on this issue from the Editor-in-Chief.

CEO Notes

By Peter H. Daly, VADM, USN (Ret.), Life Member and Member since 1978
January 2019
Notes from VADM Daly

Handling the San Antonio–Class LPD

By Lieutenant Michael Murphy and Captain Brent DeVore, U.S. Navy
January 2019
Based on the experiences of many San Antonio–class captains and shiphandlers, here are the nuances of the class, highlighting the unique LPD-17 characteristics that at times require a deviation from ...

The Navigation Profile of Aegis Ships

By Lieutenant Commander Nami Matsue, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force; and Captain Shoji Fujimoto, Kobe University
January 2019
Stealth technology to reduce the ship’s radar cross section is aimed primarily at improving survivability against radar-homing antiship cruise missiles. The Aegis destroyer incorporated stealth features such as a plain-structure ...

Book Reviews

January 2019
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945–1975 Max Hastings. New York: Harper, 2018. 896 pp. Photos. Maps. Notes. $37.95. Reviewed by Edwin Moise Although Max Hastings actually covered some of the later ...

Combat Fleets

By Eric Wertheim
January 2019
The commissioning of USS Thomas Hudner, finding Argentina's submarine San Juan, and the sinking of the Norwegian frigate Helge Ingstad.

From Our Archive

January 2019
“Science is a beautiful gift to humanity; we should not distort it.”A. P. J. Abdul Kalam (1931–2015)Aerial view of an underwater burst of a nuclear-armed antisubmarine rocket (ASROC) ...

Rethink the ‘J’ in JPME

By Lieutenant Commander Graham Scarbro, U.S. Navy
January 2019
In a kinetic battle, naval aviators, surface warfare officers, submariners, and cyber warriors will have to work together to win the fight at sea. The Navy should spend more time ...

Surface Warfare Officers Need Mariner Credentials

By Captain John C. Nygaard, U.S. Navy (Retired)
January 2019
The Navy needs to train to a level that meets the U.S. Coast Guard’s licensing criteria based on the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO’s) Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) ...

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