The Netherlands: Latest Update on the Netherlands' Walrus-class Submarine Replacement Program - Nathan Gain

The Dutch Ministry of Defense on May 28 informed the House of Representatives about the progress of the Walrus-class submarines replacement program. It was followed by the first official communication on the Royal Netherlands Navy (RNLN) future submarine program since December 2019 and the release of the "B-Letter".

Read more at: Latest Update on the Netherlands' Walrus-class Submarine Replacement Program - Naval News

UFO's: We need to talk about UFOs again - by Daniel W. Drezner

The hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts has probably written close to 2,000 columns since coming to The Washington Post. Among those that generated a steady stream of responses was one from 2019 headlined “UFOs exist and everyone needs to adjust to that fact.” That column did not say that aliens have visited Earth. Among the things it did say was that there literally are objects flying around that no one, including U.S. Navy pilots, can identify, and we have to puzzle out what that means.

In the two years since that column appeared, the U.S. government continues to tiptoe toward the normalization of the idea of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Last year the Department of Defense released three videos (one recorded in 2004 and the other two in 2015) of U.S. Navy pilots seeing something and having no idea what it was. In its news release, the Pentagon said, “the aerial phenomena observed in the videos remain characterized as ‘unidentified,’” putting the U in UFO.

Read more at: We need to talk about UFOs again - The Washington Post

The Netherlands: Dutch PM Rutte to visit Trump for talks on trade. As to US Defense requests : "NO WAY JOSE" - by Mike Corder

"No way Jose"

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is visiting U.S. President Donald Trump next week, but said Friday he can't yet give the president a response to American requests for assistance in Syria and the Strait of Hormuz.

Rutte will meet Trump at the White House next Thursday to discuss bilateral relations, international trade and defense and security cooperation, the Dutch government announced.

But Rutte said the visit comes too soon for him to say whether the Netherlands will agree to U.S. requests for assistance in Syria and the Gulf, because his government is still discussing them.

"I can't have a conversation with the American president about it if the procedures in the Netherlands have not been completed," Rutte said. "So that is not a point we are putting on the agenda."

He said that if Trump raises the issue, "I will tell him we are carefully evaluating it."

Last month, acting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said after a meeting in Brussels that NATO allies gave him no firm commitments that they will participate in a global effort to secure international waterways against threats from Iran.

Since then, Dutch media, citing unnamed sources, have reported that the government in The Hague is considering sending a frigate to the Gulf. Rutte declined to give details of possible Dutch involvement, saying no decision has been made.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, said Tuesday that Washington will move ahead with plans to build a coalition of nations to monitor and deter Iranian threats against commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf area and in a busy waterway between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa.

Note EU-Digest: Donald Trump created the problem with Iran, which has stirred up unrest within the Middle East, after the US stepped out of the Iran Nuclear Treaty. Hopefully PM Rutte of the Netherlands will tell Trump during his visit to the White House, that as to Trump's request for Dutch troops in Syria, or Dutch Navy support in the Persian Gulf, the answer is " NO WAY JOSE".   

Read more: Dutch leader to visit Trump for talks on trade, defense - San Antonio Express-News

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Turkish Military Shakeup: Turkish Supreme Military Council replaces land, air and navy commanders

Turkey on Wednesday replaced the commanders of its army, air force and navy after their terms in office expired, reshuffling the top of a military that has been shaken by last year's failed coup.

Turkey's armed forces - like the media, civil service and police - have been convulsed by the crackdown that followed the attempted putsch, when a group of rogue soldiers commandeered tanks and warplanes in an effort to topple the government. 

All together, some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs and more than 50,000 detained. More than 8,000 military officers, including high-ranking commanders, have been accused of supporting the coup. 

The heads of the three branches were replaced by other top members of the military, President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, told a news conference.

There was no suggestion that the three were being reshuffled due to the coup and Kalin thanked the commanders for their service.

Read more: Turkish Supreme Military Council replaces land, air and navy commanders

Chinese Navy: 5 Chinese Military Ships Spotted Off Alaska's Coast - by Bill Chappell

In what reportedly is a first, five ships from China's navy have been spotted in the Bering Sea, operating in international waters off the Alaskan coast, Pentagon officials tell The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reports:

"The officials said they have been aware in recent days that three Chinese combat ships, a replenishment vessel and an amphibious ship were in the vicinity after observing them moving toward the Aleutian Islands, which are split between U.S. and Russian control.
"They said the Chinese ships were still in the area, but declined to specify when the vessels were first spotted or how far they were from the coast of Alaska, where President Barack Obama is winding up a three-day visit."

The U.S. officials also tell the Journal that the military ships aren't seen as behaving in a threatening way.
The reported Chinese activity is seen as the latest sign of China's ambitions to project its influence beyond its territorial waters.
NPR's Tom Bowman offers this analysis:

"China expert David Finkelstein with the Center for Naval Analyses, a think tank that does a lot of work with the Pentagon, has likened China to America in the early 1900s when Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House: a growing power that wants to be considered a player on the world stage. Roosevelt famously sent the U.S. Navy's 'great white fleet' on a worldwide tour to drive home this point."

The sighting also comes on the same day Beijing is hosting a large military parade and celebration to mark the end of World War II. As part of those events, Chinese President Xi Jinping is hosting leaders from a number of neighboring countries.

Read morea; 5 Chinese Military Ships Spotted Off Alaska's Coast : The Two-Way : NPR

Drones versus aircraft carrier: Is the Aircraft Carrier Obsolete?

US Predator Drone Launching Missile

In a further sign that budgets across the globe are beginning to bite, news reports in recent weeks have once again highlighted the challenges associated with operating a modern fleet of aircraft carriers. 

The challenging global economic situation shows few signs of lessening, and across the world there are reports of further cuts in equipment, hulls and operations. In Spain for instance the veteran carrier Principe De Asturias (PDA) has finally been paid off after some 25 years service as part of budget cuts. 

It is perhaps ironic to consider that she was originally conceived in the early 1980s as a cheap ‘Sea Control Ship’ solution originally looked at by the US Navy to provide cheaper carriers. Intended to put ASW helicopters to sea as a replacement for the Delado, she represented the closest any nation has perhaps come to a truly ‘austere’ carrier, with minimal support facilities for the airwing. 

Optimized in the first for ASW, with a very limited fixed wing capability using the Harrier (although never to the same level of development as the UK with the mixed FA2 / GR7 airwing), the PDA was an example in the 1980s of how smaller‘harrier carriers’ could be built for emerging middle tier navies, providing them with airpower at relatively small cost. In reality she remained the sole of her class built around the world , with the closest other example being a Thai vessel optimized for EEZ protection and to act as a Royal Yacht. This is not to say that naval aviation does not have a future – it emphatically does. 

However in an era of tight budgets, it is easier to see the construction of multi-role ships such as Juan Carlos being the preferred setting for most navies, as they represent a more versatile platform which is cheaper to run. 

As nations increasingly focus on influencing the littoral environment, LPHs / LPDs seem to be the new generation of capital platform. Able to be built relatively cheaply, but providing wide flexibility, they are not ‘proper’ aircraft carriers, but they do provide a deck, hangar space, command facilities and the ability to put troops ashore. The authors personal prediction is that while carriers may be on a slow decline, the broader global market for this sort of platform may boom.
 
Lead author Ian Easton, of the Project 2049 Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank says, "China's fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, could be technologically superior to those in the American arsenal and might have the ability to "swarm" in attacking an American aircraft carrier". 

According to a new analysis of the country's drone program program, China first started publicly flying drones in October, 2009, during its National Day parade. Since then, it had stockpiled at least 280 UAVs as of 2011 that could be used for "intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, precision strike missions and electronic warfare missions," according to the report, released by the Project 2049 Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based think tank. "Since then, the country has likely manufactured many more", Ian Easton says.

"Chinese UAV technology is a woefully understudied topic," he says, adding that there's reason to believe that China has either already surpassed U.S. prowess in unmanned air technology or will soon do so. "They're certainly far more advanced than I expected them to be. You get the impression they're doing very advanced, cutting-edge research."

Like in many other industries, Easton says "there's no question" China has likely caught up to the U.S. with a cyber warfare campaign to steal technological secrets —the country has UAVs "that look exactly like the US Predator or the Global Hawk. According to Easton, who studied more than 100 Chinese-language military technology journals, official government reports and news reports out of Taiwan, the Chinese see drones as a platform to wage war at the "highest level of conflict." Chinese documents suggest that the country's People's Liberation Army "envisions attacking U.S. aircraft carrier battle groups with swarms of multi-mission UAVs."

While the American military has mainly used drones for reconnaissance in the Middle East and Northern Africa and precision strikes against small groups of insurgents or terrorists, Chinese reports suggest that they plan to use the drones in the event of a conventional war.  America.

China envisions attacks "with initial waves of decoy drones" followed by swarms of strike drones that would often be shot down during their mission. "When the Chinese look at UAVs, they see tremendous capabilities for high-end conflict. We've been using them for low-intensity situations," Easton says. "The Chinese have done an overwhelming number of studies discussing using UAVs as having the capabilities of hitting U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups. That's what they're probably planning to do. 

The very stark reality of all this is that most navies seems to be stepping gracefully away from the Carrier game – it is hard to see the British Royal Navy in 2050 investing in new carriers, or the USN being able to afford one for one replacements for their CVN’s.

"Although the process will be slow, the increasingly likely outcome is that within 30 years the bulk of those carriers left in service around the world will be operated by nations whose strategic interests are not always in alignment with those of the West. The era of Western carrier dominance is nearly over, as costs rise. But, the era of carrier proliferation is not here either, with costs for a ‘proper’ carrier remaining too significant for all but the richest of nations.

EU-Digest

Silent sub: Russian noiseless Borei class nuclear submarine immersed

Super-modern, powerful and almost noiseless Russian nuclear submarine Vladimir Monomakh has been put in water to become the third ship of the Borei project. The cruiser is about to begin sea trials and mooring to become fully operational in 2013.

­Vladimir Monomakh was laid down at Russia’s largest shipbuilding complex Sevmash, located on the shores of the White Sea in the town of Severodvinsk in northern Russia on March 19, 2006 – the 100th anniversary of the Russian submarine fleet.

It belongs to a class of missile strategic submarine cruisers with a new generation of nuclear reactor, which allows the submarine to dive to a depth of 480 meters. It can spend up to three months in autonomous navigation and, thanks to the latest achievements in the reduction of noise, it is almost silent compared to previous generations of submarines.

The submarine is armed with the new missile system, which has from 16 to 20 solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles Bulava (SS-NX-30 by NATO classification). The rocket is able to overcome any prospective missile defense system.

Read more: Silent sub: Russian noiseless Borei class nuclear submarine immersed — RT

Pentagon says China building aircraft carriers

China may have started work on it first domestically built aircraft carrier and is likely to produce a number of carriers over the next decade as part of an aggressive effort to modernize its military, the Pentagon said Friday.

In its annual report to Congress appraising China's military strength, the Pentagon also cited concern about China's targeting of U.S. and other foreign computer networks as a means of collecting strategic intelligence. It based this conclusion on unspecified "authoritative writings" and China's "persistent cyber intrusions."

More broadly, the report described an ambitious Chinese military program aimed at transforming the People's Liberation Army into a modern force, fueled by years of double-digit increases in defense spending. Its main goals include preserving Communist Party rule and preparing for possible hostilities in the Taiwan Strait, the report said.

Read more: PressTV - Pentagon says China building aircraft carriers

Iran to patrol US East Coast

Sick of the American navy’s ongoing presence in the Persian Gulf, an official with the military of Iran announced this week that they will be sending ships over to be stationed off the coast of the United States.

In other words, Iran thinks that what’s good for the goose is good for the colossal, militaristic gander.
"Like the arrogant powers that are present near our marine borders, we will also have a powerful presence close to American marine borders," reads a statement from Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyar to the official Islamic Republic News Agency this week.

The IRNA adds that Sayyar, the commander of the entire Navy of Iran, will call for “the help of our sailors who follow the concept of the supreme jurisprudence” to send a flotilla towards the Atlantic coast of the United States.

For more: Iran to patrol US East Coast — RT

Israelis, Germans to meet amid rumored interest in submarine

The first joint Israeli-German cabinet session in the German capital is set to convene on Monday. The Israeli Defense Ministry's desire to buy a sixth Dolphin-class diesel submarine from the Germans is likely to figure on the agenda.

The Dolphin submarines are among the most sophisticated and capable conventional submarines in the world, and could be equipped with nuclear missiles.

A spokesman for the Merkel administration confirmed to The Jerusalem Post last week that the Islamic Republic and the Mideast peace process would be the subject of talks between the two governments. A joint-cabinet session had been planned for November, but Netanyahu was ill. On March 17, 2008, bilateral relations were strengthened during the first joint cabinet meeting - eight Israeli ministers and seven German ministers participated. A day later, Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the Knesset.

For more: Israelis, Germans to meet amid rumored interest in submarine | Israel | Jerusalem Post

RNW: EU to deploy first-ever naval force off Somalia - by Hans de Vreije

For the complete report from Radio Netherlands click on this link

EU to deploy first-ever naval force off Somalia - by Hans de Vreije

Next month, the European Union is launching its first-ever naval mission, Operation Atlanta. Its dual aim is to protect United Nations food aid shipments to Somalia and to combat piracy in the region. At the moment, NATO has a small naval force temporarily stationed in waters near Somalia which is the base for most pirates. The second aim is to combat the region's piracy in general. The problem of ships being hijacked for ransom has become much worse over the past year. Operation Atlanta is an ambitious project. The area of sea to be policed is enormous, while the resources are limited: just seven ships and a budget of eight million euros for a whole year. Contrary to the NATO Navy Task force the EU Navy Task Force is allowed to fire at will at attacking pirates.

BBC NEWS: Venezuela welcomes Russian navy ships

For the complete report from BBC NEWS click on this link

Venezuela welcomes Russian navy ships

Russian warships have arrived for joint exercises with Venezuela's navy, the first deployment of its kind in the Caribbean since the Cold War.The naval squadron, including a nuclear-powered cruiser, sailed into view at the port of La Guaira. The exercises will coincide with a two-day visit by Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev, which starts on Wednesday. The Russian vessels are set to begin manoeuvres in port on Wednesday, the day Mr Medvedev is due to arrive in Caracas. President Medvedev is expected to visit the ships with his Venezuelan counterpart, Hugo Chavez, before he continues on to Cuba. The Russian president's aim is to show Washington that if the US does things in Europe near Russia's borders which Moscow does not like, then Russia can pursue its own policies in a region long seen by Washington as its backyard. More important for the Russian president during his talks is boosting bilateral trade between Russia and Latin America, which could reach euro 13bn(US$15bn this year.

Navy Times: France shows off new, roomy amphib - Christopher P. Cavas

For the complete report from the Navy Times click on this link

France shows off new, roomy amphib - Christopher P. Cavas

The French Navy’s new 21,500-ton amphibious ship Tonnerre towered over the pier at the sprawling Norvolk naval base, just as high as the 40,000-ton U.S. Navy assault ships tied up at piers on either side. But on coming aboard, a visitor is struck by something just not found inside the nearly twice-as-large American ships: space.