Five Good Reads

Defense of the Realm sees the writing on the wall, and has posted some final thoughts. The faith was lost with the recent announcement new secretary of state for defense John Hutton become the "first defense secretary to back a French plan for a European army, branding those who dismiss it as 'pathetic'." What does it say when one the most popular British military blogs in the world has given up faith in a rebound of British military in its current state of decline? Not sure really, but I would note if was me, this would give me some pause for consideration if I was European. Keep the faith guys, we are only 16 days removed from one of the important event to date that has discredited the European Unions conceptual existence. It takes a bit longer than that for everyone in Europe to catch up and realize what just happened. Hell, I don't think either US Presidential candidate has figured out the ramifications yet.

Australia is beginning to look beyond the Collins class, and has begun to study the problem. It shouldn't be too difficult to write down the first problem, a submariner in Oz needs to be one of the highest paid jobs in government. Once you fix that issue, everything else will get easy as you can pick from volunteers, rather than struggle to find them.

The Russian Navy Blog thinks the end is near for the whole MV Faina episode. Good stuff.

Robert Farley did a book review on Rules of the Game by Andrew Gordon. I haven't read the book, but Rob can sell books with a review like that. Also check out the comments, interesting discussions. I would add only one thought. While I agree with the suggestion a victory at Jutland by the Grand Fleet over the High Seas Fleet would not have had a significant impact on the Germans in WWI, I do think there is a legitimate discussion that it could have had an effect on both the Germans and the Royal Navy in the buildup towards WWII, and perhaps some spillover influence on Japan who was heavily influenced by the doctrine of the Royal Navy. If someone has ever discussed that angle of speculation, please let me know in the comments. It is something I have thought about, but never really explored and would be interested reading speculation to those alternative future ends.

CDR Salamander fires a broadside at the surface combatant/surface warfare thinking coming from the Navy. I have a bunch of thoughts, which I'll save for a later date.

Check out the size of LPD-17 in context of the other ships in the photo above. Dirty Little Secret, it is very likely the smallest target on that radar screen. Think about it. Click for hi-res.

PERSIAN GULF (Oct. 25, 2008) A multi-national group of Foreign Navy ships participate in a photo exercise with ships from the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group during a bilateral exercise in the Persian Gulf. The Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group is supporting maritime security operations in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Chad R. Erdmann