Midrats

From Finland to Denmark, Sweden to Poland - from small Latvia to the Continental power of Germany - the return of Russia has brought a renewed focus the last half decade to the Baltic. Not just a SLOC, there are important economic and cultural ties that predate written history that continue to be important today. Our guest for the full hour in a wide ranging discussion will be Dr. Sebastian Bruns....

Everyone has half-baked ideas ... some quarter-baked and some three-quarters-baked ... that in a just world of their making would have a funding line. Are there some ideas so far "out of the box" that they really should be "in the box?" Find yourself saying, "If I were CNO/emperor/Chairman of the HASC for a day, I would..."? Have some ideas that you are convinced our Navy needs to win, but everyon...

As the USN continues its slow goodbye to 355 ships, what are some other measures it can use to expand maritime power, presence and influence? Would better and expanded integration, support, and interoperability with the USCG be part of the answer? Our guest this Sunday for the full hour to discuss this and all thing USCG will be Chuck Hill, and we’ll used his recent post, Navy, this is Coast Guard...

First aired in October 2015: One man's chore is another man's hobby. Another man's dread, is the other's fantasy. Such, in a fashion, is Program Management in the Navy. To be a good one, step one is to be self-aware. From his latest article in USNI's Proceedings, Confessions of a Major Program Manager, Captain Mark Vandroff, USN just lays it out; "Face it: Everyone hates MPMs. For the budget-consc...

From the week before the 2016 election, in this episode of Midrats we discuss the systems that trains, mans, and equips our military - and provides guidance and support to their civilian masters is broadly shaped by Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. There is much discussion that in the middle of the second decade of the 21st Century, is there a better system to serve our national security requirement...

Almost to the day, our direct military involvement in Afghanistan has reached its 18th year. Those Afghans, American, British, and others who were had yet to reach their first birthday when the attacks of September 2001 led us to move in to direct military action in Afghanistan, those children of 2001 are now on their way to that Central Asian country to pick up the conflict other generations have...

Even developed nations have difficulty effectively managing marine resources, enforce pollution controls, and maintain the rule of law in their territorial seas. With most of the world's coastal nations struggling to maintain authority ashore, the sea is left lawless. From fisheries to waste disposal, bad actors are taking advantage of these localized challenges with negative impacts not just on t...

First aired in AUG 2018. With a resurgent Russia, the security environment from former Soviet Republics to the traditionally neutral nations of Finland and Sweden has changed dramatically. What are those changes and how are they changing how these nations see their place in the larger Western security infrastructure? We’re going to look at how thing are changing in how they work and see each other...

Not since the last decade of the Cold War have ballistic missile defense, land based cruise missiles, as well as short, intermediate, and medium range ballistic missiles received this much attention outside the compartmentalized and esoteric warfare specialities they belong in. With the realities of our century bidding farewell to the previous century's INF limitations, you shouldn't expect the to...

In parallel efforts that in the Navy which led to Top Gun, the US Air Force looked hard at the lessons of air to air combat in the Vietnam War and brought forward "Red Flag," Moving beyond the technical focus, they looked to training and fundamentals to bring back a primacy of combat skills. Our guest for the full hour to discuss this and his new book, The Air Force Way of War: U.S. Tactics and Tr...

Put the popular, and mostly accurate, image of the flamboyant General Patton, USA given to us by popular culture to the side for a moment. Consider the other side of the man; the strategic thinker, student of military history, and innovator for decades. This week's episode will focus on that side of the man. For the full hour we will have as our guest J. Furman Daniel, III, the editor of the next...

It is a civil war, tribal war, religious war, and proxy war with local, regional, and global implications. The specific and larger implications of the war in Yemen will be our topic for the full hour with our guest Katherine Zimmerman. Katherine Zimmerman is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the research manager for AEI’s Critical Threats Project. As AEI’s senior ana...

From Baltic air policing, through the Russian border areas, to Afghanistan and curling back to the Strait of Hormuz, NATO alliance members are being tested not just by external powers, but by domestic politics and the slow churn of history. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO members continue to grapple with their larger mission - and what alliance members mean and owe to each other. From purpose...

Beat the heat by joining us today from 5-6pm Eastern for a mid-July maritime free for all. We're going to cover the chart from Iran seizing Brit owned tankers, to the future impact of growing naval powers like India & Japan, to the new-new CNO to be, and anything else that seems to be breaking above the natsec ambient noise. Jump in the chat room with your own question, or you can even call in.

From limpet mines on tankers, drone shootdowns, and the HMS Montrose just short of loading grape - the decades long story of Iranian posturing in their near seas continues. A lot sounds familiar, but the economic and security environment has changed a lot in the four decades. What is a constant, what has changed, and what should we expect to evolved in one of the most globally important areas of w...

First aired 3.5 years ago, but worth a re-listen. How do you design a game that has practical tactical application to the naval tactician? Even more ambitious, how do you make one accessible and understandable with the goal of making it a mobile wargame for eventual use by sailors and warfare commands. For today's show we will discuss one of the projects of the CNO's Rapid Innovation Cell (CRIC),...

China will continue to expand its holdings and presence in the South China Sea and the first and second island chain as long as it can and does not face pressure to do otherwise. They have an unmatched shipbuilding program to expand not just their traditional navy, but their coast guard and maritime paramilitary fleets. To discuss these and related topics will be returning guest, Hunter Stires. As...

Punitive expeditions, retaliatory strikes, raiding, hitting pirate camps, attacking enemy ships in the dark of night, striking enemy facilities & resources on shore and other forms of irregular naval warfare - sound new, transformational? No. They've been with the US Navy from day-1. Join us this Sunday with returning guest BJ Armstrong to discuss his latest book, "Small Boats and Daring Men: Mari...

Recently, when one hears of disease and Africa, if you only listened to the media, then what would come to mind would be Ebola. That is not the real challenge in Africa. There is a disease that not only kills, it impedes economic growth, interferes with good governance, and as a result is just another catalyst to conflict there and in South Asia. To give a better understanding of the ongoing impac...

How does our Army help officers understand military doctrine, history, and theory? How do we ensure that our staffs have leaders capable of generating options for commanders engaged with our most complex operational and strategic problem sets? It doesn't happen by accident. To address these questions and related topics, our guest this Sunday will be Colonel Kirk Dorr, USA the Director of the U.S....

He’s back! EagleOne is back in the studio to help us kick of summer with a Midrats early-summer melee! With most schools out, what you need right now is a good maritime hour to refocus the brain. For the full hour we’ll try to cover it all from the latest McCain kerfuffle to WESTPAC to NATO to the FFG(X) dropouts and more, we’ll cover the waterfront. As always, the phones and chatroom will be open...

Today's Midrats Best of first aired on August 2016. We live in a crowded world with limited resources. What happens when this meets modern technology's ability to shorten the time/distance equation and increase the ability to know of what lies below the waves? What complications do we fine when the above two points meet up with the eternal search by growing nations to reach for the seas to support...

What if they gave a war in WESTPAC and we couldn't come? It is easy to talk tactics, weapons, and warship numbers - but on balance, that is not what ensures victory in any major war. For a maritime nation, nothing can last very long without a large, sustained, scalable, and resilient merchant marine. When you look at our numbers, we are not ready. Our guest for the full hour will be John Konrad, u...

Stowaways, poaching, piracy, smuggling, and murder - the global commons of the open ocean is as wild of a place as it is vast. Using as a baseline his series on lawlessness on the high seas in the New York Times, The Outlaw Ocean, our guest for the full hour to discuss the anarchy of crime and violence on the high seas in the 21st Century will be Ian Ubina. Ian is a reporter for The New York Times...

What is a good strategy and posture for Taiwan to take for her defense? Are there things she can learn from Japan? What is Taiwan’s posture today towards mainland China, and where are trends taking her? To discuss these and related questions today is our guest Grant Newsham. We will use his recent article in the Global Taiwan Institute, Rethinking Taiwan’s Defense: Looking at the Japanese Experien...