Midrats

When a report has an opening like this, you know you have to find a way to get the author on Midrats. As a nation, we are in an undeclared state of emergency.…This is a hot Cold War II. The West has empirically lost deterrence. We must respond to this emergency to regain it. We have a peer adversary: China. “Near-Peer” is a shibboleth, a euphemism to avoid the embarrassment of acknowledging we hav...

There is almost a cottage industry in appreciating the decades-long shortfall in America’s maritime industrial base for shipbuilding and repair. After more than a decade of self-delusion in labeling the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as merely a ‘ Pacing Challenge ’, people are increasingly waking up to the fact that the PRC has overtaken the USA in the maritime arena—a domain in which we were g...

Happy New Year to everyone…and Midrats is back with you. Join us today for a broad-ranging discussion for our 15th Anniversary Show with a regular guest since the start, Claude Berube. The conversation will go who knows where, but we will begin by reflecting on how the defense media and information environment has evolved since 2010—not just from the perspective of the information consumer, but al...

With one of the most militarily and energy strategic states in our union, Alaska, being in the Arctic, and the extensive interests we have on the other side of the planet in Antarctica, do you wonder why our nation’s icebreaking “fleet”—being what it is—amounts to an antique road show? Are you curious how our plan to replace them is making the LCS program look like a successful and well-run progra...

Trying to get your mind around who the actors are in Syria as this 'frozen conflict' from the last decade begins to thaw? If you are concerned about international jihadist organizations, the security of Israel, instability caused by mass migration, rights of religious minorities in the Middle East, or human suffering, the cascading events in Syria should be in your scan. Well, this Midrats is just...

Before everyone dives into a week of family and fasting, time to catch up with Sal and Mark on Midrats. From the retention crisis to some stark comments from senior leaders about the Western Pacific, we’ll cover the waterfront and more. Showlinks Fighter pilot burnout Admiral Paparo at Brookings Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam Sum...

With 63 days until President Trump’s second inauguration and a new national security team lining up, what are the expected opportunities they will be looking to make an impact quickly? What should people be looking at? Where is the fruit ripe for the picking? For the full hour we have returning guest, Jerry Dunleavy IV, author of Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors...

Summary The conversation delves into various themes surrounding innovation, customization, and future planning. It highlights the importance of bespoke solutions in development and addresses the challenges faced in implementing these ideas. The speakers reflect on their insights and look forward to new developments in the field. Show Links Trump Declares No Mercy on Cartels Chris Cappy from Task &...

Showlinks Joint Sword 2024 off Taiwan . TAFFY-3 off Samar . USAF NGAD Pause . Narrow Seas, Small Navies, and Fat Merchantmen: Naval Strategies for the 1990s . USS Carney’s 1 year anniversary . Debt service now greater than spending on defense . Summary In this episode of Midrats, Sal and Mark discuss the evolving geopolitical landscape, focusing on China's strategic maneuvers around Taiwan and the...

It’s mid-October, and time for another no-hold-barred Maritime Melee from Midrats! You can listen at this link, or via the Spotify widget below. Show Links Happy 249th Birthday Navy! Kaman K-MAX helicopters Starlink Lifestraw Iodine tablets CNOC bag Katadyn filters Ukraine’s Baba Yaga drones Navy relearns how to reload at sea Heavy lift ships Net Assessment Podcast: What is the US Military Doing i...

What can be done to reform The Pentagon? Returning to Midrats to discuss the challenge of real reform to our military bureaucratic establishment will be Steve Deal. Steve Deal, Captain, U.S. Navy (Ret.) served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Navy and Deputy Chief Learning Officer for the Department of the Navy.  During his twenty-seven years on active duty, he commanded Patrol Squ...

For the last 23 years, the major powers outside the People’s Republic of China (PRC) have been engaged in a series of imperial police actions like in Afghanistan, small wars turning into inextricable problems, like Iraq, and not-insignificant medium sized wars as we see in Ukraine. The PRC chose to stay out of these conflicts, but has been learning from them. After studying 20th-century Pacific wa...

Summer is over, and it's time to focus on adult things once again. If it is of interest to from the Pacific to the Red Sea to the Potomac River—we have you covered. Showlinks: Royal Navy Ship Availability graphic CO USS John S. McCain relieved Egypt in Yemen Civil War 1960s/70s US Army Typhon (not Typhoon, I know) launcher Egypt's Interest in PRC Aircraft Summary The conversation discusses the cur...

Where there appears to be a fair bit of shock and surprise in the general public, for those who have tracked the story closest, the feeling could be found along the spectrum from resignation to dismay. This did not happen overnight - and for those given responsibility for our nation’s sea power, this was only a matter of time. By acts of commission and omission, the nation that likes to call itsel...

If you find a message that is consistent over time, through times of ease and times of challenge, and at each challenge in the real world this message is validated, reinforced, and found to be correct — is that a message you need to pay attention to? Since the Houthi joined a second front with the Gazans against Israel by attacking international shipping in the Red Sea and its approaches, the US N...

Look who we have on a short-turnaround visit to Midrats, Dr. Emma Salisbury! We’re going to cover the waterfront issues in the Anglosphere, but we’ll kick off the discussion with the issues she outlined in her recent Behind the Front post, Franken-FREMM: How the Constellation Class Became a Monster . Emma recently completed her PhD at Birkbeck College, University of London, with research focusing...

What has the People’s Republic of China been doing to grow its influence in the Pacific Island nations that proved so crucial in the Pacific theater in WWII, and will be just as important for the next Great Pacific War? Our guest for the full hour is be Cleo Paskal. Cleo is Non-Resident Senior Fellow focusing on the Indo-Pacific at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies . She has testified befo...

Summary In this conversation, Sal and Mark discuss various topics related to national security and the military. They start by questioning the purpose and effectiveness of the US presence in the Red Sea. They also touch on the lack of accountability in the executive branch, the importance of congressional oversight, and the decline in military press coverage. They highlight some positive developme...

How have the modern European navies developed since the start of the Cold War, and how are they positioned to address the challenges we see today? Returning to Midrats this Sunday at 3pm Eastern will be Dr. Jeremy Stöhs. Jeremy is an Austrian-American security and defense analyst. He co-heads the Austrian Center for Intelligence, Propaganda & Security Studies at the University of Graz and is a...

In a news cycle dominated by the attempted assassination of former President Trump, give yourself a break with an update on the Russian military in year three of the Russo-Ukrainian War, with regular Midrats guest Dr. Dmitry Gorenburg. Dmitry Gorenburg is Senior Research Scientist in the Strategy, Policy, Plans, and Programs division of CNA, where he has worked since 2000. Dr. Gorenburg is an asso...

Law. Ethics. Morality. Character. What do these words mean, and why are they important in the profession of arms. That is the subject of this week’s Midrats. We have just the right person to dig in to this topic, returning to Midrats, Dr. Pauline Shanks-Kaurin. Professor Shanks-Kaurin is the Admiral James B. Stockdale Chair in Professional Military Ethics at the Naval War College. She holds a Ph....

Anyone even remotely around the Navy or the national defense area in DC and the Pacific knows this two words, “Fat Leonard” and the unprecedented impact it has had on the navy as an institution and its very highest uniformed leadership for well over a decade.   Visiting the topic on Midrats for the full hour will be Craig Whitlock, investigative reporter for The Washington Post. #1 NYT Bestselling...

Hope you enjoy the new audio quality for this month's melee! We kick things off with an overview of the Gaza Pier debacle, the Eisenhower deployment extension, the Constellation Class frigate purgatory, the potential fun with the #AsianNATO, and finish things up with a former VCNO who is not in a happy place. Showlinks: Better Tabletop Exercises for Wartime Acquisition By Ron Weinberger Army JLOTS...

Midrats returns for a broad-reaching discussion on maritime and national security issues from the Gaza Beaches to the South China Sea! My audio was a bit poppy early in the show, but it gets better. Mentioned links: PRC is playing games with undersea cables CONGRESSIONAL GUIDANCE FOR A NATIONAL MARITIME STRATEGY Reversing the Decline of America’s Maritime Power When US Army tried to deactivate the...

Just as they share a common tradition going back to before the American Revolution, the United State's Navy and Britain's Royal Navy, today both nations' navies share a similar challenge of prioritizing and finding the navy - and the industrial base to support it - that both nations need in order to secure their nation's from global threats and challengers. We'll cover both nations' military indus...