Midrats

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...

For the first two decades of this century, as the West and her friends were distracted by small wars in Central Asia and the Middle East, the People's Republic of China slowly, deliberately, and steadily grew her economic, diplomatic, and economic power. As we are in the last year closing out the first quarter of the 21st Century, the West distracted by an ongoing major conventional war in its thi...

For navalists from Souda Bay to San Diego, April has started not with a whimper, not a grin - but with a scream. For the full hour, we'll start in Baltimore, review the latest revelations about shipbuilding, and some enlightening developments on our allies from Australia to NATO…and end things up after a little spot of tech bother, with a discussion on how to tell our Navy story right - and why it...

For our last podcast of March, come join us for and open-ended free-for-all format to look at the national security environment as we head in to April. From the water cannons off the Philippines to the folly of keeping your naval bases in range of your enemies missiles ... and perhaps a dive in to the long winter for navalists that 2024 is lining up to be ... we'll cover it! Links mentioned in the...

If people are policy and policy shapes decisions, then that is the start in understanding why a nation like the USA wound up neglecting what should be a core sector of not just its economy, but its strategic advantage - its civilian maritime industry. Using his recent article, The Urgent Need for U.S. Maritime Reform as a starting point, our guest for the full hour is William Cahill. Will is presi...

Especially for the Royal Navy, it was assumed the military leaders, politicians, and the general population understood that they were island nations and that their security and prosperity depended on a strong navy and civilian maritime commerce.  Even the greatest naval power of the last century, the United States of America seems to be unable to have people understand why it needs a strong navy....

Feel like the chaos from the Black Sea, Red Sea, South China Sea and various places ashore seems just too much to keep track of? Well, if you need an hour to catch up and ponder as Sal & Eagle One will take you from the Houthi's sinking their first ship, Darwinism at war, to the US Navy heading in to Haiphong witih guns blazing ... for peace.

From the February 12th guest post over at Sal's substack , our guest today opened with a firm point;"..the combat performance of U.S. Navy destroyers in the Red Sea against a variety of weapons employed by the Houthis from Yemen stands as a monument to decades of brilliance, hard work, and dedication across generations of naval officers, government civilians, industry executives, talented engineer...

The vulnerability of aircraft carriers is nothing new. They are vulnerable not just because of how they are designed - really just a thin hulled ship full of fuel and explosives - but because of what they do. At peace and at war, there is no other platform that can project power and national will on a global scale at sea than an aircraft carrier. As such, everyone either wants one, or wants to sin...

Feel like there is too much going on in the national security world to keep up with? Well, let your heart not be troubled. Mark & Sal will deliver a full hour of discussion of not just what's breaking in to the news in the last week of January 2024, but whatever else pops up. Iranian proxies causing American military losses from Jordan to the Horn of Africa; Iranian drone carriers to America's...

If we are approaching the end of the almost century-long age of the aircraft carrier, for the United States Navy, what are some of the options we could have in fleet designed to execute the Navy's mission in its place? Challenges, opportunities, and compromises - we'll dive into it all with guest Jeff Vandenengel, CDR USN.The reference point for our conversation will be his new book, Questioning t...

While everyone is focused on the Red Sea or the goings on in Ukraine, there are serious developments between The Philippines and the Peoples Republic of China that is not going to wait for the other world's problems to finish up their time in the sun. If the main game is in the Western Pacific, then The Philippines are the center square. Returning to Midrats to discuss this ongoing story will be R...

From moving grain to the world markets from the Black Sea to global trade through the Red Sea, and the People’s Republic of China’s unabashed bullying of The Philippines and the nations surrounding the South China Sea – the US Navy is not large enough to carry the burden of maintaining the international order at sea. We have a series of alliances with most of the top-10 maritime powers on the glob...

With a few exceptions on the sidelines by Japan and France, what has been clearly apparent in the last two months has been the absence of the International Community's presence in the Red Sea to enforce the International Order everyone seems to consider of utmost importance to the economic system that gives us the standard of living the globe is accustomed to? Once again, it is the U.S. Navy that...