Midrats

With Thanksgiving behind us and another month of the Holiday Season to go, it's time to catch up on the goings on at the waterfront with a special guest calling in who we decided to hijack and keep for the rest of the show - returning listener favorite Mark Vandroff.

How is a maritime power like the United States going to be able to sustain a fight against a land power with four times its population, a larger Navy, and is located on the other side of the Pacific? The only reliable way you can get the fuel, weapons, and supplies is with a robust force of combat logistics ships. Do we have that force? Do our budgets and plans match realistic requirements? We're...

You're heard people talk - and on occasion argue - about "presence" as a naval mission, but what exactly is it? What does that actually mean for our nation and what role does it have in promoting its national security requirements? What does our nation need to do to properly resource it? We're going to dive in deep on the topic today with returning guest, Jerry Hendrix, using as a foundation a rep...

There are few naval leaders who had a legendary reputation and such a long running - and not uncontroversial - record of service as Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, USN. Talk to any submarine officer or surface nuclear power officer over the age of 60 and they will have a personal story directly or indirectly about the man who is generally seen as the "Father of the Nuclear Navy."Was the man as he lived...

Fall is in the air ... so Sal and EagleOne return to the podcast to get you caught up now that FY24 is behind us. We'll cover the waterfront. Links mentioned during the show: SECNAV Del Toro Calls for a New, Bold Maritime Statecraft . What’s Keeping the USS Ronald Reagan in Yokosuka ? Taiwan launches its first homemade submarine . What is a DASH ? What is this quad-copter son of DASH ? Ukraine's r...

Since its first formation in 2007, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or "Quad" of the Australia, India, Japan and the United States of America has continued to evolve in to something that isn't a fully formed alliance, but is a bit more than just a talking shop as well. Encouraged by the changing nature of the People's Republic of China, it is evolving in to something with great potential for en...

While almost all the intellectual energy in the American military establishment is focused on the end of the FY potlatch of spending before fiscal year 2024 kicks off in under three weeks, it's time for EagleOne and Sal to take a deep breath and take a look around the national security waterfront. For the first third of the show we discuss DEPSECDEF Hick's "Replicator" project and some of the issu...

Today we’re going to discuss a helpful solution to the simple reality in our busy world that it is difficult to build a culture of understanding of any challenge unless those involved in addressing that challenge have a similar foundational knowledge of it. As in most complicated issues, addressing the rise of the People’s Republic of China suffers perhaps more than most from this lack of a founda...

We are two years since the greatest national humiliation since the Fall of Saigon almost half a century ago. The negotiated surrender of Afghanistan to the Taliban, retreat to Kabul, and withdraw from Kabul under the grace of our enemy in the summer of 2021 remains a mostly untold story. Partially is it from the attention given to the Russo-Ukrainian War that started six months later, but it seems...

What better way to recover from mid-August heat than to kick back and listen to Midrats as we check in on what the People's Republic of China is up to. This Sunday live is returning guest Dean Cheng. Dean is a Senior Adviser at the US Institute of Peace, a (non-resident) Senior Fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and a Non-resident Fellow with the Space Policy Institute at George W...

In mid-July, a rather normal letter from the White House delivered at an awkward time about the authorization to activate 3,000 reservists to support operations in Europe enabling aid to Ukraine got everyone's attention. The reaction has a lot of reservists from all services and National Guardsmen cracking a little smile because even with the wars of most of this century are past, here has been no...

This week we were reminded, again, that the world relies on the free flow of goods at market prices across its oceans to maintain a reasonable standard of living. Most of the world consumes more food and fuel than it can produce locally. Most of the world's people live from paycheck to paycheck, and entire societies' stability rely on the grain and oil that economically can only be moved internati...

EagleOne and Sal pick up last weeks conversation to catch up on the conversation of the latest national security and maritime topics at hand. As always on the melee format, join us live with the open chatroom and studio line if you have some issues you'd like to discuss. We're taking requests! Links to items discussed: Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, Sea...

It's too darn hot to do anything outside, so stay inside and put your mind to work! EagleOne and Sal start the show with the discussion of books they plan to use to help overcome the mid-summer heat and then cover some of the latest and greatest on the national security front, at least as we define it! Books Discussed: EagleOne’s List: Developing the Naval Mind , B J Armstrong. Looking for a Ship...

For generations, a great comparative advantage the United States has enjoyed at sea is the superiority of its submarine force. It has become simply an assumption in our war planning to the point it is treated as almost a natural part of the environment. Of course, nothing stands still in war. Time and technology usually finds a way to blunt any advantage, leverage any vulnerability. As the challen...

By 2030, the People's Republic of China is expected to have a navy of 425 warships, up significantly from their 360 today - already larger than the United States Navy. In spite of her struggles ashore, demographic collapse, and structural deficiencies, the Russian Navy still maintains a significant submarine force. While the world's strategic situation has changed dramatically, it isn't something...

From the abstract of the article in the Naval War College Review Winter 2023 Edition, Strategy, Uncertainty, and the China Challenge ; "Despite China’s increasing aggressiveness, its intentions are indeterminate, even aligning with U.S. interests in some arenas. Furthermore, China simply may fail in achieving even its foremost national and foreign-policy goals. Given this uncertainty, the United S...

You're in for a treat this Midrats with a regular since 2010 returning to the podcast, Claude Berube. Claude will be with us the full hour to discuss his third novel in the Connor Stark series, The Philippine Pact , bringing back most of your favorite characters from the first two books in the series, The Aden Effect and Syren's Song . As with all of Claude's novels, his characters always seem to...

For generations, the US military’s senior leadership in the field had no reason to worry about being on the receiving end of enemy fires at their command posts. Even at the company level but especially at higher echelons, we expected that we would be safe and secure in our command posts. Command posts were where one watched, planned, and executed operations – not become player in one. One of the d...

It's a maritime and natsec free for all on Midrats! No fixed topic, open chat room and open studio line for those who are joining us live. From some rather strange comments in congressional briefing rooms to recruiting woes at home, to some rather interesting riverine amphibious operations in the Dnipro River in Ukraine, what it takes to fire a Russian Navy fleet commander, and whatever other topi...

History, heritage, ethos, and institutional culture are more than just books, lectures, static displays, songs, stories and rituals - they are part of a tapestry that define the characteristics of an organization and a people. In a cold, neutral review of individual parts, it can be a challenge to see why they are important, what they really signify ... why we keep, remember, and practice them. On...

Two of the above-the-fold topics in the last year in the national security arena both in involve one of the most technologically advance, complicated, and essential parts of modern warfare; ground based anti-air. For over a year we have watched and evolving ongoing real world laboratory in the Russo-Ukrainian War. On the other side of Asia, when not looking in the sky for big balloons, America and...

The last 13-months has seen a scenario few in NATO’s uniformed or civilian leadership either predicted, or for that matter, though was possible. How has the alliance reacted, grown, succeeded, or shown cracks under the pressure of the growing war in Ukraine as it moves it to its second year? Returning to Midrats for the full hour will be Jorge Benitez, Associate Professor of International Relation...

Except for those over a 85, no one alive has ever existed at a time when the US Navy was not the premier naval power - and no one alive at all has known a world where the US Navy was not the premier naval power in the Pacific. Though on paper it could be challenged in the first third of the 20th Century by the Royal Navy, and was challenged in a very real way by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the P...

As we ended last week's show with a whole list of topics we wanted to discuss, this Sunday we're going to pick up right where we left off with a Midrats Maritime Melee! From submarines to Australia to the opening of mud season in Ukraine, we'll cover the latest - or at least the more interesting - topics in the national security arena.