Midrats

Mark and I are back from most of May taking care of business! Time for a MIDRATS! Show Links Pentagon chief tells Asian allies: Raise defence spending to 5% of GDP like Europe Tom Shugart post on PRC ship in Norfolk, from APR 2024 1980s Strategic Homeporting Initiative Claude Berube on OSS developing deep strike drone boats against Japanese bridges and tunnels in WW2 Operation Pigeon Bat bombs The...

The People’s Republic of China continues to expand its already well-established contestation of ownership, access, and control of ports throughout the world. They have done this in parallel with building the world’s largest navy and a diverse set of military capabilities clearly designed with one purpose—defeating the U.S. military in the Indo-Pacific. Returning to Midrats to discuss this and rela...

With each new administration, there is opportunity for change and reform. In the new Trump Administration, reform isn’t seen as a secondary effect of a leadership change but as a requirement. What reform options should the new Pentagon leadership explore under the Trump Administration? Joining us to discuss this and related topics is Gary Anderson, Colonel, USMC (Ret.).  A starting point for our c...

Many frustrated by the perceived lack of understanding of our nation’s maritime heritage requirements want new leaders with fresh ideas, unburdened by legacy entanglements. It is hoped that a younger cohort with military experience, preferably naval, in the House of Representatives and the Senate who bring to the job an additional background in business and industry will emerge to promote construc...

Returning for the full hour will be Dr. Sebastian Bruns. Sebastian is a seapower expert and maritime strategist. His current project as Senior Researcher at the Institute for Security Policy Kiel University (ISPK) is “NATO Maritime Strategies and Naval Operations since 1985”, a multi-year effort to explore the Alliance’s maritime and naval roles between the late Cold War and today. Sebastian is th...

Summary Sal and Mark delve into the current state of the U.S. Navy, discussing the size and capabilities of the fleet, the challenges of operating as a two-ocean Navy, and the potential for utilizing alternative naval assets such as offshore supply vessels. They explore the ongoing debate between manned and unmanned aircraft. Discussed some of the lessons on how to turn around a military quickly u...

The origin story of the United States of America begins, in no small part, with maritime trade issues. Most of the declared and many of the undeclared, wars our nation has fought can be traced to the safety of our maritime commerce and unfettered access to the open seas. Look at any map, and you’ll see we have oceans to the east and west of us, between our nation and its markets, allies, and compe...

Having trouble keeping up with all the developments in the national security realm over the last two months? Well, let not your heart be troubled, Sal & Mark are here for you this week with the ever-popular Midrats Melee format! No guest this week for the podcast, just your two humble hosts, solving the world’s problems in 60-minutes. Show Links Rear Admiral William Daly , USN OPNAV N96 at Sur...

A firm and lasting peace treaty, a ceasefire, in or out of NATO, in or out of the EU, European or international peacekeeping forces, an unending slog, or Russian tanks in downtown Kyiv? What are the realistic…and unrealistic…options for Ukraine as they enter the 4th year of the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022?Is the best path for Ukrainian security instead a new security architecture based on Ukrainia...

In the first month of the new Trump Administration, much of the attention outside our borders has focused on Europe and the Middle East—the two regions that always seem to divert our focus from America’s greatest competitor, the People’s Republic of China (PRC). We often think of the challenge in terms of the most obvious arena—the Pacific—but it extends from the Arctic to Africa and, increasingly...

Returning to Midrats this week to discuss his latest non-fiction novel is Seth W.B. Folsom, Colonel, USMC (Ret.). From the Amazon page: Nothing Here Worth Dying For tells the story of his command of Task Force Lion—a “purpose-built” combat advisor team—and his frenetic 2017 deployment to Iraq’s Al Anbar Province. Charged with the daunting task of advising, assisting, and enabling the Iraqi Securit...

Does the US Navy have the right number and mix of amphibious ships, and are those ships being properly maintained? The Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) recent report to Congress explored this topic in depth, and today’s Midrats Podcast will delve into it further. From the summary of the report : Amphibious warfare ships are critical for Marine Corps missions, but the Navy has struggled to...

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...