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Report to Congress on Use of Force in Cyberspace​

The following is the June 25, 2024, Congressional Research Service In Focus report, Use of Force in Cyberspace.

From the report​

Introduction

There are presently no internationally accepted criteria for determining whether a nation state cyberattack is a use of force equivalent to an armed attack, which could trigger a military response. Likewise, no international, legally binding instruments have yet been drafted explicitly to regulate inter-state relations in cyberspace. Self-defense and countermeasures for armed attacks are permitted in international law when a belligerent violates international law during peacetime, or violates the law of armed conflict (LOAC) during wartime. However, the term “armed attack” has no universally accepted definition with respect to cyberattacks. In addition to what constitutes an armed attack in cyberspace, questions remain over which provisions of existing international law govern the conduct of war in cyberspace.

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Podcast style interview, nothing to see, can listen in one tab, play around the forum in a different tab. I'm actually watching. Interesting guy. May want to listen in segments......a bit long.

Arms Dealer interview-David Packouz (War Dogs)​

Jun 17, 2024 #softwhiteunderbelly #wardogs #realpeople

Soft White Underbelly interview and portrait of David Packouz, an arms dealer who was depicted in the movie War Dogs in Miami, Florida. @DavidPackouz

1:16:25
 

The Forgotten History of Hitler’s Establishment Enablers​

Hitler is so fully imagined a subject—so obsessively present on our televisions and in our bookstores—that to reimagine him seems pointless. As with the Hollywood fascination with Charles Manson, speculative curiosity gives retrospective glamour to evil. Hitler created a world in which women were transported with their children for days in closed train cars and then had to watch those children die alongside them, naked, gasping for breath in a gas chamber. To ask whether the man responsible for this was motivated by reading Oswald Spengler or merely by meeting him seems to attribute too much complexity of purpose to him, not to mention posthumous dignity. Yet allowing the specifics of his ascent to be clouded by disdain is not much better than allowing his memory to be ennobled by mystery.

So the historian Timothy W. Ryback’s choice to make his new book, “Takeover: Hitler’s Final Rise to Power” (Knopf), an aggressively specific chronicle of a single year, 1932, seems a wise, even an inspired one. Ryback details, week by week, day by day, and sometimes hour by hour, how a country with a functional, if flawed, democratic machinery handed absolute power over to someone who could never claim a majority in an actual election and whom the entire conservative political class regarded as a chaotic clown with a violent following. Ryback shows how major players thought they could find some ulterior advantage in managing him. Each was sure that, after the passing of a brief storm cloud, so obviously overloaded that it had to expend itself, they would emerge in possession of power. The corporate bosses thought that, if you looked past the strutting and the performative antisemitism, you had someone who would protect your money. Communist ideologues thought that, if you peered deeply enough into the strutting and the performative antisemitism, you could spy the pattern of a popular revolution. The decent right thought that he was too obviously deranged to remain in power long, and the decent left, tempered by earlier fights against different enemies, thought that, if they forcibly stuck to the rule of law, then the law would somehow by itself entrap a lawless leader. In a now familiar paradox, the rational forces stuck to magical thinking, while the irrational ones were more logical, parsing the brute equations of power. And so the storm never passed. In a way, it still has not.

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Report to Congress on Navy Distributed Maritime Operations​

JULY 4, 2024 8:20 AM

The following is the July 3, 2024, Congressional Research Service In Focus report, Defense Primer: Navy Distributed Maritime Operations Concept.

From the report

Introduction

Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO) is the operating concept of the Department of the Navy (or DON, which includes the Navy and Marine Corps) for using U.S. naval (i.e., Navy and Marine Corps) forces in combat operations against an adversary, particularly China, that has substantial capabilities for detecting and attacking U.S. Navy surface ships with anti-ship missiles and other weapons. An issue for Congress is whether Congress has sufficient information about DMO to assess its merits, and whether DON has adequately aligned its programs and budget with DMO.

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Report to Congress on Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles​

JULY 5, 2024 12:17 PM

The following is the June 27, 2024, Congressional Research Service report, Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress.

From the report

Among the Navy’s programs for developing and acquiring unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) of various sizes are programs for developing two large USVs—the Large Unmanned Surface Vehicle (LUSV) and Medium Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MUSV)—and a program for a large UUV called the Extra-Large Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (XLUUV), also known as Orca. The Navy wants to develop and acquire LUSVs, MUSVs, and XLUUVs as part of an effort to shift the Navy to a more distributed fleet architecture, meaning a mix of ships that spreads the Navy’s capabilities over an increased number of platforms and avoids concentrating a large portion of the fleet’s overall capability into a relatively small number of high-value ships (i.e., a mix of ships that avoids “putting too many eggs into one basket”). The Navy’s proposed FY2025 budget requests $54.0 million in research and development (R&D) funding for the LUSV program, $101.8 million in R&D funding for the MUSV program, $92.9 million in R&D funding for LUSV/MUSV enabling capabilities, $21.5 million in R&D funding for the XLUUV program, and $68.2 million in additional R&D funding for core technologies for UUVs including but not limited to XLUUV.

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Report to Congress on Arms Control Treaties​

JULY 9, 2024 3:40 PM

The following is the July 8, 2024, Congressional Research Service report, Arms Control and Nonproliferation: A Catalog of Treaties and Agreements.
Arms control and nonproliferation efforts are two of the tools that the United States has used to implement its national security strategy. Although some believe these tools do little to restrain the behavior of U.S. adversaries, while doing too much to restrain U.S. military forces and operations, many others see them as an effective means to promote transparency, ease military planning, limit forces, and protect against uncertainty and surprise. Arms control and nonproliferation efforts have produced formal treaties and agreements, informal arrangements, and cooperative threat reduction and monitoring mechanisms.

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Chinese Carrier Strike Group Operating in Philippine Sea​

JULY 9, 2024 3:47 PM

China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy Shandong Carrier Strike Group is now operating in the Philippine Sea, marking the first time this year that the aircraft carrier has deployed outside of the South China Sea.

The last deployment to the Philippine Sea was in October and November of last year. A joint PLAN-Russian Navy patrol is also currently operating in the Philippine Sea, while Russia also dispatched two corvettes on Monday for an Indo-Pacific deployment.

On Tuesday, carrier CNS Shandong (17), cruiser CNS Yan’an (106), destroyer CNS Guilin (164) and frigate CNS Yuncheng (571) were sighted sailing in an area 323 miles southeast of Miyako Island, according to a news release from Japan’s Joint Staff Office.

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Military Sealift Command 75th Anniversary | (Ep1) Founding of Military Sea Transportation Service​

Jul 13, 2024 #sealift #logistics #navy

In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - in this first episode of a five-part series on the history of the US Navy's Military Sealift Command, celebrating its 75th anniversary, discusses the creation of the Military Sea Transportation Service in 1949.

16:58

Military Sealift Command https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/
 

Military Sealift Command 75th Anniversary | (Ep2) Korea and Vietnam Wars​

Jul 15, 2024 #sealift #logistics #navy

In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - in this second episode of a five-part series on the history of the US Navy's Military Sealift Command, celebrating its 75th anniversary, we discuss the organizations' role in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

26:58

- History of US Naval Operations: Korea https://www.history.navy.mil/research...
- Fourth Arm of Defense: Sealift and Maritime Logistics in the Vietnam War https://www.history.navy.mil/research...
 

Military Sealift Command 75th Anniversary | (Ep3) Special Missions and Finding Its Way​

Jul 18, 2024 #sealift #logistics #navy

In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - in this third episode of a five-part series on the history of the US Navy's Military Sealift Command, celebrating its 75th anniversary, we discuss the varied and new missions that MSTS/MSC was tasked to deal with in the past and present.

18:40

- Military Sealift Command https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/
- USNS Comet https://www.maritime.dot.gov/multimed...
- GTS Admiral W.M. Callaghan https://www.maritime.dot.gov/multimed...
- The TAGS Ship Web Site https://www.tags-ship.com/ship_pages/...

- MSTS ARCTIC OPERATIONS - 1950-1957 • MSTS ARCTIC OPERATIONS - 1950-1957
 
Mad Scientist Lab podcast, nothing to see, can listen in one tab, play around the forum in a different tab.

497. The Dictator’s Dream – A Conversation with COL John Antal (USA-Ret.)​

[Editor’s Note: Last week’s Mad Scientist Laboratory blog post featured a timely “what if?” nightmare scenario by COL John Antal (USA-Ret.), set in a not-too-distant-future — imagining an Operational Environment where today’s National Defense Strategy threat members, colluding as a coalition of autocracies, launched simultaneous surprise strikes against United States’ Joint forces around the globe.

In today’s 100th episode of The Convergence Podcast, Army Mad Scientist welcomes back COL Antal to read his scenario for our listeners and discuss its associated implications for the U.S. Army — Enjoy!]

 
 
 

How the RAND Corporation created American strategy​

Jul 27, 2024 #ColdWar #RandCorporation #Nuclear

Our historical documentary series on the history of the Cold War continues with a video on the Rand Corporation, the think tank that was essential in determining the strategy of the USA during the Cold War as it played a huge role with some saying that it controlled the foreign policy of the Americans.

17:50

Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheColdWarTV/videos
 

US Navy Submarine School | NSB New London | Groton, CT | A Day in the Life of a Submariner​

Nov 16, 2023 #usnavy #submarine #military

An in-depth look in the day and life of a US Navy Submariner-in-training.
Submarine Veterans can take a walk down memory lane, and newcomers can explore Naval Submarine Base New London.

19:17

0:00 - Intro
1:38 - Checking In
2:11 - Barracks3:15 - Officer Quarters
3:36 - Rock Lake
4:17 - First Phase of Training
4:28 - Basic Enlisted Submarine School
4:57 - Flooding Trainer
5:31 - Firefighting Trainer
5:40 - Submarine Escape Trainer
7:05 - Physical Training
7:45 - Gym/Weight Room
8:25 - Galley/Cafeteria
9:29 - Commissary/Supermarket
9:45 - Nex/Shopping Mall
10:25 - "A" Schools
11:50 - Movie Theater/Auditorium
12:05 - Officer Schools
12:55 - Submarine Force Museum & USS Nautilus
15:55 - Liberty & Recreation
17:35 - Conclusion
 

German Landings in America - Three Secret WW2 Missions​

Aug 1, 2024

German servicemen landed in North America four times in WW2, each time from U-boats. Two of those operations, Pastorius and Elster, saw teams of German saboteurs and spies loose inside the United States, hunted by the FBI. Discover the thrilling full story here...

22:19

 

Reading the Enemy’s Mind: Espionage in World War I | Historical Documentary | Lucasfilm​

Aug 2, 2024

Espionage would change the course of World War I, and prove itself as a vital weapon of war.

24:20
 

My Brush With the IRA - The 1989 Colchester Bomb​

Aug 3, 2024

In November 1989, my hometown of Colchester was targeted by the IRA. Find out the full story here...

8:53
 

1 | Another Place, Another Time | A German U-Boat Chief Engineer recounts the Battle of the Atlantic​

Aug 3, 2024

In this Video series, I bring you the memoir "Another Place, Another Time" written by German U-boat Chief Engineer Werner Hirschmann, who served in the Kriegsmarine from 1940 to 1945. Join me, as we explore the incredible experiences and harrowing challenges faced by this naval officer during World War II.

Episode 1 - Youth

25:53

00:00 Intro
01:04 Prologue
06:39 Chapter 1 – Growing Up
14:08 Life in the Hitler Youth
19:30 Joining the German Navy
24:47 After-Action-Report
 

Moscow’s Spies Were Stealing US Tech — Until the FBI Started a Sabotage Campaign​

One day at the dawn of the 1980s, an FBI agent in his 30s named Rick Smith walked into the Balboa Café, an ornate, historic watering hole in San Francisco’s leafy Cow Hollow neighborhood. Smith, who was single at the time, lived nearby and regularly frequented the spot.

As he approached the oak wood bar to order a drink he suddenly spotted a familiar face — someone Smith had met about a year before, after the man had walked into the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco. He was Austrian by birth, but a denizen of Silicon Valley, an entrepreneur who operated as a middleman between American tech companies and European countries hungry for the latest hi-tech goods.

The Austrian had visited the consulate to drum up business behind the Iron Curtain. The tech entrepreneur may not have put much thought into how closely the building was being watched by FBI spy hunters. And why should he? At the time, there wasn’t necessarily anything suspicious about trying to conduct commerce with the Soviets. In 1979, for instance, there was $4.5 billion in legal trade between the U.S. and Soviet Union; about $200 million of that was in high-tech goods. But bureau counterintelligence routinely blanketed the consulate with surveillance. And their interest was piqued. After the FBI clocked the Austrian’s visit to the consulate, Smith had reached out.

International businesspeople could be important sources for the FBI. They had access to people who would never knowingly speak to a U.S. government official, and to all sorts of information of interest to U.S. intelligence. Some could even become secret agents of the U.S. spy services.

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The Ultimate Stealth Ship...Why Don't We Have More of Them?​

Aug 7, 2024 #navy #stealth #sealift

In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - a maritime historian at Campbell University (@campbelledu) and former merchant mariner - discusses MV Ocean Trader and why the United States has not invested in more of them.

13:48

- Ian Ellis Jones X Thread on MV Ocean Trader https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/18...
- The Ultimate Stealth Ship https://cimsec.org/ultimate-stealth-s...
- The War Zone - Ocean Trader https://www.twz.com/category/ocean-tr...
- Ocean Trader: Marine Traffic https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/...
- A closer look at the Littoral Strike Ship concept https://www.navylookout.com/a-closer-...
- Flensburger https://www.fsg-ship.de/wordpress/en/...
 

The Cyberspace Impact of a Maritime Crisis in Southeast Asia​

In defense scenario planning, a plausible feared future may comprise the coalescence of three geostrategic issues: unchecked tensions between China and the United States, armed conflict over Taiwan, and an escalating gray-zone contest between China and claimant states in the South China Sea. This triumvirate could result in a maritime crisis, characterized by a situation on the precipice of regional conflict, in Southeast Asia.

Seeing how conflicts are unfolding in Ukraine and the Middle East, a maritime crisis in Southeast Asia could have cyberspace aspects. How can the region prepare?

Pre-War Scenario
If an armed conflict happens over Taiwan, the Taiwan Strait could be a proxy battleground between China and the United States. China would increase its military presence in the South China Sea to project power and deter U.S. military forces based in the Philippines or re-supplying in Singapore.

Chinese maritime forces in the South China Sea would be in the crosshairs of U.S. military forces, possibly within 72 hours after the conflict begins. If China mounts a blockade of Taiwan, the United States might conduct operations at the Straits of Malacca and Singapore as a counterblockade to interfere with shipping to China.

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