Adm. Christophe Prazuck, chief of the French Navy, on international seapower trends, counter-terror operations and interoperability. Prazuck was among the navy and coast guard leaders from more than 110 nations attending the 22nd International Seapower Symposium Sept. 21-23 at the US Naval War College, Newport, R.I.
On Oct. 20, 1944, 130,000 soldiers from the US 6th Army — with support from the Third Fleet and the Fifth Air Force — landed on Leyte, Philippines, to begin the battle to retake the nation that fell to the Japanese in 1942. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific, landed on Palo Beach accompanied by Filipino leaders including President Sergio Osmena, making good on the promise he made on evacuating Corregidor some 30 months earlier to return to the Philippines.
Adm. Haakon Bruun-Hanssen, Norway’s Chief of Defense, discusses Russia’s military capabilities, deterring Moscow, NATO, Oslo’s new defense plan and modernization needs during an interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 18.
On Oct. 18, 1915, the US Navy submarines G-1, G-2, G-4 and the tender USS Ozark arrive at Naval Base New London on the Thames River in Groton, Conn., followed by the boats E-1, D-1 and D-3 and the tender USS Tonopah. The growing force was joined on Nov. 1 by the tender USS Fulton (AS-1), the first ship built to support submarines.
Cdr. Yates Stirling, Jr., became the commander of the new submarine base — the first submarine base in the Navy — as well as New London Submarine Flotilla, and the Submarine School.
Vice Adm. Michael Franken, USN, the deputy commander of operations at the US Africa Command, on regional confidence-building measures, engagement and counter-terror operations. Franken was among the navy and coast guard leaders from more than 110 nations attending the 22nd International Seapower Symposium Sept. 21-23 at the US Naval War College, Newport, R.I.
There was a deeply held assumption that, when the countries of Central and Eastern Europe joined NATO and the European Union in 2004, these countries would continue their positive democratic and economic transformation. Yet more than a decade later, the region has experienced a steady decline in democratic standards and governance practices at the same time that Russia’s economic engagement with the region expanded significantly. Regional political movements and figures have increasingly sought to align themselves with the Kremlin and with illiberalism. Central European governments have adopted ambiguous—if not outright pro-Russian—policy stances that have raised questions about their transatlantic orientation and produced tensions within Western institutions. Are these developments coincidental, or has the Kremlin sought deliberately to erode the region’s democratic institutions through its influence to “break the internal coherence of the enemy system”?
Check out Defense & Aerospace Report’s exclusive highlight reel from the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000)’s commissioning ceremony on Oct. 15 in Baltimore, Maryland.
On Oct. 18, 1775, about 750 American troops commanded by Col. John Glover held off 4,000 British and Hessian troops commanded by Gen. Sir William Howe, allowing Gen. George Washington to withdraw his forces from Manhattan to White Plains. The British were trying to trap Washington and his troops in New York. Eight Americans were killed and 13 wounded, while three British were killed and 20 wounded. Hessian casualties were not recorded by estimates range from 200 to 1,000. The battle was one of the most important actions of the Revolutionary War.
Col. Greg Anderson, commander of the US Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team headquartered in Vicenza, Italy, and Col. Phil Brooks, commander of the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team based in Fort Stewart, Ga., discuss efforts to improve US ground combat capabilities in Europe with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian on Oct. 5 at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting and trade show. The meeting is held Oct. 3-5 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
The USS Zumwalt, commissioned over the weekend in Baltimore, is a revolutionary step forward for the US Navy in terms of stealth, ship systems and firepower that will shape future warships.
For that to happen, the Navy must keep investing in the class — rightly seen as a key transitional step to the future — while using them as operational units and developmental test beds for new systems and weapons.