David Strachan
Defense Analyst-
In the Navy:The Role of Advanced Sea Mines in Future Conflicts
When it comes to war, the old adage that the best defense is a good offense rings true. Nowhere is this more the case than naval warfare, where initiative can make the difference between victory and defeat. As an integral part of naval warfare, mine warfare – both mine countermeasures and mine laying, or “offensive” mine warfare - will continue to influence naval operations. Yet the latter of these sub disciplines - the “other” mine warfare, as Admiral James Winnefeld, Jr.
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Hearing the Light: DAS could Revolutionize Subsea Defense
During the summer of 2020, a group of Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) marine scientists based on the Svalbard archipelago successfully detected the vocalizations of baleen whales frolicking in Arctic Ocean and North Sea, some 70-90 kilometers away. At first blush this might seem somewhat unremarkable, given that researchers regularly monitor whale behavior, and whalesong has long been known to traverse great distances.
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Racing to the Bottom: Seabed Warfare Brings Threats, Opportunities
In the early morning hours of September 26, 2022, seismologists located throughout northern Europe detected two disturbances originating in the Baltic Sea that were consistent with underwater explosions. Within hours, an aerial image captured by a passing Danish F-16 showed an expanse of frothy seawater, suggesting that the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines had experienced a catastrophic event.
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Back to the Future: Blended Wing Gliders Could Redefine Undersea Warfare
Since it was first proposed by Henry Stommel in a 1989Oceanography magazine article, the underwater glider has become a mainstay of ocean scientific research. The Teledyne Marine Slocum glider(named for Joshua Slocum, the first to solo circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat),along with its cousins the Kongsberg SeaGlider, originally developed by the University of Washington, and Spray Glider, jointly developed by Woods Hole and Scripps Institute of Oceanography…
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XLUUV: If You Build It, They Will Buy
In August, 2021, after years of delays, cost overruns, and rising tensions, the Australian government canceled a A$90 billion order with France’s Naval Group for 12 conventionally powered submarines intended to replace the Royal Australian Navy (RAN)’s aging fleet of six Collins-class attack subs. Overnight, the future of the RAN’s undersea warfare capability was cast into uncertainty. The very next month…
February 2023
