DON’T REWARD IRANIAN VIOLENCE BY ENDING ECONOMIC SANCTIONS: The column begins with a look at the Navy’s recent seizure of a “stateless” dhow smuggling weapons via the Arabian Sea.

To quote the U.S. Navy’s official announcement, on May 6 the cruiser USS Monterey “seized an illicit shipment of weapons from a stateless dhow in international waters of the North Arabian Sea.” The list of weaponry aboard the dhow included advanced Russian-made anti-tank missiles, around 3,000 Chinese assault rifles, several hundred light machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launchers and “advanced optical sights.”

On a battlefield, those weapons set could arm a light infantry brigade of 4,000 soldiers — or guerrilla fighters.

More:

Smugglers prowl the north Arabian Sea (an arm of the Indian Ocean), moving narcotics, stolen electronics, even Persian rugs. But smuggling a calculated weapons mix like the USN seized?

Iran’s dictators scream plausible deniability but their corrupt state planned, assembled and shipped the weapons.

Why? The junta is intrinsically violent.

Read the entire essay.

BLUE ANGEL SUPER HORNET: The Blue Angels perform during the Wings Over South Texas Air Show. The 2021 show season is Blue Angels’ first year flying the Super Hornet. Photo taken May 2, 2021.

WARTHOG PRE-FLIGHT: The business end of the A-10.

ON THE NAVY’S RECENT “ROBOT AND DRONE” FLEET BATTLE PROBLEM: U.S. Navy Must Win Wars, With Robots and Perhaps Without Them.

…Navy Fleet battle problems have a remarkable history for testing technology, training sailors, developing organizations and informing long-term decisions that have greatly benefited the United States. I’m referring to the 1920s and 1930s battle problems, which always had a trans-oceanic campaign against Japan as their strategic backdrop.

Prescient? Yes. And the battle problems were rigorous in execution and detailed in evaluation.

2021’s fleet problem, under wartime-like operational conditions, tested gee-whiz military and communications technology, specifically unmanned warships and unmanned aircraft, some remotely controlled, some autonomously or semi-autonomously controlled.

Check it out.

REVIVING OBAMA’S IRAN “NUCLEAR DEAL” MEANS WAR, NOT PEACE: But Slow Joe seems Hell bent on reviving Obama’s so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA).

Incorporating “comprehensive” in the JCPOA’s name was reprehensibly dishonest, for the Obama deal was not comprehensive. Follow the JCPOA’s timeline and you discover the Obama administration gave Tehran’s bad guys billions in cash before they officially agreed to the slimy deal.

The ayatollahs used Obama’s payoff cash to wage war in Yemen and Syria.

In May 2018, I wrote that the JCPOA failed to penalize the Iranian regime’s violent troublemaking and its criminal operations, a grievous flaw. I wrote that column a week after Israel released an information trove documenting the regime’s failure to comply with key JCPOA nuclear weapons development provisions.

The economic sanctions imposed by the Trump administration frustrated Iran’s ability to finance war and terror. Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA was the predicate action that made the Abraham Accords possible — Nobel Prize-worthy peace treaties between Israel and the UAE and other Arab states.

It’s my latest Creators Syndicate column.

STRATEGYTALK: Warships With Problems. It seems a lot of new warships have problems, including design, mechanical and crew training issues. In this latest StrategyTalk podcast StrateyPage editor James F. Dunnigan and associate editor Dr. A. A. (Al) Nofi discuss the problems many countries are having with their new warships. They also mention some successes. Dr. Nofi is one of America’s top naval historians. He also worked for several years as the Center for Naval Analyses. The link goes to the youtube version. If you like what you hear, please subscribe. (The webmaster tells me we need 120 more youtube podcast subscribers.) If you want an MP3 download, go here.

StrategyPage’s archives are packed with updates on navies and warships from around the world. One of the U.S. Navy’s most troubled warships is the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). Its nickname says it all: Little Crappy Ships. Here’s a Surface Forces update from 2016 that includes commentary on the LCS concept, history and flaws. Understand the USN deploy two different variants (types) of Littoral Combat Ships. Here’s a photo of the USS Fort Worth, a Freedom-variant. Note the ship has a standard monohull. This next photo shows the USS Gabrielle Giffords, an Independence-variant LCS. This type has a trimaran hull.

RUSSIAN AND CHINESE SHOWS OF FORCE CONFRONT THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: Russia and China are conducting multiple probing operations intended to test President Biden’s administration and, frankly, Slow Joe himself.

Without strong leadership by democratic nations, primarily from the powerful U.S., our weaknesses, especially our self-inflicted weaknesses, could quickly become debilitating wounds the authoritarians will leverage, to our great loss.

Credit French President Emmanuel Macron with recognizing that, at least regarding Russia. He told CBS News the democracies must continue discussions with Russia but “define clear red lines” with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime. He added, “sanctions are not sufficient in themselves, but … are part of the package.”

Macron criticized “a failure of our collective credibility” to respond effectively to Russia’s 2014 Ukraine invasion. The “international community” also failed to enforce the Obama-Biden administration’s now-infamous August 2012 “red line” forbidding use of chemical weapons by Syrian dictator Bashar al Assad. During the interview, he made this strong statement: “We will never accept new military operations on Ukrainian soil.”

Bravo. But Macron knows that making that stick in the Kremlin craw requires U.S. diplomatic, economic and military power.

It’s my latest Creators Syndicate column.

25 35S: 25 USAF F-35A Lightnings prepare to takeoff from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. They are participating in Exercise Arctic Gold 21-2.

21ST CENTURY WATCH DOG: A USAF master sergeant operates a Quad-legged Unmanned Ground Vehicle (Q-UGV). Photo taken March 24, 2021 at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. Here’s a background article on droids that move like dogs.

UNCLE SAM NEEDS YOU FOR A NEW COUNTER-PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE STRATEGY:

…America needs a counter-psywar strategy that can confront China’s and Russia’s destructive lies and treat anti-American propaganda like CRT as the faculty club rubbish it is.

The goal is building public awareness of and societal resistance to these psychological warfare assaults designed to shatter us. The Biden administration is in thrall to Critical Race THeory advocates, so individual Americans and private-sector organizations willing to defend freedom must be the initial actors…

It’s an all volunteer force.

SIDEWINDER TEST: An F-16 based as Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, fires an AIM-9M Sidewinder missile during a training exercise held at Tyndall AFB, Florida. As this Air Weapons update from 2019 points out, the basic Sidewinder has been around since the 1950s. It has gone through several extensive upgrades.

STRATEGYTALK LOOKS AT FONOPST: Jim Dunnigan and Al Nofi discuss Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea. Of course the U.S. Navy is the central subject. On a regular basis Navy destroyers sail past China’s “militarized sea features” (Pentagonese for China’s fake islands). But glory be. Uncle Sam isn’t alone. Several countries exercise freedom of navigation rights. For the record, Dr. Nofi is one of America’s top naval historians. He brings a special expertise to this subject. He worked for the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) for several years. StrategyPage’s editors are all historians. So, dig on some explanatory background. From 2016 a definition of FONOP. From July 2020, a look back at communist China’s slow invasion of the South China Sea. If you like the podcast, please subscribe. (bumped)

STRAIT TRANSIT SECURITY EXERCISE: Marines with 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) participate in a “strait transit exercise” aboard the dock landing ship USS Carter Hall. The machine guns aboard the vehicles would provide additional “close in” defensive firepower against small boat and drone attack when the ship passes through a narrow channel (naval choke point) like the Strait of Hormuz. Photo taken March 1, 2021. This Marines update from 2019 discusses the tactical use of using weapons on Marine vehicles to repel small boat swarm attacks– precisely the mission the Marines in the picture are training to do. The third paragraph of this Air Weapons update from 2017 discusses Iranian small boat “swarm” attacks.

SENATOR COTTON CHALLENGES THE LEFT’S PSY-WAR ASSAULT ON THE U.S. MILITARY:

The psychological-warfare attack — its script straight from the antifa/Black Lives Matter version of the Cold War’s Marxist playbook — began in January when the predictable chorus of hard-left hacks in academia, media and government vilified the American military with toxic allegations calculated to demoralize military personnel, sow destructive institutional suspicion and undermine command authority with the goal of weakening U.S. national security.

Tom Cotton has decided to counterattack. It is a constructive counterattack.

THE LATEST STRATEGYTALK PODCAST: Jim Dunnigan and Al Nofi discuss Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea. Of course the U.S. Navy is the central subject. On a regular basis Navy destroyers sail past China’s “militarized sea features” (Pentagonese for China’s fake islands). But glory be. Uncle Sam isn’t alone. Several countries exercise freedom of navigation rights. For the record, Dr. Nofi is one of America’s top naval historians. He brings a special expertise to this subject. He worked for the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) for several years. StrategyPage’s editors are all historians. So, dig on some explanatory background. From 2016 a definition of FONOP. From July 2020, a look back at communist China’s slow invasion of the South China Sea. If you like the podcast, please subscribe.

MARK STEYN TESTIFIES: Powerline’s covering it and I’m glad it is. Climate activist Michael Mann is suing Steyn for defamation based on a post Steyn wrote for the National Review’s blog. Steyn called Mann’s outrageous global warming hockey stick graph a fraud. I’ve been following this case for years, with great interest. It’s dragged on for over eight years — Mann filed it in 2012. John Hinderaker’s Powerline post has the relevant history as well as an update and links.

CLEANING THE MORTAR TUBE: Paratroopers clean a 60mm mortar during a live-fire exercise at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, Jan. 11, 2021.

CHINA’S ALASKA AMBUSH OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: The context.

The theatrics occurred at last week’s high-level U.S.-China talks. The talks — “face-losing debacle” describes the U.S. experience — took place on U.S. soil, in Anchorage, Alaska. So dub it the Alaska Ambush, a Chinese diplomatic and information warfare cocktail.

Ambush — isn’t that a tactic? A high-ranking Chinese Communist Party foreign policy official surprising a U.S. secretary of state indicates China seeks strategic advantages from the bashfest.

Check it out.

TEXANS IN A FOUR-SHIP FORMATION: USAF pilots and students fly U.S. Navy T-6B Texan trainers in a 4-ship formation over south Texas. Photo taken March 5, 2021. This article from April 2020 discusses Tunisia’s decision to purchase the AT-6C Texan and use it as a strike and recon aircraft. The T-6 variants are inexpensive, reliable and relatively easy to maintain. Other nations have used various T-6 models as trainers and strike aircraft. An update from 2009 discussed Iraq’s purchase of T-6A and T-6B trainers, with the stated intent of equipping some for combat operations.

BEIJING’S AND MOSCOW’S BIG LIES NEVER END: Russia Joins China’s Wuhan Virus Lie Campaign

In early 2020, Chinese propagandists began blaming the U.S. for the virus. One agit-prop anti-America howler accused a U.S. Army reservist of bringing the disease to China in October 2019. China’s 2020 lie mimicked a Cold War-era Soviet KGB lie about the origin of the AIDS virus. Kremlin communists claimed U.S. biological warfare scientists created AIDS in 1973. The KGB lie appeared circa 1983. Over time, the lie mutated, as all sick gossip does. A 1986 version I read in a Southeast Asian paper claimed that the virus was engineered to kill black and brown people. In 2002, while visiting east Africa, I heard this version again.

Twenty-first-century Chinese and Russian lies have become both more pervasive and more sophisticated in targeting audiences with disinformation that seeds fear, doubt, despair, anger and confusion.

In fall 2020, China’s virus disinformation campaign added another target: Western-manufactured vaccines, particularly the U.S.-backed Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Check it out.

HOVERING BLUE WATER: The photo shows a U.S. Navy test flight of a Blue Water Maritime Logistics Unmanned Aerial System (UAS). The aircraft delivered a package from a Navy maintenance center at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, to the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford. The USN has been conducting similar supply delivery tests using unmanned aircraft. Here’s a photo of a UAS delivery a supply payload to the ballistic missile submarine USS Henry M. Jackson. The sub is surfaced near Hawaii. As the caption explains, the Navy sees unmanned aircraft as a superb system for delivering high-priority supplies to ships at sea — “underway replenishment.” A decade ago U.S. forces in Afghanistan began using small unmanned helicopters to deliver cargo and retrieve equipment. This Air Transportation update from 2012 discusses the Afghanistan operations. The Blue Water is a much more sophisticated UAS.

AS THE VACCINES ARRIVE: Warp Speed’s Manhattan Project Success Doesn’t Mean the Wuhan Virus War Is Over.

Operation Warp Speed, created by former President Donald Trump’s administration, rates as a medical Manhattan Project. Within a year, Warp Speed developed at least three vaccines effective against COVID-19/the Wuhan virus.

“Manhattan Project” has become slang for a chancy venture (e.g., a crash software development program) that succeeds in an astonishingly short time. The 1960s Apollo program to send humans to the moon and return them alive was occasionally called a peacetime Manhattan Project because Apollo produced and successfully employed revolutionary space technologies (plural) to achieve its goal inside a decade.

The virus is still out there, but thanks to vaccines we’re turning the corner.

As far as the CDC is concerned, Moderna and Pfizer have proved their worth. The CDC issued new guidelines (effective March 8) advising Americans that “If you’ve been fully vaccinated … You can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask.” Another CDC bullet point: “If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19” — again, if you’ve been vaccinated — “you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms.”

For Americans who respect the U.S. Constitution, Warp Speed vaccines protect the Bill of Rights. Americans, the vaccines are restoring your right to freely assemble.

Read the entire column.

ON THE GRENADE RANGE: An Army sergeant prepares to hurl a hand grenade during the 2021 Best Warrior Competition held at Florence Military Reservation, Arizona.

OPENING UP WITH A GATLING: U.S. Marines fire a Gun Aircraft Unit-17 (GAU-17) machine gun (minigun) from a UH-1Y Venom during a live-fire close-air support exercise in Somalia. Photo taken December 22, 2020. Here’s a side angle photo of a GAU-17 which provides a better view of the weapon. This Air Weapons update from 2015 has background data on the GAU-17.

THE NEW YORK TIMES IS LOOKING FOR A DEPUTY OPINION EDITOR: For the sake of genuine diversity, I hope Ed Driscoll, Sarah Hoyt and Mark Tapscott will apply.

The NYT’s job description editor has a real sense of irony given the NYT’s now run by a cabal of woke scolds. Here’s one of the paragraphs describing the top talent the paper seeks.

We’re looking for an editor with a sense of humor and a spine of steel, a confident point of view and an open mind, an appetite for risk and exacting standards for excellence in writing and visual presentation. We’re looking for someone who wants to grow big ideas to make the world a better place, and to have fun doing it.

No, I don’t think this is Babylon Bee satire. Suggest you read the other verbiage — some of it is even funnier.